Femi was sitting in the hush of her thoughts when Alex's door creaked open and let in a strong new source of light from the hallway. Femi jumped back into reality and shot her nervous eyes onto the door. After tonight, Femi just couldn't relax. Alex wavered into the room with Carter stumbling along beside him, slamming the door shut behind him with a buck of his foot, and then led him through the room and over to the bed. He brought Carter's arm around from his shoulders and then pushed him down onto the bed next to Jonathan. Carter snorted and, rolling over to face Jonathan, lapped his tongue noisily upon the roof of his mouth. Femi was amusingly surprised to see the two of them wrap their arms around each other and snuggle up together like love-buddies. Alex scrunched his nose up softly and then turned around with a shake of his head and walked over to Femi; it was then that Femi noticed his was carrying the red bag that contained the Diamond Heart.
Femi carefully pushed herself up into a sitting position and then slipped her feet down onto the floor. Alex stopped in front of her and held the bag out to her. She looked up at him and he raised his eyebrows expectantly.
"It's yours. Take it." He scoffed.
Femi looked back down at the bag and took it from his hand. He walked around the table and removed his damp, dark jacket and hung it over a stool in the kitchen when he entered it. As he began opening and closing cupboards, Femi narrowed her eyes down upon the red bag and slowly unzipped it. She was so quiet as she slipped her uninjured hand into the bag and felt around for a specific treasure. It was as though her own single breath, if it were loud enough, would make it disappear from existence. She finally felt the cold, silver chain and, closing her fingers around it, pulled it out and held it up so that it dangled down in front of her. A distant, dreamy smile tweaked in the corner of her lips and she brought it down to cup the silver ring that hung from it within the grooves of its fingers.
Femi smiled.
Femi totted down the autumn-kissed street with one hand holding onto that of a beautiful, tall woman with ash-brown, curly hair that came down to the middle of her back. The breeze was fresh and the afternoon sun smiled down at them both. Femi felt her thumb rub against something and pulled her mother's hand closer to her face. The squinted her innocent eyes in concentration and suddenly smiled as soon as she knew what it was she had felt.
"Where'd you get this ring, mummy?" She asked.
Her mother blinked and looked down at Femi "My ring?"
Femi nodded and smiled up at her "The diamond one, here."
Femi's mother smiled one of her beautiful smiles and chuckled "Why, sweetie, that's my wedding ring."
"Wedding ring... did you get that for your wedding then?" She asked with interest.
Femi's mother giggled softly at her our year old "Oh, darling... A wedding ring is given to a husband and wife to show that they are married. It represents ever-lasting life, just as love it ever-lasting That's why the circle never ends."
Femi's eyes gleamed dreamily "Daddy gave it to you."
She nodded and came to a stop at the end of the pavement to check for any cars before she crossed over with Femi "Yes... daddy did. And I gave one to him, too" She glanced down at Femi as she heard her sigh happily "You shall have one, too, one day darling."
Femi gasped excitedly and looked up at her "Daddy will get me a ring, too??"
Femi's mother smiled knowingly and used her other hand to brush a lock of brown hair away from Femi's cheek "... Something like that."
Femi still had a pensive smear across her lips when her memory ended itself. There was a lot more to it, but the fact that a glass full of water had been pushed into her entranced track of sight, she had been interrupted and drawn away from finishing. She blinked several times and followed up the hand that held the glass, all the way to the handsome face of Alex.
"You must be thirsty." He assumed.
Femi stared up at his eyes for a little longer before nodding and carefully taking the glass from him with her clean hand. She took a few small sips from it - even though she was as thirsty as a horse in the desert. But she had better manners than to gulp down an entire glass of water in front of someone. She licked her lips dry and looked around for a place to rest it; Alex took it from her and placed it upon the coffee table behind him.
"That's a nice necklace you got there." He commented.
Femi glanced up at him as if to acknowledge his words and then stared down at the necklace "It was my mother's... my father put her wedding ring on a chain to keep it with him. It was what led us to the safe, where we found the Diamond Heart and the letter telling us to go to your parents."
Alex paused for a moment and looked over his shoulder at Femi; she seemed to be frowning down at the ring on the chain, as though seeing it brought back bad memories. Little did he know that it was the exact opposite effect. Alex then noticed the glass stuck in her bloody palm and nodded to himself. Femi looked up as he turned and walked away, wondering what he was doing next.
"So why'd my parents send you to find me? And with Uncle Jon? - no one in their right mind would send him as a guide, as you can probably see why." He called from the kitchen.
Carter and Jonathan both stirred softly from hearing his loud voice, but did no more than simply move their hands to different positions around each other's backs. Femi pushed the red bag aside, onto the cushion next to her, and refused to move her eyes away from her mother's necklace. She took a deep breath in preparation in and then decided to just let it all out...
"Whilst we were at your parent's' house... those men in black turned up..." She paused and closed her eyes guiltily "They took us to a car and we escaped before they could get to us."
There was no sound from in the kitchen. Alex had obviously taken this piece of information as an emotional shock. And Femi didn't blame him. She would be beside herself if she were in his position! Femi bravely looked up to see Alex's' reaction in the kitchen... but he wasn't there. He suddenly stepped into her view from the right, having dragged a chair along with him, and sat down upon it in front of her. Femi blinked a few times and leant back in her chair to look at him; he looked as though he hadn't even heard what she had just said. She noticed that he had a large, plastic box in his hands, and when he opened it, she recognized it to be a collection of medical equipment.
"We tried to get them to come with us, but they just wouldn't agree" Femi guiltily told him "They said they would be able to handle themselves... and that we had to get out to find you. I'm sorry, really, I would have stayed if it weren't for the fact that they sounded so sure and fearless."
Alex smirked carelessly and, taking out a pair of tweezers, a roll of bandage, a packet of cotton wool and bottle of liquid, shook his head "You don't have to justify yourself to me" He looked up at her with a cheeky glisten in his eyes "You couldn't be a bad girl even if you tried."
Femi furrowed her eyebrows angrily "What do you know about me, Mr. O'Connell? You have known me for but a few hours, at the least."
He smiled craftily and snatched her injured hand up, making her gasp "Exactly."
Femi looked down at her hand just as Alex brought the tip of the tweezers towards one of the shards of glass embedded in her skin. She gasped and flinched her hand back nervously. No way was he going near her wound with that!
"Don't!" She exclaimed.
Alex blinked in surprise at her reaction and then chuckled "I'm gonna' have to wrap it one way or another. And I can't do it without taking them out."
Femi held her hand to her chest "I don't care."
He rolled his eyes and reached out to try and grab it "Do you want it to get infected??"
Femi dodged her hand away "Don't touch it!"
"I have to!" He snapped.
Femi jerked her hand up, away from his grabby fingers, and accidentally whacked it into his nose. She gasped in shock and embarrassment, and Alex gave a short groan and cupped it with his hand.
Alex glared at her from over the top of his hand and released an irritated sigh "You're a pain in the ass, you know that?" He lowered his hand down and sniffed softly "Now give me your hand."
Femi hesitated for a few seconds, but eventually held it out to him. He placed one hand underneath to keep it up, and then used the other to control the tweezers. He looked down at her hand in concentration, but then glanced up at her just before he went to pull out a triangle of glass.
"I'll be gentle." He told her reassuringly with a hidden smirk.
Femi nodded in disbelief and turned her head away with squinted eyes of preparation. She felt a soft tingling sensation, and it then abruptly transformed into a sharp, stinging which made her flinch. Alex glanced up at her as he dropped the glass onto the table surface behind him. For some reason, the two of them fell into a long, heated silence throughout the entire time that it took Alex to pluck out the shards of glass, clean it and then wrap it. Femi often glanced at his handsome features out of the corner of her eye, and her thoughts of self-scolding would distract her enough to make the pain disappear for a while. Femi didn't like Alex in that way. He was just... as she had said before, a terribly typical, duplicitous, unrefined character of the male species... Even if he was terribly attractive.
But nothing could stop Femi from looking.
Carter gave a faltering snort from the bed as Alex packed away all of his medical equipment back into the container box. Femi smiled weakly over at his sleeping figure and looked down at her bandaged hand.
"Thank you." She whispered.
"I know you want to get rid of me, but I'm not quite finished yet." Alex smirked.
Femi looked up just in time to recognise a damp collection of cotton wool coming towards her within Alex's' finger tips. She blinked and, sitting still, allowed him to begin cleaning away the blood from her cheek and nose. It only stung once, when he swiped it over her cut a few times.
"Mr. O'Connell" She called him in question "May I ask - what exactly do you intend to do now? With the Diamond Heart?"
Alex refused to look into her eyes, but remained staring at her cut "I'm thinking about it."
Femi heard the stiffness in his voice and decided to leave the subject alone. She stroked her mother's ring - which was still sitting in her other hand - with her thumb and waited patiently for Alex to finish cleaning her wound. He stuck a thin, white strip across the bridge of her nose, making her wince softly, and then leant away.
"There. Now you can thank me." He told her.
Femi preciously felt the plaster with her finger tip "...Thank you."
"No problem" He sighed and stood to his feet "I'll deal with your ankle tomorrow morning - it's best to rest and give it some freedom first."
Femi glanced down at her bruised ankle "Right." She whispered.
As Alex walked away and back into the kitchen, Femi began observing the necklace in her other hand again. Her mother's ring. She didn't want to lose this, or have to put it in a safe place so that it wouldn't be near her. And so, she undid the chain and brought it round behind her neck under her hair to clip it back together. She brought her hands round and looked down at the silver ring that was now resting upon her chest.
It really was beautiful...
When Alex returned to Femi, she saw that he was holding a thin, brown blanket with golden embroidery decorating it all over. He shook it out into its full shape and then laid it on the couch next to Femi.
"You'll sleep there tonight." He said and turned around.
Doing up the red bag on the other side of her, she furrowed her eyebrows "But what about you? Where are you going to sleep?"
Alex gave her a cocky smile over his shoulder "Lady, I won't be sleeping tonight."
He walked back into the kitchen and opened the cupboard to put his medical box away again. Femi looked down at everything around her and gave a soft, tired sigh. She took the red bag under her wing and then lowered down sideways onto her left, carefully bringing her legs up and slipping her feet under the blanket. She pulled it up over her entire body and, keeping the red bag close to her chest, snuggled down underneath it comfortably. Just as she was about to close her eyes and try to sleep, something sparked in her memory and she gave a light jump.
"Oh - and Mr. O'Connell" She called, and he looked round "I have a message for you from your parents... they told me to tell you that they love you, and that, um... that this is your chance...?"
Femi was left in a short silence whilst Alex stood still, facing her. Obviously, what she had said meant something to him. But considering the distant, engaged expression upon his handsome face, Femi couldn't help assuming that it wasn't a meaning that was heartening to him. She watched him stand in a silence of comprehension for a few more minutes; Jonathan released a wheezy sigh and a car hissed down the road from outside the window a few feet down. Alex gave an unexpected, unnecessary smirk and then ran his fingers through his hair.
"Goodnight, lady." He sighed, and turned away to put the box back in the cupboard above him.
Femi slowly turned her head back round and curled up in a little ball, huggling the red bag, cushioned with all of the money inside. She released an airy sigh and suddenly realized just how tired she was when she closed her eyes, and before she knew it, she had fallen into the depths of her dreams...