OMG sorry it took me so long! I completely ran out of inspiration and then I forgot about the story... and when I remembered I lost every copy of the chapter I've written which is why this is so small. I never meant to leave you guys so long at such a cliff hanger! And here it is, without further adu, the next chapter of Guardianship.
"Get up." Auggie heard the man say through the earpiece, and then movement. He was talking but he couldn't hear what the man was saying. Then there was a struggle, a gunshot, and complete silence.
"Annie!" He yelled, "Annie, can you hear me?"
He hugged tightly to Aaron, pushing back the tears that stung his eyes as he held her. He needed to be strength for her, if for nothing else.
She was walking up the hill of the coaster, he was gloating until she was standing directly at the top. "You know," He smiled as if talking to a friend. "You should have just stayed away. We don't need the agency interfering in our plans." He stared at her for a minute before raising the gun back up. "It's too bad, the kid's cute. It's gonna be a real shame to kill her, but a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do."
A feral growl let loose from her throat as she pushed against him, the gun going off and the bullet biting into her skin as she forgot all about her own safety.
She knocked the gun out of his hand as his hand moved to protect himself, then her footing was lost. She dropped so fast and so suddenly she almost didn't have the chance to cling on to the track. Above her was cursing and she could hear the man walk over to pick up the gun from the middle of the track. "Stu, turn me off." Annie spoke calmly, even as she fought to readjust her hands.
"I'm not gonna do that, Annie." Stu's voice crackled in her ear.
"Damn it, Stu, I'm not gonna let my niece and Auggie hear me die."
"You're not gonna..." She could feel the wet of her sweat making the pole hard to hold onto. "Stu!"
"Auggie's earpiece was disconnected when we heard the girl." Stu told her, his tone slightly annoyed. "We're not completely incompetent, you know. I don't know how much after that they heard but they aren't listening now. What's going on."
"The gun went off, my arm can't hold me up much longer..." She clamped her eyes shut and told Stu the one thing running through her mind. "Stu, I'm gonna fall to my death yards away from Aaron."
"Don't be too ready to throw in the towel, Annie." Joan's voice spoke above her.
"Joan." Annie breathed a sigh of relief as she told herself not to look down. "I can't pull myself up. My hands aren't gonna last long."
Joan just fisted her hands on her hips for a moment. "You wouldn't be giving up on me now, Walker?"
Annie tightened her grip and shook her head. "No, ma'am."
She put herself out of her head and on a pained yell, pulled herself up slowly. Finally a strong hand clasped hers and pulled her almost effortlessly up. She collapsed on the track, her arm almost going numb with the pain. Finally she looked into the eyes of the helping hand. "Thank you, Agent Mercer."
His deceiving eyes softened and she was surprised when she didn't feel the heat shoot through her she'd have felt a mere few months ago. "Annie..."
"Aunt Annie!" Beth came streaking down the side of the track, unaware of the danger of the high place. Within seconds she was wrapped around Annie's neck and any thought of Ben was gone. "Aunt Annie, I can't wait to tell Aaron. She'll be so jealous. I got to go on an adventure."
Annie worked her way to her feet, not even noticing Ben's aid as she reveled in the fact that Beth was okay. "Why don't we go find her and Auggie then?"
Beth was chattering aimlessly as she carried her, stopping only when she noticed the discoloration of her sleeve. "Are you bleeding, Aunt Annie?"
"Yeah, honey." She put Beth down with a wince, knowing she shouldn't have picked up the child. "I'm gonna go get patched up. Aunt Joan will take you down to Auggie and your sister."
Beth nodded and let Joan lead her away before stopping and deciding to voice her thoughts. "Aunt Annie?"
"Yeah, baby?" Annie crouched down in front of her.
"I like Uncle Auggie." Beth told her. "He makes you happy again... Hey, Aunt Annie?"
"Yes?" Her throat was clenched with hot tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks, ruining her image in front of the other agents.
"Mom's not coming back, is she?" Beth looked at Annie with honest eyes. "I knew she didn't like me, Aunt Annie, I just thought Aaron was her favorite and she regretted me."
"Don't even think like that." Annie shook her head. "We'll talk about this later. Right now you need to go see your sister and Uncle Auggie."
Beth nodded and let Joan lead her away finally.
Annie cursed as she stood there, wondering how she'd never noticed how much of her innocence Beth had lost at the hands of the situation. She'd known it would be hard on them, she just hadn't noticed how much they were already suffering. She had to be blind to not see it. Well starting from now she was going to do what she could to start being the best aunt she could be.
Finally she met Ben's eyes and smiled weekly. "Well, Agent Mercer, care to lead a woman down? Not quite sure I can make it on my own at the moment."
Review please! if you do I promise to devote my full attention to the next chapter! :)