For It All
She wasn't some fragile flower who swooned at the first sign of trouble. That was her sister, at least that was what her mind told her as she watched the woman in front of her.
For some reason her mind couldn't comprehend what was going on around her. She couldn't pull her eyes away from her sister- or at least the woman who looked like her sister. Their was no restraint in the other woman's eyes nor was there any sign of remorse or empathy. "You're not Jessica," Natalie managed to get out.
"Well fancy that. The red headed trap buys a clue," the blonde said evenly.
Natalie exhaled, trying to mentally adapt to the situation she found herself in. Jared laid on the ground five floors below and she could hear the chaotic noise of spectators mixing with sirens now. It was something she had blocked out. A series of sounds she had become used to when she was with John. When she had worked on the force. "They'll be coming up to check on things here, Tess. What do you want to happen? Do you want them to think that I tried to kill Jared? That he decided to kill himself?" she asked, her voice breaking, even as she tried to remain calm, but there was no way she could restrain her emotions as she faced down her sister's alter.
"There's a lot of things, I want, Natalie," Tess said as she ran the muzzle of her gun along her cheekbone. "But I'll never have them because of Jarass and you, Fatalie."
"Is was an accident. Nash was coming after me and Jared just reacted," Natalie tried to rationalize.
"No. No. No... you don't get to make excuses. Not to me. Now, my elitist host, she might have bought it. But I won't. You hated Nash because he made me happy. You wanted her with Antonio."
Natalie swallowed back tears: "at first," she admitted not wanting to agitate Tess any more. "But I knew after a while that Nash was the one for Jess. We all started to get along. I mean when she was so sick and dying. . . it was easy to see that she needed him."
"She didn't need him! I needed him! She stole him from me. She stole my baby from me!"
"She's the dominate personality!" Natalie yelled back. "You took over her life not the other way around."
"Well, little miss know it all, its too bad that she let me out again because unlike her I have the guts to do this, and I'll get away with it," Tess laughed as she pointed the gun at her target. "I'll let them think the integration worked. Pretend to be sorry. Act the part of elitist snob. Then. . . when I have them all fooled and I'm able to slip away, I'll stop at your grave and spit on it and have a nice dance. Bye-bye now," she said as she pulled the trigger.
Staggering backwards at the shots hitting her in the chest, Natalie fell back. She couldn't fight the pain even as she heard the door swing open and familiar, if distant footsteps and voices coming towards them. She couldn't help but think it was too late as she felt herself give into the darkness and fall into another realm. . .
"There provisions made for this in the contracts," Natalie sighed as she stood at the stove and dropped the contains of a box of spaghetti into the pot containing boiling water. "Well, what would you like me to do about it now, Kevin? No, you handle it. That's why you're the CFO. . . Because I'm on leave. . . don't start, big brother. I might be bigger than a house right now, but I can still kick your ass. . ." pausing Natalie laughed: "You are so not good for my blood pressure, you know that?. . . right, just remember who got the company back from Dorian's grubby hands."
"And in such good form too," a voice said from behind her, causing her to spin around and drop the phone into the pot.
Laughing, Kevin hung up his own phone and walked crossed the kitchen. "Remind me why they let you cook," he asked as he gave his sister a hug.
"You ever taste John's cooking?" Natalie asked with a good natured roll of her eyes as she stepped back and then hit him in the chest: "I wouldn't have dropped it if you didn't just show up unannounced."
"Yeah, like I was going to let my little sister give birth without me here?"
Natalie rolled her eyes as she went to shut off the burner on the stove: "you still owe me a new phone."
Kevin laughed as he shook his head: "How are you? Really?"
"Well, as usual chaos reigns supreme at Casa McBain. Cole and Star are at it again, so we have temporary full custody of Tricia again."
"Just what you need, a three year old to chase."
"Chasing her isn't the problem. Dealing with Cole, Star, Todd and Blair is- and not in that order."
"Kelly and I will pitch in."
"I think the restraining order against Blair will be more helpful."
Kevin went to sit on a chair by the counter: "what she do now?"
"Apparently she thinks that since I'm so far along John was in the need of companionship. Made sure I walked in on it."
"What did you do?"
"Dragged her off of him by her hair and threw her half dressed self out on the street. Antonio was just pulling up with Talia so he made sure she was escorted- to the police station for indecent exposure and harassment."
"Don't get her started, please," John said as he came into the room, a baby in his arms. "She gets too much fun out of that story."
"At your expense of course," Kevin said with a straight face. "So how's this guy doing?"
"Ben is fine," Natalie responded, a smile crossing her face.
"Better than his parents apparently. What is your phone doing in our dinner?" John asked, a perplexed look on his face.
"Surprise visitor."
"Tell uncle Kevin he's paying for the takeout," John told his son as he handed him off to the man in question. "I'll go pick something up from the Diner."
"Really?" Natalie asked.
"Carlotta has a list of what you can and can't have," he reminded her as he kissed her nose. "Don't get your hopes up."
"Spoilsport."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bree and Junior are watching a movie and Langston should be back with Tricia in half an hour. If she's not. . ."
"Call Tonio and he'll go get her," Natalie finished for him. "I know. I have done this before."
"Hmm," he said as he kissed her cheek. "Behave. Don't need your blood pressure going up. I don't need that kind of a scare again."
"I'll make sure she goes and sits down," Kevin replied amused. "Know how to take care of women in high risk pregnancies. Besides, looks like I need to get in practice."
Natalie squealed in delight at his words: "you mean. . ."
"Yeah."
John shook his head: "yeah. You're going to be real good at keeping my wife calm with news like that."
"Go. I'm hungry. So are the kids," she admonished turning her attention to her husband and kissing him on the cheek.
Smirking, John pulled her towards him and gave her a deeper kiss: "I'm not restraining myself because you get embarrassed when your relatives are here."
"Since when am I the one who gets embarrassed?" Natalie shot back and pulled his head back down for another kiss, while Kevin got up and walked into the living room to check on his other niece and nephew.
Pulling back and looking down at her John smiled: "who'd thought that we'd have it all?"
"Do we have it all McBain?" Natalie asked.
"Only if you come back for me," he said stiffly. "Same as I came back for you."
"John?" she asked, watching as things started to shift, and grow foggy.
"Come back to me Natalie. Don't leave me. Not like this."
"John. . ." she said again, a touch of panic in her voice as the world blurred even more and she felt herself slipping into another realm.
"Natalie, don't you dare do this to me, you hear me?" John McBain demanded as he sat next to Natalie's hospital bed and listened to the decreasing intervals of her breathes and the missed beeps on the monitor.
A week after she was shot he, Rex, and Antonio still the only ones keeping vigil, her so called family too busy and worried about Jessica and her split with reality and Roxy too busy with Charlie and his grief over Jared's death to be bothered.
"You really care?" Kevin Buchanan asked as he stepped into the room.
"Like you do?" John challenged. "A week before you show up and you expect me to what? Step aside so you can pretend to care about your sister?"
Kevin glared at John: "No one bothered to tell me that Natalie was one of Tess's victims. I knew that she had killed Jared, but until I was sitting in the courtroom today and heard what charges she was being arraigned on I didn't. . ." he shook his head and looked over to his sister's prone form. "Michael said the infection's bad."
"She's been talking to Asa and Ben on and off," John admitted. "Then she stopped. What she saids doesn't make a lot of sense. She's talking to me about things. . . I just go along. So did Antonio. That stopped yesterday. I don't know where she is right now. How to get through to her and that scares the hell out of me. At least when she was talking I could pretend there was a chance."
"She's a Buchanan. There's always a chance," Kevin said as he moved to take his sister's hand in his. "Hey, Natalie. You need to wake up now. You hear me? We need to make a plan. . . The two real Buchanan's taking back what's ours. Doing exactly what Asa taught us. You know I can't do it alone. I need my baby sister by my side.
And this guy. As much as he pretends he doesn't need you. He does. I can see it Natalie. Don't go softly into that good night."
"Don't give her ideas," John chided as he came over and took Natalie's other hand in his, Antonio and Rex quietly entering the room, having received calls from Mike that their wasn't much time. Catching sight of them, John swallowed and looked down at the woman who held his heart. "I wish I had that St. Jude's medal right now. Seems, Mike thinks this is an impossible cause," he somehow managed to get out as he wiped hair out of Natalie's face. "But you are impossible. You beat the odds. You fight.
Don't you dare give up, Natalie.
You fight and come back to me, just like I came back for you. You hear me. I made provisions for you just being my friend. Never for you not being there. For you dying. I'm not that strong, Natalie. I need you too much." he admitted as he put his head down on her chest and started to cry.
Startled, Kevin stepped back and looked at the other two men in surprise. What he saw there shocked him. "No. . . she is not going to die," Kevin said with conviction.
"Why? Because Jess can't be a killer. Oh, wait her psycho alter did it so she's not to blame, right?" Rex put out.
"Only thing is the mayor's not letting Nora prosecute and the DA in charge isn't buying that 3 members of the same family suffer from DID," Antonio put in. "And considering she was only diagnosed with a nervous breakdown after losing Megan they really aren't buying it."
"Not to mention that the doctor's from St. Anne's are going to testify that she faked being Tess a while ago."
"There goes her defense."
"It doesn't matter. Natalie's too strong to die. Not like this," Kevin said simply. "She's going to show them all. We're going to get the company back. She'll prove herself that way."
John looked up and glared at Kevin: "is that all you Buchanans think about? That damned company? She gets better and she's not going back."
"And she'll what? Play little woman to you? I don't think so, McBain. My sister's too smart to play your games again."
"I love her."
"Only when she's in critical condition."
"You don't decide what Natalie's life is like."
"And neither do you."
"Excuse me, but. . ."
"But of you need to stop," a hoarse voice said, causing them to turn their attention to the woman in the bed. "I make my own decisions.
I already know what my future holds.
I saw it.
Its what I came back for."
Leaning over her, tears glistening in his eyes, John asked: "and what did you come back for."
"For you. For Kevin. For it all. . ."
