Good whatever part of the day it is for you at the moment! Let me introduce myself quickly. I'm Elie, a French girl who is so desperate for her show to get closure that she decided to write her own version of season two. And so here it is. The Morning Afterlife takes off after the events of Beautiful Day so if you haven't seen the serie *sobs* finale yet, don't read this.
As you guessed, this will follow the TV show and not the books which I have not read and honestly don't intend to read in the near future. Oh and I own nothing, evidently. If I did TNLOCK would still be on air.
Enjoy, comment, let me know if I should keep it going.
Chapter 1: After The War
It was only two in the morning when Chloe woke up that night, sweat and tears covering her face as she checked herself for wounds, just to make sure it was just a bad dream, nothing more than another bad dream. Once reassured
, but only just a little, she dropped back on the mattress with a heavy sigh. She wasn't going back to sleep, that was for sure. She knew how it worked now. She knew that once the nightmare had made its way to her conscious, she could not close her eyes without it displaying behind her closed eyelids again. And if ever she were to push the bad dream out of her system, thoughts of her reality would keep her up. This was a fight she couldn't win. She wasn't strong enough, not physically and definitely not emotionally. She had never believed she could do what was expected to her, not once had she thought she could actually unit Mai and all the races she didn't even know about, but that night, the night she lost a life, the night Brian died, the night Alek almost got killed, she'd known without the shadow of a doubt. She just wasn't cut off for the job. There had been a mistake and people, friends of her, were paying the price.
The sound of sirens in the background was making Chloe painfully aware of the fact that she had to go now. She had to run as fast and as far as she could, erase all hints that she'd ever been in there, ever hold Brian's corpse. She looked down at him. He looked peaceful. If it wasn't for the lack of colors on his face, she'd believe he was just sleeping. But he was as white as a sheet and as cold as ice. He really was dead. She blamed him. He shouldn't have kissed her, not when he'd thought she was dead, not when he'd believed she was with Alek. Alek. She hadn't thought of him since he'd disappeared on her. She blamed him too. He shouldn't have left her. He shouldn't have made assumptions that were leading him to doubt her. But had he been wrong? Did she choose Brian over him? Was it what had killed him? Yes. She blamed herself. None of this, tonight, would have happened if it wasn't for her. She was the one who had trusted strange emails signed by her long-gone father, getting herself into a trap. She was the one who had broken Alek's heart strongly enough to make him want to run away from her. She was the one who had egoistically thought she could have Brian in her life without risking taking his away. She was the only one to blame.
"Chloe, we have to go now." Amy urged calmly, anxiously glancing at the door, expecting to see cops barging in any moment. Her fears weren't so irrelevant for once. The sirens weren't distant anymore, they were clear and loud, dangerously close. But Chloe couldn't move. She couldn't let go of Brian's body. He didn't deserve to be left alone. He didn't deserve any of it. She'd killed him, she might as well face the consequences. She'd confess that it was an accident, she didn't want to kill him, she'd never wanted to kill him. She loved him. She should have stay away from him. She should have been happy to have Alek, to be Alek's and Alek's only. He would have loved. He would have made her happy. She would have loved him too, with time. She would have fallen for him, she was quite certain of it, she had already started her descent. But it didn't matter anymore. Brian was dead and Alek... She had ruined it, their relationship, whatever it was.
"I know it's hard but you can't stay with him." Amy insisted again and pulled on Chloe's hand to help her up. If it hadn't been for Brian lying on her laps, she would have been pulled on her feet. That was how weak, how numb, she was. Only when the sirens come to a stop did she snap out of it. She couldn't stay here. She couldn't explain what had happened, she didn't even know much herself. But most of all, she couldn't let Amy and Paul get caught here. They had done nothing, seen nothing, but it wouldn't matter to the cops. She quickly moved Brian's body off of laps but still carefully. He felt heavy, heavier than he should be. She could hear car doors being shut closed, loads of them. They could't use the front door. She'd seen a window on her run, she could climb on the roof from there. Amy and Paul couldn't possibly follow her, they'd kill themselves trying. She had to find another way out, fast.
"Go. We'll stay with him. He doesn't have any wound, they'll believe us if we say we just found him here." Paul assured with a weak smile as he sensed his best friend's reluctance to leave. Chloe hesitated for a second before running up the stairs to climb out of the window. She didn't want to leave her friends behind but she had no other choice. She was covered in blood, her top had holes where the bullets had hit her. Questions would be asked and she had no answers to give. She stood on the rooftop for a few minutes, watching the cops step in the building, guns in hand. She closed her eyes, silently praying that her friends would be alright. She couldn't forgive herself otherwise, not anymore, not after everything. She opened her eyes, took in a deep breath and jumped in the back street before running as fast as she could. There was only one thing she wanted to do right now, only one person she wantex to see, and she didn't care that he wanted her out of his life. She needed him. She needed Alek.
At four in the morning, when it was clear that she would not go back to sleep, Chloe went on a run around town. It had become a habit of her over the last few weeks. She'd wander like a lost soul until she'd find herself standing in front of the building she used to think of as a safe place. She'd climb on the roof and wait for the sun to show up, hoping he'd come to join her there, just like he used to do when it was her rooftop she was sitting on. She'd keep on coming here every night, waiting for him to be ready, waiting for him to forgive her. And she'd wait for as long as she had to. Only a few months back, she'd have given anything to have a few hours without Alek breathing up on her neck but now, she'd gladly sacrifice everything to have him back. She'd only realized recently that she'd lost more than just her persistent crush that night. She'd lost her friend, possibly boyfriend. She saw him sometimes, a vision of him, standing in her bedroom with pain on his face. Sometimes, often, all the time, she wished she could take it all back. She wished they could be back in her bedroom, wished she could tell him that he had never been just a second best to her and that yes, she'd made a choice but no, it wasn't Brian. And maybe it'd be a lie, maybe it had been Brian, maybe it had been Brian since the beginning, but it wouldn't always be. It was never supposed to be forever. She should have realized it sooner. It could have saved Brian's life. It could have saved all of their lives.
The night was dark, darker than it should be on a summer night. Or maybe it was just her perception, maybe everything would always be dark now, like a shadows had suddenly fallen on her world, keeping the light, any light, to peek in. Chloe couldn't say how long she'd been running for. All she knew was the pain in her lungs as they tried to keep up. She jogged, jumped, never slowing down, never stopping. She had to get away. She had to go somewhere safe, somewhere she'd be protected. She wanted to go home and hide in her bedroom but she wouldn't put her mother on the line. Meredith might have been in danger since the day her husband had brought their baby girl home but it was no reason to get her on real bullets' path. Chloe came to a sudden halt and starred at the building in front of her. She was at the Mai's complex. Eighteen floors, three hundred and sixty steps above Valentina's penthouse. It hit her like a ton of bricks then. Home wasn't her safe place anymore; Alek was. She remembered their talk on her rooftop, after their first date, she'd told him that she didn't feel safe then, and it was the honest truth, but the minute his lips had found hers, it was like all of her worries, all of her doubts, had flown out of the window. It had only lasted a few seconds, not even a minute, but it had been enough to calm her down. It was odd, considering just how nervous she used to feel around him, but then again, her whole life was a succession of strange discoveries, realizations and feelings lately. She took in a deep breath and walked in the building. She brushed past the doorman, a weak smile on her face as she silently prayed for him to not notice the blood on her camisole, or at least to not question it. And he didn't. He just opened the door with a discreet nod. He was a friend of Valentina, of the Mai, he wouldn't sell her, them, out. She climbed the eighteen floors like they were just a six steps ladder, only stopping to catch her breath once all the way up there. He might not even be here and even if he was, he probably didn't want to see her. Had the situations been revered, she wouldn't want to see him. She pushed the door open, just a bit, just enough to see a form on the floor and a dark red poodle next to it. She gasped, screamed, she wasn't sure. She rushed down the corridor, falling on her knees next to his body, checking in the bruises on his face, the dry blood around him. She could feel the tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she continuously pleaded him to wake up, give her a sign that he was still there, still alive. She concentrated to hear his heartbeat, just like that day under the tower clock. It was weak but it was there, She sighed in relief, lying her head on his chest, not caring about the blood covering her hair. That's when she saw it, the other body, Jasmine's body. A strangled sob escaped her as she crawled into the apartment to reach her friend. She might not know what had happened here but she already knew that it was all her fault. She had to get help, do something, anything. She looked around the room, her eyes falling on Valentina. She looked so pale, Chloe didn't even need to check her pulse. She stumbled on her side and took the phone in her hands. She didn't know much about the Mai but she doubted 911 could do anything for them. She remembered that time, when Jasmine had been stabbed to protect her, Alek had vehemently refused to take her to the hospital. Chloe flipped through Valentina's contacts, trying to find a name she knew, someone she could trust with her friends' life.
The sun was starting to peek in, coloring the sky with pastel shades, and Chloe still sat on the Mai's building rooftop. She used to sleep through sunrise. She used to not know how the sky looked like in the early hours of the morning or how empty the street of San Francisco were before rush hour. She missed it. She missed not knowing much of anything, not knowing who she was, what she was. She wished she could find her innocence back but it was gone, far too quickly, far too painfully, and it would never return. She could never be the same again, could never be happy, careless. She'd never feel safe again, she couldn't. The order had made sure of that by taking Alek away from her. He too was gone now, he too would never return to her. She'd lost him for good; she'd lost him forever. Tears fell from her eyes and her heart tightened at the thought of never being with him ever again, never feeling him ever again. It had been hard enough to deal with Brian's death, she couldn't keep going without Alek too. She didn't want to. She missed the days where her main worry about these two boys, men, was to know which one she liked most. She realized now that there was no answer to that question. She didn't like one more than the other; she liked them both equally. Alek had been afraid to be a second best to her but he could never be less than her first choice and neither could Brian. Not that it mattered now. She wiped the remaining tears with the back of her hand and got on her feet. She'd lost them both that night and there was nothing she could do to change that. All she could do now was to let them go, move on. She couldn't know for Brian but she knew that it was what Alek wanted. And if she loved him, truly loved him as much as she'd like to claim she did, she had to respect this, even if she had to turn her heart off, even if it hurt.
There was a clock on the wall, its tickling driving Chloe madder than the wait itself. It was half past eight in the morning. She had been here for six long hours now, sitting, crying, pacing. She couldn't keep still for more than a minute. She was scared, nervous, anxious, and she had more coffee in her system than ever before. It had been six hours and she still knew nothing. Valentina was dead, Jasmine had lost a lot of blood and Alek seemed to have a concussion keeping him unconscious, that much she had gathered. She wished the Mai she called didn't lead her to a hospital in downtown San Francisco, one where Mai could get treated without being in trouble, maybe then she would have heard from the doctors without having to prove that she was family, maybe she would know if her friends were still alive. She didn't want to be alone anymore. She needed someone to take her hands and tell her that everything would be alright, even if it blatantly was a lie. She needed someone who would yell at the nurses until they let them see her friends. She needed her mom but she couldn't call her. She couldn't tell her where she was, why she was there. It would be too hard to explain and even harder to understand. She hoped Meredith had gotten her voice mail and that she didn't try to call Amy's house to check on her story. She'd spent so much time lying to her mom this year she couldn't blame her for having newfound trust issues. Chloe closed her eyes, just for one second, just to take the burning sensation away. She hadn't slept in more than twenty-four hours, she was exhausted but she couldn't sleep, not now, not here. Truth be told, she doubted she could ever sleep again. She killed Brian. She killed someone she loved. And she'd driven another one of her loved ones into getting himself beaten up. She couldn't get past this, not tonight, not ever. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw their unmoving bodies and their lifeless faces. Her hands were covered in blood, Alek's blood. She tried to wash it away but it was like sewed to her skin, she could almost feel it burn her. She knew that it was all in her head; blood was sticky but easily removable. She should know; she'd lost a lot of it lately. A known voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Her mom was standing by the counter, yelling at the receptionist to tell her what was going on with her daughter. Chloe got up and called her, quietly, almost inaudibly over the hospital's noise. But Meredith heard her and she spun around, pulling her little girl into a crushing hug.
"Amy called. She said there had been a car accident and that you were at the hospital. She said you were alright but your friends… she said you'd need me." Meredith explained after she'd checked her daughter for any injuries. An accident. Amy had sold it as a car accident. It hardly made sense when you knew their injuries, when you knew Valentina had been poisoned, Jasmine stabbed and Alek beaten up. But Meredith didn't know what they were suffering from, she'd probably never know, and it made the lie believable to her. And Chloe had never been more thankful to have a friend like Amy; thoughtful and imaginative. She couldn't have come up with a story. She would have stuttered, give pieces of truth, and ended up in a psychiatric institute. Maybe that was the solution. Maybe she'd be safer there, recluse, locked up, away from all. She should go somewhere, anywhere, hide from the Order. Her friends and family would be safer without her around.
"I… I don't know what to do, mom. I don't know how… what… The doctors, they won't tell me anything because I am not family but I have to know, mom. I have to know that he's alright. And Jasmine… Valentina… she's dead, mom. They have no one anymore. They're all alone now." Chloe rambled, cried, her words half-eaten by her sobs. She couldn't hold it in anymore, not that she really tried until now but she didn't let herself go either. She couldn't. She had to be strong; for Jasmine who had lost her mom and maybe more; for Alek who would need her either he wanted it or not. But she couldn't be strong. She didn't want to be strong. And so she broke down into her mother's arms, feeling Meredith tighten her already life-crushing hold on her. She could feel everything her mom was feeling at the moment. She hated to see her daughter hurt like that. She wished she could take it all away. Chloe wished that too. She wished she could go back in time and keep the night from happening.
"I'm going to try and find out what's going on, okay?" Meredith whispered once Chloe had calmed down a little, securely holding her face in between her hands. She was walking on eggshells, scared to see her daughter break again. Chloe couldn't do it anymore. She didn't want to know how worried her mother was, not now. She just wanted to shut it all out now; focus on her own confusion and worries. She just couldn't deal with the empathy right now, not anymore. She closed her eyes again, focusing on her own heartbeat, her own feelings. She could block it all out, just like she did with sound. Her heart tightened as she remembered Alek helping her, his words echoing in her head "the rest of the world doesn't matter. There's only you and me." It was all she needed now, he and she, Alek and Chloe, nothing else. She didn't need anything else. She didn't want anything else. She'd done it. She'd successfully stop the flood of emotions from overwhelming her. But she still had a nagging feeling inside of her; like there was something she needed to catch on. She took in a deep breath and opened her eyes, quickly rubbing them with her fists to shrug the sleepiness away. She turned around, ready to go back to the waiting room where she could sit while her mom harassed a few innocent nurses, but then she noticed a mop of dirty blond hair peeking out of a bed that was being wheeled to the elevator. She didn't think twice before rushing there, sliding through the doors as they were already closing. Her heart was beating faster than it should, so fast it couldn't be healthy. She couldn't look down. It could be someone else, someone she didn't know or care about. But it could also be him. What if it was him? What if it was Alek? She held her breath and glanced at the patient, relief washing over her as she recognized her friend. She called his name, more like whispered. He just stared at her, his eyes scanning her face before trailing down to her bloody top. And now she wished her empathy could work on Mai; maybe she could finally figure him out then. His lips parted as if to say something but no sound came out at first. The doors opened and he looked away, waiting to be wheeled away from her. Chloe was frozen on the spot, unsure of what to say, what to do. But then she heard him, right before the doors could close on her again, his voice so quiet that it was her super earring that caught the words.
"I don't want to see you anymore."