Disclaimer: I do not own the Watchmen.
Chapter One: First Sight
Adrian Veight was not an immoral man. On the contrary, he spent a good portion of each day contemplating his sense of morality. Faced with perhaps the greatest moral dilemma in the history of mankind, Adrian forced himself to feel the full weight of his impending crime.
Such was the purpose of his visit to a local bookstore. Adrian would make himself walk through the aisles of books and look into the faces of all the people he would soon murder with the explosion that will annihilate New York City. With his thirst for knowledge, Adrian had always loved books, and consequently, this visit to a bookstore was more poignant than other outings he'd forced himself to endure. Knowing that it would all soon be nothing but ash, Adrian felt the lonely weight of his responsibility keenly in this storehouse of human knowledge and culture. The books would survive in similar stores and in libraries in other cities, but the humans he wandered past would not.
He knew this was the only way to save the world, the only way to prevent a nuclear war that would destroy the planet. Kill millions to save billions. That was the phrase Adrian found himself repeating in his head whenever doubt threatened to intrude.
Lost in his thoughts, Adrian inadvertently stepped in the path of a young woman walking quickly past the aisle, her arms laden with books. After colliding with him rather forcefully, the girl began falling backwards, books slipping from her flailing arms. With his swift reflexes, Adrian was able to reach out and catch her, pulling her close as he helped her to regain her balance.
This all happened very quickly. The next few moments, however, while he held the girl against himself, seemed to Adrian to pass in slow motion. He was assaulted by her delicious scent of caramel and magnolia flowers and the invigorating feeling of holding her in his arms.
With fair skin and dark hair, she was beautiful in a classical, understated way that appealed to Adrian.
"Wow," she finally spoke, her voice breathy.
"Wow?" he repeated, amused.
"Well," she answered with a dazzling smile, "it's not every day a girl finds herself in the arms of a superhero."
Realizing that he'd been holding her far longer than was appropriate, Adrian dropped his arms and stepped back, berating himself for acting like a horny teenager. "I haven't been a superhero in a very long time," he said softly, almost to himself, suddenly feeling nostalgic for the days when right and wrong were simple and his role in life was free of the haunting gloom of his current path. He wasn't expecting the girl's response.
"I disagree," she blurted out, her gray eyes penetrating. Adrian was not used to being challenged in public like this. Her eyes widened a bit, as if surprised by her own boldness. It was quite charming.
"You disagree? And why is that?" he encouraged her to explain.
"Well, there are a lot of ways to be heroic. The work you've been doing to develop a renewable source of free energy can improve millions of lives and make a lasting impact on the world. While you may not be patrolling the streets in your sexy superhero costume, rescuing damsels in distress and catching bad guys, the work you're doing now is heroic on a grander scale. So, in a sense, you could say that you're more of a superhero now than ever."
As she spoke, two halves of Adrian Veight were held equally spellbound. One half took in the intensity of her stormy gray eyes, the lovely contrast between her pale skin and dark chocolate hair that fell in messy curls to her shoulders and the soft pink of her lips that begged to be kissed. His other half listened in wonderment to words that reached into his troubled, isolated mind and offered understanding and appreciation.
After finishing her impassioned little speech, she smiled shyly at him. His heart began to race as he realized that he had finally found her, the woman he'd been hoping for his entire life but had despaired of ever finding. He'd finally found her!
"Forgive my manners," he began politely, turning on the charm that always managed to get a positive response from the fairer sex. "Though you seem to be well-versed in the matter, I am Adrian Veight." He offered her his hand, which, after a moment of hesitation, she took into her own. Adrian turned her hand so that he could pull it to his mouth for a soft kiss.
"And what is your name?"
She swallowed, looking adorably nervous. "Zoe."
"Zoe . . ." He whispered her beautiful name like a prayer.
"Zoe Gray."
"Zoe Gray. Would you like to join me for dinner Friday evening?"
"Um . . ."
His confidence wavered at her lack of an enthusiastic response. Then a horrible possibility occurred to him. "Unless, of course, you're already spoken for."
"Yes," she finally answered.
Adrian's heart fell. She was with someone else. "Oh, well, he's a very lucky man."
"No! I mean, yes I'd like to have dinner with you, and no, I do not have a boyfriend."
A relieved smile broke out on Adrian's face. "Excellent!"
"I have to work on Friday but I get off at around 6:30."
"I'll have a limo waiting for you outside the store."
"Um, alright. That sounds great."
Adrian kissed her hand again then made a hasty exit. He knew that if he'd stayed in her intoxicating presence any longer, he'd have pulled her back into his arms and never let her go.
