A knock sounded at the door as Cole made his way inside.
“Well, I can honestly say I’ve never been happier to see you,” I said laughing, which hadn’t exactly been the smartest move, as it felt as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to my chest.
“How are you holding up?” He lowered himself beside me on my hospital bed.
“To put it simply, I feel like a truck just drove over me.”
“That bad, huh?” He grinned although the concern was still visible in his eyes.
“You have no idea.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” he argued. And I immediately regretted my words. I wanted to ask him exactly what happened after I’d blacked out, but I stopped myself. As much as I wanted to know, I knew that certain discussions were best saved for a later time.
“Thank you,” I finally managed to say.
Cole shrugged it off. “You don’t need to thank me, Bell.”
“Cole, love, when I say thank you? Don’t argue with me, it pains me to say such words, and you know this. So accept it and appreciate it. Okay?” I punched him in his arm playfully, eager to get him to smile.
It was funny how much life could change a person. Looking at Cole, I couldn’t help but to wonder what kind of life he would have led outside of Bilson Corporations – and far away from me. I felt like a toxin, one that was slowly poisoning him, and would eventually lead to his demise, which sucked, because he was the most important person in my life.
I knew how easily death and regret could wear a person down, and I didn’t want to see that happen to Cole. He didn’t deserve that. He was too good of a person to have to fall victim to regret.
“I have something for you,” Cole said, tearing me from my thoughts. He reached inside of his jacket pocket and pulled out a crumbled up piece of paper.
“A mission report?” I asked, arching a brow. “I’m out not even a day and they’ve already given you a new partner?”
He tossed the paper towards me. “As loyal as I’ve been to your father, I would never be able to work with another partner.”
I uncrumpled the sheet of paper, doing my best to smooth it out while hooked up to an IV line. “Should I be afraid?” I asked teasingly as I struggled to read the words on the page.
“It’s not a love letter, Bell.”
“Well, I wouldn’t expect you to write me a love letter, Cole. I’m already aware that you’re in love with me.” I shot him a playful wink as I focused on the letter.
Arabella,
I probably should have told you to read this after I left, but it’s you, and I knew you wouldn’t listen anyway. So, here we go.
Just try and not hit me, okay? Even hurt, you’re still stronger than you realize, and I happen to bruise far too easily.
It’s just that, last night, I feared that I’d lost you. And even though you can be as annoying as all heck, I’ve spent far too much of my life beside you to even consider one without you.
I know you’re leaving. You won’t admit it. But I’m not stupid. I know you, Bell, and I know that this isn’t the life that you want. And I get it now.
You’re not the monster that you think you are, Bell.
None of us are.
Now, hurry up and get better.
We have a long road ahead of us,
Cole
“We, huh?” I placed the letter down next to me and pulled myself up in the bed. “Care to explain to me what that means?”
“When you leave, I’m coming with you.”
I wanted to tell him no, and that I needed to go on my own, to figure out who the hell I was and what kind of life I could have out from under my father’s hold. But I didn’t, because I couldn’t say goodbye to Cole.
What the hell is wrong with me?
I thought to myself.
He grinned as he invaded my thoughts once again. “A lot, Bell. A lot.”
A soft knock sounded at the door, and I looked up to find Maggie standing in the doorframe, her hands crossed behind her back. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Cole looked between us and went to move from the bed, but I stopped him. There was no way I was letting him out of my sight until we finished our conversation.
“I, uh, didn’t realize you had company. I just wanted to come by and see how you were doing,” Maggie said, sounding far more nervous than I’d ever heard her. “Cole told me what happened last night. I just need to know that you were okay.”
“I’m okay. I promise.”
She hesitated before making her way further inside of the room, stopping at the foot of my bed. “So I take it you’re leaving after this.”
I shot an annoyed glance in Cole’s direction, and he immediately threw his hands up in mock-surrender. “She sensed it. I had to tell her. She would have just forced it out of me anyway.”
The downside to being surrounded by Supers? Most of the time, it was rather difficult to truly hide anything. Mind readers. Truth seekers. Emotional manipulators. Growing up with other super humans kind of blew.
“Thanks to Mel’s spell, I can’t force
you
to reveal things to me, so I had to go elsewhere – elsewhere being Cole.”
A partner that followed me everywhere, and a somewhat-but-not girlfriend that went out of her way to find out what I was up to. Lovely. “You’re both teetering on the creepy side. You are aware of this, correct?”
“In my defense, most of my creepy behavior was as a result of my loyalty to your father before I knew he was the enemy,” Cole answered.
Maggie lowered her head nervously as she spoke. “Sorry, I just wanted the chance to say goodbye if you were going to take off again. You didn’t leave me much of a choice the last time.”
Cole grabbed a hold of my hand and gripped it gently before letting go. “I’ll give the two of you some time alone.”
“Thanks,” I answered. He took to his feet, ready to leave, when I stopped him. “Hey, Cole?”
He glanced back over his shoulder at me. “What’s up?”
“You can’t let them know.” I looked up at the cameras, never more thankful that the hospital cameras lacked audio, trying to drive the seriousness of it all into his head. If they knew he planned to leave, they’d go after him. He was my father’s pet. He wouldn’t allow him to go willingly, which was why I had a plan; a plan that would only work if Mara and my father continued to be left in the dark.
Don’t buy into their bullshit, Cole. No matter what they promise you, no matter what my father says, you can’t tell them you’re leaving with me.
He ran his fingers through his hair and let out an amused laugh. “Still so bossy, even when in a hospital bed, go figure.”
“Hey jackass, I can probably still kick your ass even in my current state,” I teased.
Cole nodded his head. “Oh, trust me, I don’t doubt that.”
He gave Maggie a quick hug before heading out of the room, leaving me on my own to face her. “Are you sure this is what you want?” She took a seat on the chair beside my bed and reached for my hand.
“Mags, you knew that this was always the plan. Nothing has changed,” I said, trying to mask my frustration, which was easier said than done. I was terrible with goodbyes, mainly because I was far too closed off to comprehend what the other party was going through.
“I know,” she groaned. “I just worry. I mean, after Gwen...”
At that, my body tensed. Gwen’s death had nearly rendered me useless. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t think about her, and how much I wished it had been me and not her. I’d spent so long trying to come to terms with her death, only to have people constantly throw it back in my face. “Don’t,” I finally managed to say in response.
“Why? Because you don’t want to relive that, Bell? I understand, trust me, I do, but you can’t ignore it, and you can’t expect me not to bring it up. What if something happens to you this time? How am I supposed to feel? Hell, what if something was to happen to Cole?”
“I’d much rather die being a part of the world than merely a weapon used for one man’s own selfish desires,” I countered. “And as for Cole, he’ll be fine. I won’t allow what happened to Gwen to happen to him.”
“You can’t be sure of that, though, Bell. Nothing is guaranteed.”
“This is true, but that doesn’t mean I should stay out of fear.”
She lowered her head and pulled my hand closer to her chest. “I’m just worried; you have to understand that – you have to understand why. I know you’re leaving, and clearly nothing I say is going to change that, but I’m scared of losing you for good.”
As I listened to her speak, I couldn’t help but to recall a conversation I’d had with Gwen shortly after our mother had taken off. All I wanted to do was to run after her, to try and make sense of why she wanted to leave; to know that I wasn’t the reason for her taking off. I just needed to understand why she couldn’t stand to stay with us, and the not knowing had driven me to extremes I had normally made it a point to avoid.
“It’s okay to be angry, Bell, but you can’t allow it to drive you mad,” Gwen had told me. “We’re all upset that mom left, but there’s nothing we can do. She had her reasons, and maybe we’ll never understand them, but that’s okay.”
As naïve and innocent as my younger sister was, she was also incredibly bright. And I had often taken that for granted.
“Arabella? Did you just zone out on me when I was trying to have a serious conversation with you?” Maggie gently tapped me on my hand, doing her best not to hurt me. Even when she was annoyed with me, she always did her best to see to it that she never caused me any pain.
Maggie was delicate, gentle, loving.
And I was the thing that would break her.
“Look, I know you want me to stay because you’re scared, I get that.” She went to speak, but I stopped her, knowing that if I allowed her to say another word, there was a good chance I’d stop myself from saying what I needed to say. “But this is my choice, Maggie. You’re not the reason I’m leaving. Hell, if I was to stay, it would be because of you, but I can’t. I need to be selfish, and I need you to allow me to be selfish.”
She released her grip on my hand and leaned back in her chair. “Okay.”
Okay. One word, one little word, and yet it held so much meaning.
“Okay.”
T
wo weeks later...
It had taken two weeks for my body to heal completely.
Two weeks spent glued to a hospital bed and under constant surveillance.
Two weeks that had been far too long for my liking.
“Do you know how frustrating it is to be limited to a hospital bed all day long?” I moaned. “And to make matters worse, I didn’t even have Netflix to amuse me.”
“Seriously? Are you whining about not having had Netflix? Do you not realize how badly you’d been injured, Bell?”
“Oh shush, let me whine, will you?”
Cole tossed his arm over my shoulder as we walked down the hospital hall, back into the main part of Bilson Corporations. Seriously, I couldn’t even get away from the damn place even when badly injured. My father had made it a point to making everything on-site. “It’s in the best interest of every Super within Bilson Corporations,” he’d told us.
Of course, that had been complete crap. But it sounded better than the truth, which was that he wanted to be able to keep a close eye on us twenty-four-seven. “You know, we could probably get our own Big Brother show,” I joked. “People would eat that crap up; watching a bunch of super humans as they went about their daily activities.”
“Probably,” Cole answered. “But I doubt your father would go for that.”
“Trust me, I don’t particularly care what he thinks.” I reached inside of my hospital bag and pulled out my battered costume. “Seriously? This was my favorite costume, too.”
I ran my fingers over the burn marks and the tears throughout the fabric and sighed.
“That was my favorite of yours too,” Cole said, bumping me with his hip.
“Yeah, because I looked fucking awesome in it.”
“Glad to see the old Arabella is back.”
I poked him in the side with my elbow and shoved the battered leather suit back into the bag. “Excuse you, I never went away, jackass.”
“I know, I’m just messing with you.” He stopped suddenly and moved in front of me. “But back to that costume of yours...”
“What about it?”
“Well, I knew how much you liked it, so I decided to ask Natasha to make you a new one. She’s even making you a new cowl and gloves.”
“Huh, you’re alright, Cole.”
He shrugged it off, smiling. “I might’ve also suggested she add a second lining on the inside, you know, in case you run into a Horde member again. You’ll stand a better chance against one of those batons with the new lining.”
“Thanks, Cole.” The words slipped from between my lips with little to no effort. “And not just for saving me, or for the suit, but for being by my side all of these years. You’ve saved my ass more times than I’d like to admit.”
I slipped the hospital bag over my wrist and started to walk towards the elevator, when Cole’s fingers wrapped around my arm, pulling me back towards him. “You don’t need to thank me, Bell. Even though I know there’s no chance of you admitting it aloud, you would do the same for me.”
I glanced up at him and smiled before making my way back to the elevator without another word. Because we both knew he’d been right.
There was no way I would have admitted it aloud.
T
hat night...
“What were you thinking, Arabella? Walking into Horde headquarters without asking for back-up? You’re lucky Cole was able to get to you before they killed you!”
“So now you’re going to act as though you care?” I said, trying not to break out into laughter, but it was nearly impossible. My father? Trying to persuade me into believing he gave a damn about my well being? It was hard not to laugh.
“How dare you act as though I don’t care about my child’s well-being,” he scolded. “I worry every single day about you, and your carelessness makes it no easier on me, Arabella. Although, I fear you’re far too selfish to consider how anyone feels other than yourself.”
“Funny you should say that,” I snapped back. “Because I had a little talk with the Horde jerk before he nearly killed me, and he revealed a few interesting things concerning your research.”