Greetings fellow earthlings! I come with a new chapter for your reading pleasures.
I'd like to thank the usual reviewers: IA and DS for their reviews last chapter.
Also, as usual, I own nothing.
Second Chance- Chapter Seven: Feeding the Enemy
Orwell felt the ground before her shake as her brain registered the revelation that her partner had set out in front of her. Why he chose now of all times to tell her this, she would never know. The brunette knew that she loved her partner with all of her heart, but she just couldn't get the fact wrapped around her head that Vince had just poured his heart out in front of her, with his wife and son in the same living facility as them. She understood that they weren't going to work on their marriage, but it still bothered the nurse that Dana might not have been comfortable with her husband moving on this quickly.
"You don't have to say that you love me. If you don't mean it, I don't want you to lie to me to make it all better," Vince replied easily, taking in the nurse with calm blue eyes.
"Believe me Vince; I'd be lying to myself if I said that I didn't love you. I just… I'm not sure if this is the best time to be starting a relationship," she spoke softly, her eyes sparkling back at the vigilante.
"I do have pretty crappy timing, don't I?" the sandy blonde muttered to himself. Much clearer this time around, he began again, "are you worried about upsetting Dana?"
"Of course. Even if she says that she's fine with you being in a new relationship, it'll still kill her to see you in that new relationship," Orwell replied, a little annoyed with herself for having to be the good-natured girl that she was raised to be.
"I know that it will, Orwell," Vince spoke through a rough sigh. "But I'm not sure how much longer I should give her before moving on to a relationship with you. I'm going to sound like an ass either way, even though Dana and I agreed on a separation."
"We'll just have to play it by ear. I cannot tell you how hard it is for me to say this, Vince; we'll figure out something soon, I promise," the brunette nurse smiled back at her partner and gently wrapped her arms around him in a tight embrace.
The vigilante returned the embrace as quickly as his reflexes could react. He was happy to note that after their embrace ended, his partner didn't leave his side. She curled up against him and tried to find a comfort zone that would easily allow her to slip off into a deep sleep. Vince smiled down at Orwell as she snuggled into him subconsciously. In just a few short minutes later, he had dozed off with his arm supporting his partner against his chest. They both tried to convince themselves that this wasn't a couple thing but, no matter what they did, their affection for each other would always make itself known.
-0-
As if Vince and Orwell didn't have enough problems to deal with as it was, they had to listen to Peter Fleming give another one of his press conferences from inside of ARK Towers. After long hours of carefully examining what was left of Rosalia's blood culture samples, the scientists that had yet to come up with an antidote, or even a cause of the disease. Nothing was ever found out about the Rosalia virus and doctors and biologists alike had been working together for years to determine the background of it.
The press conference was basically a cry for help on Fleming's part. He stressed to the citizens that if they knew anything about it, not to hesitate to contact the billionaire.
The brunette blogger and her partner had had a bad feeling about the main vector of the virus from the very beginning. It was highly likely that it was the RNA virus that lay dormant in their foster daughter's body. And if their suspicions were correct, the only option there was, was to bring Rosalia back to ARK. As unappealing as that sounded for the mother figure, the fact that it could save hundreds of lives pretty much evened her feelings out about it. Now the only problem was how would Rose get back to ARK? Vince was dead and… Orwell hadn't really been the first to volunteer to see her father again.
Eventually though, the young nurse had realized that it was up to her. The vigilante was hiding from Fleming and his cronies. The last thing he needed was them to figure out his real identity. So, to protect her partner and the rest of the city, she had to do what she swore that she would never do again. She was going to have to see her father.
-0-
On the day that Orwell and Rosalia were supposed to meet Fleming, the blogger was seriously regretting ever agreeing to this. For one, she wasn't ready to face her father but, more importantly, she wasn't ready to let go of Rose. The nurse had a lost list going on in her head that contained all of the possible things that could go wrong with this. Ergo, she should just take Rosalia and head back to the Carnival.
But that nagging thing in the back of her mind called a conscience wouldn't let her. What if all of this was really the answer to the virus outbreak? If she kept Rosalia away from them, the city would have been stuck with nowhere to turn.
Grabbing all of the courage she could muster, the brunette led little Rose through a back way to get to ARK. Even if she had Fleming's adopted daughter with her, she would still have to find another way to get there besides through normal roadways.
Peter Fleming had been expecting his daughter to arrive with Rosalia at any moment. When he first received a video feed from Orwell, he thought that it was too good to be true. Getting both of his daughters back at the same time? This whole thing was labeled as a disaster. Did Jamie even want to see him again? If she didn't, there was absolutely no reason for her to stay.
The brunette was worried about what she would be facing when she set foot in ARK. However, her father was waiting for her in the lowest level of ARK. Not many people knew of their evacuation plan in the circumstance of a disaster such as this. This lower level of ARK wrapped around to an underground route that could transport the employees to and from the building without letting anything else out.
Peter didn't bother to bring any of his muscle men. This was his daughter that he was meeting with. His little princess meant more to him than anything else in the world. He highly doubted that she would bring anything that could be potentially dangerous.
The billionaire kept his word and met with Orwell and Rosalia in ARK's lowest level. This was so secretive that not even the blogger knew anything about it before she talked to her father about meeting him. Everything known to man was packaged in there. If a zombie apocalypse decided to rear its ugly head, this would be the ideal fortress to have.
The elder Fleming's heart thundered in his chest as he saw the girls under the dimly lit tunnel lights. Rose was really nervous coming to see her adopted father again. After all that she learned about him, now she had to come back to live with him again. Orwell had told her that it would only be for a little while longer. After the quarantine was released from the city, the brunette swore to the child that she would find a way to get her back again.
The meeting was short on the nurse's part. She didn't want to see her father anymore than she wanted to see Rosalia leave her and Vince. The sooner she could speak her peace and leave the better.
There was a doctor in town that had been in a conference this whole week. He had been said to be a brilliant doctor and could eradicate any disease that he worked with. Peter had made a negotiation with this doctor. If he could help his employees in the medical ward at ARK, there would be a very generous tip involved. All Orwell could say was that he better do the job right.
Much to Peter's dismay, he couldn't make his older daughter stay. He tried, but there was really nothing more that he could do. The billionaire had no idea that his daughter was Orwell, or did he have any idea that she was the one who kidnapped Rosalia in the first place. In fact, he was in such initial shock that he didn't ask many questions.
-0-
Vince could tell from the moment that his partner came back to the Carnival that she was fighting to keep a straight face. It was killing him to see her like that; the vigilante could only hope that this 'extra special' doctor would hurry the hell up so things could go back to being just a little hectic.
Orwell had tried to sit down next to the sandy blonde and talk to him about how the meeting with her father went, but she was far too jittery to sit still for more than a minute. She had fed the enemy exactly what she wanted, and her reasoning for doing it wasn't as concrete as she liked it to be.
"Orwell, you just need to sit down and relax. I'm sure Rose is fine and she'll be able to come back to us soon," the vigilante began, bearing a pretty white set of teeth for his partner. His smiles normally worked on her. Tonight, however, her lips ceased to curl up into a smile like normal.
The brunette snorted in disbelief, running her fingers in between the spaces on her opposite hands. "And you think that my father will let her out of his sight again? He let me go; the odds of him letting her go are slim to none."
Vince sighed. He loved his partner to death, but sometimes she just worried too damn much. The sandy blonde stood up from his seat on the couch and met up with the brunette. "Orwell, what's gonna happen to her when my name is cleared and Fleming goes to prison? Just think about that for a minute."
The nurse didn't need time to think about it. Her answer was almost instantaneously. "She would go to the next closest living relative."
"Which would be?" the vigilante asked, prompting a light bulb to go off in the brunette's mind.
"That would be me. But, Vince, what if something happens to her between now and then? Imagine all of the tests that they're going to have to run on her. I should never have given her up. The city could have burned up for all I care!" Orwell started to pace again, her tone of voice rising with every sentence that escaped her lips. "I just want my little girl back!"
Vince knew that he and his partner had talked about waiting before pursuing in a relationship, but right now he was drawing blanks at what he could do besides stand there and hold her. She would break down and he would be right there for her, just like he always would be.
The nurse stood still for a moment, trying to put herself back together. Her hands were shaking as she ran them through her thick blanket of hair. She knew better than to start crying, but she just couldn't keep herself from spilling her tears any longer. "Vince, she's my girl. She's all I've got left at this point."
The vigilante did what he felt was best and took his partner into his arms from behind. "You've got me too, you know," he whispered down at her.
Orwell laughed to herself at this, tears streaming down her cheeks. "No, I don't. You belong with your wife."
Vince turned the brunette around to face him, sternness in his blue eyes. "Dana and I don't belong together anymore. I screwed up for good when I went on with being a dead man for eight months."
"And I lied to you for eight months. You just recently found out my biggest secret," the brunette shot back harshly.
"Yes, but I happen to be in love with you. Dana had finally gotten over my death when I showed up alive and well," the sandy blonde spoke, his voice extremely gentle.
"Vince, I—" Orwell began, struggling for the right words.
Vince silenced them both by melding their lips together in a mind shattering kiss. The whole world stopped at that point. Nothing to worry about; just bliss and heaven on Earth.
"Is this the part where I shut up now and tell you that I love you too?" the brunette asked, completely frazzled after their lips disconnected.
The vigilante smiled sadly. "Yeah, I think that would be best."
"I'm sorry, Vince. It's just, when I worry about one thing, I start second guessing everything else," Orwell spoke, closing her eyes as she leaned her forehead against the sandy blonde's.
"You don't need to second guess anything when it comes to us," Vince began, a genuine smile spreading across his face. "I want to be with you. There is no such thing as a big enough obstacle to get in between us. I love everything about you. How I can tell what's wrong with you just by looking into your eyes. Or how I can judge by your smiles or your laughs. I love how your whole face lights up when you're genuinely happy. Or how your body shakes when you're really laughing at something."
The brunette supported her partner's head with the palm of her hand as she drew closer for a warm embrace. "I wish I could come up with something to say to that, but right now I'm just drawing a blank," she pulled away for a moment, her lips spreading into a tiny grin. "Just know that I love you more than I can explain."
The vigilante sealed their lips together once again. At this point, he didn't care who saw them. He had calmed his partner down, that was the most important thing. After their kiss ended, he got to hold her and protect her without any interruptions or protests.
Well, what'd you think? Enjoy Vince being his usual adorkable self?
