Chapter 5: Personal Favor
The airport was busy, crowded with people and bustling with life. Julie looked around at everything as she carried her one small bag and one of Bruce's capacious bags in her other hand. Amanda, walking along beside her lugging her own suitcase and another of Bruce's bags, watched her carefully for any other sign of her remembering anything. "It looks familiar," she said, her forehead wrinkling, "But I don't know why."
Bruce sighed. "Stop gawking, girls," he snapped impatiently. "We have to catch the flight."
Julie looked rather wistfully at Amanda. "I wish you were going to be coming with us all the way," she said quietly.
Amanda patted her shoulder. "I wish I could, too," she said. "But I really have to attend this conference in Paris. All the leading biogeneticists will be there, and information will be exchanged there which I need to complete the paper I'm writing at the labs. I really should go to Paris from here, but I can catch a plane to Paris from Massachusetts. It's not a problem. And I'm sure Bruce will take good care of you, show you the house and all, and get you settled in."
They boarded the plane, and a friendly flight attendant helped them find their seats. "Going off to another conference, Dr. Lee?" she said to Julie as she helped them stow Bruce's huge carryon into an overhead compartment.
"What?" Julie looked at the flight attendant. "I'm sorry, I don't recognize you."
"You are Dr. Lee, aren't you?" the woman said, puzzled. "I saw you the last time about six months ago, going off to a conference in…San Francisco, I think it was."
"I don't remember, honestly, I don't," Julie said, looking hard at the flight attendant. "I had some sort of accident, and I got a bump on the head, and I don't remember anything, even my name. My friends here are trying to help, but if you know anything, please tell me!" she grabbed the flight attendant's sleeve earnestly.
"Why, sure, honey," the flight attendant said. "Wait until I get the other passengers seated, and then I'll come back and talk to you."
Julie sat down. "She knows me!" she exclaimed delightedly. "And she might be able to tell me who I am!" Amanda nodded to her, and then, out the corner of her eye, she saw Bruce open her bag and take out one of her syringes, fill it with liquid from one of her bottles, and slipped the needle into Julie's arm. She slumped over a second later, bonelessly, and Bruce leaned across Amanda and fastened Julie's seatbelt.
"Bruce!" Amanda stared at him, appalled. "What did you do that for?"
He smiled at her, a nasty grin, and said, "I don't want her regaining her memory before we get to the labs and I can analyze her powers. You see, Amanda, I know who she is. I've met her before. She's a fairly well-known physicist, as well as a mutant. She's been using her powers to write her papers, and she's gained recognition in the field. I've been wanting to study her for some time; but she turned down my offer. Now I have her…and I'm not going to pass up the opportunity." He sat back in his seat.
Amanda stared at him, her face white. She knew Bruce could be a manipulative, deceitful asshole, but she'd never dreamed he'd sink this low! Using a helpless young girl to further his career…the idea made her want to throw up. She opened her mouth to speak again, and Bruce grabbed her arm in a grip so tight she was sure her wrist bones were going to shatter. "Don't…say…a…word," he said, his voice low and angry. "Not a word, Amanda, got it? I'm fairly well known…so is my father. Say one word, and you'll not only be banned from my labs, but your precious research will go out the window and you'll be banned from every laboratory everywhere. You'll be finished. You'll never write another paper; I'll see to that. Your career will be over. Do you really want to give up all that for a stranger, someone you didn't even know a month ago? Do you?"
Slowly, reluctantly, Amanda shook her head. She wasn't willing to throw her life away for Julie.
But you know this isn't right, said a nagging voice in her head.
No, it wasn't, but she had a right to her life. Didn't she? Sure...but so does Julie.
Who was Julie, anyway? A stranger who didn't even know her own name, who didn't even know who her friends were, who didn't know where she lived, or what had happened to her. She didn't owe Julie anything.
But she needs help. You of all people know how ruthless Bruce can be.
She did indeed. But Julie would eventually remember who she was, and what happened to her, and then she'd get herself away from Bruce. Amanda silenced the nagging voice in her head and turned her attention back to her book. When the flight attendant came back to speak with Julie, she even had the nerve to smile and slip a pillow under Julie's head, as though the girl had merely fallen asleep.
The plane alighted at the Massachusetts airport as Julie was waking up. Still groggy from the knockout drug Bruce had injected her with, she made very little protest when he packed her and her suitcase into the backseat of his rental car. As Amanda helped him put his bags in the trunk, she said to Bruce, "You're not going to hurt her, are you? Bruce, she's been through enough pain."
"Oh, no, I'm not going to hurt her! What an idea," he lied, kissing Amanda on the lips. "When are you going to be back, honey? We need to talk about the wedding."
Amanda bit her lip. She wasn't sure now she wanted to marry Bruce. She put the thought aside, and said, "I should be home in three days. Can you and Julie handle things at the house while I'm gone?"
"Sure," Bruce pulled open the car door and hopped into the driver's side. Amanda watched them go with a great deal of misgiving, but she didn't have much time to speculate. She had to catch the plane to Paris.
She sat in her seat, looking out the window at the clouds below the plane, and thought. She wasn't sure now that she wanted to marry Bruce. When she had first met him, she had thought him charming, handsome, and generous. He had kept up the façade for most of the beginning of their relationship, and she had accepted his marriage proposal with happiness. Her former marriage had been less than happy, and she had thought that marrying Bruce would be totally different.
Then he had started to gradually move in on her, taking control of her life, her research, and even her friends. He had even taken credit for some of her research, as thought he were the one who had done the work. He hadn't. His field was physics; her field was biology. She was quite upset when she overheard, at one conference, someone say that Bruce must indeed be intelligent, to be able to hold degrees for two fields of research at once. It had taken all her self-control not to blurt out that she had done the research, not him, and had written the paper they had been discussing. Bruce had told her to put his name on it as well because it was his labs she had used to achieve her results.
As upset as she had been, it wasn't enough to make her want to break up with him. Their engagement was duly announced to the social circles Bruce and his parents circulated in, and though some of her own friends had told her, privately, that she was being an idiot for marrying him, she''d stubbornly stuck to her decision, and hadn't really regretted it…until she met Julie.
She had lied to Julie; she was pretty sure she knew at least the bare bones of what had happened to her. Julie had been kidnapped, assaulted and beaten by someone named Creed. Someone named 'Logan' had been looking for Julie; but she didn't know anything about the man, except that Julie loved him passionately. That love was why Amanda found herself questioning her engagement to Bruce. Was she just getting married to him because he had what she wanted...a fully equipped lab? Was she just getting married to him because she was nearly thirty-five and had nothing to show for it? Was it because she was tired of living in tiny apartments and filing for grants to do what she wanted to do? Was she getting married because she wanted…had always wanted, and never had…kids?
She didn't know anymore. Was her own life, hopes, and dreams worth sacrificing Julie to Bruce's mercies? Did she have the right to sacrifice Julie's life, whatever it had been and whatever it might still be, for her own needs and desires? This Logan that Julie loved so fiercely…was he out there looking for her? Did she have the right to block Julie's chance at happiness for a chance at her own?
She was still wrestling with those questions when the plane landed in Paris. She disembarked, collected her bags, and chose a pretty little hotel down a picturesque little street. With Bruce's money, she could have afforded the much more expensive Hotel Paris which was where the conference was actually going to be held, but she preferred the smaller bed-and-breakfasts. She paid for the room, took her luggage up there herself, and lay exhausted on the bed for a nap.
She awoke, feeling less tired but still wrestling with her dilemma a few hours later. She pulled her bags onto the bed and opened the first one. This had her paperwork and underclothes in it; she always packed them together. Then she pulled the other bag onto the bed and opened it. This should have her clothes and suits.
To her utter shock, when she opened the bag, she didn't see any of her things in it. Instead she saw Bruce's underclothes and personal effects; toothbrush, toothpaste, and, tucked away in the corner, a plastic bag with something bright pink in it. She reached for it, hesitated. She shouldn't; Bruce would be so mad if he knew she was going through her personal things. But curiosity overcame her hesitation, and she opened the bag.
Inside was a bright pink, garish lace teddy, generously scented with a strong, cheap perfume she didn't recognize. It was certainly not the kind of scent she ever wore; in fact, because of her allergies, she didn't wear perfume at all. Besides the teddy there was a matching lace thong and high heels in a size too big for her, and then, in the bottom of the bag, she found an envelope, unopened. She opened it.
There was a letter inside. She read it, the blood draining from her face:
My very dear Brucie!
Ooh, I know, you're so surprised to see this! But I wanted to give you a souvenir of the good times we had and I wanted you to know you really were great! I love you, and I can't wait for you to get back into town. I hope you can make another excuse soon to that dumpy, prissy little fiancée you have and come sneak out to see me here in Las Vegas. Here. I'm giving you back the money you gave me for the week we spent together because you were so good!
Can't wait to see you again,
Candie
Amanda dropped the letter and envelope as she stared numbly at the money in the envelope. Two thousand dollars! Bruce had given 'Candie' two thousand dollars to spend a week with him in Vegas! Anger forced a rush of heat to her face, and she threw the envelope and the money into the suitcase and slammed it closed, swearing furiously.
Bruce had been lying to her, all along. He said he had to go to conferences, and instead he was cheating on her with cheap (or not so cheap) whores. Two thousand damn dollars!
"That's it," she snarled. "There is no way I'm marrying him!" she yanked the gold and diamond ring off her finger and put it into the plastic case with his toothbrush inside. The damn worthless, no-good scum! Her first husband had never done this to her; Dave had been kind, and he loved her; he just couldn't deal with being apart form her for the conferences, and he wanted more time from her than she could give him, with her research and all. But he'd never cheated on her.
She lay awake that night, putting together a plan. She would take the two thousand dollars. He didn't even know it was in there, after all. When she got home, she would break the engagment and go her own way, find another apartment and live there instead. If she had to, she'd get a job teaching or something to get her through until she could find another research position somewhere. And if she never did, that would be okay too; she liked children, had thought about teaching a while ago.
With that resolution in mind, she got dressed for the first evening, where speakers would be introduced. She was so wrapped up in her own plans it was something of a shock when that nagging voice in the back of her head said to her, What about Julie? as she was brushing out her short chestnut curls.
She put the brush down, staring stricken at her reflection in the mirror. She knew Bruce. She knew what he was capable of. She couldn't leave Julie with Bruce, but there was no way Amanda could earn enough to support both Julie and herself. And until the girl regained her memory, she couldn't get a job to help. The thought crossed her mind that she could just walk away, but she pushed that selfish thought away. She wasn't leaving Julie with Bruce.
She was still trying to find a solution as she got into a taxi that would take her to the Hotel Paris, but she had to push her thoughts aside when she walked into the room, She was only half paying attention to the speakers as they were introduced, so it was with some surprise that she heard the name Dr. Henry McCoy announced. She sat up straight as an idea occurred to her.
Dr. McCoy was a former member of the Avengers. Perhaps she could talk to him, ask him if they could get the Avengers to break Julie out of Bruce's labs. She was, after all, a mutant, like them, and they might be interested in helping out a fellow mutant. And Julie had powers; perhaps they might consider letting her join them when she regained her memory!
But Dr. McCoy seemed to be the feature speaker of the evening, and as they all filed out of the auditorium, she found him surrounded by other speakers, and no matter how she tried, she couldn't get close to him. She decided to try again the next day.
* * *
Hank adjusted his glasses and sighed as he picked up another fragile glass of champagne in his hand. The image inducer was working well; it hadn't so much as hiccupped once while he was talking to all those dignitaries and other geneticists. He took a sip of the champagne, admired the vintage, and was about to take another sip when a hand timidly touched his arm. "Dr. McCoy?"
He turned. "Ah, Dr. Amanda Greene, I'm quite pleased to finally meet you," he said, courteously extending a hand to her. "I read your last paper on the possibility of detecting the mutant gene at birth; the reasoning was quite sound."
"Thank you," Amanda blushed. "I'm surprised you knew it was mine; almost everyone thinks it was my fiance's work…well, ex-fiance," she said, blushing quickly. "I know we've just met, but I have something I really need to speak with you about, and I think it ought to be in private."
He took her off to a corner of the room that was half-screened by a lot of potted plants and fake trees, and waited politely for her to speak. Flustered, Amanda blurted out, "I need to ask you for a personal favor."
Hank looked at her gravely. "My dear, I hardly think an aquaintanceship of a few minutes entitles you to a personal favor from me. I fail to see what kind of service I could render you. Please excuse me."
He was about to leave when Amanda said desperately, "Wait, please, wait. It's not a favor for me, its for…well…it's for a friend of mine who's a mutant. All I need is a way to contact the Avengers."
He turned back to her, a puzzled frown creasing his brow. "Why do you need them?"
Amanda, relieved that he hadn't walked away, spoke so quickly her words came tumbling out on top of each other. "I found this girl washed up in the backyard of my—well, my ex-fiance's home in New York," she said. "She's suffering from amnesia; Bruce Garrett, my fiancé, is going to take advantage of her condition. He took her up to his labs in Massachusetts and is planning to wire her up and…and…study her, because she has this weird ability to generate subatomic particles. He wants to use her, and I don't think that's right."
"It's never 'right' to take advantage of another human being," Hank McCoy said severely. "I will see what I can do. Can you give me your name, and a phone number where you can be reached, and I will see what I can do?"
Amanda felt a rush of relief color her face pink, and she scrabbled in her tiny purse for a pen and scribbled her cell phone number on a nearby cocktail napkin. He took it and was about to say something when another guest walked up to Dr. McCoy and said, "Dr. McCoy, we'd like your opinion over here in this conversation we're having…" and he was drawn away to another knot of people as Amanda watched.
As she packed her things that night, she decided she wasn't going to leave Bruce just yet. Not until she knew Julie was safely out of his reach. She would go home, pretend everything was fine, and when the Avengers showed up to get Julie, then she would leave. But only then. She wasn't going to desert her friend.