AN:
Special Shout Outs:
SusanCullen: Thank you! Your compliments mean the world to me, and I'm so, so, so happy that you think so highly of this story! :)
ZouZou816: :D :D I'm glad you liked it. :)
IA: Awesome! So glad you thought so. :) I know, I know, I try to update as often as possible, but now that school's over, I'm working and I spend more time working than I ever did doing actual schoolwork. haha. Hope you enjoy this chapter of 'Caleb to the Rescue'. They don't really address the kiss, but nonetheless, I think you'll like Caleb's ending line. ;) It's okay to be biased, everyone's got their favorites. Heck, I'm just glad you have favorites. :D It shows your invested, which is always a bonus to me. :) / Yes! So glad you didn't find her reaction disappointing, I was kind of concerned (as I always am) for you Natalie and Caleb shippers. I was really happy that I threw that in, I really couldn't see her calling anybody else though. ;) Well, in regards to powers, the Sons compared to the 'daughters' powers are fundamentally different. So I mean, technically you could say their powers are equal to each other in their own way, but the girls definitely have more specialized, and diverse-like gifts. / I've actually seen it! Nearly bawled like a baby at the end you know, cause of Gwen, I mean, COME ON, I loved Emma Stone as her. I was expecting it, but still, it hurt. I could see the comparison.
Randichele: I'm so glad you liked it and that you found the internal 'monologue' interesting. It was the only way I could think to write that chapter. Hope you enjoy this chapter! :D
Lady of Sign: Yep! There are! It's all a very complicated, very intertwined thing that I have some pretty big plans for. :D
KelseyBl: Still looking into face claims and stuff, but I am working on it! :)
To all my reviewers: (All beautiful 5 of you) you guys rock, thank you for the continued encouragement, and for taking the time to review, it means a lot!
To all you non reviewers: you rock too, and I'm glad you're still reading!
Additionally: to my newest readers and reviewers, awesome!
x
Previously:
"Shut up, Caleb," Natalie instructed before the other man could even open his mouth on the other line, "I—" She hesitated, "—I need your help."
"Where are you?"
"I'm back at Spencer."
"Ten minutes." He announced before hanging up without a further goodbye.
I need your help.
The words kept replaying in his head, over and over until it was all he could hear, until it was all he could think about. Fuck the kiss that seemed to corrode every single inch of his nerve endings. I need your help.
Caleb didn't think he would ever hear those words from Natalie, let alone so soon after their most violent interaction to date; but just because he never expected it, didn't mean he didn't welcome it. Just because she had practically run away from him just an hour prior, didn't mean that he wouldn't – that he hadn't – dropped everything the moment he heard her startled, quiet voice on the other end of his cellphone, her voice basically pleading for his assistance.
He made it to the Spencer dormitories in under ten minutes and if he bypassed absolutely every traffic law known to man to get there? Well, nobody had caught him and nobody had gotten hurt, so he could give two fucks about the broken laws; all he cared about was getting to Natalie as fast as physically possible without using.
Bypassing the elevator, he took the stairs three at a time and completely forwent the propriety of knocking when he got to Natalie and Avery's room. With a dark scowl and a momentary pause – a pause meant to reinforce his control so that he could handle whatever lay waiting on the other side of the door – he pushed the door open with vibrant force but despite the time he had taken to prepare himself, to brace himself, he was still surprised.
It looked as though a nuclear bomb had gone off; glass shattered everywhere, windows blown out, the floor was physically upheaved and misshapen in some spots, the walls and ceilings were on the precarious verge of caving inwards from the powerful rips in the room's foundation. Everything was in total disarray, both beds were upturned, furniture was broken, lamps were lying uselessly on the floor; everything was ruined…everything, that is, except for the one spot in which Natalie sat staring unseeingly at the mess surrounding her.
Caleb took one final look at the catastrophe of her room, the room that was one gentle breeze away from collapsing in on itself, before his eyes flashed fire and the room was repaired as though nothing had happened in the first place. Not only was it beyond dangerous to allow the room to remain as it was, but Natalie looked to be completely unresponsive to his presence and Caleb knew that if he wanted answers, the unexplained destruction surrounding her would have to disappear.
Stepping into the cleared room, Caleb shut the door behind himself with a minute twist of his foot and crossing his arms, he didn't move from his position just inside the door; he was an immoveable sentry guarding her room, guarding her.
Caleb didn't know how much time had passed before Natalie finally broke the silence between them, but when she did speak, it was with slightly shaky, slightly breathy words filled with a hundred uncertainties, and a thousand fears.
"I-I don't know what happened, Caleb." She confessed, head turning, chin tilting so that she was staring up at him with eyes so black Caleb thought for a split second that they were his. "One minute," She went on to explain, "I was bitching myself out—" It didn't take an idiot to figure out just what had her riled up, and though he wasn't expecting her to be puking up rainbows from their kiss, he didn't expect her to be quite so angry about it. "—The next I'm kneeling in the middle of a warzone."
He snapped out of his inner contemplation to give her a hard stare, "You did this?"
"I…" Natalie trailed off uncertainly, her arms tightening around the knees she had pulled against her chest, "I guess so."
"How?" Caleb demanded immediately, more than just a little concerned with Natalie's well being if she had been the cause of the previous devastation – though the fact that she was the only thing that seemed to be wholly untouched by the explosion seemed to provide him with a little sense of relief.
"I don't know." She stressed with the faintest notes of annoyance. "If I did, I wouldn't have called you." She ground out past a clenched jaw, though honestly, Natalie didn't know if what she said was the truth; even had she known the origins of the sudden power, she would have still been startled, frightened…she would have still felt the need to call someone, to call him.
Caleb's jaw twitched, his fingers curling tight into his palms until his knuckles became a discolored white, "Then why did you call me?"
"Everyone else was busy," She lied easily, eyes falling to the pristine, unmarked walls surrounding them.
She should have been pissed at him for using, should have been scared of what his ease at using meant for his future, but she was just too damn happy to see the disaster gone that she couldn't summon the right amount of bitch needed to make an attempt at putting Caleb Danvers in his place.
"Was it me, Caleb?" Natalie whispered after a long lull in their mostly one-sided conversation – him asking the questions, her providing really vague, unsatisfying answers.
She didn't look at him, didn't want to see whatever reaction of his might color his expression, but she could feel the faintest hints of confusion wafting from his being so she went on to clarify, "Was it me, or the Power I took from you that made me do this?"
Caleb let out a gusty breath, lifting a hand to rub at his eyes before falling to scratch at a spot along the back curve of his jaw; his dark eyes never left her huddled form.
With a reserved expression, he stepped towards Natalie, closing the distance between them until he could kneel down on one knee so that he was right beside her; his expression, without conscious thought, gentled as he delivered her his answer. "I didn't feel Power Nat," He muttered softly, "And even if I'm wrong and it was Power, the damage you caused, on that kind of scale?" He sighed, watching as the rough exhalation made strands of bronze hair fall into her face. "It would have registered…it takes a lot of Use."
Natalie felt her chest tighten at Caleb's words; so it had been her. She had literally torn apart her room, she had destroyed something so easily, as if were nothing but a castle made of paper without even realizing she was doing it.
"And it had nothing to do with Putnam?" Caleb inquired after Natalie didn't say anything else, though her eyes seemed to rock back and forth as though her mind were racing a thousand miles per second.
"I think," She muttered after a silent second, "I think it has to do with my ascension."
Caleb gave a quick one-two blink at the word ascension, he had nearly forgotten all about the upcoming ascensions. "You don't know for sure?" He inquired once he had regained his bearings.
Natalie sighed, motioning for Caleb to help her stand, which he did without protest. "The only one who has ascended was Avery, and she was very vague about the details."
Caleb's brows twisted downward, completely disregarding the way Natalie quickly pulled her hands from his once she was steady on her feet, "Why?" Why had his sister been so vague?
"Caleb," Natalie chastised tiredly, every bone in her body suddenly felt as though they weigh three tons. "She's a walking nightmare; she lives, breathes, and eats fear…she was purposefully vague where she could be because none of us wanted to know how much worse it got for her. None of us wanted to know – none of us want to know – just how powerful ascending made her ability in regards to fear."
Caleb tensed, he hadn't ever even thought about it. When he ascended he had been worried about what would happen to him and what Putnam was going to do immediately afterwards; Caleb had been entirely focused on preventing the destruction of their coven, he could only remember giving his sister, his twin, a passing, fleeting thought on the night of their birthday…He couldn't even recall if he went to see her, to check on her, after his ascension.
What the fuck was wrong with him? Some deep, inner part of his consciousness suddenly roared. Avery used to be everything to you. Your twin, your blood, your better half. What kind of brother are you?
With a very well hidden flinch, he pushed those painful accusations aside and let the dark part of his being devour the worries, the concerns, the questions so that he could instead focus on the situation at hand.
Avery doesn't need you. He told himself, repeating it like a silent mantra until only the faintest of doubts remained to burden his soul.
"Well the time for vagueness has come and gone; you need answers because if this is happening to you. It's going to happen to Lace, and when it comes Elizabeth's time, it's going to happen to her. If Avery continues to walk on eggshells to spare your sensibilities, you'll all end up fucked." Caleb announced harshly, but honestly.
Natalie glared at Caleb's dispassionate words, would have bitched him out for it if she hadn't sensed the underlying concern driving his words. "I'll get right on that." She snarked; unable to restrain herself from giving him some form of sarcastic quip.
With a narrowed glare, he looked down at her, wholly unimpressed before he took one last glance around the room, "Will you be okay?" He asked, his voice a deep, low husk that burned her skin as the well-diluted concern in his dark eyes seared her mind. He was hesitant to leave her alone and it made her countenance soften considerably; her shoulders sagging as she sank onto the foot of her bed.
"I'll be fine," She promised, "Thank you, Caleb…" She implored sincerely as she gazed into his suddenly shadowed expression, "Seriously, if you hadn't of come…"
"But I did," He finished when she trailed off uncertainly. "And if you call again," He prompted as he turned for the door, "I would come again." A quiet promise that both shocked and pleased her – maybe her Caleb, the Caleb she had adored growing up, maybe he was still around… maybe he hadn't been completely eviscerated come last fall as she most often feared he had been.
"Thank you." She let the mental whisper filter to his mind, felt a soft pulse of sheer gratitude pump from center of her body to stroke and rest tenderly against his skin.
She wouldn't ever know just how that soft touch of gentle feeling had affected him. She couldn't see the way his eyes slid shut, his expression relaxing as the gentle, thankful emotion settled deep into his bones, providing him with a sense of peace that was a rare occurrence for Caleb those days. The peace lasted until his eyes opened and her emotional touch withdrew.
With his hand on the doorknob, Caleb paused, head turning to pin her unsuspecting form with a dark, immoveable gaze, "That was the second time you ran from me Natalie—" Her head jerked up, her back straightening with a snap as she stared up at him, shocked that he would bring it up when he hadn't alluded to anything in relation to the event, "—And I'm warning you now… it'll be the last time you run from me."
And then he was gone, his being imbued with a grim bout of purpose as Natalie stared bewilderedly at her dormitory door; as though the door held the answers to all of her questions, when it wasn't the door that could answer her questions, but the man who had just walked through it.
All followers, favoriters, reviewers, non-reviewers, continuous guests, and first-timers: I hope you enjoyed!
Until next time,
x
