Pixie Perv Protector

By Mice

Chapter 9: Unprotected

"I didn't expect you to be here."

"Warren is one of my best friends. Should I have stayed away?"

"Bobby isn't here."

"Bobby is busy with his art."

"Scott isn't here and they have developed quite the friendship in the past year."

"Scott's lonely."

"He could have you."

"He hates when I wax scientific."

"Doesn't seem to mind when I do it."

"Well, no, but you both are more of an engineer mind than a –"

"What, a techno genius with multiple degrees and doctorates and the de-facto smartest guy in the room?"

"…so I take it Reed's not here?"

"Sue said they had other plans."

"Reed hates these parties. Too many women."

Annie raised her glass of a vintage Spanish red wine to Hank. "Have a good night, Hank."

"Wait, Annie," he grabbed her wrist. "We haven't seen each other –"

"Since you were inside me?"

"Dirty and accurate."

"So you want to catch up? Make small talk?"

"I want to know if you're okay. If you're happy."

Annie sipped her glass. "I have a good life. Warren is wonderful, this cabin mansion of his is wonderful, the work I'm doing is wonderful."

Hank remained silent.

"Does that make you happy? Do you want me to be happy?"

"It doesn't matter what I want if you are happy here."

"If you want me, tell me. If you don't want me, tell me. Because, Hank, I don't know. I know how I feel about you but you never seem to care about it when it's offered to you. Is all I have to do to get your attention is date your best friend? Because you only have one more left and Jean could come back at any minute…"

Hank shook his head. "When did you become so mean?

"I wanted you, Hank. And I kept hoping until the very end you'd just admit that you wanted me, too."

"You want too much of me, Annie."

"But you're the one who is here at your best friend's birthday asking me if I'm happy. You could have just drunk dialed."

"I couldn't have made you happy. Not as happy as Warren can."

"How would you even know, Hank? Every time I say something that could lead to something, you get frightened and run away. Are you doing this because you feel guilty?"

"I'm the reason you can't have children – I may bear some burden."

"You are the reason we never got together. You didn't want to. Don't go creating stories out of facts to justify and distance yourself from it." Annie laughed. "You're a coward, Hank."

Hank's face turned dark. "Don't call me that."

Annie came closer to him. "But you are, Hank. You can say that I had a school girl crush on you, you couldn't be what I wanted, or anything else but you had feelings for me that you found me at fault for. Because you reject the notion that they could come from you. And Hank…I am better than that. I deserve better than Hank "Maybe I might want you" McCoy." Annie walked away and back into the party.

Hank took off his glasses to distract himself and scanned the room of people to see who he could talk to. Unfortunately, the shared friend circle between he and Warren did not overlap. The only familiar sight he found was the one that began haunting his brain soon after his psionic trip in Annie's mind. He knew that her mother came to her as an apparition of sorts and now, he was stuck with his own.

"Girls really hate cowards."

"Shut up."

"You just needed to go up to her, grab her, and kiss her – you know, like a beast."

"I'm not listening to you."

"You do a lot of talking for someone who don't listen." The vision was of Beth, a girl he knew as a child and briefly as a young adult. She had left him soon after having a late night tryst. He hadn't seen her since, and now, she was pretty persistent in what Hank was able to see.

"Can you just not be here tonight?"

"And let you experience life guilt free? Not what I'm here for."

"I am plenty manly."

"You're too manly – I said beast. You obviously have one in you, Hank."

"I don't like to indulge."

"And we're back to being a coward. Hey, is that what it is? Because that woman I just saw? Was beautiful and intelligent and so into you."

"She's living with Warren."

"Not married or anything?"

"He's my best friend."

"Bobby's your best friend."

Hank sat himself on the ground. "It's like a Ferris wheel that just goes around and around…"

"You want to get off? Do something different. You've live the same safe, small life for years now. You haven't even been out on missions because you're afraid to let loose and feel some damn life."

"I've gone on missions! There was that one a few months back to Belize where—"

"Stop justifying. Are you afraid you're going to get hurt?"

"There's nothing to get hurt about –"

"If you stay safely locked away from anything that can hurt you. Like, I don't get it, Hank – did she physically harm you? Is she secretly a cruel person?"

"No, neither of those things."

"Then, ignoring the Warren situation, what is actually stopping you?

Hank felt his heart become weak.

"You know she likes you –"

"For how long? Until she finds out how terrible I am?"

"She was going to marry Sean Cassidy. I'm sure you are a much better option."

Hank shook his head again. "No."

"So you're going to do nothing again?"

"I'm going to ignore you."

"You can't even admit to yourself what you want."

"What I want is a drink and for you to stop bothering me."

Beth smiled. "That's not going to happen until you face your fears."

Hank sighed. "I'm going to go and find a lot of drinks and I will teach myself to ignore you or die trying."

"Careful, Hank – you may get what you want. You're not a young man anymore."

Hank carefully tried to stand up, but fell back to the floor with a sharp crash. His body felt painted with fatigue and sweat.

A partygoer stopped. "Are you okay, sir?"

Hank wanted to tell her his symptoms and his diagnosis but blacked out before he could say that he was having a heart attack.