Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all that jazz! Hi Guys and welcome back to the next chapter of Blizzard! A bit of a shorter chapter today but I hope you all enjoy it anyway! So, let's crack on, shall we?
As James left Kendall, he knew that his first priority was to head back to his childhood penthouse, so he wasted no time in doing so. The image of Doctor Burrens was still plaguing his mind, but as bad as it sounded, James had kind of become numb to it now. With everything that was going on in Spirit City, not to mention personally being attacked by a supervillain and having to heal his wounded boyfriend, James had slowly gotten used to scenes of violence and death.
'What has the world come to?' James thought to himself as he walked, considering the thought that he'd just had. This certainly wasn't the way he thought his life would go but then again, life is full of twists and surprised, both of which he'd encountered many off. It seemed that Doctor Burrens office wasn't very far from his father's penthouse, so James quickly found himself walking back down the block that only hours before he'd not wanted to return to. Now, however, he found himself wanting to return more than ever, with questions burning themselves into his brain so that he wouldn't forget to ask them. The lift ride up to the penthouse was once again a solitary one, but it gave James time to brace himself and the inevitable onslaught that was going to ensue. He knew for sure that his father was going to have a few choice words for him, but James knew that he wasn't to listen to them, instead bringing up his own questions.
At the end of the day, James was here for one reason, and one reason alone, to get answers to his questions, and maybe the best way to do that was to act like the journalist he'd trained to be. To completely detach himself from the entire situation and try to stay as logical as possible. Like that wasn't fucking difficult at all. As soon as the lift doors opened, James was filled with memories of his childhood for the second time that day but unlike usual, he wasn't greeted with the sight of Bitters staring back him. Taking a step into the hallway of the apartment, James glanced around trying to find somebody except there seemed to be no signs of life anywhere.
"Father? Bitters?" James found himself calling out, finding it bizarre that no one was around, but as expected, James heard nothing following his callout. The journalist in him took over briefly, with James' brain supplying that this would be the perfect time for him to get some answers and while he hated the thought, he couldn't help but agree with it. Remaining as quiet as possible just in case someone was in the apartment with him, although it wouldn't matter now as they'd know he was there, James found himself making his way to his father's office before pushing the door handle down and opening it.
The room was empty, and while James had expected that, it was such an unfamiliar sight to him but he quickly shook the feeling off as he closed the door behind him and crossed the room to the desk. Part of his brain was pointing out all the red flags with what he was about to do, and yet another was telling him what a brilliant idea it was.
James had no clue as to why his father was hiding stuff from him, and what better place would there be to hide them that the computer?
Clicking the mouse a couple of times, James watched as the wallpaper loaded up, causing him to press again which revealed a small password box. James didn't even need to think about his father's password, knowing that it was his mother's name, Brooke.
With the six letters inputted, the computer unlocked itself allowing James to dive into his father's treasure trove of secrets. Except, as James loaded up his father's files, he found nothing out of the ordinary with it just showing files filled with expense reports, board room meeting transcripts and the like. Still, James had a gut feeling that there must be something on the machine that at least gave him a clue as to why his father had lied to him.
James scrolled further, now entering the company's one drive which was filled with project titles. There was everything from the social science experiments to a folder dedicated to the glacier's project Kendall was working on, and all of them contained nothing to explain why his father had lied to him. That was until James scrolled right to the bottom of the file explorer, revealing a file called 'Metasis.'
Something about this folder stood out to James, and yet he couldn't understand why. The rest of the files were all under one word as well, but something about this didn't sit right with him. Double-clicking on the file, a pop-up immediately flashed up on the screen, causing James to input his mum's name once again, but this time, however, the pop-up just flashed at him again.
James tried his mum's name again, changing it slightly this time, but once more, he was denied access to it. That's when James heard the scuffling from outside the door, and while James couldn't just abandon this file, he also knew that he couldn't be on his dad's computer in case anyone walked in.
Thinking fast, James pulled his keys from his pocket and plugged the attached memory stick right into the computer. It took a few cursed seconds to load, but finally, James was able to drag the file across onto the memory stick just as the door handle began to be pushed down. Joy spread across James' face, thinking he'd gotten the file on to see that he'd have to wait two minutes.
'So be it. I have than two minutes worth of things to talk about with my father' James thought to himself as he stood defensively at the edge of the desk as the door opened, revealing his father.
"I'm shocked to see you here. After your little tantrum this morning, I was certain you weren't going to return. What are you doing here anyway?" Henry said from the get-go, instantly putting James into a sour mood.
Well, more of a sour mood then he was already in.
"I wasn't going to return, but that all changed when I found out that you'd lied to me" James responded, causing Henry to just roll his eyes.
"And what have I lied about this time?" Henry asked, causing James to grit his teeth slightly as he tried not to let anger consume him completely.
"Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis" James stated, causing Henry to freeze in his spot, his face paling. "Does that ring a bell to you? Because it's what Doctor Burrens actually diagnosed you with when she examined you. Not just a chest cold father, but Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis! The three fucking words that won't stop going around my head!"
"How did you find you about that?" Henry demanded, his eyes piercing into James' causing the brunet to let out a humourless chuckle at his father's question.
"Really? That's all you're going to say? You're not going to explain why you fucking lied to me?"
"Don't you dare speak to me like that!" Henry snapped back at James, now sitting in one of his seats in front of the desk, completely opposite to where he'd normally be. "And I don't need to explain why I didn't tell you, as you're proving why right now. You've become hysterical and emotional" Henry replied, causing James to once again let out a humourless laugh.
Glancing down at the computer, James saw that the copying had about a minute to go, but James knew that he was nowhere near done.
"I'm getting hysterical and emotional? Well, that's probably because my father has been lying to me about having a fatal, incurable illness! After what happened with mum, I thought" was as far as James got before Henry cut him off.
"See, this is exactly why I didn't tell you! You're so melodramatic about everything James and I knew if I told you, you'd do nothing but make a fuss which would only make my situation worse. I don't need your pity James and I certainly don't need you to worry about me. I'm fully capable of looking after myself and I have the situation handled" Henry states, causing James to raise his eyebrow at him.
"What does that mean, you have the situation handled?" James asked, causing Henry to just roll his eyes.
"It means I have the situation handled James, now I think it's best if you leave before you get yourself more agitated" Henry replied, causing James' eyes to widen.
Noticing that the copying was done, James discreetly pulled the memory stick from the computer before heading towards the office door and opened it. Before the left the room, however, James turned back to his father.
"I know you may think that I'm hysterical and that I'm going to pity you, but the truth of the whole situation is that I only care for your health because I love you. But, if I've come to realise anything over these past couple of months, it's that you don't actually love me back and that all this time and effort that I've been wasting trying to make sure that you're ok has been for nothing. On the night that Inferno attacked my apartment, he said to me that I was the thing you loved second after your company, but I'm beginning to think that that's not even true and that I actuality, I wouldn't even make the list" James said, his voice dejected as he finally shut the door behind him and headed to the lift door.
What James didn't realise was that throughout that whole speech, Henry's face was filled with mortification and as James closed the door behind him, he wouldn't hear his father mutter the words "I'm only doing what's best for you in the long run."
Tears streaked down James' face as he rode the elevator back to the bottom floor of the building but as he approached it, James knew that he needed to put on a strong face. Wiping the tears from his eyes and making sure they weren't red, James left the building in the same state he entered it, calm on the exterior while raging on the interior.
Still, as he walked down the street, he knew that he needed to speak to someone about what had just happened, and what better person than his boyfriend. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, James pressed on Kendall's contact and within two rings, the blond had answered.
"Hey, how are you holding up?" Kendall asked right away, causing a small warmth to spread through James' chest as a small sad smile began to grow on his face.
"Not so good. Are you free to meet up? I know you're working and everything but…"
"Sure" Kendall interrupted, knowing that James was going to being his justification rambling. "There' a coffee shop on campus, if you wanna talk there?" Kendall asked, causing James to nod, blowing out a breath of relief.
"Yeah, I'll head there right away. See you in a minute, love you."
"Love you too" Kendall replied before ending the call, leaving James in a better state than before.
Still, this now presented a whole bunch of troubles with James having to try and explain why he stole files from his father. Whatever the case, he'd deal with that in a minute.
For the moment, James set himself a brisk pace, knowing that he needed to be in his boyfriend's arms.
As soon as James caught sight of Kendall stood outside the coffee shop, his quick pace increased until he was wrapping his arms around his boyfriend. Kendall was shocked at first but quickly returned the gesture, asking James if he was ok, causing the brunet to simply shake his head.
After that, Kendall was quick to usher them inside and after getting their drinks and finding a secluded table, James finally told Kendall everything that had happened. The brunet couldn't help the tears that had gathered in his eyes as he spoke and when he finally finished telling Kendall about what his dad had said, he found himself chugging his coffee, giving Kendall chance to speak.
"Wow, that sounds horrible James. I can't believe that he said those things to you, that's so cruel" Kendall said, causing James to nod as he put his coffee back down.
"But that's not the whole story," James said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I also kind of, maybe, stole some data from his computer" James stated, causing Kendall's eyes to widen as he leant forward slightly.
"You did what?" Kendall whispered, causing James to blush ever so slightly as he pulled his keys out of his pocket as if to reinforce the point.
"Well, my dad wasn't in his office when I first arrived and the journalist in me took over. He didn't tell me about the illness in the first place, so I knew he wasn't going to tell me about it now. Anyway, so I went searching through his computer and I saw this file that stood out to me"
"So, you stole it from his computer?" Kendall interrupted, causing James to nod sheepishly as he took another sip from his drink.
"I know it sounds bad, but I need to know what this is Kendall. There was just something about it that was really suspicious to me and to make that worse, its password locked so I can't get into it. I need someone I can trust to get into it"
That last statement from James ruled Lucy out completed as while she did so a little bit of compassion, James knew that he couldn't trust her completely.
"Do you know anyone Kendall? Someone who you trust that could help me with this?" James asked, causing Kendall to let out a soft sigh. There was someone he could think of, but before he suggested them, he needed to know that James was sure he wanted to do this.
"Before I answer that, are you sure you want to know what's in that file. It could be nothing James but it could also be something that changes everything." Kendall said, causing James to nod opposite him.
"I'm sure. I'm telling you, Kendall, I don't know what it is, but something about this file just isn't sitting right with me" James replied, causing Kendall to let out a soft sigh. He knew more than anyone to trust those feelings.
"Alright then. Finish your coffee, and we'll go need them" Kendall stated, causing James to flash him a soft smile. In Kendall's mind, it helped settle his unease about this whole situation.
"I don't know about this Kendall" Logan said as the blond finished explaining the situation to him.
"Come on Doc, you were able to enhance the security footage, surely you can do this" Kendall replied, causing Logan to shake his head.
"It's not a matter of whether I can do it, it's a matter of whether I should. I mean, this could be really sensitive information and it's probably locked for a reason" Logan replied, causing James to let out a soft sigh as stepped forward.
"Please Doctor Mitchell, I need your help on his. Someone about this file isn't sitting right with me, and I need to know what it is. You don't have to look at anything if you don't want to, but please unlock it for me" James said, giving Logan his best puppy dog look to try and make Logan cave. It took about thirty seconds before Logan let out a sigh.
"Alright, give it here and I'll have a go" Logan stated, causing James to smile at him as he passed over the memory stick.
"Thank you, Doctor Mitchell, you're a lifesaver" James replied, watching as Logan plugged in the memory stick into his laptop.
So there we have it! James has stolen a file from his dad's computer, one that he's got a bad feeling about! The real question is, will this contain the answers that James is looking for?
I want to say a massive thank you to Winterschild11, Guest, RainbowDiamonds and EpicallyObsessed for reviewing the last chapter and I'm so glad you liked it! You're all suspicious of James' dad, so you'll have to wait and see whether you're right about that! Also, I can imagine that this chapter has only made you more suspicious of him! You also seemed to like the appearance of Lucy, which I'm glad about as I thought she'd be a fun character to briefly see!
Anyway, I hope that you all have such a fantastic week and I will probably see you next Monday for the next chapter of this! So, until then,
TTFN 😀❄🎄🎄