At least twenty minutes had gone by since Luke and his 'fellowship' had entered Foster's. Alex was growing seriously worried. "They should be here by now… what's taking them so long?" she spoke quietly. Then Luke's words echoed in her head. "It might take a while, but that's because it's all official stuff."
However, she had to use every bit of self control to keep herself from entering Foster's ground. She really didn't know how much longer she could take it. Fortunately she listened to her mind instead of her heart. She would wait, no matter how much longer it would take.
Marissa was walking as fast as her legs would carry her. Luke and doctor Wu could barely keep up with her, the officers that had to tag doctor Hamilton along with them had fallen behind completely. They were approaching the security booth rapidly and Luke, though it pained him to do it, decided he had to step in for a moment to slow Marissa down.
"Marissa, hold on for a moment." Marissa stopped abruptly, looking backwards to Luke.
"I know that you want to leave as fast as you can now, and I don't blame you, but we need to sign you out officially. So when we reach security, you can't just run out of the door, okay?"
"Sorry Luke… I just… You know, I got a little overexcited. I just want to get out of here."
"That's alright Marissa. Just as long as you don't rush past security, that would only cause a delay." Luke spoke comforting.
They walked on and it didn't take them a lot of time to reach security. Charlie was still sitting in his booth and even though his window was closed, he could be heard singing loudly along with the cd he had put on.
Luke banged his fist against the window. "Charlie, could you spare a minute?"
He quickly turned down the volume and opened his window, blushing profoundly.
"Ehm… Sorry Luke, I got a bit caught up in my music."
"That's alright. I'm here with Marissa Cooper, she needs to sign out. Do you have the forms ready?"
"Yes, I do. Doctor Rogers gave me a call himself." Charlie moved his attention to Marissa. "You must be damn glad to get out of here, I see you've been here for seven years."
"Uh-huh" she replied. She didn't mean to be rude to Charlie, but something had caught her attention. She noticed that from where she was standing, she could already see the door. And not only could she see the door, she could also hear some of the noise from outside. It was as if she heard the world calling out for her. So naturally, she didn't pay any attention to the conversation Luke and Charlie were having.
"Okay, here we have the forms, you need to sign them right here." Charlie pointed out.
Luke noticed Marissa wasn't paying any attention. He softly placed his hand on her shoulder. Marissa quickly turned her head. "Sorry, what?"
"You can sign here, then we can go."
Marissa quickly took the pen from Luke and signed the forms. Luke then handed the papers back to Charlie who in his turn wished Marissa good luck, but Marissa had already started walking towards the exit.
She walked slowly but surely, her feet moving on their own. She felt her mouth starting to go dry and the closer she got to the exit, the more she started to tremble. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew Luke was talking to doctor Wu right behind her, but the words never registered. She only wanted to get out of this building, into the arms of Alex.
As she was coming closer to the door, she felt her heartbeat speeding up. She started counting all the steps she took. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8 and then there was the last step before she could stretch out her arm to open the door.
She took a deep breath. She took that final step. And at long last, she reached out for the handle of the door, finally being able to open it.
Now before you all kill me: I PROMISE this is the last time I'll keep you waiting. Only 2 more chapters 'till the end of this story...