Painted Ivy and Wax Hearts
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Are you guys ready for the drama! Because after this, the drama is hitting this story. I hope you guys are as excited as I am about this!
Chapter 15
When Bo woke up he wasn't in Ambrose.
He was most likely in a hospital and that was shocking. It led to him having several questions. Firstly, was he really that badly hurt that he needed to be sent to the hospital? And how exactly had he gotten to the hospital?
And, of course, what had happened to Charlie?
The last he remembered she was being dragged away by a secondary attacker that had knocked him out.
God, what had happened to Charlie?
He sat himself up in the bed, which was a struggle in itself because his head was still pounding. He was definitely in a hospital he was guessing in Natchez because it was the closest to Ambrose. That was about a twenty-minute drive away from his home town.
He had no idea how he had got there, and he wasn't sure how he was going to get home. He guessed he was going to have to call home and ask Charlie to come and pick him up.
Like that wasn't nerve wracking. What if she didn't actually come to get him, what if she took that as her chance to run?
But what if she was there? What if she was the one who had brought him here and stayed. Wouldn't that have been… wonderful? He could picture her sitting by his bedside, all tearful, holding his hand while asking him to please wake up.
He was sitting up planning his exit strategy when someone walked into the room with him. He turned, hopeful that it was Charlie coming back to sit with him. But it wasn't Charlie.
It was Lester.
Bo watched as his younger brother walked around the bed to come and sit beside him. Already he was on edge, how could he not be?
After he cut the head off of Charlie's wax sculpture and threw it through her window Bo had paid a little visit to Lester.
He essentially beat the ever living shit out of him again and then waited until he was conscious enough to hear and absorb the next demand.
Lester was to never ever come back to Ambrose. If he saw Lester in Ambrose, he'd assume he was there to hurt Charlie and Bo would deal with it. Violently, even deadly if he had to.
They had later agreed to continue to send people to Ambrose, he'd call and tell Bo when they were coming, but it was more of a business arrangement and less of a familial thing now. And he knew Lester was upset about that, he had told him enough.
So if he was here that meant that he had to go into Ambrose to get him. Had he done something to Charlie? Or had she just passed him off? God he hoped Vincent took care of the trade off.
Bo glared at Lester who was just sitting there smirking at him. Probably because he knew that Bo was at his mercy at that moment and Bo wasn't usually at anyone's mercy.
Except that wasn't true.
If he could take out Lester, he could take his truck and get himself home without having to worry about a cabbie telling people he was dropped off in the middle of no where and have cops suddenly decide to come sniffing around Ambrose.
"What are you doing here?" he snapped.
Lester shot him a glare. "Uh… well last I checked... Bo… I was your brother. Though some stupid girl seems to have turned your head…"
She hadn't turned anything. She was his responsibility. She was his to protect. And he took that duty and responsibility very seriously.
"You tried to rape her."
"What? She can fuck you and Vincent but I can't get a taste?"
An angry bile rose up into Bo's throat at the thought of Charlie fucking anyone that wasn't him.
"She's not fucking either of us," he growled. "And even if she was, that doesn't mean you get to rape her!"
Lester scoffed. "Wow, the high and mighty attitude for a man who kills people and has his twin brother turn them into wax sculptures."
"She was off limits, Les," he growled. "I made that clear." Lester rolled his eyes and Bo shook his head. "How did I get here?"
"I obviously brought you."
"You were told not to go back into Ambrose."
"Yes and I told your little slut that, but she was adamant I come and get you, now here we are."
Charlie had called him? Charlie had gotten him to come to Ambrose? Him telling Lester to stay away had been for her benefit. He didn't want her to be afraid, as she no doubt would be after the attempted assault.
"I'm to take you home," he said. "And she said she'd give me a… ride if I did."
Bo glared at him, yeah, no, that wasn't happening. Not at all, not even a little bit. He was not going to let anyone touch his Charlie, least of all Lester.
But he didn't want to have that conversation right now. He wanted to be in Ambrose having that conversation with him. So he moved to a different topic he was interested in.
"Charlie's okay then?" he asked.
"She's got a black eye, and she's clearly grown herself backbone since you started supporting her," he said and Bo scowled.
Charlie had always had a backbone. The only reason Lester never saw it was because Charlie had been sick and hurt and unaware what was going on cause Lester never let her in on the plan.
Lester had taken advantage of her vulnerability, and if Bo hadn't gotten there when he did, he would have successfully raped her.
Bo still had nightmares about it.
About being in his truck, across from Lester's and watching it happen. Watching her arms flail, as he pushed her down. In reality that's exactly when he realized what his younger brother was doing and went to get him off of Charlie. In his nightmares, he couldn't move and he would just sit there and watch it happen. She'd scream for him, he'd scream for her and then he'd wake up in a cold sweat.
It was hard to let go of the anger he had for his brother when he was still having nightmares about what he had almost done. Even if Lester still called to make sure that he knew when people were coming to town. Other then that they didn't talk anymore.
And now was not the time to talk about it.
"And what about the other guy?"
"Vincent dealt with him," he said. "So uh… I guess your no killing streak has been broken."
"Shut up," Bo hissed glancing to the door in case a nurse or anyone else had been walking by. And clearly that was an extenuating circumstance.
"When are we checking out?"
"Aww, missing your little slut, Bo? Can't live without her? Or do you just not want to leave her alone Vincent?"
Okay, yes he was a little worried about Charlie and Vincent getting even closer while he was gone, but really he just wanted to go home. He wanted to see for himself that Charlie was okay and the situation was contained.
"Just get the fucking doctor," he growled hating the way Lester continued to smirk at him. Bo had to bite back everything he wanted to hurl at his younger brother.
He just wanted to get home to Charlie and he needed Lester to get there.
The sooner he got home the happier he'd be.
-HOW-
When he got back to Ambrose, Charlie came rushing out of the house to jump at him. He normally could have caught her effortlessly, but he was concussed and unbalanced. So she jumped at him, her small body hitting his, then he was slamming into the hood of the truck because he hadn't been able to keep them both up right.
That might have been embarrassing normally, but he was riding a painkiller high and he didn't care. He was just happy to have her there, to be holding her tightly to him.
"You're okay, you're okay," she had cried as she ran towards him, but once her face was in his shoulder he heard her whisper: "I was so worried."
Bo held her to himself, relishing in her closeness. His eyes went to Vincent who was standing at the front door, just watching them. There was a stiffness about him that Bo couldn't help but glare at because he knew it was jealously, a little bit of a possessiveness that Vincent had no right to pin on Charlie.
He could deal with whatever is going on with Vincent and Charlie later.
He pulled her head out of his shoulder and there it was, not really a black eye but a massive purpling bruise that was glancing off the side of her face. Starting from the edge of the eye and spreading up to her hair line.
His fingers danced over the bruise that caused her to wince. "It's not that bad," she whispered. "It looks worse than it feels."
Bo just smiled at her though, inside himself, he was angry that he let this happen to her.
At that point Lester had rounded the front of the truck. "So how we doing this? We can go inside but I'd rather fuck you against the truck. I'd love to have them watch, give 'em a show."
Charlie turned a dark look onto Lester and then back to Bo with a plaintive look on her face. "Bo, he wouldn't take you to the hospital until I agreed to have sex with him. And I don't want to."
Bo took that in, glanced to Lester and then turned a patient smile to her. "Oh, don't you worry about that. Go back inside, lock the door, and send Vincent over."
Charlie nodded, letting him go immediately. She darted back to the house, Lester made a move to grab her, but Charlie was quicker, and so was Bo.
He had grabbed the back of Lester's shirt and pulled him to his side. "No, no, you wait here."
Charlie spoke to Vincent at the door and then he was walking towards them and she had shut the door on them.
"You okay?" Vincent asked as he neared them.
"I am," Bo said. The painkiller high might have been making the world seem a little bit more sparkly and hazy, it might have had him a little dizzy and unbalanced, but he could still take both his brothers in fight. Though the adrenaline was starting to kick in and that was helping to clear his mind. "What's this I hear about a deal?"
"Lester made her make it," Vincent said. "She didn't want to, but he wouldn't take you to the hospital until she agreed."
Then both men turned onto their younger brother. The silent disapproving stares were enough to unnerve him. He started to squirm, throwing Bo's grip off of his shoulders.
"I don't see why you won't share."
"I've already told you, she's not fucking either of us," Bo growled. "And if she is, she's going to be fucking me."
Beside him Vincent was silent before whispering: "Charlie's special. She's nice and kind, and she's not afraid of us. She could be your friend too, but you keep trying to hurt her."
Lester's eyes darted between them. "Jesus, don't you see what this girl is doing to you guys?" he cried. "She's warping you! She's turning you into nice guys! You really aren't going to kill anyone else I send here?"
"No," Bo snapped.
"Well apparently that's a lie because it didn't stop you from killing the last two."
Bo's eyes narrowed. "Wait a second, they were lost, weren't they? You sent them to us, didn't you?"
"Course, it's my job isn't?"
"They knew about Charlie before they got here. They knew she was here," Bo growled. "Did you send them here knowing they were looking for her? Did you know that they were going to try and kill her?"
Lester clearly hadn't expected the two of them to actually figure that out. Well Bo had figured it out, Vincent probably had no idea.
"Yes!" Lester shouted. No hesitation, just he got caught and he was going to own it. Not his smartest choice given how Bo reacted to threats against Charlie but at least he wasn't insulting his intelligence by lying to him. "I thought if they killed her or took her away that things would go back to normal. I want my brothers back! I want what we had back! Don't you miss it?"
Sometimes.
Sometimes Bo missed it but then Charlie would smile at him and he'd forget about what he missed. It was amazing that her smile could do that to him.
"No," he lied. "I don't miss it. Do you Vincent?"
Vincent shook his head. "I do miss having you as a brother though." Aw that was actually kind of sweet and totally typical of Vincent. Even if it was true, Bo wasn't going to admit that. Not even the painkiller high was going to get him to admit feelings. He'd rather die. "Don't think I can forgive you for hurting Charlie though."
Yeah that was how Bo felt too.
"So here, how about this. You walk away, you fix your behaviour, and maybe, if Charlie's okay with it, we can start interacting as brothers again? What do you say?"
"She owes me…"
"I will literally kick your teeth in if you finish that sentence," Bo growled. "There is no deal except the one I'm giving you. You wanna walk out of this town? I suggest you take it."
Lester stared at him for a moment and then nodded. "I'd like to leave… please…"
Bo let Lester go and gestured to the truck. "Then go. That's it, that's the deal. Leave and you don't get hurt."
Lester nodded and scampered back into the truck and then he was reversing as fast as he could away from their childhood home.
"You couldn't have stopped him?" Bo asked Vincent as they watched the truck disappear.
Vincent shook his head. "I can't go out in public, she figured she couldn't go back the hospital she dipped out of… so we needed him to drive. The only think I could do was threaten to stab him and it was obvious that it couldn't go through with it… because we needed him to drive." Bo shot him a glare and Vincent winced. "Charlie had it handled. She figured she'd tell him a lie and me or you would deal with it when you got back."
Bo turned to him. "You were going to stab him?"
"Uh… if Charlie told me to… yes…"
Bo rolled his eyes and turned back to the house and yelped, because he had not been expecting Charlie to be behind him.
"What are you doing?" he snapped. "I told you to stay in the house."
"Well… I wasn't sure if you were up to the task," Charlie said. "You know, head injury and all. So I came back out for back up."
"Back up? And what the hell were you going to do?"
And then she just produced a knife, this giant fucking cleaver out from behind her back. Bo stared at her for a moment and then watched Vincent move to stand beside her, pulling out his own massive machete from god knows where.
Bo stared at the two psychopaths in front of him and he couldn't help it, he started laughing. He just kept picturing Charlie stabbing away and him and Vincent cheering her on.
"You're nuts you know that?" he said once the laughter subsided. "Come on, lets go back in the house."
And that's just what they did.
-HOW-
Charlie was acting weird. Like really weird. Like… Bo had no idea what to do about this right now. Seriously. What was going on?
He was used to her being super happy and always smiling and basically a bundle of hyper active niceness. But he had no idea what to do now that it was directed at him… when it usually wasn't.
She hadn't sassed him once.
No sarcasm, no back talk, she was just smiling and nice… all the time.
If this was a guilt thing, he was going to milk it for as long as he could cause she was literally doing everything for him. She jumped when he called, sometimes even when he didn't. She was always there offering him help in some way shape or form even when he didn't necessarily need it.
And he fucking loved it.
He came down in the morning, having been allowed to sleep in, and found that Charlie and Vincent were already awake and Charlie was in the process of making breakfast. Which was another thing she had started doing, like every day.
"Morning!" she said loudly and Bo winced, simply because of the volume. "Are you hungry?"
"Yes?" he answered warily and a plate was put in front of him. She had yet to put something in his food or do anything untoward, but he didn't trust it. He enjoyed it, don't get him wrong, but she wasn't usually like this with him, so he was waiting for the prank to hit him.
That's what he would do anyway.
"Right, so I made waffles!" she cried and he just stared down at his plate. They were going on three days of this and she hadn't stopped putting some kind of carb in front of him. The first day was pancakes, yesterday was French toast and today waffles. Seriously, what was she trying to do to him? Fatten him up?
Cause it was working.
Once he was okay again he was going to have to work out twice as hard.
"So what we have is strawberry eyes, a banana button nose and a bacon smile," she said.
"I'm not five, Charlie," he growled. Secretly though he loved it, he just wasn't going to tell her that. He still had his pride.
"Do you want whip cream hair?" she asked producing a can of the spray whip cream. He knew better then to say yes right off the bat because that's how you got whip cream in your hair. Cause Charlie would put it there.
"No, but I'd be okay with my little waffle face having a hair," he told her and right away she was spraying a little hat of whip cream onto his waffle.
She turned away as he was saying thanks and when she turned back around she had two more plates, her and Vincent's.
"Vincent do you want whip cream hair?" she asked that same playful smile on her face. Vincent too knew the answer should be no, but he simply smiled and said: "Course."
Right away she was leaning forward, spraying whip cream into his hair. He tried to move away half heartedly and then scooped the whip cream out of his hair and tried to smear it on her face as Charlie squealed and struggled to get away from him. Also haphazardly in a not really-trying kind of way.
"Guys, come on, it's too early for this nonsense," Bo chided though he sort of enjoyed Charlie smiling like that, looking like she was having so much fun. He just wished it was him who was making her smile like that. "You guys are giving me a headache."
The two immediately stopped though their smiles lingered. "Well the jokes on you cause I love whip cream," she said swiping it off of her face to lick it off her fingers.
Vincent took the spray can away from her and gave his own waffle whip cream hair and then hers. They all had matching fruit and bacon faces.
They mostly ate in silence, and for once Bo didn't feel like an outsider. Charlie sucked the whip cream out of her hair, Vincent struggled to get the rest of the whip cream out of his, while Bo just sat there smoothing his pieces of waffle through his.
When they were done, Vincent and Charlie moved to the couch.
"Bo, you coming?"
He was supposed to be on light duties, which meant if he tried to do anything strenuous Charlie would basically nag him to stop. She had been including him in more of the stuff that she and Vincent would do, which was a lot of reading, watching TV and hair braiding.
Though, since Bo didn't have hair long enough to braid, she just gave him scalp and shoulder massages.
Bo poured himself another cup of coffee and then joined them on the couch.
"Right, we're doing Scooby-doo first, cause it's on right now and then you get to pick," she said to him. "What do you wanna watch after?"
Bo pretended to think long and hard before saying: "I unno, the news I guess."
Charlie stared at him with a blank face. "Seriously. That was supposed to be a joke," she said causing Bo to smile because he had been joking. Referencing the mean comments she used to hurl at him when she first got here. "I know I said it, but you don't have to live up to the stereotype…"
"I'm teasing you Charlie," he said. "I'll channel surf until I find a game or something."
Charlie just scowled at him. "You're not funny."
She turned her face back to the TV but for a long while Bo just watched her. He didn't care about the Scooby-doo episode, or that Vincent too seemed to go between watching the TV and watching the way Bo was staring at Charlie. All he had eyes for was her.
He liked this.
He liked this way too much.
He liked her being nice to him, including him and just being there with him. She was smart, she was beautiful, and most importantly, the fact that she had come out there three days ago to stab Lester to back up him and Vincent, proved she was just at fucked up and psycho as him.
She was perfect for him.
Damn.
He might even be in love with her.
Bo decided then and there what he was going to do.
He was going to ask her out.
-HOW-
Bo had always been the confident brother.
So why did it take him so long to ask her out?
Because she made him nervous that's why. She wasn't like any other girl he had ever met. She didn't react to anything he did like any normal girl would have. He couldn't get a grip on her, couldn't read her. And that made him nervous.
He also didn't want to ask her in front of Vincent. Normally he would have loved to throw that in his brother's face. Ask the girl in front of him and have her say yes, watch his whole face crumple as he realized, again, that he was not the desirable brother.
But Charlie loved Vincent, or at the very least like him a lot more than she liked Bo. She would probably say no just to make Vincent smile.
He actually managed to corner her one day when she was coming out of the washroom, startled her actually. But once she calmed down, he managed to stammer out the question with little to no finesse. It was an embarrassment and he was glad he didn't do it in front of Vincent because he was very clearly off his game where he it came to Charlie.
But it was her response that bummed him out, because all she said was: "Uh… I mean… sure… I guess…"
It wasn't the enthusiasm he wanted, but she said yes so he was going to take it.
They set their date for the next day, he had pitched a few ideas and she agreed to a movie date, again without much enthusiasm. And then he went straight to tell Vincent, so he got his crestfallen reaction that he wanted.
He figured he'd sulk for at least a few days, but by the next day, Vincent looked good as new. There was no change between him and Charlie either so he figured Charlie had talked to him and boosted his confidence in some way. Though he didn't know what she could have said and he didn't want to figure it out either. Bo had a feeling it would bruise his ego.
That night, he got himself all dressed up. Black dress shirt with a few of the buttons strategically undone. He had gelled his hair up in that sweep that women loved on him and he sprayed on his best cologne.
Charlie came down in her grey dress, her blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail, looking like the punk princess he knew her to be.
He smiled at her but it was Vincent who told her she looked great. "Kay, I'm the one going on the date with her," he had snarled and Charlie had slapped her hand into his chest.
"No one likes a braggart," she had hissed and he actually paused. They hadn't even left yet and she was already upset with him. God, he just wanted this date to go well, was that too much to ask?
She said bye to Vincent, which involved a lot more whispering than he was okay with, but he eventually got her out of the house and into his truck. He then took her to the movie theater in town. He had the power to the town going, so that when the walked in everything was working. The theme music was playing and the lights were all on.
"Wow! You guys have your own movie theater?" she cried as he rushed around the truck to open the door for her. He helped her down when she didn't need it then he offered her an arm to walk her in.
She had probably walked past this place with them a bunch of times, but he bet she figured that it was fake. And it kind of was.
God, he wished it was a real movie theater so real people could see them walking in. He'd just have to deal with wax statues instead.
As soon as they walked in Charlie's smile cracked. He walked her past the ticket booth and to the snack counter. He had purposely come in early to get the popcorn machine started. It was, however, completely rotten and not fit for use, which was his own fault for not getting it cleaned long before this.
So he had had to drive into town instead, bought microwaveable popcorn and her favourite snacks, popped it and then laid everything out on the counter, before going to set himself up for the date.
"Take your pick," he told her as he put it in front of the candy counter.
Charlie's eyes were widely staring at the statue behind the counter. It was clearly one of Vincent's creations and she could clearly tell. She was obviously a little thrown off but she took a box of popcorn and one of her favourite chocolate bars, the Crunch bar. Then she took two steps, WAY back.
Right that was weird.
He offered her an arm again that she took right away, practically pressing into his side. Her smile was entirely gone now and that made him a little worried. Was she not liking this? Well, she'd like it more once he got her into the theater.
They walked through the doors and the movie came to life. He had set up a special screening from the old films their parents had used to collect. This one was set to start from the beginning. It was an old black and white movie which meant the credits played first, it would give them time to get down to the seats.
Problem was, Charlie froze on the landing, her eyes locked with the usher that Vincent had stood by the door. Bo simply had to tug her to get her moving again.
He was walking her down the steps to an open chuck of seats in the middle. He noted that she was staring at all the different people sitting in the seats.
"Are… are they uhm… all uhm…"
"Oh yeah but we're not sitting by them."
He led her to the seats that were basically in an empty row. There was one row behind that was empty and one row below. It was the farthest you could get away from the waxy corpses and it was designed that way because the brothers would sometimes have movie nights there.
He ushered her in first, noting that the popcorn he had popped at home and put into the specialty movie theater paper cups was shaking in her hand and she had practically crushed the Crunch bar.
Oh boy. That probably didn't mean good things.
Time to distract.
"It's an old black and white film that I've got set up… uh… our parents used to collect them and uh…"
He had taken his seat beside her and made the mistake of glancing over to her and saw her staring back at one particular guy. His face looked a little animatronic, eyes too wide, mouth slightly too… smilie. Yeah, Vincent always put the ones that didn't quite turn out well in the theater. Because it was dark there.
"You're too creeped out by this aren't you?"
Her eyes turned to Bo and he saw it then. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry it's just… I can't…"
Bo scoffed. "It's alright Charlie," he said standing up. "I've got a Plan B. Come on."
He ushered right back out of that theater, and back to his truck.
-HOW-
His Plan B was not really a Plan B, but where he planned on taking her if the movie went well and she didn't want to go back to the house right away.
He drove her out to the fields, parked under the clear open sky, and the pulled all these blankets and pillows out from under his seats and set up a sort of makeshift bed in his truck bed.
Once it was ready, he helped Charlie up into the back and then the two of them were lying on their backs, shoulder to shoulder staring up at the stars.
That smile was back on her face and Bo was just beaming himself, proud that this night was turning out the way he wanted it to despite the set back at the theater.
"I'm uh… I'm sorry that the movie theater was a bust," he whispered.
"It's alright," she whispered back her eyes never leaving the night sky. "I just… those were all corpses… and… it was just…."
"I get it. I should have thought about that before I took you there," he admitted.
They fell silent again and Bo found himself reaching out for her hand. Interlocking their fingers. Why did that get his heart racing? What was he? Twelve again? This was some playground level infatuation and it was driving him crazy.
Still, Charlie let him hold her hand and he just lay there staring up at the night sky. It was beautiful, obviously, but it was just a night sky. But girls were suckers for scenes like this one, it was the romance of it all.
After a moment Charlie let out a light sigh.
"Just look at all those stars. I've never seen something so beautiful that's made me feel so… small…"
"I have."
Charlie's eyes finally turned to him her eyes narrowed at him, but he just had to stare at her, his eyes drinking her in for her to realize that he meant her. Because to him, she was beautiful. Stunningly so. So much more so then the stars above them. Though having them reflected in her beautiful blue eyes definitely made her eyes even more stunning than before.
Without thinking he moved. He moved to kiss her. He waited for her to move him, to stop him, to protest, but she didn't. Her hands went to his shoulders, no doubt to stop him, but instead she held him. Her fingers digging into his shoulder through his shirt.
She made a noise, a sort of whimper in the back of her throat, and he answered with his own growl. And it was that simple noise that undid him.
He found himself on top of her, her hands threading through his hair, his lips covering hers. Kissing, it was kissing that set her off so he continued to kiss her, to make out with her. Nibbling on her lips, his tongue delving into her to taste all of her.
With his mouth on hers, he took control, pushing that skirt of hers up quickly to get to her. She had hooked a leg over his hip to bring him closer to her. Her hands were undoing his shirt to fan out against his chest, setting him on fire. He sat up, only to get his pants undone just as quickly as she went about pressing kisses to his chest.
His hands shook as got the condom onto himself and only then did she pause.
There was hesitance there on her face, and he needed it gone. So he took her face in his hands and kissed her again. Strongly and deeply and then slowly pushed her back to the truck bed, so he could get on top of her again.
He didn't give her a chance to tell him no. Didn't let up on the kissing, lest she regained her senses and told him to stop.
That night he took all that he wanted from her, lapped everything she had to offer up to him.
He fucked her there in the back of his truck, under the night sky with all the stars watching. This wasn't some lustful carnal act, this wasn't just his primal instincts kicking in. The way his heart beat wildly in his chest, the fact that he was so wildly passionate and soft with her, all pointed to this being something else. Something more… real… and full of emotion.
He never really cared before, but he wanted her to enjoy this. He wanted to hold her to him after, to stroke her hair, to keep her warm. He wanted to do this again. Over and over. Though preferably in his bed so she would be comfortable too.
He wanted her to love him, because he was falling for her.
And he was not going to share her.