AN: do you ever have a scene in your head and you can't do anything else
until you have it on paper? Well, this chapter consists almost solely of
those moments, you can imagine how my exams will go next week :P
Broken Angel Chapter 5
When the sun came out it found two sleeping figures on a bench near the beach, it send a couple of beams to tickle their too pale faces and with some delight saw the older of the two stirring and waking, the sun looked upon them once more and then set to do her daily duties, those being rising and shining and later setting of course.
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Chris awoke when she felt the sun shining on her face, she stirred and opened her eyes, her back ached for she had been sitting on a bench hunched over Agnes whose head lay on her lap, in other words, not the optimal way to spend a night.
"Agnes, Agnes wake up, we've got to get going." Chris softly said, waking the girl up.
In much a similar manner as Chris the girl awoke from her uncomfortable slumber, she looked around and when she figured out where she was she looked at Chris.
"What will we do now?" she asked, Chris realized that she was responsible for Agnes now, the girl was totally innocent concerning the real matters of the world and cursed herself for bringing her along, not that she would have gotten very far without her.
"I don't know, I thought I'd go to TC or Cory but I don't know where they live these days and honestly I can't go to the firehouse, everyone there will know by now. So I guess we'll just have to find a phonebook or something." Chris figured, and looked at the girl who was trying to stretch all the knots out of her back.
"OK" Agnes said and just shrugged, figuring Chris would take care of everything.
"OK then, come on; let's see if there is a payphone with a phonebook around here somewhere." Mary started after Chris but was stopped by a man wearing a priest's collar.
"Come on girls, I am sure you would like a nice breakfast after a night on a bench." He smiled kindly and only now Chris realized what they looked like, her clothes didn't match and weren't exactly clean after they had crawled through the opening in the garden gate just behind the gardenia's, she was still thin and pale after her flu spell and her hair was just one big mess.
"Can we Chris? Can we go get breakfast?" Agnes asked, she clearly was hungry but would do as Chris told her.
"Not now honey, I'll get us something to eat in a little bit, but thanks for the offer." She had first turned to Agnes but had then turned to the priest, she couldn't say this to Agnes but she actually knew who this was, they had tried to use him as an informant a couple of times but he couldn't say anything, he hadn't recognised her however, which wasn't too big a surprise, but she didn't want to take any chances.
"Are you sure, ma'am? Your daughter looks like she is hungry and it is completely free of charge." The priest looked a bit worried when Chris face clouded over, he didn't get it was out of pride, being called the mother of an adolescent was almost the same as being called old in your face and although she was up to her neck in troubles she still felt the need to correct the man.
"She is not my daughter and yes I am sure, come on Agnes." Chris said and stomped away, Agnes shrugged apologetic to the priest and followed Chris.
"That wasn't very nice." Agnes commented when she had caught up.
"He was rude."
"He offered us free breakfast."
"He should've minded his own business." Chris felt a headache coming up, partly stress related (cause being on the kill list of a murderer does that to you) partly from having been up all night while still in this fragile state and partly because of the few minutes she had actually slept on that bench, that hard hard bench.
"There! There is a payphone; if we find that name will we get breakfast?" Agnes pleaded, the priest had made her aware she was hungry and she wasn't about o let Chris forget about it.
Chris checked the box but there wasn't a book in it, just as she had expected, "Come on, we'll go to the library, maybe they'll have one there, and then we have to hope TC will be in there, or Cory."
"And then we will get breakfast?" Agnes whined, Chris rolled her eyes out of eye sight of the girl.
"Yes, now you have to stop whining alright?" She sternly said, figuring this was what it must feel like to be a parent. The girl nodded obediently.
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The library had had a phonebook but neither TC nor Cory was in there, Chris sighed and plopped down on a bench near the library warming herself in the sunshine.
"So, what do we do now?" Agnes asked, she sat in the grass at Chris feet, it was clear what the girl was thinking, and it had more to do with filling her stomach then finding any person.
"We try and get something to eat." Chris resigned, but she didn't stand up, she felt like all the energy had drained from her, like she had been walking on hope and now it was running out.
"Well, come one then." The girl had jumped to her feet, with a sigh Chris followed her example, a little slower though.
"Why aren't you scared Agnes?" she asked, just out of curiosity.
"Because you are here." The girl smiled so innocently and sweet that Chris couldn't help but smile back, even in their current state under the knowledge that it was her fault that Agnes was in this state right now.
"Mary! Hi Mary, can you help us get breakfast?" Agnes waved cheerily to the woman who hadn't spotted them before that, and apparently hadn't realized they weren't in the hospital any more either.
"Agnes no!" Chris tried to stop her but it was too late.
"It's just Mary." Agnes explained patiently to Chris as Chris had done so often for her when she was scared of something that only existed in her head.
"Mary's my demon, Agnes." Chris said, and tried to pull the girl along to safety, they got stuck in a crowd on the boardwalk.
"No Chris, it's just Mary, she'll get us breakfast, she won't tell on us, she is a friend, maybe she will know where this friend of yours lives." But when she saw Chris close to tears she shut her mouth and just followed. Chris dove in an alley that ended up on a parking lot, this early in the morning only a few cars occupied the spaces. Chris turned to see a way out of there, but there were fences all around and Mary was coming fast to follow, bumping up into several people until she had found what she wanted. Chris was an experienced cop, she knew a pick-pocket in action when she saw one.
"Come on, Agnes, get over that fence, I'll try to stall Mary. Please, just run for your life okay?" Chris urgently said to the girl and hoped she would just hurry up.
"Come with me, Chris." Agnes pleaded, more afraid of being left alone then facing a woman who she still didn't consider an enemy.
"Go, and tell someone to call the police." Chris said, Agnes finally nodded and sprinted away and over the fence.
Chris turned to face Mary who had now reached her.
"I should just shoot you." Mary said, now Chris knew what she had been looking for picking the pockets of those men, and by the look of the other woman she had found it.
"Mary, you were my friend, I didn't mean to kill your brother, I didn't take the medal because I didn't think I deserved it, I killed a kid that day. I wish I could do it differently now, Mary, but I can't and killing me will not bring him back, it will be a senseless murder, you will have to spend a lot of time in prison for it. You deserve better." Chris tried to talk her way out of it but knew the situation had gone too far.
"You are right, I do deserve better, you on the other hand deserve death and I will bring it to you." Mary pulled of the safety and took careful aim, Chris jumped behind a car as the shot went off, and to her own surprise discovered herself unharmed. She heard footsteps nearing, Mary's.
"You can't run, you can't hide, I'm going to get you." The woman softly said, loud enough for Chris to hear though. Then Mary stood before her once more, closer this time, and Chris saw Mary wasn't a good shot, she aimed to far to the right, so she rolled to the left, under a car, and just a fraction of a moment later Mary fired, then cursed.
Chris saw the parking lot's exit looming so promising before her, but she knew she would have a bullet in her back before she would get halfway, even Mary couldn't be that bad a shot. However she was running out of options, she was relying on luck as she had been from the start. She wished she could credit her training at least a bit, but training or not she would have been dead by now if Mary had been just a bit better at aiming.
Chris heard something that made her believe her luck hadn't run out just yet, the trademark zooming of the police bikes. However, the barrel of Mary's gun was a lot closer, Mary kneeled down to steady her hand and took aim, Chris knew that if she tried rolling under the car again Mary would surely hit, she still leaned too much to the right which now worked in her favour. Chris' thoughts were racing as she saw two cops, she didn't recognize them immediately because she didn't dare to take the time to look. Mary couldn't see them coming and probably didn't notice the sound either, she was fixated on making this shot count. Chris just had to stall.
"I don't want to die." It was the first thing that popped into her head, probably because it had been turning over and over again in her head since the moment she had seen Mary that morning.
"You should have thought of that before you started murdering innocent kids like my brother." Mary said, Chris noted she wasn't as composed as she had been the first time she tried to kill her. The perfect plan was falling apart at the seams and Mary knew it.
"You don't have to do this, what you have done to me. It's worse then any imprisonment could ever be, just go away now, leave me be. Just leave me be Mary, I have paid for what I did." Chris said, and in the corner of her eye saw the two cops getting off their bikes and silently nearing them, she knew they would have called for back-up by now.
"You need to die. That's all I have lived for since he died, I want my life back! You need to die!" Mary was shrieking now, like she had lost all control of herself, that in itself scared Chris but she also knew it was her only hope, Mary had always been in control and now, for some reason pretty much unknown to Chris she wasn't any longer. But to her misfortune Mary pulled herself together, steadied herself and was about to shoot, Chris pulled her legs under herself to jump at the woman when finally the police officers she had seen coming jumped into action.
"Freeze! Police!" the one yelled, she recognized him as Bobby and inwardly cringed, today wouldn't be his favourite day.
"Bobby, she. . I. Bobby." Mary cried out, trying to think of something but coming up short.
"It's over Mary." Bobby said and carefully came closer to her, his weapon still raised.
"Come on, lower your gun." Monica, the other cop, said. About now the back- up finally arrived, in the form of none other then Cory and TC, Chris vaguely remembered something about Cory being transferred and in the back of her head she wondered what she was doing here then, but most of all she looked at TC, if she didn't make it out of this she wanted his image to be the last one she saw.
Mary so close to giving up saw the look on her face, the love and raised her gun once more.
"You must die." She just said, five shots rang almost simultaneously.
Chris was shaking, she couldn't stand up, slowly she brought her hand up to her hair, to the right side of her head and felt it, the bullet had gone through burning her hair slightly but doing no further harm then that. She only now dared to look upon the body before her, four bullets had hit her in the head and chest. Chris couldn't stop shaking, she knew she had to be strong but she just couldn't stop it.
TC ran up to her and scooped her up in his arms, she grabbed him, clutching her arms around him as tightly as she could and only then she started crying.
Bobby dropped on his knees next to the corpse, he had really loved this woman, the woman he knew she could have been, kind, sweet, smart, generous, funny, but she was a murderer, a crazy one at that. He told himself over and over that she didn't deserve his tears, that she didn't deserve any grieving at all, but bending over her body as he sat he couldn't help it, slowly his tears started to fall.
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From outside the fence Agnes looked at the scene playing before her, how Mary, a woman she had always trusted turned so mean and then got shot. She started looking around her, every one of these people could be Mary's in disguise. She looked at Chris who had always been her friend who had tried to protect her even from the demon Mary had turned out to be, but now she wouldn't be able to save a kitten let alone a woman. Agnes turned from the fence and quickly ran away, avoiding the people where she could.
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"Come on, I'll take you home." He quietly said after kissing the top of her head.
"Home?" Chris asked, wondering if he meant the psych ward or his home.
"Yes home." The way he said it made it clear that he wouldn't let her go, he would be taking her home, and her home was wherever he was.
TC carried her away though she had stopped shaking and could walk now, but she preferred, as did he to be as close to him as possible. On their way to the waiting car Chris saw Cory, they shared a look and smile and sometimes that is enough, enough to know you have a friend, knowing that she did feel better and turned her attention back to TC.
======== That night =====
Chris woke up with a start, the last tendrils of sleep still clouding her mind, she had been dreaming again, but not the horrible dreams she had been having the last five years, she wasn't even dreaming about Mary or her death, quite surprising considering what she had went through, you'd think her subconscious would want to have a say in it. She had been dreaming of children, laughing children. She huddled deep into the covers of the bed, the bed smelled like him, it smelled safe and comfortable, she thought of him sleeping downstairs on the couch, in his own house. She had banned him to the couch often enough, he had banned himself to the couch often enough too, he was chivalrous that way, but until she got under the influence of Mary and her drugs she never actually thought her marriage wouldn't last forever. Maybe she had been naïve, she had anticipated trouble every once in a while but had faith that they would work it out. She wondered if they could work this five year gap out, she hoped so though.
She felt urged to go down now, to see him sleep. He looked like an angel when he slept. She sneaked down and quietly opened the door, just to sneak a peak, but when she looked she couldn't turn away, so she entered the living room and promised herself five minutes, then she would go back up. She closed the door behind her and rested against it, the tenderness she felt at seeing him like this clearly written on her face, yet there was no one there to see, it was just the two of them.
"Enjoying the view?" He asked, almost delivering her a heart attack. She started to stammer something but then noticed he was smiling that teasing smile of his.
"I was uhm, looking for a glass, to get a drink of water." She said, playing the game along.
"There's one next to the sink in the bathroom upstairs, you know, the room next to my bedroom?" he asked sweetly.
"Well, I must have been half asleep then because I couldn't find it." She countered.
"You having trouble sleeping?" he asked, opting for a real conversation.
"Yeah, well I slept like a baby but then a dream woke me up." She answered truthfully.
"Good or bad?"
"Good, which is nothing short of a miracle." She saw he didn't understand so explained. "I have been having nightmares every night for years on end now." She said and sat down at the other end of the couch, next to his feet. He sat a little straighter so he could look at her better, then pulled his blanket over her as well. She smiled a little and put her legs under the blanket and on the couch, now sitting in the same position as he was. They sat facing each other with the other one's feet next to them under the blanket, it was very sweet actually.
"When did they start?" he asked, getting back to the subject they had been talking about.
"A couple of months before I had myself committed, they were the reason why actually." She admitted.
"Why didn't you just tell me that?" He asked, a little hopelessness creeping into his voice.
"I don't know. Well, I do, but I now see the faults in my reasoning. I dreamed about you, murdering you, night after night, sometimes I killed more then just you but always people I loved and cared about. At first I just dismissed it but later in the mornings when I woke up I. . . still wanted to kill you, it got to a point where I already put my hands around your neck, or went to get my gun. I scared the hell out of myself, so I thought up an excuse and ran. Only later I thought of the mental institute. So I went there. I just didn't want anyone to find me, I was ashamed and convinced that it was better this way. All I wanted was for you to be happy, and safe." Her voice had broken and unshed tears started forming in her eyes, she bit her lip to force them back.
She then looked up to look him directly in the eye, she wanted to know what he was thinking, but she couldn't see it, his eyes, his face, once an open book to her no longer told her their tale. He didn't say anything so she continued her explanation.
"She was drugging me, I still don't know how but she told me she was drugging me from the start." Now TC nodded
"When I took you to the doctor today he told me that besides the high level of antibodies there were also remnants of an unknown drug in your system."
"Well, so much for doctor patient confidentiality, but it's OK, I have nothing to hide form you anymore." She wished he would give a reaction, anything but this.
"Did the drugs make you lie to me and run away?" He finally asked, after a couple of moments of silence.
"I don't know, but I don't think so, that was just me, running scared." She paused for a moment, knowing she had disappointed him, and then decided it was her turn to ask some questions.
"Why didn't you move on, get a girlfriend, marry her, I'm sure it wouldn't have been hard to have me be declared dead." She asked, hoping she would like the answer.
"Because I couldn't move on without having talked to you one more time, I still don't understand why you just couldn't tell me, for better or worse, don't those words mean anything to you? Or did you just have too little faith in me?" he asked, only now his face broke into its usual patterns and she could tell that he was saddened, not a huge surprise.
"You don't understand." she stood up from the couch and walked to a cabinet where she had seen a little trinket that would normally hold no place in a single man's house. It was a little porcelain angel, her head held high and her wings spread as if ready to take on the world. She picked it up and held it up so he could see.
"Let's say this was me before Mary started screwing with my head." He nodded, she let the little statue drop on the ground and shatter around her bare feet.
"That's me after." She just said, he first bit his lip but then smiled and beckoned her back to the couch.
"I bought that at an antique store for an outrageously high price, because it reminded me of you. But it isn't you because nothing can fix that angel but I would like a shot at mending you." He said, his voice filled with care, he finally understood and though he had always figured he would have to move on after a final conversation it only made him more determined to grow old and happy with her.
"I love you, Chris, I have always loved you and I don't think I can stop, I tried, while you were gone but I couldn't." he said, his eyes shining brilliantly with what she assumed was love.
"Are you saying you want to give us another shot?" She asked, afraid to hope.
"We still have a lot of talking to do and promise not to keep secrets. But I cannot imagine a life without you; I don't want a life without you." She smiled a smile that was probably too wide for a solemn and quite dramatic moment like this but she just felt too happy to suppress it, she jumped over him and landed in his embrace.
"I love you so much." She said and to her own annoyance started crying, she was still smiling though making it clear this was happy crying. He gently kissed her forehead, not troubled at all that she was lying on top of him, she was very frail and thin, he could have broken her with one arm but instead he cherished her, wanted to protect her from the big bad world and shout out in joy that finally she was back with him, back the way they were supposed to be.
With a grin he noticed she had fallen asleep on his chest, he pulled the covers over her and kissed her forehead once more, then closed his eyes and fell asleep himself.
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OK, so that was the story, I still have some ideas about the next day, reactions of several people, explanations that haven't yet been given in here, anyone think I should write them down too or is this ending enough? Please review.
Broken Angel Chapter 5
When the sun came out it found two sleeping figures on a bench near the beach, it send a couple of beams to tickle their too pale faces and with some delight saw the older of the two stirring and waking, the sun looked upon them once more and then set to do her daily duties, those being rising and shining and later setting of course.
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Chris awoke when she felt the sun shining on her face, she stirred and opened her eyes, her back ached for she had been sitting on a bench hunched over Agnes whose head lay on her lap, in other words, not the optimal way to spend a night.
"Agnes, Agnes wake up, we've got to get going." Chris softly said, waking the girl up.
In much a similar manner as Chris the girl awoke from her uncomfortable slumber, she looked around and when she figured out where she was she looked at Chris.
"What will we do now?" she asked, Chris realized that she was responsible for Agnes now, the girl was totally innocent concerning the real matters of the world and cursed herself for bringing her along, not that she would have gotten very far without her.
"I don't know, I thought I'd go to TC or Cory but I don't know where they live these days and honestly I can't go to the firehouse, everyone there will know by now. So I guess we'll just have to find a phonebook or something." Chris figured, and looked at the girl who was trying to stretch all the knots out of her back.
"OK" Agnes said and just shrugged, figuring Chris would take care of everything.
"OK then, come on; let's see if there is a payphone with a phonebook around here somewhere." Mary started after Chris but was stopped by a man wearing a priest's collar.
"Come on girls, I am sure you would like a nice breakfast after a night on a bench." He smiled kindly and only now Chris realized what they looked like, her clothes didn't match and weren't exactly clean after they had crawled through the opening in the garden gate just behind the gardenia's, she was still thin and pale after her flu spell and her hair was just one big mess.
"Can we Chris? Can we go get breakfast?" Agnes asked, she clearly was hungry but would do as Chris told her.
"Not now honey, I'll get us something to eat in a little bit, but thanks for the offer." She had first turned to Agnes but had then turned to the priest, she couldn't say this to Agnes but she actually knew who this was, they had tried to use him as an informant a couple of times but he couldn't say anything, he hadn't recognised her however, which wasn't too big a surprise, but she didn't want to take any chances.
"Are you sure, ma'am? Your daughter looks like she is hungry and it is completely free of charge." The priest looked a bit worried when Chris face clouded over, he didn't get it was out of pride, being called the mother of an adolescent was almost the same as being called old in your face and although she was up to her neck in troubles she still felt the need to correct the man.
"She is not my daughter and yes I am sure, come on Agnes." Chris said and stomped away, Agnes shrugged apologetic to the priest and followed Chris.
"That wasn't very nice." Agnes commented when she had caught up.
"He was rude."
"He offered us free breakfast."
"He should've minded his own business." Chris felt a headache coming up, partly stress related (cause being on the kill list of a murderer does that to you) partly from having been up all night while still in this fragile state and partly because of the few minutes she had actually slept on that bench, that hard hard bench.
"There! There is a payphone; if we find that name will we get breakfast?" Agnes pleaded, the priest had made her aware she was hungry and she wasn't about o let Chris forget about it.
Chris checked the box but there wasn't a book in it, just as she had expected, "Come on, we'll go to the library, maybe they'll have one there, and then we have to hope TC will be in there, or Cory."
"And then we will get breakfast?" Agnes whined, Chris rolled her eyes out of eye sight of the girl.
"Yes, now you have to stop whining alright?" She sternly said, figuring this was what it must feel like to be a parent. The girl nodded obediently.
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The library had had a phonebook but neither TC nor Cory was in there, Chris sighed and plopped down on a bench near the library warming herself in the sunshine.
"So, what do we do now?" Agnes asked, she sat in the grass at Chris feet, it was clear what the girl was thinking, and it had more to do with filling her stomach then finding any person.
"We try and get something to eat." Chris resigned, but she didn't stand up, she felt like all the energy had drained from her, like she had been walking on hope and now it was running out.
"Well, come one then." The girl had jumped to her feet, with a sigh Chris followed her example, a little slower though.
"Why aren't you scared Agnes?" she asked, just out of curiosity.
"Because you are here." The girl smiled so innocently and sweet that Chris couldn't help but smile back, even in their current state under the knowledge that it was her fault that Agnes was in this state right now.
"Mary! Hi Mary, can you help us get breakfast?" Agnes waved cheerily to the woman who hadn't spotted them before that, and apparently hadn't realized they weren't in the hospital any more either.
"Agnes no!" Chris tried to stop her but it was too late.
"It's just Mary." Agnes explained patiently to Chris as Chris had done so often for her when she was scared of something that only existed in her head.
"Mary's my demon, Agnes." Chris said, and tried to pull the girl along to safety, they got stuck in a crowd on the boardwalk.
"No Chris, it's just Mary, she'll get us breakfast, she won't tell on us, she is a friend, maybe she will know where this friend of yours lives." But when she saw Chris close to tears she shut her mouth and just followed. Chris dove in an alley that ended up on a parking lot, this early in the morning only a few cars occupied the spaces. Chris turned to see a way out of there, but there were fences all around and Mary was coming fast to follow, bumping up into several people until she had found what she wanted. Chris was an experienced cop, she knew a pick-pocket in action when she saw one.
"Come on, Agnes, get over that fence, I'll try to stall Mary. Please, just run for your life okay?" Chris urgently said to the girl and hoped she would just hurry up.
"Come with me, Chris." Agnes pleaded, more afraid of being left alone then facing a woman who she still didn't consider an enemy.
"Go, and tell someone to call the police." Chris said, Agnes finally nodded and sprinted away and over the fence.
Chris turned to face Mary who had now reached her.
"I should just shoot you." Mary said, now Chris knew what she had been looking for picking the pockets of those men, and by the look of the other woman she had found it.
"Mary, you were my friend, I didn't mean to kill your brother, I didn't take the medal because I didn't think I deserved it, I killed a kid that day. I wish I could do it differently now, Mary, but I can't and killing me will not bring him back, it will be a senseless murder, you will have to spend a lot of time in prison for it. You deserve better." Chris tried to talk her way out of it but knew the situation had gone too far.
"You are right, I do deserve better, you on the other hand deserve death and I will bring it to you." Mary pulled of the safety and took careful aim, Chris jumped behind a car as the shot went off, and to her own surprise discovered herself unharmed. She heard footsteps nearing, Mary's.
"You can't run, you can't hide, I'm going to get you." The woman softly said, loud enough for Chris to hear though. Then Mary stood before her once more, closer this time, and Chris saw Mary wasn't a good shot, she aimed to far to the right, so she rolled to the left, under a car, and just a fraction of a moment later Mary fired, then cursed.
Chris saw the parking lot's exit looming so promising before her, but she knew she would have a bullet in her back before she would get halfway, even Mary couldn't be that bad a shot. However she was running out of options, she was relying on luck as she had been from the start. She wished she could credit her training at least a bit, but training or not she would have been dead by now if Mary had been just a bit better at aiming.
Chris heard something that made her believe her luck hadn't run out just yet, the trademark zooming of the police bikes. However, the barrel of Mary's gun was a lot closer, Mary kneeled down to steady her hand and took aim, Chris knew that if she tried rolling under the car again Mary would surely hit, she still leaned too much to the right which now worked in her favour. Chris' thoughts were racing as she saw two cops, she didn't recognize them immediately because she didn't dare to take the time to look. Mary couldn't see them coming and probably didn't notice the sound either, she was fixated on making this shot count. Chris just had to stall.
"I don't want to die." It was the first thing that popped into her head, probably because it had been turning over and over again in her head since the moment she had seen Mary that morning.
"You should have thought of that before you started murdering innocent kids like my brother." Mary said, Chris noted she wasn't as composed as she had been the first time she tried to kill her. The perfect plan was falling apart at the seams and Mary knew it.
"You don't have to do this, what you have done to me. It's worse then any imprisonment could ever be, just go away now, leave me be. Just leave me be Mary, I have paid for what I did." Chris said, and in the corner of her eye saw the two cops getting off their bikes and silently nearing them, she knew they would have called for back-up by now.
"You need to die. That's all I have lived for since he died, I want my life back! You need to die!" Mary was shrieking now, like she had lost all control of herself, that in itself scared Chris but she also knew it was her only hope, Mary had always been in control and now, for some reason pretty much unknown to Chris she wasn't any longer. But to her misfortune Mary pulled herself together, steadied herself and was about to shoot, Chris pulled her legs under herself to jump at the woman when finally the police officers she had seen coming jumped into action.
"Freeze! Police!" the one yelled, she recognized him as Bobby and inwardly cringed, today wouldn't be his favourite day.
"Bobby, she. . I. Bobby." Mary cried out, trying to think of something but coming up short.
"It's over Mary." Bobby said and carefully came closer to her, his weapon still raised.
"Come on, lower your gun." Monica, the other cop, said. About now the back- up finally arrived, in the form of none other then Cory and TC, Chris vaguely remembered something about Cory being transferred and in the back of her head she wondered what she was doing here then, but most of all she looked at TC, if she didn't make it out of this she wanted his image to be the last one she saw.
Mary so close to giving up saw the look on her face, the love and raised her gun once more.
"You must die." She just said, five shots rang almost simultaneously.
Chris was shaking, she couldn't stand up, slowly she brought her hand up to her hair, to the right side of her head and felt it, the bullet had gone through burning her hair slightly but doing no further harm then that. She only now dared to look upon the body before her, four bullets had hit her in the head and chest. Chris couldn't stop shaking, she knew she had to be strong but she just couldn't stop it.
TC ran up to her and scooped her up in his arms, she grabbed him, clutching her arms around him as tightly as she could and only then she started crying.
Bobby dropped on his knees next to the corpse, he had really loved this woman, the woman he knew she could have been, kind, sweet, smart, generous, funny, but she was a murderer, a crazy one at that. He told himself over and over that she didn't deserve his tears, that she didn't deserve any grieving at all, but bending over her body as he sat he couldn't help it, slowly his tears started to fall.
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From outside the fence Agnes looked at the scene playing before her, how Mary, a woman she had always trusted turned so mean and then got shot. She started looking around her, every one of these people could be Mary's in disguise. She looked at Chris who had always been her friend who had tried to protect her even from the demon Mary had turned out to be, but now she wouldn't be able to save a kitten let alone a woman. Agnes turned from the fence and quickly ran away, avoiding the people where she could.
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"Come on, I'll take you home." He quietly said after kissing the top of her head.
"Home?" Chris asked, wondering if he meant the psych ward or his home.
"Yes home." The way he said it made it clear that he wouldn't let her go, he would be taking her home, and her home was wherever he was.
TC carried her away though she had stopped shaking and could walk now, but she preferred, as did he to be as close to him as possible. On their way to the waiting car Chris saw Cory, they shared a look and smile and sometimes that is enough, enough to know you have a friend, knowing that she did feel better and turned her attention back to TC.
======== That night =====
Chris woke up with a start, the last tendrils of sleep still clouding her mind, she had been dreaming again, but not the horrible dreams she had been having the last five years, she wasn't even dreaming about Mary or her death, quite surprising considering what she had went through, you'd think her subconscious would want to have a say in it. She had been dreaming of children, laughing children. She huddled deep into the covers of the bed, the bed smelled like him, it smelled safe and comfortable, she thought of him sleeping downstairs on the couch, in his own house. She had banned him to the couch often enough, he had banned himself to the couch often enough too, he was chivalrous that way, but until she got under the influence of Mary and her drugs she never actually thought her marriage wouldn't last forever. Maybe she had been naïve, she had anticipated trouble every once in a while but had faith that they would work it out. She wondered if they could work this five year gap out, she hoped so though.
She felt urged to go down now, to see him sleep. He looked like an angel when he slept. She sneaked down and quietly opened the door, just to sneak a peak, but when she looked she couldn't turn away, so she entered the living room and promised herself five minutes, then she would go back up. She closed the door behind her and rested against it, the tenderness she felt at seeing him like this clearly written on her face, yet there was no one there to see, it was just the two of them.
"Enjoying the view?" He asked, almost delivering her a heart attack. She started to stammer something but then noticed he was smiling that teasing smile of his.
"I was uhm, looking for a glass, to get a drink of water." She said, playing the game along.
"There's one next to the sink in the bathroom upstairs, you know, the room next to my bedroom?" he asked sweetly.
"Well, I must have been half asleep then because I couldn't find it." She countered.
"You having trouble sleeping?" he asked, opting for a real conversation.
"Yeah, well I slept like a baby but then a dream woke me up." She answered truthfully.
"Good or bad?"
"Good, which is nothing short of a miracle." She saw he didn't understand so explained. "I have been having nightmares every night for years on end now." She said and sat down at the other end of the couch, next to his feet. He sat a little straighter so he could look at her better, then pulled his blanket over her as well. She smiled a little and put her legs under the blanket and on the couch, now sitting in the same position as he was. They sat facing each other with the other one's feet next to them under the blanket, it was very sweet actually.
"When did they start?" he asked, getting back to the subject they had been talking about.
"A couple of months before I had myself committed, they were the reason why actually." She admitted.
"Why didn't you just tell me that?" He asked, a little hopelessness creeping into his voice.
"I don't know. Well, I do, but I now see the faults in my reasoning. I dreamed about you, murdering you, night after night, sometimes I killed more then just you but always people I loved and cared about. At first I just dismissed it but later in the mornings when I woke up I. . . still wanted to kill you, it got to a point where I already put my hands around your neck, or went to get my gun. I scared the hell out of myself, so I thought up an excuse and ran. Only later I thought of the mental institute. So I went there. I just didn't want anyone to find me, I was ashamed and convinced that it was better this way. All I wanted was for you to be happy, and safe." Her voice had broken and unshed tears started forming in her eyes, she bit her lip to force them back.
She then looked up to look him directly in the eye, she wanted to know what he was thinking, but she couldn't see it, his eyes, his face, once an open book to her no longer told her their tale. He didn't say anything so she continued her explanation.
"She was drugging me, I still don't know how but she told me she was drugging me from the start." Now TC nodded
"When I took you to the doctor today he told me that besides the high level of antibodies there were also remnants of an unknown drug in your system."
"Well, so much for doctor patient confidentiality, but it's OK, I have nothing to hide form you anymore." She wished he would give a reaction, anything but this.
"Did the drugs make you lie to me and run away?" He finally asked, after a couple of moments of silence.
"I don't know, but I don't think so, that was just me, running scared." She paused for a moment, knowing she had disappointed him, and then decided it was her turn to ask some questions.
"Why didn't you move on, get a girlfriend, marry her, I'm sure it wouldn't have been hard to have me be declared dead." She asked, hoping she would like the answer.
"Because I couldn't move on without having talked to you one more time, I still don't understand why you just couldn't tell me, for better or worse, don't those words mean anything to you? Or did you just have too little faith in me?" he asked, only now his face broke into its usual patterns and she could tell that he was saddened, not a huge surprise.
"You don't understand." she stood up from the couch and walked to a cabinet where she had seen a little trinket that would normally hold no place in a single man's house. It was a little porcelain angel, her head held high and her wings spread as if ready to take on the world. She picked it up and held it up so he could see.
"Let's say this was me before Mary started screwing with my head." He nodded, she let the little statue drop on the ground and shatter around her bare feet.
"That's me after." She just said, he first bit his lip but then smiled and beckoned her back to the couch.
"I bought that at an antique store for an outrageously high price, because it reminded me of you. But it isn't you because nothing can fix that angel but I would like a shot at mending you." He said, his voice filled with care, he finally understood and though he had always figured he would have to move on after a final conversation it only made him more determined to grow old and happy with her.
"I love you, Chris, I have always loved you and I don't think I can stop, I tried, while you were gone but I couldn't." he said, his eyes shining brilliantly with what she assumed was love.
"Are you saying you want to give us another shot?" She asked, afraid to hope.
"We still have a lot of talking to do and promise not to keep secrets. But I cannot imagine a life without you; I don't want a life without you." She smiled a smile that was probably too wide for a solemn and quite dramatic moment like this but she just felt too happy to suppress it, she jumped over him and landed in his embrace.
"I love you so much." She said and to her own annoyance started crying, she was still smiling though making it clear this was happy crying. He gently kissed her forehead, not troubled at all that she was lying on top of him, she was very frail and thin, he could have broken her with one arm but instead he cherished her, wanted to protect her from the big bad world and shout out in joy that finally she was back with him, back the way they were supposed to be.
With a grin he noticed she had fallen asleep on his chest, he pulled the covers over her and kissed her forehead once more, then closed his eyes and fell asleep himself.
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OK, so that was the story, I still have some ideas about the next day, reactions of several people, explanations that haven't yet been given in here, anyone think I should write them down too or is this ending enough? Please review.