Chapter 2: True or False?
"Danny? Where have you been? It's nearly 11!" Evey exclaimed, moving aside for Danny to walk in.
"Oh, Evey, you'd never believe what happened! I'm not sure that it was a good thing or a bad thing, but it happened. . ." Danny gasped. "I should have called the police! Oh but -"
"Danielle! What on Earth are you going on about? Is something wrong with your ankle?" Evey asked, laughing a bit nervously as she walked over to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate. Danny followed her.
"Evey, I was walking over here, around dusk, and I heard shouting, from an alley way. So, I wanted to make sure that no one got hurt and if they did, I would call the police. But he had a gun, Evey-"
"A gun?" Evey asked in shock, turning away from the kettle she was about to fill with water. "You should have called when you saw it Danny!"
"It all happened so fast, Evey. The moment he took it out, there was a struggle, and he shot the other man! I was so shocked that all I could do was stand there and stare and he saw me -"
"What happened to your neck?" Evey asked, narrowing her eyes as she walked over to Danny, abandoning the drink entirely. "Did that man do that to you?"
"Shh, Evey, let me tell you everything. Yes, he did. I was running away and he chased after me, but I landed on my foot wrong and fell, twisting my ankle. I tried to get away, but he grabbed me by the neck and dragged me back into the alley way. He was going to kill me Evey and I was hysterical, begging with him. Then he showed up," Danny said, awe in her voice.
"It was just like your story, Evey. He appeared out of no where, speaking as calmly as if we were just sitting there having a chat. He looked just like V, Evey, he even had the knives, which he used with so much skill. . .but then, I remembered that V. . ." Danny trailed off and looked at Evey sadly, who slowly sank into her chair.
"Danielle, did he...did he drop you off here?" Evey asked nervously.
"No, he dropped me off at the end of the street. Don't worry, I didn't tell him the address. But he didn't hurt me at all, or try anything, on the way here. He had every chance to, we were walking through the alley ways," Danny explained. "It was a stupid thing to do, I know, I should have thought before I did something too risky...I'm sorry. But...but what if it was him?"
Evey shook her head. "It couldn't have been him, Danny. I saw him die...I did...he-" Evey stopped, her voice cracking. Danny felt tears pricking at her eyes as she limped over and hugged Evey.
"I'm sorry. . .I shouldn't have talked about it..." Danny said softly. "Uhm, do you have any ice for my ankle?" Danny asked, a lame attempt at changing the subject.
Evey nodded, standing up and walking over to the freezer. Danny limped over to the couch and sat down, pulling up her pant leg and stripping off her shoe and sock. It was begginning to swell, but the ice would bring that down and she could find some sort of bandage or brace for it at a store.
Sitting down next to the younger woman, Evey gently placed the ice pack, carefully wrapped in a wash cloth, on Danny's ankle.
"I think I have something that you can put on there. To wrap it up in, I mean..." Evey's gaze was focused on Danny's swollen ankle. "Danny...do you think that maybe he wasn't dead? That he just tricked me and somehow got off that train?"
"Why would he do that?" Danny asked, feeling a bit tired.
"...Because...maybe because the world that he was once a part of is...gone. Maybe so I could forget the past of the world and look at the future...does that make any sense to you?"(1)
"Yeah, kind of. I'm kind of tired, really..." Danny admitted.
"You can use my bed," Evey said. "I'm going to stay out here and think for a bit..."
v
"Remember, remember," Evey muttered, curled up on the couch. She had watched the Count of Monte Cristo twice already, mulling over everything. If V really were back, he probably wouldn't go back to the Shadow Gallery, especially if he didn't want her to know he was indeed alive...but then again, she had only gone there a few times after the last step towards freedom for the UK and that was over a year ago.
Evey frowned, feeling a bit guilty. She should have visited more often, to make sure everything down there was okay. His juke box, his books...his ridiculous apron even...
But, on another point, since it had been a year, maybe, if it was V anyway, he was back at the Shadow Gallery, living life as best he can...but he would no longer have a reason to live.
That's what had bothered Evey. Last year's fifth had been the whole reason for V's existence. Revenge. Liberation. It was his entire life, whether Evey was involved in that life or not. So, certainly, V would not have bothered to leave the train, even if he wasn't dead. Then again, the chance he survived the wounds from the last fight he had was very low. So, if he was alive when she put him on the train, he more than likely would have died on the way to Parliment.
She wasn't going to lie. She did have a tiny hope that it was him, that he had survived, some how...she supposed the question that kept running through her mind was 'why?'. Was there a reason another V, or V himself, was once again strolling about the streets? Sure, the crime rate had increased (almost staggeringly so) and police and government would still have their moments where things went bad and corrupt, but certainly it wouldn't be as bad as before. A totalitarian(2) country...
Sighing, Evey stood to check on Danny. Her ice pack may have began to - or already did - melt and she would need a new one to make sure the swelling stayed down. It was a good thing Danny lived on her own. There had been no phone calls to make. No hurried or awkward explanations. Danny simply came and went as she pleased, when college wasn't taking up her time, anyway.
Evey quietly walked into her room, where Danny was sleeping in her bed. She could see that Danny had left the foot with the icepack out from under the covers, but just had Evey had guessed, it was practically water now. Evey gently removed the bag of chilled water and walked out of her bedroom to the kitchen, switching a frozen ice pack for the one that need recharging.
"At least there were no buildings blown up," Evey muttered as she wrapped this new ice pack in a cloth, recalling Danny's story and how similar it had been to her own. Though unlike Danny, Evey had been threatened with rape and possibly worse. Danny's life had been threatened, or more accurately, nearly taken away.
MaybeDanny's V really was just a man following in her V's foot steps, though for what reasons, Evey hadn't the vaguest idea.
A/N: (1) Better yet, did that make sense to the reader? Once I can remember exactly what he said, I'll explain my reasoning behind this particular dialouge if anyone was confused.
(2): I have no freakin' clue how to spell this...but I do know what it is...(All fixed, thanks to a helpful review. They know who they are.)
Anyway, kind of a pointless chapter with a lot of questions. Ones that I was thinking myself, so I thought "Well, Evey can think them too."
Still a little buzzed as it is now 2 in the morning and I just finished writing this. Shut up! I needed to finish. Chapter 3 may take a bit longer, since I don't want this story to just fly by...so it may also be a dull chapter...just like this one...this whole story is dull...WHY GOD, WHY!
Don't worry, I'm working on it...
