I don't own Ben 10, but as people may have figured out is that I would love to.
I understand that I have let Ben go too far, this chapter is no exception but this time Laura caused it. This will be the turning point for Ben and Laura. Gwen however will still be holding a huge grudge. (GD)
Chapter 4
Max pulled the RV into the parking lot. They all gathered the bags and headed inside. Max walked to the man at the desk, "I have a reservation for three rooms."
"Name?" the man asked.
"Tennyson." Max replied.
The man started looking through the computer. "Ah, here you are." He made keycards for all three rooms. He put the keycards into their own envelops that said their room numbers and some other thigs about the hotel. "Your rooms are 404,406, and 420."
When they were on the elevator on their way to the fourth floor. "Ben you take room 420 to yourself, Gwen and Laura take 404, I'll be in 406." Max said.
"What? Why don't I get my own room?" Laura pouted.
"Because it makes more sense for you and Gwen to share. If you don't like it you can share with me." Max said in a voice that left little room for argument. Laura continued to give him dirty looks as they rode the elevator. He sighed but stood his ground. He was going to just get two rooms but with how mature Ben was getting he didn't want Ben sharing a private room with Gwen and lord knew he'd have to break up fights if he and Laura shared a room. Was it so much to ask for a day of no bickering? He supposed so.
Max handed everyone their keys and they separated. Gwen and Laura raced to their room, whomever got the door unlocked first got to pick the bed. Ben casually walked down the hall to his room. Max entered the connected bedroom and tried the door that would lead to the girls' room. Locked, it must lock from the girl's side because Max couldn't figure how to unlock it. He shrugged, if push came to shove, he had the backup keys to all the kids' rooms. He looked over to the bed that was covered in a tacky bedspread, it was like a siren calling his name. He'd take the kids out to dinner after a nap. He laid down, as he drifted off, he could hear Gwen and Laura fight over what they were going to watch.
(Gwen and Laura's room)
"I want to watch the fashion show!" Laura loudly complained.
"Well too bad, I got the remote first. That's the rule." Gwen sniffed, flipping through the channels.
"It's not fair." Laura whined with a stomp of her foot.
"It's only unfair to you. It's not my fault that you were too slow." Gwen said sarcastically.
Laura snorted and snatched the remote from Gwen's hand. "Now I have the remote." She said triumphally.
"That doesn't even make sense, I said whoever got it first." Gwen said, trying to get it back.
"I think that rule only applies to real Tennysons." Laura said, mockingly. The words hurt Gwen so much that she immediately stopped trying to get the remote back. Laura put on a runway competition on, a smug smile on her face. Gwen sat down on her bed quietly. The show was boring and full of unnecessary drama. A contestant had her wig snatched and everyone acted like it was some huge deal, Laura howled with laughter.
A couple hours later Grandpa Max rounded everyone up and they went to a diner to eat. Gwen tried to brush off what Laura said but found her thoughts wondering back to it whenever there was a break in the conversation. Grandpa gave her a curious and concerned look, and Gwen had to force on a natural looking smile so he wouldn't worry or question her. She was sure that it was the food arriving that saved her from any questions.
When they got back to the hotel Gwen was starting to get tired. She and Laura argued over who would shower first, Laura won. Gwen didn't mind though, she took a bath and was in there for almost two hours, meanwhile Gwen got to watch what she wanted. When Laura was done it was Gwen's turn, by far the best thing of hotels were their massive amounts of hot water. By the time she was done showering Gwen was actually in a good mood again.
Gwen flopped down on the bed; her skin almost as red as her hair. "Jesus, did you boil yourself?" Laura asked, her voice thick with disapproval.
"I love hot showers; you should try it." Gwen giggled; she was too relaxed to pay mind to Laura's scathing tone.
"No thanks, I like my skin intact thank you very much." Gwen could practically hear the eye roll. Gwen giggled and she could hear Laura snort in response.
A while passed in silence. Laura's snotty statement echoed repeatedly in her head. "I'm not a real Tennyson." Gwen thought sadly. "Hey, Laura." Gwen said softly. Gwen heard the sound of sheets rustling as Laura sat up. "I…I was wondering… What did my parents look like?" She asked after a while of Laura not responding.
There were a few tense seconds of silence. Gwen looked up when she heard further rustling. Laura silently got up and walked to her suitcase. She unzipped it and after a few seconds walked over to Gwen. Her head bowed, and shoulders slumped, she handed Gwen a photo. "I managed to hide it from the Lawyer…" She mumbled quietly. Immediately she went to lay back down.
Gwen turned on her lamp, hands shaking. She was almost too nervous to look but she desperately wanted to know. The second she glanced at the picture there was no doubt that they were her parents. Her mom had climbed onto her dad's back. Her vibrant red hair flowing in the wind, covering her smiling face. Her father had short, auburn hair. His eyes were brilliant green like her eyes, and she had his nose. They looked so happy and carefree.
Gwen felt tears well up in her eyes and she put the picture down on the nightstand before she cried on it. Why was she crying? It's not like she had ever known these people, but still something ached inside her. It was as if she was mourning the life she could have had. She wiped her eyes before she started crying and settled down into the pillows. Questions whirled around in her head but slowly she drifted off into sleep.
Gwen woke suddenly in the middle of the night. She sat bolt upright, her heart racing. Confused, blurry memories of the nightmare she had swirled around in her mind. They quickly faded but the fear and confusion did not. She took deep, shuddering breaths to try and calm down. Her eyes burned with suppressed tears. By the time she started crying she couldn't even remember what was so upsetting that was worth crying. She covered her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs.
Gwen heard Laura stir and tried even harder not to cry. She took deep breaths and held them; tears still streamed down her face. Her crying must have woken Laura and Gwen felt bad about it, made even worse because she couldn't remember why she was crying. Laura turned her light on and sat up. "Why are you crying?" She grumpily asked.
"I had a nightmare." Gwen whined, wiping her wet hands on the blanket.
"Oh my God, who even cries after a nightmare anymore. You're thirteen, grow up." Laura snapped.
"It's not like I want to cry!" Gwen yelled, exasperated. She drew up the thin cotton sheet to wipe her face. While her face was buried Laura came up and smacked the back of her head. "Ahck! What was that for?" She rubbed the back of her head and gave Laura a dirty look.
"Because you're lucky. At least you thought you were being raised by your parents." Laura hissed, getting in Gwen's face. "The people who raised me were very vocal about their disappointment that I wasn't blood." The light reflected off the tears in her eyes.
"I thought you just found out, like me." Gwen mumbled.
"Then you're a moron. The only thing I share with them are my green eyes. It's why they could pass me off as blood to everyone else." Her voice was filled with resentment. "So maybe you should stop being such an intitled brat and be grateful that you had people who loved you growing up."
Gwen quickly stood up, shoving Laura in the process. "I had everything I ever knew ripped out from under me in seconds. I found out that I was switched at birth and that my real parents were dead. I was treated like a worm for a reason that was out of my control. At least your real parents will care about you!"
"I don't care what they did to you. I don't care about my fake parents or my real parents. The only comfort I had was that at least I'd be rich when the folks finally passed. But no. They found you. They were oh so excited and I was left in the cold. They had everything ready for you to finally come home." Laura wrapped her arms tightly around her body and took a step back. "And you took that away from me. You took everything away from me." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "The truth is, I hate you!"
Without hesitation Laura punched Gwen in the head. Gwen stumbled back; her brain full of fog. She fell onto the bed, clutching her head; Laura knew how to throw a punch. Laura straddled her and pulled her hair. "You'll give the inheritance to me or I'll beat you within an inch of your life." Laura hissed into her ear.
"I won't give you a cent!" Gwen screamed, trying to push her off. Her efforts were rewarded with a fist to the eye.
"If you fight back or tell anyone I swear I'll make sure that the only people who care about you will abandon you." Laura spat, drawing back her fist. Gwen did the only thing she could, she covered her face with her arms and curled up.
Whenever she tried to block Laura's attack she just moved onto the freshly exposed target. At one point when she changed positions Laura uppercutted her. She bit her tongue so hard she tasted blood. Eventually Laura got tired, her hits getting weaker and further in between. Even when she finally stopped Gwen didn't get out of her defensive ball until she was absolutely sure that Laura had given up.
Gwen slowly straightened out, her whole-body aching. She had a feeling that if she hadn't curled up, she would have been hurt much worse. Looking at the time and seeing it was 2am she wondered just how long the beating had lasted, she couldn't remember when it started. Her whole head was fuzzy and she couldn't shake the fluff from her brain. Gwen stood up, glad that she could do that without pain, and limped towards the door. Whenever she put pressure on her right leg a spot in her lower back would burn with pain. Silently, she opened the door. She stood in front of Grandpa's door and was about to knock but hesitated. "If you tell I swear I'll make sure that the only people who care about you will abandon you" Laura's threat echoed in her ears and she felt tears well up in her eyes again. She couldn't tell anyone but she didn't want to be alone.
After a few minutes of sitting in the hallway, contemplating what to do next, she had an idea. If she went to Ben then at the very least, he would believe her. If she told Grandpa, Laura might convince him that she was lying. She stood back up, her muscles stiff and aching. She took a deep breath before knocking on Ben's door.
(Ben's room)
Ben was fast asleep, enjoying the freedom of a large bed by taking up as much room as he possibly could. A set of knocks woke him up a little bit. He groaned and debated whether or not he had actually heard them. Another round of knocking sounded and he opened his eyes. Who could it possibly be in the middle of the night? Yet another round of knocking made him get up and stumble to the door. He was just about to open it when the thought crossed his mind that it could be Laura trying to get his room. Just in case he decided to go Big Chill and phase under the floor. He moved so that he would come up right behind whoever was there.
To his surprise it was Gwen that he came up behind. "Gwen? What are you—" Gwen turned around and his voice caught in his throat. "What happened to you?" She was badly bruised, had a black eye, and had dried blood on her chin. He picked her up, phased through the door, and sat her on the bed.
"Laura beat the crap out of me. She said that if I fought back then she'd turn you guys against me." Gwen said, sniffling. Her teeth were stained red with blood, was she still bleeding? Big Chill went into the bathroom, wetted a hand towel and froze it with his ice breath. He also filled up a paper cup with water. Big Chill handed Gwen the water. "Here, get the blood out of your mouth." He said. Gwen swished the water in her mouth while Big Chill cracked the frozen towel to make it flexible. "This is for that shiner you got." He gently put the towel over her swollen eye. "I'm going to go deal with my new cousin" He said darkly before flying to Laura and Gwen's room.
He stopped in front of the door and smiled; he didn't need a key. The only reason he had stopped was to think of what to do to Laura. With an idea in mind he phased through the door with ease. Laura was at the far end of the room, asleep on her stomach. He grabbed four towels from their bathroom and stood over Laura. He wrapped the towels around Laura's arms and legs gently, Laura slept through it all. When he was done, he picked her up and froze her arms and legs to the ceiling, making sure that the ice didn't touch her exposed skin. Being this up close he could see that her knuckles were bruised, it only confirmed what he knew.
He got in close to Laura and whispered in her ear, "If you ever hurt Gwen again, I will make you suffer." He returned to his room and went human. The flash woke Gwen up and she sat up. "Don't worry, I took care of her." Ben said with a smile. Gwen returned the smile and laid back down. Within seconds she was softly snoring. He was about to lay back down when he realized that he should write a note to Grandpa Max to tell him what happened. He grabbed some paper that was on the desk and wrote a quick note.
"Laura kicked Gwen's ass. I froze her to the ceiling in retribution. Don't worry, she has a soft landing. Oh, and Gwen is with me.
-Ben"
He waited to turn into Big Chill again until he was already at Grandpa's door. He slipped in, put the note on the bedside table, and glided back to his room. This time he went into the bathroom to turn back human so he wouldn't wake Gwen. He yawned loudly; he was too tired to make the other bed comfortable. He shrugged and crawled into bed with Gwen. It was still more room that he had in the Rustbucket so it was okay. He quickly fell back asleep.
At 6 am Max woke up, started a pot of coffee, and while it was brewing got changed. By the time he came out of the bathroom his coffee was brewed and he gladly took a sip. He was about to grab the remote when a folded-up piece of paper caught his eye. He took another sip and shook it open with a hand. He nearly spat his coffee out when he read what it said.
Abandoning the mug, he made his way quickly to Ben's room. He entered the room to find Ben and Gwen asleep in the same bed. He walked over to Gwen and let out an involuntary noise of sympathy. Her eye was badly swollen and there was a distinctive bruise on her chin that looked painful. It seemed like his quiet noise woke Ben up as he jumped out of bed and had his Omnitrix face popped up before he realized that it was just Max.
"Grandpa?" Ben groaned. "Did you even knock? I was this close" He held up his fingers close together, "from going Fourarms and knocking you through that wall." He said, exasperated. "Now how do I tell this thing false alarm." He muttered to himself. Without him touching anything it went back to neutral. "Oh."
"Now that, that excitement is over we can talk." Max said in a serious tone. Ben sat down on the other bed and nodded. "Just what did you do to Laura?"
"Exactly what I said in the note." Ben scoffed.
"I was hoping you were joking." Max said, narrowing his eyes. Ben held even with his gaze. "Ben, you could hurt her like that. She could have frost bite by now."
"I wrapped her arms and legs in towels before I froze them." Ben retorted.
"That doesn't guarantee anything." Max argued. Ben just shrugged. "Look, I'm going to make sure that Laura is okay. You just…stay here." He said, rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration.
When he walked into Laura's room he was instantly yelled at. "Finally! I've been yelling all night, are you deaf!? Get me down right now!" He hadn't even had his coffee yet and really didn't have the patience for this right now. Silently he stepped up onto the bed and checked out her frozen restraints. They were already mostly melted through. "Ben did this to me! I expect that he'll pay dearly for this."
"Seeing as I have personally seen the reason that you're up here I think I'll call it even." Max said coolly, stepping down.
"What are you talking about you senile old fart!?" Laura snapped. "I didn't do anything."
"I saw Gwen's face. I think you got off easy and unless you want to be punished by me, you'll stop yelling at me." They locked eyes and had an angry staring contest for a few seconds. Laura snorted, rolled her eyes, and looked away. "Now, the ice is almost completely melted, you'll be free soon." He went over to the heater and turned it up. "I'd recommend trying to get your legs free first, it's not fun to hang upside down." Max said as he left the room. "We'll discuss this further when you get dressed/down." He said, letting the door close behind him.
He went to Ben's room to check on them. Gwen was still asleep and Ben was up, watching T.V. "Hey, when Gwen wakes up send her to me, okay?"
"Yeah, sure." Ben said with a dismissive wave.
"While she's talking with me, I want you to wait in the room with Laura." Max added. Ben started to argue with him but Max silenced him with a look. Ben murmured his agreement. He went back to his room to have the cup of coffee that he desperately needed.
Gwen drifted in and out of consciousness for a while. She heard Grandpa talking with Ben and fell back asleep. Then was slightly woken again with the sound of the TV being turned on but the noise quieted down again and she fell asleep again. Finally, she woke up with no apparent cause and this time she pulled herself all the way into consciousness. Ugh, that was a mistake; her whole body throbbed and ached. Even worse she could only open her left eye and her right eye hurt a lot.
She let out a soft groan and sat up. "Hey, you okay?" Ben's voice made her turn her head. He was looking right at her, a slightly concerned look on his face.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just…sore." Gwen replied. It wasn't a lie, but it was the understatement of the century.
"That eye looks pretty bad." Ben said, getting up and sitting on the bed next to her. He took her face gently in his hands and inspected her swollen eye. "I was really hoping the ice would stop the swelling." He seemed so concerned about her pain but Gwen couldn't feel it anymore. Her heart raced and her stomach swarmed with butterflies. She was snapped back to reality when Ben poked her forehead. "Yo, earth to dweeb. Come in dweeb."
Gwen shook the warm fuzzies out of her head. "I'm sorry, what?" She must have missed something.
"I was asking if you needed anything for the pain but it seems like you're back to normal." Ben said with a roll of his eyes.
Wait, was that an insult? "Hey!" Gwen said, giving Ben a playful shove.
Ben shoved her back, a smile on his face. "Don't get mad at me for calling you out for being an air head." Ben teased. They got into a shoving match, progressively getting rougher. When Gwen got shoved so hard that she landed flat on her back on the mattress she sprung back up and caught Ben by surprise. They tumbled back and rolled off the bed, Gwen landed on top of Ben. He shoved her off of him and sat up. "Oh yeah, that reminds me; Grandpa wanted to see you in his room."
Gwen's stomach dropped; the smart comment she was about to say evaporated from her mind. "Why does he want to see me?" She tried to keep her tone casual.
"After you fell asleep, I wrote a note letting Grandpa know what happened." Ben said, standing up and offering a hand to Gwen. "He came in this morning and saw your face." Gwen took it and stood up. Their wrestling match had done some good, it loosened up her muscles enough that it didn't hurt to move around. They walked together to the joint rooms, Ben knocked on Laura's door and Gwen knocked on Max's.
(Max's room)
When Max opened the door and looked at her his eyes misted with tears. He swept Gwen up into a crushing hug that lifted her up off the ground. "Why didn't you come to me?" He said as the door closed on its own.
Gwen felt her eyes burn with tears. "Laura said that if I fought back or told you that she'd turn you against me. I was afraid that she'd make you kick me out." Gwen choked out, starting to cry.
Max shook his head and put her down. He knelt down to get at eye level with Gwen. "I would never throw you out, Gwen. As far as I'm concerned, you're still one of my grandkids."
Gwen smiled and wiped her eyes. "Okay, Grandpa." They hugged again, this time he didn't crush her.
"If this ever happens again, come to me. I'll take care of it, alright kiddo?" Max asked, giving Gwen a warm smile.
Gwen nodded. "Alright, I promise." Suddenly a thought weighed heavily on her mind. "Hey, Grandpa?" She asked, Max gave her a small "hm" of acknowledgement. "you loved Grandma, right?"
The question seemed to catch him off guard. "Yes, of course I did." His tone was an invitation to further questions.
"Did it feel like butterflies in your stomach when you first realized you loved her?" She asked earnestly.
"Yes, it did, why do you ask?" His question made her suddenly doubt what she was about to say.
She looked down at the ground and said, "I think I love Ben." There was a long silence that made Gwen look up. Max seemed to be having problems processing her statement and had a finger up, his eyes glazed over. After even more time had passed in which Gwen watched the gears in Max's head turn, she said, "I'm sorry…I shouldn't have said anything." Guilt was eating her alive.
That statement seemed to have snapped Max back to reality. "No, no, don't be sorry. Don't ever be sorry for having feelings." He said it in a way that made Gwen think that there was more meaning behind it than she knew. He knelt back down and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I am not mad, but why do you think you love him?" His tone was so serious it made Gwen nervous.
She told him about how Ben had held her face. She told him how it made her pain melt away and how it filled her stomach with butterflies. "And I think it's love, Grandpa." Gwen finished. "I want to tell him, but I'm worried that you'd forbid it." She admitted.
Max shook his head. "If you feel as if you should tell him then do so, I won't stop you." They hugged a final time before they went to Laura's room.
Ben and Laura were sitting on the separate beds and glaring at each other. The TV was on but neither was paying any mind to it. It was actually impressive, the look of absolute loathing they gave each other. Max turned off the TV but they seemed not to notice. Max cleared his throat, both of them looked at him for a second before going back to shooting daggers at each other.
"Alright you two," Max said impatiently. "Let's just get this over with so we can have a nice breakfast downstairs." They didn't stop staring at each other. "Look at me!" He snapped. That got both of their attentions. "Ben, you should of came to me after you found out that Gwen had been hurt. In the future don't enact vigilante justice, let me handle it." When Ben didn't say anything, Max stared him down until Ben acknowledged him and agreed.
"Laura, besides what Ben did to you, until further notice when we stay at a hotel you have to sleep in the same room as me." Laura started to object but Max silenced her. "You hurt her really badly. You're lucky that this is your only punishment." Laura snorted but didn't object any further.
They all went downstairs to eat the free breakfast buffet. Tension was thick in the air making it awkward. At least the food was good. When they were done, they made sure everything was packed up and checked out early.
TBC…
I hope you like it, please let me know what you thought about it. (GD)
I got the idea from reading another story it was 'Summer Battles by: VegZombieGrl' (GD)
