Whipping Boy

Chapter Twelve

After she ran from the precinct before she could lash out any further on the man she knew really did want to help Rogers, Tilly ran back to the hospital in hope of finding another chance to see the detective who had done so much for her. She and Rogers' friends had been kicked out by Eloise and her lawyer, whom she couldn't help but feel was as crooked as the woman responsible for hurting her only real friend she's ever known. But as far as everyone else in the neighborhood was concerned, Tilly was invisible. So she expected to be able to get in and out of his room without being seen. Her only problem would be if Eloise or the others from her cult were still there with Detective Rogers. For whatever reason, they always seemed to be able to see her just fine. Being in any of their presences was the only time she truly wished she was invisible.

Once Tilly reached the hospital and cautiously entered the corridor within the emergency wing as she looked all around before taking another step inside towards Rogers' room at the end of the hallway, she was grateful to see that the nurses at the help desk she'd have to pass to get to the room were distracted with filing papers, reading, or staring down at their phones. So, she kept walking and like she expected, no one saw her do so.

At last, she peered through the window from outside of her friend's room towards the detective now fighting for his life and quickly wiped away the tears that started to fall down her cheeks upon first seeing him in such a state, then uttered a brief word in gratitude for finding him to be all alone, before she finally opened the door to let herself inside.

When she walked over to stand beside the bed, Tilly's mind wandered back to a day she regretted more than most. The day when she had been asked by Rogers' own partner to lie to him, knowing that Rogers had trusted her to be truthful with him about whatever she learned about Eloise Gardener's disappearance. The devastated look in his eyes as she told him Eloise was dead had crushed her, knowing that he blamed himself for her death when the evil woman was far from being dead.

"Hey!" she remembered Rogers suddenly calling out to her that day, as she attempted to walk away before she told him and Henry what she had been told to go there to tell them in the meeting she set up with the detective two hours beforehand, until he and the younger man began to chase after her. "Hey! Hey!"

"Where's she going?" Henry asked him in confusion.

Rogers continued to run after her as she picked up her pace to leave until they caught up to her, then desperately he asked, "Hey, we were waiting. Did you find anything?"

Tilly finally turned around to face him and then in frustration she answered, "Yeah, I found something. But you don't want to hear this."

"Of course I do," he quickly replied assuredly.

"No, I should go," she nervously responded and started to turn away again until she heard him plead with her to come back.

The detective cried out, "Hey, stop! Whatever you've got, just get on with it."

Tilly sighed, then while she looked between both of the men standing in front of her, she reluctantly answered, "Okay. I spoke to a few of the runaways from the old group home. There was a guy who used to go out with a girl… a girl by the name of Rain. She wrote poetry, loved Salinger. Was constantly drawing in her notebook. So, I checked him out, okay? And…"

"And uh... he gave me this," she apprehensively continued when she pulled out a piece of paper torn out from Eloise's notebook and handed it over to Rogers before stuffing her hands back into her coat pockets.

"This… This drawing's from her," the detective whispered with a hint of relief in his voice after finally receiving what he thought was the first good lead in the missing woman's disappearance. "This is from Eloise."

He suddenly looked up at her again while he asked, "That guy… did he say where she is?"

Tilly had to turn away from him as her reluctance to finish telling Rogers what she had to only grew and when she did so, he then questioned, "Hey… What?"

"She's dead," she finally uttered bluntly in reply, and it was then that she saw the devastation in his eyes as he took a few steps back in shock at her words, making her instantly regret her decision to lie to this man she had grown to care about and knew didn't deserve to feel so guilt ridden.

"How?" he asked quietly without being able to look at her again.

Tilly worryingly replied, "Car accident. There was a stolen car, and since her real name wasn't Rain…"

Henry finished for her, "They couldn't identify the body."

"Hey, I'm so sorry…" he then added when he turned to Rogers in a failed attempt to try to apologize for the deeper sense of loss he knew his friend was now feeling.

"I need to be alone," Rogers responded softly after raising his hand to cut him off, then simply walked away from her and his friend just as she did as well.

Tilly shook her head to try to clear the memory from her mind, only to have her thoughts drift back to another memory from that same night which shook her even more so than the previous memory did. The memory of how she had approached Detective Rogers again and saw in his eyes, as well as heard in the tone of his voice that he since learned she had lied to him before.

When she walked up to him, wearing the hood of her coat up over her head not only to protect her from the rain, but to remain invisible to everyone else surrounding them, he turned around to face her while he asked curtly, "What do you want?"

With sincerity and remorse, she answered, "To say I'm sorry about the page. Weaver said it was for the best. And I can't always figure that out for myself."

"Take a look at what he was covering up," Rogers replied in disappointment, as he motioned to her with his head to look back towards the ambulance where Eloise was being seen to by the paramedics. "Now you tell me, was that for the best?"

"You know what?" he then asked her again after he started to walk away from her until he turned around. "I understand."

However, he then continued sadly, "I'm just disappointed. You're not the person I thought you were."

Tilly was suddenly startled from her thoughts when she thought she heard someone entering Rogers' room, only to see through the window that a couple of nurses had entered the room nearest to his instead and had accidentally slammed the door against the wall when they walked inside.

When she saw it was safe to do so again, Tilly turned her attention back on her friend and stared down at his hand sadly, finding it difficult to look up at his face beneath the breathing tube covering its lower half. Whether it was because of the guilt she felt for feeling like she had let him down, or because of the pain she could see etched across his eerily still face, she didn't know. Nor did it matter much to her one way or another.

Finally, she reached down to tenderly touch his hand and spoke quietly saying, "I bet you're probably wishing you had listened to everyone when they warned you about Eloise. I bet you wish you had listened to me."

"God…!" Tilly suddenly uttered again with remorse in her voice once she recognized how callous her words sounded, and began to beat herself up for reprimanding him. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to… to sound so callous. That wasn't what I… what I wanted to say. I'm just so… so sorry, detective. I hoped after you learned just how evil that woman really is, you'd be safer. And yet here you are… barely alive because of a machine and a breathing tube down your throat. If only I had known when you were coming back home. I… I would have left your apartment you let me stay in to come out to greet you. But then this had to happen to you. It's not fair. I owe you a debt I don't know if I will ever be able to repay because… well, because you've been so good to me even when I didn't deserve your kindness and generosity, Rogers. I lied to you at first about Eloise. Made you suffer needless guilt and now… I'm just so sorry. You can't die."

"A lot's happened here since you've been gone, even though it's only been a short while," she finally continued after taking a few minutes to collect her thoughts while she at last allowed herself to take a seat in the chair beside his bed, releasing his hand as she did so. "Kelly has decided to stay here permanently with Roni so she can join you, Roni, and Henry in your crusade to take down the corruption in the Heights. Including Eloise Gardener of course. Her fiancé… Kelly's, that is… has come a few times from San Francisco despite his busy life there to be here with her, which I think is very sweet. Oh… and Hyperion Heights has had its first known serial killer, who targeted Kelly because he believed her to be an evil witch… if you can believe that. What's scary is that this killer turned out to be someone you and your friends all believed was also a friend, not to mention Lucy's father. It was Nick I believe his name was. He's dead now. I'm sorry. He died from a heart attack, or at least that's what the doctors tried to tell Weaver. He doesn't believe it of course. He suspects foul play. He just can't prove it. What else can I tell you? Lucy's awake from her coma and seems to be doing fine. That's good. Victoria Belfrey's gone. She died after giving her life to save her daughter, Ivy from Eloise like you almost died for them before. Belfrey's daughters left town. Kelly's daughter, Margot has joined her mother here after coming back from Tibet. She seems really cool, though I don't know her all that well yet. And as for Eloise… Weaver's done all he can to try to lock her and her other sisters in their cult away, but it's complicated. And a really long story. However, he's doing all he can and so is Roni, and… me. I'm sorry… I've just been rambling on. I should probably go before I get caught in here. That's another problem we're trying to work out too."

Tilly stood up again as she prepared to leave until she was suddenly startled when the door opened, and became nervous when Eloise appeared in the doorway as the villainess almost sounded sincere when she responded, "No… please don't go just yet, Tilly. I was hoping you and I might have the chance to talk. We've much to talk about."

The young woman glared at her as she took a few steps back when Eloise attempted to walk closer to her, then she answered, "I have nothing to say to you, other than… How dare you do this to Detective Rogers after everything he did to save you after you went missing! How could you do this to him? He's a good man."

"Yes, he is," Gothel replied in agreement. "It's like I once told him when he came to visit me at my apartment not too long ago… he's my white knight. I owe him more than I fear I'll ever be able to repay."

"You've got a funny way of showing it," Tilly responded angrily. "Your appreciation I mean. If you really want to talk, tell me why you've done all this to him?"

The tree nymph slowly took a seat in the chair across from where her daughter was still standing over her father and reached out to begin to caress Rogers' cheek, then she coolly answered, "I wasn't the one who has done this to him, dear Tilly. My husband was mugged on his way to a bar last night for a drink. The doctors and police say he was lucky to still be alive and it's all because he was able to fight back against his assailant."

Tilly stared at Eloise in disbelief until she darkly retorted, "An assailant who works for you! You abducted him, but then Rogers escaped, so you sent one of your thugs to go after him. I know what you are. You're a monster! This isn't the first time you've hurt him either. Or have you already forgotten how I pickpocketed the antidote for the poison you injected him with before, after you abducted him and did God knows what to him?"

"Despite what you might think, Tilly… Rogers has forgiven me for whatever you were led to believe happened between us then and he understood that things weren't at all as they seemed," Eloise replied, pretending to seem upset over the dreadful state he was in. "Enough, so that we even fell in love and then married."

"I don't believe you," Rogers' daughter responded sadly. "You're a liar and somehow Weaver's going to prove it, just as he thwarted whatever plans you had for Rogers the last time too."

Gothel gave her a small yet smug smile as she sat back and turned her eyes back down on the man lying in the bed before them, then she questioned, "Why do you think you feel such a connection to Detective Rogers, Tilly?"

She glared at the witch while she answered, "I don't know. Even if I did, I certainly wouldn't tell you."

"What if I were to tell you… if you would be willing to come with me back to my apartment so we could continue to talk, that I could reveal to you secrets which are right now beyond your understanding?" the villainess asked her when she continued to speak. "Secrets which not even Detective Weaver, Roni, or Kelly are willing to tell you."

"What sort of secrets could you possibly tell me that would justify all you've done to Rogers?" Tilly asked curtly. "Cause that's all I really care about right now. He's why I'm here. I have to go. You won't get away with this, crazy lady."

As the young woman from Wonderland was about to leave the room once more, Eloise called out to her again as she replied, "You might not understand my reasons for doing as I've done just yet, but I can help him heal faster. There are forces in this world few people know about. Magic… which I can use to save Rogers' life. Just watch."

Before Tilly could object to the vile woman's strange, yet unbelievable actions when Gothel lowered her free hand down over the wound in Rogers' abdomen while keeping the other still against his face to help keep him still, a light suddenly emitted from her hands as magic flowed through her and into him. Her daughter couldn't help but watch in fascination until the nymph finished as the wound mostly healed despite Eloise's struggle to do so, since the magic within this small part of the world had been stripped from almost everyone along with their true memories thanks to the curse. Rogers didn't awaken, but upon seeing that the wound wasn't ugly like before, Tilly somehow knew then he was no longer at risk of dying except from remaining Eloise's captive.

Tilly looked into the other woman's eyes crossly when Eloise looked up at her again too, then she questioned, "How did you do… whatever it was you just did? What exactly have you done?"

"I healed him, despite my doing so draining what little magic I currently possess under the circumstances being as they are," she responded, once again sounding sincere in her motives for helping him. "Or at least he's been healed as much as I could do for him. Please, Tilly… I'd like to speak with you more, if you would just come with me somewhere where we can be more comfortable."

"I told you before… I refuse to go anywhere with you because of the evil woman that you are," Rogers' daughter answered angrily. "I won't fall for your lies, whatever it is you've just done. Because I know you didn't help Rogers just now for him, or even for me."

She then asked her again curtly, "How do you even know my name?"

Eloise eerily replied, "I know more than your name."

"Bully for you," Tilly retorted in frustration. "And I know who you are, too. You're part of that cult, and I want you out of my sight."

"I just want to talk," her mother responded.

The younger woman brusquely asked, "Why the hell would I want to talk to you anymore?"

Gothel finally answered her straight out, "Because I'm your mother."

"No," Tilly whispered in disbelief upon hearing this dangerous revelation. "That's not possible. My mother left years ago. So either you're a liar, or a monster like I already believe you to be. Because what kind of woman abandons her child?"

"I know I was selfish, and it's no excuse, but the world was… It was cruel to me," her mother replied, about as sincerely as anyone evil like her was capable of being, Eloise's voice breaking while she continued. "And I became cruel, too. But I want to change. Maybe if you could forgive me, maybe you'd find peace. You'd get back what I took from you. You'll feel wanted."

Tilly looked at the woman again with hate in her eyes as she responded, "I already am wanted."

She glanced down at the man she still didn't know was her father lying unconscious in front of her to indicate that Rogers did truly care about her, before she immediately continued to stare at Eloise while she confidently added, "Already have people who care for me."

"Do you truly believe that?" Eloise implored her with one last effort to convince her daughter to hear her out and to come to trust her. "Detective Rogers here isn't the only one who does, Tilly. I do. That is, I want to… if you'll let me."

"No… I don't believe you," the young woman from Wonderland answered her, as she understood this woman was trying to tell her she cared for her too. "You care for no one, but yourself and maybe those in your cult. Because you're evil. And besides… his partner cares about my wellbeing, and so do Roni, Kelly, and Henry, as well as several others here. But even if Rogers were the only one who cared… it would be enough. I trust him. After all he's done for me, how can I not? You know what? I don't have to stand here and listen to you anymore. I'm done. If he really is healed, then I'm grateful, but that's the only kindness you'll get from me. I know this won't be the last time you hurt him. Just know that you will pay for what you've done one way or another."

Gothel replied, "Your friends won't stop me, Tilly. No one can."

Tilly looked over at her one last time as she haughtily responded, "You wanna bet?"

With that said, Tilly finally stormed out of the room, regretfully leaving Rogers alone with the villainess once more as much as she wished she didn't have to. As much as she wanted to return to the police station to talk with Weaver and Roni, who she had no doubt were still there trying to do whatever they could for their friend, she was too angry and she knew she needed some time to consider what Eloise had just told her. It couldn't be true, and yet there was a small part of her who feared that for once this evil woman had spoken the truth.