Epilogue
Frank leaned back in his chair, heaving out a huge sigh as he rubbed his hands over his face. To say he was exhausted was such a huge understatement, but for whatever reason, he couldn't get his eyes to close. Maybe it had something to do the fact that he was scared to death if he closed his eyes, he would only open them to find that this was all a dream. That Nancy wasn't lying in the hospital bed beside him, sleeping soundly.
That he couldn't reach out and actually touch her.
He couldn't risk the chance of any of that being true, so for now, he would forego sleep. There was plenty of time to catch up on it later, once he had her home where she would be safe.
The past few hours had been nothing but one giant blur. As soon as he had managed to talk Nancy out of killing Wesley, the FBI and police had show up, swarming the house. Agent Craig hadn't been too happy with him for walking away from an accident scene, and even unhappier with the fact that he had shot Wesley.
Frank didn't care. He would do it all over again, if it meant getting the psychotic bastard away from Nancy. In fact, if he had a second chance at it, he would have delivered a sure kill shot. Even though every part of him agreed with Nancy was about Wesley needing to die, he wasn't about to let her be the one to do it. He wouldn't let her live with the burden of killing another human being, no matter how vile he may be.
But as he sat there, stewing in his thoughts, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd made the right choice in letting Wesley live. Sure, Nancy beat the living hell out of him and it was going to take him a while to recover from his numerous injuries. But the fact remained that he would recover from his injuries and then he would be taken into custody, awaiting trial.
And that's what worried Frank the most. Nancy wouldn't be given the chance to recover from her ordeal for the next few months. She would be forced to relive over and over what Wesley had done to her. She wouldn't have any peace between all the police, lawyers, and media. Everyone would want their chance at her and there wasn't a thing they could do to stop it until the jury came back with the guilty verdict.
Only then would she even be able to begin her long road to recovery.
Frank was about to close his eyes again and try to get some rest when there was a soft knock on the door, startling him. He quickly jumped out of his chair, positioning himself in front of Nancy. While it occurred to him that she was in a hospital and surrounded by security, it still didn't make him any less defensive. He wondered if it would always be like that now. Would every knock on the door or person walking in her direction make him paranoid.
He prayed to God it wouldn't, but it didn't look very encouraging at the moment.
The door slowly opened and Frank let out an audible relieved sigh when she spotted Joe's blond hear peek into the room. A weight instantly lifted from his shoulders as his body relaxed. He didn't want to admit it, but he was really happy to see his little brother right then. He didn't even stop to think as he walked up to Joe and gave him a hug. If Joe was surprised by the action, he didn't show it as he hugged him back.
"How is she doing?" Joe asked softly after they broke apart.
"Let's move out of the room," Frank whispered. "I don't want to wake Nancy up."
Joe nodded as he followed Frank out of the room. There was a guard standing outside the room and he have them a terse nod as they closed the door behind them.
Frank ran his hand over his face once again—he'd lost count how many times he'd done that since finding Nancy. "She's doing as good as can be expected. She has numerous cuts and bruises, not to mention a missing tooth in the back of her mouth. And then there's the…"
"Yeah," Joe said. Frank was glad he didn't have to say the rest of it—Joe knew what he was talking about. They began walking down the hallway towards the vending machines. "What's with the guard at the door?"
"That's courtesy of the FBI. They don't want any reporters sneaking into her room, especially since she's the hot story at the moment." Frank stopped at the vending machine and reached into his pocket for some quarters. Inserting them into the machine, he pressed the button for coffee and watched as it popped out a cup before filling up with the black brew. "Not to mention the fact that Wesley is also here."
Joe's eyes widened. "What the hell do you mean he's here? The son of a bitch isn't dead?"
Frank shook his head as he took the coffee from the machine. He took a tentative sip, ignoring the pain as it burned his tongue. "He's been shot, stabbed and banged up pretty bad, but no—he isn't dead. Nancy wanted to kill him and she would have done it if I didn't stop her."
"Why did you stop her?"
"Because I couldn't let her do something she would hate herself for," Frank said, a faraway expression on his face. "If she'd done that, then she would have spent the rest of her life comparing herself to him. And I wasn't about to let her do that to herself, no matter how much I agreed with her. "
"But the fact remains that he's still in the same building as her, Frank."
Frank chuckled, snapping out of his reverie. "Believe me, Joe. He's not going to do anything anytime soon. When I say that he was pretty banged up, I mean that Nancy beat the shit out of him."
"Good for her," Joe said and Frank didn't miss the pride in his voice.
"What are you doing here, by the way?" Frank asked as they took a seat at a small table. "How's Andrea doing?"
"She's still unconscious, but after you called me and told me you found Nancy, Vanessa made me leave," Joe said with a smile. "She said you needed me more than she did. Besides, she saw how restless I was getting. I just hate that I missed all the fun."
Frank snorted. "Only you would think the past few hours were fun."
Joe chuckled along with Frank, but quickly sobered up. "So, what happens now?"
"I'm not sure of that myself," Frank admitted. "We just take it one day at a time and see what the world throws at us."
"So like any other day."
"Pretty much." Frank took another long sip of his coffee, ignoring the bitter tang. "All I can do is just be here to support her. I don't know what it's going to be like now—I don't know how she's going to come out in all of this. I know it's going to take some time and I'm more than willing to give her all the time she needs."
Joe nodded but didn't say anything.
"She's going to need everyone, Joe," Frank continued softly. "Especially you. You've always managed to make her laugh when she needed it. She needs to know that you're going to be here to support her."
"I'll be here, Frank."
"Thanks."
"And not just for her," Joe said, locking eyes with Frank's. "I'm going to be here for you, too. You may think you don't need any help, but this is going to be just as difficult a time for you, too."
Frank gave a small nod of acknowledgement, but remained silent. He didn't want to admit to Joe that he was right. He knew it was going to be difficult for everyone, but with his brother there, maybe—just maybe—they would come through okay.
Nancy awoke with a start, a strangled gasp emitting from her lips as she sat straight up in bed. It took a few moments for her to realize that she was in a hospital room—not in Wesley's house of horrors. She was safe and free—it wasn't all just a dream.
She lay back in bed as her breathing returned to normal, her heartbeat resuming its normal pace. Daylight streamed into the room through the slits in the blinds, making the white walls of the room glow even brighter. She glanced around her small room, seeing that she was alone, though there was evidence that Frank had been by her side since there was a blanket bunched up in the chair.
While she was happy to be with Frank once again, she was glad she could actually be alone with her thoughts. It was the first time since she'd been rescued that she could think back on the events of the last few hours. Part of her still couldn't believe that it was real, that she was away from Wesley. She still expected to wake up from this nightmare to find that she was still tied to his bed.
But the antiseptic smell of the hospital, not to mention the very uncomfortable bed along with the IV sticking out of her arm told her otherwise. Frank had actually managed to find her in the nick of time. And it truly was in the nick of time, because there was no telling what Wesley would have done to her if he hadn't shown up when he did. Nancy didn't even want to entertain the thought of what he might have done, even though she knew her imagination would take it in every direction possible in the coming days.
What she found most shocking was the fact that she really wanted to kill Wesley. Not only that, but she didn't feel any remorse—even now—for wanting to do it. She actually wanted to murder another human being. It didn't matter that he was sadistic and got off on torturing and tormenting her—she'd never wanted to kill someone before in her life.
But Wesley changed all that. And she knew without a doubt that she would have gone through with it if Frank hadn't talked her out of it. What kind of person did that make her? Was she truly no better than Wesley?
Nancy brought her hand up to her mouth, choking back a sob. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, but she didn't wipe them away. It was an emotion and emotions were good, especially when she felt like she wasn't human. Killers weren't human and that's exactly what she would have been if she'd killed Wesley.
She was startled from her thoughts by a timid knock at her door. Quickly wiping away her tears, she sat up in bed as a doctor came into the room, closing the door behind her. She was a petite woman with her brown her braided down her back. Dark rimmed glasses framed her eyes and she greeted Nancy with a gentle smile, but for the life of her, Nancy couldn't remember her name.
"You may not remember me, but I'm Doctor Haynes," she said as she came to Nancy's side. Untangling her stethoscope from her neck, she put the ear buds in her ears and listened to Nancy's heartbeat. "How are you feeling?"
Nancy flinched away from her when the doctor grabbed her wrist. God, was she going to be like this with everyone now? "Sorry…" she said, forcing herself to relax so Doctor Haynes could check her pulse.
The doctor smiled kindly at her. "It's quite all right, Nancy. You've been through quite the ordeal. Your reaction is to be expected. I should have warned you that I was going to do that."
Nancy shook her head, not wanting the doctor to apologize for doing her job. "How long is this supposed to last?"
"What do you mean?"
"Am I always going to be this jumpy with everyone now? Is this what I have to look forward to now?"
Doctor Haynes smiled sadly as she sat down on the bed beside Nancy. "It's going to take a while for you to feel comfortable around people. And even then, you may not always be completely comfortable around others. You'll adjust quicker to friends and family, but the random person on the street may take a little longer. Unfortunately, that seems to be common among victims of rape. As for how long it will last, there really is no way to tell."
Nancy wrapped her arms around her torso, hugging herself. "I don't want to be like this. My job doesn't allow for it. How am I supposed to work if I can't be around people without jumping at every movement?"
"I wish there was a drug I could give you to make it all go away, Nancy." She let out a soft sigh. "The only thing you can really do is surround yourself with people who love and support you. Don't push them away—let them help you."
Nancy nodded but didn't say anything. The first time she got away from Wesley, she'd managed to push everyone away, not wanting them to see her weak. And he'd barely done anything to her the first time. But now it was so much worse. How could she guarantee that she wouldn't crawl into her shell and push everyone away once again?
Doctor Haynes reached into her pocket and pulled out a business card. "This is a friend of mine. She's a counselor for victims of rape. I think she could do you some good, if you're willing to give it a try."
Taking the card from her, Nancy ran her fingers over the raised black ink.
"Is your fiancé around?" Doctor Haynes asked, standing up.
"He's around here somewhere," Nancy said, glancing up at the doctor. "Why? Is something wrong?"
"Maybe I should wait for him to return…"
Nancy shook her head. "What's going on, Doctor Haynes? If there's something wrong, then I need to know what it is."
The doctor let out a reluctant sigh as she fixed Nancy with a grim look. "As you know, we ran some blood tests when you were admitted, but before I tell you the results, I need to ask you a personal question."
"Okay…" Nancy swallowed hard. She had a bad feeling she wasn't going to like what the doctor was about to tell her.
"Have you and your fiancé been sexually active in the last month or so?"
"Um…" Nancy hesitated, squirming in her bed as the doctor continued to stare at her. "We had sex about two weeks ago."
Doctor Haynes nodded, her expression softening just a little. "Of course, we'll have to run some more tests to know for certain…"
"What exactly are you saying, Doctor Haynes?"
"You're pregnant, Nancy."
Nancy let out a strangled gasp, sure she heard the doctor wrong. There was no way in hell she could be pregnant—not now. Sure, she wanted to start a family with Frank some time down the road. But not now, not when they weren't even married.
"Your test has to be—" Nancy whimpered as another terrifying thought hit her.
The reason why Doctor Haynes had asked her if her and Frank had been sexually active recently. Because if the baby wasn't Frank's, there was only one other person who could be the baby's father.
Wesley.
Are you really surprised that I ended this story on a cliffhanger? Yeah, neither am I. And I know there are still some loose ends, and some of you may be screaming at me, but there will be another story. If I kept going with this one, it would have gone on and on and if I'm being completely honest, that would have bored me.
That being said, yes…there is another story coming. The bad news is that it's not coming any time soon.
I want to thank each and every one of you who have joined me for this awesome (although mostly frightening) ride. I love you guys so much and it's because of your support that I've continued to write in this fandom for nearly ten years.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter: dolphingirl7 (Thank you so much. I wrestled back and forth whether I should kill Wesley or not, but in the end I couldn't do it and it was for the reasons you stated), VerityD (You're making me blush! I am so happy that you liked it!), Caranath (I was very tempted to have Frank do just that, but I had to let Nancy take her shot at Wesley—the girl deserved it! And I threw in Joe just for you!), Cupcake (I love to rock! And I love being a badass! Oh, and I could have died when I found out about the phantom 0000. I took it out as soon as you pointed it out so, thank you!), MinecraftDanny (I could have had Wesley suffer more, but it was more realistic to do it this way. You're more than welcome to torture him with your imagination…in fact, I welcome it!), max2013 (You are quite welcome!), q (You're welcome! And the next story will deal with Nancy's recovery along with something fun and sinister…), SC15 (I don't want to think about what Wesley would have done to Nancy if Frank hadn't arrived when he did!), Jabba1 (Joe will definitely be in the next story…insert evil hand twisting here), misslady92 (I can't believe it's over either, but I will be back!), Michelle Gallichio (I had to have Frank ride to the rescue…he's very hot when he does that…), KennaC (Hello, stranger! Glad to see you back around!), hardydrewsgirl (I'm glad you enjoyed it! And thank you so much for your offer…I really appreciate it!), Yelene-ryudream (I know Nancy's torture wasn't easy to stomach—it wasn't easy to write. But I am so happy that you stuck around with me!), and catlover1033 (Stop being so busy already! I miss your long, rambling reviews!).
Now to the reason that I won't be writing the next story for a while. I have been toying with the idea of writing an original novel for years, and I think I am finally ready to take the leap. It's a very scary thing to create your own world from scratch and I have been letting my fear get to me. Also, it doesn't help that I am terrible about giving myself deadlines. That being said, I am looking for coach or two—someone who is willing to give me the kick in the ass I need and keep me focused. I will tell you that it is a teen fantasy, so I really need people who enjoy that genre.
If anyone is interested, please PM me and I can fill you in on all the details.
Also, don't forget to check out my blog! You can find it on my profile!
Thanks again and until next time, my friends!
