A/N: Okay… last chapter turned out better than I thought it was going to when I started it. XD Sooo… hopefully this chapter will follow suit. The first part was kind of written awhile ago… Hopefully only parts of it will have to be rearranged. :-P
Chapter 9
Past:
What was he doing there?
That was the question Jesse kept asking himself as he entered the house where Paul had asked him to come. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to be at home, trying to put all this behind him. He needed time to grieve—a lot of time to grieve.
Taking a deep breath, Jesse walked down the hallway to a room that looked vaguely like a library. Paul was standing there, looking rather smug.
"What do you want?" Jesse demanded. "You have what you wanted, what more do you want from me?"
Paul smiled. "Yes, I got what I want. But I wanted to show you something." He stood up, walking past Jesse and to the door. He leaned out the doorway and called, "Susie! Come here, honey."
Jesse just stared, dumbstruck, as Susannah walked into the room. "Querida," he whispered. When she turned to look at him, her eyes were blank, empty, as though the life had been drained out of her.
Oh, God. What had he done?
Paul put his arm around Susannah, and she merely turned to smile at him. "Suze, I wanted to introduce you to someone." He pointed to Jesse. "This is Jesse."
She turned and smiled at Jesse, but there was no sign of recognition. Paul had made her forget everything. The Susannah Simon he had known was gone, replaced only by an empty shell, a puppet in Paul Slater's merciless hands.
And he—Jesse—had done that to her. Maybe not directly, but he had handed Paul the tools to do it.
"Querida," Jesse said again. "What have I done?"
Susannah blinked at him, looking back at Paul. "I don't understand."
Paul rubbed his hands down her arms, smiling at her. Jesse wanted to so badly to kill him right then, but if he did, he wasn't sure what would happen to Susannah.
"Don't worry about it," Paul was saying. To Jesse, he said, "De Silva, I'll have to ask you to not to confuse my girlfriend."
Jesse stiffened, glaring at Paul. They stood like that for awhile, until Paul finally sent Susannah to bed. "What have you done to her?"
Paul sat down in his chair, smirking at Jesse. "Come on, Jesse, haven't done anything you probably haven't done." He grinned at Jesse's guilty expression. "That's what I thought. I wouldn't be so quick to judge me, if I were you, Jesse. You and I are in the same boat."
"What I did—"
"—Is exactly what I'm doing. Except maybe to a lesser extent?" Paul shrugged. "If Susannah knew, don't you think she would be just as angry with you as she would be with me?" He raised an eyebrow. "We could ask her right now, if you want."
Jesse shook his head, feeling sick. He was right, he thought bleakly. If Paul was guilty, so was he.
As he left, Jesse considered taking Susannah with him. He almost turned around and went looking for her. But, just like when he had thought of killing Paul, he couldn't be sure what would happen to Susannah. And if he called the police… could he guarantee that Susannah would still be here—and safe—by the time they got there?
He couldn't. But there still had to be something he could do.
Present:
"So, how has she been doing?" Dr. Davis asked when Jesse brought Susannah in to see him.
Jesse rubbed a hand over his eyes, sighing. "Things have been all right, for the most part…" Jesse told Dr. Davis about what had happened when he brought Susannah home. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Until I know why she is reacting this way, I can't prevent it."
"Hmm." Dr. Davis considered this for a long time. "There must be something you can do. You can't keep your door unlocked at all times—not only is there a worry for whoever did this to her, but there's the danger of burglars and other things to worry about, too."
Jesse nodded. "I know." Sighing, he stood and shook the doctor's hand. "I'm sure we will work something out."
A/N: I don't know what these things are actually called, so "chain lock" refers to those door locks with the chain thing. Hence the name. lol. Chain lock made the most sense.
It took a week, but Jesse finally figured out a way to fix things.
Standing back to inspect his handiwork, Jesse smiled. A chain lock. Easy enough to manage, and without the sound of a lock turning that seemed to so bother Susannah.
"Susannah?" Jesse called. "Come here for a minute, please."
Susannah emerged from her room and approached him warily. Jesse smiled at her. "I wanted to show you something." Turning to the door he pointed to the chain lock. "See, you just put the chain into the lock like this—" he demonstrated for her "—and now it can keep people from getting in, and you can get out if you need to." He smiled. "If I'm outside, I can't even get in if you don't want me to." He turned around to measure her reaction—if any—and stopped. Her eyes had filled with tears. "Oh, querida, don't cry. I'm sorry. If you don't like it I can—"
And then, something happened—something that he hadn't seen in a very long time. As he watched, the corners of her mouth turned up. She smiled at him. Susannah was smiling at him for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.
It made everything finally seem worth it.
A/N: A little short, but still. :-P I can only manage so many long chapters when writing one a day. XD