It started with a look Megamind had given her during one of her kidnappings. Confusion had swept over his usually devious features.
Roxanne had been feeling melancholy ever since her mother finally admitted to her that she had cancer. She really couldn't come up with snappy remarks when her mother was dying all alone.
Once again Megamind had been defeated but somehow managed to get away and Roxanne had been freed by Metro Man. He had offered to fly her home but she was in no mood to deal with anyone else today.
She caught a cab back to work to fetch a few things before she went to the hospital.
"Hey Roxanne I heard you were kidnapped again," Hal said as he followed her to the elevator.
Roxanne sighed heavily to answer. She would rather deal with a devious -at best- super villain than her pestering camera man who constantly made advances and tried to cop a feel of her.
"So I was wondering if I could come over later today?" Hal asked waiting for the elevator "You know just to protect you if Megamind tries to kidnap you again."
"No thank you Hal I have a lot on my plate right now," Roxanne commented, pressing floor four once in the elevator.
"I could help you out and we could go back to my place?"
"No offence I don't think this is something you can help me with," Roxanne explained, she didn't want to confide in anyone at the moment. She wanted to be left alone to gather her thoughts.
She stepped off the elevator and walked to her office to collect her keys and jacket before turning off the lights and walking to the elevator once again.
She looked around at all the office cubicles and saw Hal flirting with someone at the water cooler. She wanted to be happy for him that the girl seemed to be into him but she mentally kicked herself when he caught her looking and raced over.
Couldn't he get the hint and leave me alone! When she saw the elevator doors open a few feet away she casually raced to it so she wouldn't have to talk to Hal.
Once inside she begged for the doors to close and thanked the universe when they did before Hal could get in.
Roxanne had been too caught up with the doors closing to see a handsome young man giving her a peculiar look. He seemed to be confused by the audible sigh she had made when the doors closed.
"What!" she snapped.
"N-nothing I just forgot to get off," he said "sorry."
"Oh, I'm sorry too," she said guiltily "For snapping at you, I've just had a really shitty day."
"Yeah you're that girl that keeps getting kidnapped," he pointed out "That must be pretty bad."
"Not really its just- personal issues," she summarized.
"Oh… I'm Luke by the way. I probably should have started off with that," Luke said rubbing the back of his neck before stretching out a hand.
"Roxanne," she smiled and took his hand before the elevator stopped at the ground floor "I got to go, see you later Luke."
Once she had gotten to her car and driven to the hospital she went to her mother's room on the third floor. She hadn't seen her mother much because of her job and her mother had only told her this morning. Roxanne's mother was going into surgery early tomorrow.
Straight before walking into the room she once again rubbed her hands with antiseptic hand sanitizer on the wall.
Taking another deep breath she walked into the room to see her mother talking to her sister.
Her sister, Meredith, upon seeing her waved with a wide smile whilst Roxanne sat in a vacant seat at the other side of her mother's bed.
"Hey Rox!" Meredith said to Roxanne.
"Hi," Roxanne said to her estranged sister.
Meredith had only moved back to Metro city a few months back, after her divorce with her ex-husband. Roxanne and Meredith hadn't really spoken since Meredith had gone to collage in another state.
They had never been super close as children and Roxanne hardly knew how to interact with her. They were two very different people.
Meredith was three years younger than her and about twenty-four now with long brown hair the same shade as Roxanne's. Other than that they looked very similar except for the fact Meredith was quite a bit thinner that Roxanne and had smaller bones.
"You took a hell of a long time to turn up," Meredith commented, looking at her wristwatch that read 5:00pm "Mum called you at 9:30 this morning, what took you so long."
"Sorry I was caught up in something."
"What could be more important than visiting your dying mother," she commented in her usual snarky tone.
"It wasn't as if I had a choice. I was just tied up," Roxanne said angrily to her sister. Literally!
"You really need to get over your workaholic-ism, dad didn't and look how he turned out."
"Meredith, stop attacking your sister. She was just kidnapped by Megamind again," her mother cut in holding Roxanne's hand with a smile.
"How did you know?"
"A mother always knows," she stated before pointing up at the silent television "and that does help."
There was a news report currently speaking about how Megamind got his but kicked again as it showed Roxanne's kidnapping footage.
Roxanne and her mother laughed when Metro Man came bursting in to save the day. The first time Roxanne was kidnapped and Metro Man had saved her, her mother had asked him to come over for dinner. There hadn't been a more awkward day to date, especially when Metro Man and Roxanne mutually agreed to just be friends.
"Why are you laughing, Roxanne was kidnapped?" Meredith asked desperately looking for an answer.
The question just brought more laughter from them as Meredith sat there confused.
"I don't get it, tell me?" Meredith asked, beginning to laugh herself.
"What is it now?" Roxanne's mother asked Roxanne as she chuckled.
"410," Roxanne laughed.
"I bet that's a lot of points have you used any yet?"
"When I was up to my 300th I was able to get a more comfortable chair but he took it away right after he discontinued the promotion," Roxanne explained, catching her breath from the laughter before continuing "He said it wasn't "evil enough" to reward his captors."
"What?" Meredith asked.
"It was about a year after you left for collage when I was first kidnapped and Megamind used to have a frequent kidnapping card."
"That's crazy, why hasn't anyone put a stop to it?" Meredith asked.
"Megamind's harmless, I've seen his brain bots inflict more pain on him in one day than he ever did to me," Roxanne said, looking out the window when a shadow had caught her eye. Realizing it was probably a bird.
Looking up at the clear sky's wondering why it was such a lovely day when she was so sad.
After visiting hours were over she hugged her mother a sad goodbye before leaving with Meredith.
"Hey Rox," Meredith said in the parking lot.
"Yeah?"
"I hope we can catch up more often," she said before hugging her and waving goodbye.