Hello, Lovelies! I know it's been too long between chapters again, but I am here again with the continuation! I also just realized that a lot of other authors I see reply to reviews at the end of each chapter. I hadn't really thought of that, but it seems the least I can do to show the gratitude I feel for all of you who have left comments. So, that being said, I will be periodically going back to previous chapters and editing in my thanks and replies to my lovely reviewers. I know it seems a bit random to just spontaneously add review responses on the 18th chapter, but I love it when other authors do it, so I thought maybe everyone here would also appreciate it?
Updating will be my first priority, however, so updating will be on the back burner, but I'll do it when I have the odd free hour now and again.
Thanks again for your readership and I appreciate everyone so flipping much!
Eggsy lowered his gun.
Staring back at him was Elaine. But this version of Elaine looked different; her hair was chopped short and dyed a harsh blonde, her mouth was set in a scowl below chilly eyes that only seemed warm at a glance because of the fear that lingered behind them. She was cold and calculating and the lingering fear he saw behind her eyes shrank the longer she glared at his gun. Her hands slowly rose in the air.
"Evie," Eggsy said, staring at Elaine's lost sister frozen in front of him.
Evie stared at him in hate and took a step towards her sister, who she was now standing in front of.
"Hey," Eggsy said. He holstered his gun and raised his hands in front of him. "We're only here to help."
Evie scoffed, putting a protecting hand over her sister's slumped shoulder.
"You Kingsmen have never helped anyone," Evie spat.
"Agree to disagree," Eggsy countered, trying not to take her insult personally. "Just come with me and we'll work all this out."
Evie dropped her protective hand from Elaine and took an aggressive step towards Eggsy.
"I can't just 'work this out'," Evie shouted condescendingly. "You don't know anything at all, do you?"
Eggsy dropped his hands and was ready to shout back at her. He could see Elaine behind her and she was growing paler by the moment; her unconscious eyes fluttering open but failing to wake. And Evie was the reason Elaine wasn't getting immediate help.
"I know Elaine needs help and I know you are wasting valuable time she might not have!" Eggsy shouted back, matching Evie's tone.
Evie looked back at her sister, her face losing its anger in place of fear.
"So," Eggsy said as he approached Evie. "The Kingsmen will help you work all of this out and protect you and Elaine," Eggsy said, waiting as Evie looked between him and her sister.
"I'll go," she finally said. "But only for Lea."
Eggsy silently walked up to her. There was an unspoken consensus between them that they disliked one another, but still, Eggys felt strange putting the handcuffs on her. Once he was sure she couldn't try anything, Eggsy brought the comms.
"I've got Elaine. Meet me at the back of the building."
Bedivere answered an affirmative and said he was heading their way.
Elaine woke up beneath bright fluorescent lights. Her mind was scattered and there was a vague echo of a headache, but the sheets she was currently tucked beneath felt better than those she had been in before. Rolling over, Elaine closed her eyes and tried to block out the lights.
"Why do I feel like I'm always waking up in different places?" She moaned, raising her hand to cover her eyes.
Pulling herself up to sit in the cot, she looked around. The blurriness of the room faded after a moment. She pulled back her soft sheets and set her bare feet on the chilly ground. The hospital gown she was in was too thin and she shivered as she stood up. There was a robe on the chair next to her. She slipped it on and sat back down on the bed.
"I need bunny slippers," she whispered absentmindedly to herself.
There was a crawling feeling in her gut that told her she wasn't supposed to be here, or that this was completely foreign environment. Waking up in this bed made her recall another place she had woken up, but now, trying to recall the details of that other place, she couldn't think of anything or who was there.
Shaking herself out of the memories that were locked away, Elaine scanned the room for anything familiar, but there was nothing to ground herself with. Nothing.
Elaine sighed, holding her forehead with a shaking hand. The vague echo of a headache she had earlier was becoming a bit louder than a vague echo and the longer she sat there, the louder her stomach growled.
Standing up once more, Elaine walked out of the room she had woken up in and peered around the corner of the corridor. It was empty. Deciding to be brave, she continued; her bare feet that lacked warm bunny slippers echoed softly against the walls.
It was when she got around the third corner that she heard quiet voices carrying from one of the rooms. Approaching the door with caution, she leaned against the white walls three feet away and listened.
"When will she fully recover?" Someone asked.
"Fairly quickly. The medicine that was given to her was at the end of the trial period, but it seemed to be extremely effective," another man said. "Someone who was in an automobile crash as severe as she experienced would still be in a critical condition."
There was silence. Elaine was tempted the slide down the wall she leaned against and rest. Instead, she yawned and continued to eavesdrop.
"Does she have any side effects from the drug?" Someone asked. A younger man. He was talking more than the other people and she was drawn to him. There was something familiar in his voice.
"None that we can tell at the moment." An older, sterner man said. "Once she's awake we'll get a better idea of the drug's effects and the severity of her condition."
There was a drawn-out pause.
"She's strong, Eggsy," a woman said.
There was shuffling around the room.
"What about her sister?" The younger man asked.
"Bedivere is transporting her to a safe house," The older man said.
"Safehouse or containment?" The younger man countered.
"Eggsy," the woman said.
"What? She clearly put her sister in danger, not to mention she took her out of the hospital while she was still in a coma and gave her a drug that we know nothin about!" The young man yelled.
The woman made a beginning of an argument but the older man interrupted her.
"Eggsy is right. Just because we've thought of Evie as being an ally on our side shouldn't blind us to the fact that she might not want our help and might even be working against us. We are sending her to a safe house, but it has been modified to serve as containment."
There was another drawn-out silence, except this silence, had a thicker tension.
"The next move should be putting Elaine in a safe house," the older man said. There was another shuffle, something clinked against a glass table. "Don't say it isn't necessary Eggsy because you know fully well you won't be able to protect her 24/7."
Elaine pushed against the wall beside her and walked closer to the door the voices were emanating from. Tugging her robe tighter around her, Elaine closed her eyes and tried to ignore the thumping memories trying to get out. She had a vague recollection of voices and the people to which they belonged to, but just when she was about to remember, the knowledge slipped from her grasp.
"Alright," the younger man said. "But I want-"
Elaine walked the few remaining feet to the door. There were three people inside. Like she thought; an older man, a younger man, and a woman. The woman was facing the door and the first to notice her.
"Elaine?" The woman said, striding across the room to be by her side. The woman was hesitant, but Elaine felt comfortable.
The stranger even seemed familiar. Looking away from the woman at her side, Elaine looked at the two men in front of her, holding her gaze on the younger blond.
"Elaine," he said, guilt heavy in his eyes.
Looking away from the guilt she didn't understand, Elaine turned her eyes to the room and the other two people in it.
"Where am I?" She asked with caution.
"Somewhere safe," the older man assured.
The familiar woman left Elaine's side and stepped closer to the severe man and whispered something about more sedatives.
"Um," Elaine hesitated, she looked down at her bare feet on the cold floor. A heavy feeling was beginning to coalesce in her stomach. She met the eyes of the blond again, head spinning. "Where am I?"
Her voice was hoarse.
The strangers in front of her looked at each other. Her head hurt too much to read into it.
The woman walked up to her, placing a hand on Elaine's shoulder.
"Elaine?" The woman said in a quiet voice.
"I'll call Dr. Johnson again," The old, stern man said.
Elaine watched him walk out of the room. She was too caught up in taking in everything that she didn't notice the blond man stepping forward to stand next to her, his hand on her back.
"Where am I?" Elaine asked again, looking up from her feet to the room around her, to the people around her. She looked straight into the blond man's eyes but, again, he seemed to be sorry, guilty of something. Elaine's mind was too foggy to figure out what it was or, frankly, to care.
"Do you know who we are?" The woman next to her asked.
Elaine looked between them both. They were familiar, but just barely. Looking back at the woman who had asked the question, Elaine just shook her head. The two people on either side of her exchanged worried glances. A wave of fatigue came over her.
"I jus' want to go back to sleep," she said, self consciously catching the slight slur to her words. If she had had the energy, she would be embarrassed.
Not really caring about etiquette or social norms or whatever was telling her not to, Elaine leaned into the blond man's arms and closed her eyes. Her face ungracefully smooshed against his warm chest, Elaine sighed as he wrapped his arms around her and held her up. There were whispers between the two, but Elaine didn't care to listen.
"I'll tell Merlin to bring Dr. Johnson to meet you there," the woman said.
"Good," the blond man whose arms her around her replied.
The man she was smooshed against put his arm under her knees and swept her up. She must have complained or made a sound because he gave her a quiet reassurance that everything was alright and continued walking. Elaine closed her eyes again and listened to the strong heartbeat beneath her ear.
When she opened her eyes again, the blond man was setting her in the bed in which she first woke up. There was another man standing on the opposite side. He had a stethoscope and a clipboard ready, hovering over her. Elaine looked up at the new stranger while the blond ran his hand over her hair, tucking it behind her ear.
The stranger approached her, putting the cold stethoscope on her chest.
"You said she doesn't remember you?" The man said.
"Yeah," he shifted.
Elaine looked up at the blond, watching his features nervously twitch.
The doctor gingerly moved her face so she was looking at him.
"Do you remember him?" He asked, gesturing to the blond man sitting next to her.
"No," she said.
The doctor shifted the stethoscope, eyes narrowing in concentration. He removed the stethoscope, putting it around his neck again, and then asking Elaine to follow his fingers with only her eyes. She did, he didn't say anything. There were other tests, too, but all Elaine wanted to do was close her eyes and let the fatigue wash over her.
"Why can't you leave me alone," Elaine grumbled when the doctor asked her to sit up.
Her hand was squeezed. Elaine looked down and saw that the blond was holding her hand, but she couldn't remember if he had been holding it the whole time, or because she complained.
"Let's give her a break, yeah?" The blond man next to her said. The way he said it and the way the doctor reacted to it made Elaine think the blond had authority over the doctor. Unsurprisingly, the doctor relented and stood.
"We will eventually need blood samples, Galahad," the doctor said, a twinge of annoyance in his voice.
"And we'll get them later," the man called Galahad said. He dropped her hand and faced the doctor. There was a harshness to his voice that wasn't there before.
The doctor stood up and walked around the bed to face the blond man.
"I don't think I need to remind you that we will eventually need to deal with your shoulder, as well," the doctor said.
The blond scoffed and crossed his arms.
"I'm cleared, so I think you can cross me off your patients list."
"I didn't clear you though," the doctor said, exasperated. "You cleared yourself which is something I do not condone!"
"We're done here," the blond said sharply. "I'll call you if Elaine needs your help."
The doctor huffed, but left well enough alone, and stalked out of the room.
"He's always been a jerk," Galahad mumbled as he watched the doctor disappear. He uncrossed his arms and Elaine could see his forehead crinkled in pain. His hand automatically went back to hold Elaine's.
When he fully turned his attention back at her, he glanced at their hands and apologized. He took his hand away and Elaine immediately felt the absence of his warmth. He awkwardly cleared his throat and receded a step away from Elaine. "Do you… Do you want me to stay or leave?" He said, an air of uncomfortableness about him growing stronger. It made Elaine want to smile.
"You can stay if you want," she said, not taking her eyes off him.
He nodded and left her side. Shrugging off his jacket, he sat down in one of the chairs by the wall and closed his own eyes.
Elaine rolled to face him, fluffed her pillow as much as she was able, and watched him relax in the chair.
"Hey," Elaine said.
He opened his eyes again and looked at her.
"Is Galahad your real name?" She asked.
He seemed to be caught off guard about the question, but soon relaxed against the chair again.
"No," he admitted, scratching the back of his neck. He seemed to consider the question before answering. "My name is Gary."
"Gary," Elaine whispered. She finally smiled at the name and closed her eyes. "That's a funny name."
She heard him laugh lazily before dozing off to sleep.
Bedivere was riding in the transport van. He never really liked them, but hell, who enjoyed riding transport? He hated to admit it- as it didn't show class nor manners to brag about one's refined tastes, but there was nothing better than a smooth ride in a ridiculously expensive car. So as the bulky van bumped down the road, it was easy to say he did not enjoy it. But what made the transport infinitely more uncomfortable and awkward was that Evie was sitting directly opposite him. Her hands were chained to the seat below her and she stared at the metal floor in either defeat or boredom. Knowing her, it was probably boredom.
"Do you have anything to say?" Bedivere whispered.
She gave a halfhearted laughed, still staring at the floor but instead of a passive, bored stare, it grew intense and resentful.
Moving her glare up to him, she continued her silence, eyes boring into his.
"Alright," he said, giving up for now.
After another five minutes, he decided the silence was silly and broke it.
"I missed you," he said
Evie balked. She waited for a moment to stare at him in anger.
"You… You missed me?" She condescended.
Bedivere shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. Perhaps volunteering for this particular transport watch was a mistake.
"I don't really understand the hostility you are throwing at me," Bedivere said, starting to become angry now. But the last thing he had expected Evie to do was lunge at him. Her wrists caught as the cuffs clanged against their lock.
"You don't understand?" Evie yelled, still lunching at him as the chains kept her back. She sat back down, but sat at the edge of the metallic bench "Really? You can't fathom why the fuck I'm throwing some shade at you?"
Bedivere took a centering breath and leaned forward. He didn't feel centered in the slightest.
"No," he said, giving the woman he loved a glare. "I honestly don't because we; the Kingsmen, are here to help you all you seem to be doing is resenting that help!" He didn't mean to raise his voice at the end but he couldn't stop it.
Evie didn't say anything. She just glared at him in disbelief.
"You broke your promise," Evie threw back.
"I didn't break anything!" Bedivere yelled, standing up. "You are the one who ran away!"
"Ran away!?" Evie screamed, lunging against her chains again. "You're the one who abandoned me in that hell! You are the one who gave up!"
"What?" Bedivere sat down, watching her rage morph into an angry variation of sadness.
"You are the one you gave up on me. You are the one that didn't care."
"Evie-" He reached out to touch her hand.
"Don't touch me!" She spat, pulling her hand away as far as her cuffs would allow.
Not knowing what to do, Bedivere dropped his face into his hands.
"Please believe me when I say I don't know what you are talking about," he said carefully.
Evie contemplated him. Her hands were still bound so the tears rolling down her face started to dry and itch.
She was about to explain when the van lurched to a stop. Bedivere stood up, his gun pulled and pointing towards the doors at the back of the van. When there was a metallic clang and the doors cracked open, Evie kicked the gun out of Bedivere's hand and when he turned to her in surprise, she kicked him straight in the nose, knocking him out.
After he had fallen to the floor in a heap, the metal doors to the back of the van swung open.
"You alright there?" Jones asked.
Evie held up her hands and Jones walked into the van and unlocked them.
"What did you do with the driver?" She asked.
"Dead," he replied.
Evie sighed, but went with the current course of things and rubbed her wrists where the cuffs had dug into her skin.
"We need to get away from here," Evie said, taking no hesitation in walking out the van. She dries her cheeks as discretely as she could.
"What about him?" Jones gestured towards Bedivere lying unconscious on the ground. Jones held the gun up.
"We need him alive," Evie said quickly.
Jones looked at her, suspicious of her immediate reply.
"But he won't be unconscious much longer, so we need to gag and cuff him."
Jones nodded.
When Bedivere came to, he was slumped over and staring at the metal floor of the transport van. Straightening up, the cool metal cuffs locked around his wrists prevented him from standing up. Shaking the chains, he looked up only to realize his mouth was duct taped as well.
Evie walked in and sat where he had previously been.
"I didn't mean to do this to you," Evie said. "But you gave me no choice."
Bedivere's head was still splitting open from the ache from the kick, but he had enough sense to glare at her.
There was a silence as she appeared to be choosing what to do next. Leaning towards him, he saw that she had chosen to be angry.
"I waited for you at the docks for hours," Evie looked at him in hate, but he saw the tears collecting at her lashes. "I sat there for hours and hours just waiting for you to come and rescue me. You told me you would be there," Evie looked down and laughed at herself. She quickly wiped a tear from her cheek. "And the funny thing is that I actually thought you would be there."
Bedivere moved his hands.
"And when Devron found me he…" Evie stood up and walked to the door and took a shaky breath. But Bedivere could see from the set of her shoulders that her resolve was set and resolute. She turned around and returned to her seat across from him.
"I should actually thank you, Todd," she said. She meant it to sound angry, but instead, it came off as ironic. "You taught me that the only person I can trust is myself. And Elaine is the closest person I'll ever get to an extension of myself."
Evie leaned back and looked out the door of the van.
"So I'm going to come back for her," the fire was back in her eyes. "And when I do, don't try to stop me."
And with that, Evie walked out and slammed the doors to the transport.
Eggsy had all but drooled over the armchair in the sitting area of the common room when Roxy walked in. It was well past midnight, so the common room was usually a safe place for Eggsy to nap without being caught, but perusal, Roxy made sure to ruin things.
"Rox," he said, wiping the sleep from his eyes.
"I thought you would have been in with Elaine," she said, sitting down in the armchair next to him.
Eggsy sat straighter and cleared his throat.
"Yeah, I don't… I just feel weird being by her, like I'm lying to her all over again."
"We don't know for sure if Elaine found out what we do. Why punish yourself for something that isn't certain?" Roxy asked.
"Because it doesn't matter. I lied to her for almost the entirety of the time I've known her and sooner or later she's going to realize it. I should just bale out now before I hurt her more than I already have."
There was a pause between them before Roxy punched his good shoulder.
"What the bloody hell was that for?" Eggsy yelled, rubbing his shoulder.
"You're such a feckin' idiot! You want to be a coward and 'bale out' now when Elaine needs you most?" Roxy chastised. For good measure, she punched his shoulder again.
"Stop hitting me!" Eggsy complained as he attempted to shield himself to a third punch.
"Not until you start making sense!" Roxy yelled back.
"Galahad, Lancelot," Merlin snapped.
In an instant, both Roxy and Eggsy stood straight.
"There's been an incident with the transport," Merlin reported, walking up to both of them.
"What kind of incident?" Roxy asked before Eggsy could.
"Evie escaped with the help of another. They killed the transport driver but left Bedivere alive."
"Where is he?" Roxy asked.
"On his way," Merlin said. "He'll rendezvous with you and Elaine at the airfield."
"You're taking a piss, aren't you?" Eggsy spoke up.
"Language, Galahad," Merlin said.
Eggsy rolled his eyes. It wasn't the first time he was reprimanded for language and it bloody well wasn't going to be his last. Nevertheless, he dropped the profanity and tried to get Merlin to see that possibility was ludacris.
"What about Elaine's condition? She all but collapsed when she was walking about," Eggsy said.
"She needs to be in a safe place,"
"This isn't a safe place?" Eggsy countered.
Merlin sighed.
"The longer we keep her here, the more danger she's in of gathering information about this organization and I would much rather refrain from taking more drastic measures than we already have," Merlin snapped. "Elaine is going with you and that concludes this conversation. We need to get her into a safe house immediately."
"What's all this about the safe house, though?" Roxy spoke up. "Evie is gone and Callisto is probably more focused on her than Elaine."
"Because," Merlin pinched the bridge of his nose and Eggsy started to see just how tired Merlin was. "There is still the possibility that Callisto will use Elaine as bait for Evie as well as the fact that when Evie escaped, she made a threat to Bedivere about coming back for her sister and we don't know who she's working with or what her intentions are."
"Come on, Merlin, Elaine's her sister. How bad could her intentions be?" Eggsy asked.
"I don't intend to find out." Merlin snapped. "Get Elaine to the airfield immediately."
Eggsy raised his hands and ran them over his face. Stopping Merlin before he could leave with the last word, Eggsy blocked the door.
"A few days, Merlin. That's all," Eggsy said.
Roxy didn't say anything, but she stood by Eggsy and waited for Merlin's reply.
Merlin gave a moment's thought before reluctantly nodding his head.
"I'll give her two days to recuperate."
REVIEW REPLIES!
To FlutterbyB: I'm so glad the emails updating you to the story bring you so much joy! I'm sorry there's so much time between, but thank you for sticking with me!
To Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967: Glad you loved it!
To RoseQuarts: Thank you! I'm glad I graduated, too! Life is busy, but I really need to dedicate more of my time to this story.
To Jill: I'm glad you enjoy the story! I have written a one-shot of how Elaine and Eggsy first met and I'll definitely be posting that soon.
To Moonstars: I'm also super glad I haven't given up on my story!
To Guest: I know!