Disclaimer: "I do not own the Count of Monte Cristo, any of the characters, or any part of that franchise. Alexandre Dumas is the one who wrote the story, and all credit for that should be his. Any quotes from the 2002 movie version of this book belong to the producers, editors, writers, and so forth. I only own Hadlee, and any original content I make her do or say."

Chapter 2

It was actually after the ceremony had been held that Edmond requested Hadlee's help. He knew she could cook up a fabulous feast as well as the next person. But he didn't want her to go through all the trouble of spending the entire day creating that feast, and then not even get to spend time with them.

Hadlee honestly would've preferred it that way, but can't help being touched by Edmond's desire to have her truly enjoy this moment with him.

So she plasters a smile on her face, and instead helps him with cooking a private meal between just him, Mercedes, his father, and Hadlee herself.

As she slices off a piece of the roast beef over the fire, Edmond holds out a plate for her to set it upon. Smiling as he takes a whiff, he says, "Absolutely marvelous. Of course, I should never expect any less from you. Every time you cook, this house ends up smelling like one of those fine restaurants further in the city." Hadlee laughs and says, "Don't be ridiculous." "It's the truth. Thank you so much for this. I'll pay you back when I can." "You most certainly will not. Consider it a wedding present, and think nothing more of it."

Edmond begins to argue, but Hadlee fixes him with a look and a firm hand on her hip. Grinning, he says, "Of course. I don't suppose many ever try to argue when that look is given to them." "Only those who should call themselves foolish." He laughs heartily, and then joins her at the table to begin their private feast.

His father tapped the side of his glass of wine, and then raised it, saying, "To the new captain of the Pharaon." Hadlee raises her glass as well, grinning when Edmond smiles at her. Then he turns back to his father and replies, "All I am, I owe to you, father." The old man smiles with affection and love, and then rises to his feet. Lifting his glass for another toast, he adds, "May this happy moment, be but the dawn, of a long and wonderful life for you both."

They'd scarcely managed to clink their glasses together, when the door was knocked on harshly and then thrown open without warning. Hadlee started and turned around behind her to see several soldiers entering the room. One, who had removed his hat, demanded, "Which of you is Edmond Dantes?"

Edmond, still confused by their appearance, simply answered, "I am." And then everyone's eyes grow wide when the soldier responds with, "Edmond Dantes, you are under arrest by order of the magistrate of Marseilles."

Hadlee can hear the distress in Edmond's father's voice when he asks, "Arrest?" Edmond rises to his feet and asks, "On what charges?" The soldier replies, "That information is privileged. Take him." As the soldiers move to grab him, Edmond demanding an explanation, Hadlee watches as Mercedes tries to keep hold of his hand, but fails when the soldiers tug him towards the door.

Realizing resisting is futile, Edmond turns back and says, "I'll be back tonight. Don't worry, Father. This is a mistake." Hadlee, on her feet already, runs at him and says, "No! He's done nothing wrong! You can't…" As a soldier moves to restrain her, Edmond shouts, "No don't! It's alright!"

Eyes firmly settling on Hadlee, he says, "Look after my father until my return. Please. I'll be back tonight. Tomorrow morning at the latest. This will be sorted. Please, look after him."

Hadlee wanted to argue with him. She wanted to force the soldiers to, at the very least, explain what it was that Edmond was even being taken away for.

But she could not argue with Edmond's request. And until his return, she would look after his father. He was being taken away in chains to see the chief magistrate, for reasons that no one would explain. But his chief concern at this moment wasn't about what would happen to him. He only asked that his father be taken care of in his absence.

Nodding, Hadlee says, "I will see to his care… until your return." Edmond smiles gently at her, even if he is still apprehensive about this situation. Then he allows himself to be escorted from the room.

Hadlee remains standing there for a time, still not quite believing that Edmond had been arrested. Who in their right mind would ever think that Edmond had it in him to commit a crime? Certainly, the trip he'd taken to Elba to try and save his captain had been dangerous… but hardly anything illegal or uncalled for. A man's life had been at stake! And apart from courageous acts of kindness such as that, Hadlee could not call to mind even a single moment in which Edmond might ever be accused of a crime worth being arrested for.

She turns back to the room when she hears Edmond's father slump back into his chair. As the man turns a bit pale, Hadlee firms herself against thinking the worst. Instead she forces herself to relax, and says, "Well, you all heard him. He'll be back tonight. He's been home but a day. He can't have accomplished anything so horrid in that amount of time as to be sent to prison. We may very well see him again with the next hour. Who knows?"

She puts some meat on the old man's plate and says, "Eat. Edmond wouldn't want us to wait."

They obey her, simply because at the moment, she was the only one who could manage to find her own inner voice of reason. But as the night went on, and Edmond did not return, Hadlee couldn't help a scowl coming across her face as she watched Mercedes across the table.

If Edmond was under arrest, going to jail… his reputation was ruined. And he certainly would no longer be a captain of a ship. Which meant that all the reason Mercedes had for marrying him, for attempting to be in love with him, had just flown out the window. And Hadlee could see the gears turning in her mind as her eyes darted back and forth across the table. Mercedes was trying to weigh her options, to see how long she needed to wait here so that, if Edmond returned, it wouldn't look like she'd simply given up on him. But she was also trying to determine how quickly she could leave, so she could maybe go and see if Fernand would still be willing to present his offer of marriage to her.

Fernand obviously would, but Hadlee is not about to let Mercedes go any time tonight. As soon as Mercedes lifted her head, as though she might speak and ask to be excused and leave for the night, she was met with Hadlee's hard brown eyes bearing into her. It was the sternest and hardest expression Mercedes had ever received. It was a look that said, though Mercedes was trying to hide it, Hadlee perceived everything. And Hadlee knew exactly what it was that Mercedes was trying to do.

And if Mercedes actually tried to do it, there was no way in hell that Hadlee would be letting her get away with it. She cared about Edmond Dantes too much for that. Too much to break his heart up until this point, that was true too. But if Mercedes thought Hadlee would keep her mouth shut about the fact that she up and walked out after he'd been arrested, she most definitely had another thing coming.

Of course, by the time morning came and went, Hadlee could not hold onto that anger. She, herself, was not leaving. She had promised to care for Edmond's father and she would do just that. But as Mercedes prepared to leave, saying she needed to check on her own father, Hadlee could not argue with that point. Whether that's actually what Mercedes did or not was another matter… but Hadlee could not argue that her reason was sound, and she had waited long enough for Edmond to return.

Hadlee cooked breakfast, lunch, and supper for Edmond's father for the next few days, working with him to try and learn anything more about what had happened to Edmond, and why. And as she sat by the window, reading her book and glancing at Edmond's father, who seemed to become more despaired by the day, she let her eyes drift to look outside.

As a tear rolls down her cheek, she mutters quietly, "Edmond… Edmond, where did you go?"

Hadlee knew that half of the reasoning Mercedes was even here, was to keep up appearances. Her wedding announcement with Edmond had been official, and almost the entire community had been there to celebrate. She couldn't just up and turn around and see if someone else would take her. Likewise, Fernand seemed to understand that as well. He still pursued Mercedes with his hungry eyes… but he did so with a calmer demeanor. As though he already knew he had her. It was just a matter of when.

As they all stood, with Edmond's father and Monsieur Morrell in the magistrate's office, Hadlee couldn't bring herself to look at either Fernand or Mercedes. Their best friend in the world was gone, arrested for something she was certain he hadn't done. And here they were, her brother and Edmond's fiancé, trying to work out in their minds when it would be most appropriate to officially change gears and go after each other.

If she weren't so desperate to discover what had happened to Edmond, she wouldn't even be standing in the same room with them.

Edmond's father put an arm around her soldiers, leaning heavily against her. He'd tried not to at first, but his strength continued to fail him, and Hadlee never had a problem with remaining standing under his weight.

As Villefort entered the room, Morrell stepped forward and said, "We are here to plead the case of Edmond Dantes, Magistrate." The man's reply is instantly, "Not now!"

To explain, Napoleon has just returned from Elba. A place that everyone… well, everyone who loved King Louis, had very much hoped Napoleon would stay. So the magistrate's anxiety was easy to understand.

Doesn't mean Hadlee didn't want to argue that they most certainly would talk about this now. They'd already been here for an hour, waiting on him to return.

Hadlee's a woman though. To argue as strongly as she'd like against this man, a magistrate at that, would get her thrown out and quite possibly disgraced in the public eye. Her father had already lowered her dowry in his will, so that upon his death she would only receive twenty-thousand francs. He felt that was all she was worth, considering she hadn't attempted to learn any of the other hobbies suitable for women of her stature. If she didn't want to lose anymore, she couldn't afford to disgrace her family name any further.

She didn't need to worry though. She bit her tongue briefly to keep from lashing out, and was then satisfied when the magistrate suddenly looked up in surprise and asked, "Dantes?"

That's when it became weird. Hadlee knew that Mercedes was here for the appearance of wanting to find her lost fiancé. She had to play this part. Fernand, on the other hand, did not have to play up his role as being Edmond's best friend. He gained nothing by it. Mercedes was already turning her interest towards him, and Hadlee knows that Fernand has seen that. So what was there to gain from declaring that he was, indeed, Edmond's friend and confidant?

Hadlee's eyes narrow on the back of his head as Fernand says, "We have not met, Monsieur. I am Fernand Mondego, the son of Count Mondego. And I am here to swear to Edmond Dantes' innocence." Turning to the others, Fernand then explains, "This is his employer, Monsieur Morrell, his father, and his fiancé, Mercedes. And my sister, Hadlee Mondego, is here as well."

She would've given Fernand a look for mentioning her last… except for two reasons. One, she really didn't care at this point. She just wants Edmond back.

And the second… now the magistrate was acting weird too. It was taking him entirely too long to think about what to say to them. Like he was also trying to now play a necessary part, and only for appearances sake.

Why did the world have to be such a cynical place?

Finally, Villefort says, "Edmond Dantes… is charged with high treason. And yet, you stand by him?" Fernand gives a firm nod and says, "Of course I do."

Hadlee can't handle this much false sympathy, all for appearances sake. She's going to be sick.

Then, to her utter astonishment, Villefort adds, "What if I was to tell you that Dantes is also charged with murder?"

The man's eyes snap to her in surprise when she cuts in with an icy, "What?" Because if there was most definitely one thing that Hadlee knew was true, it was that Edmond Dantes was not capable of murder. The man would not harm a fly. Villefort eyes her for a moment, apparently trying to gage just how important it might be to temper his tone a bit for her sake. And he apparently decides that it's not very important, because he says in a cold and detached manner, "Dantes carried a letter from Napoleon to one of his agents. And when we tried to arrest him, he killed one of my men."

Hadlee glares at the man behind the desk, but it was Mercedes, with her soft and dainty voice, who pleaded, "No, if you knew him, monsieur, you would know that was not possible. Have mercy, please?" Morrell steps up and asks, "You have proof of this treason?"

Villefort tightens his lips for a moment, but then says with a slight grin, "Well, that is government business." Said every politician, ever, who didn't feel like giving a straight answer to someone of a lower class. Even if Morell and Fernand weren't as low as the rest of them, Villefort gave this answer, and suddenly he didn't have to explain anything to them that he didn't want to.

Mercedes, after glancing over at Hadlee and seeing her glaring eyes, turns back to Villefort and pleads a little harder, "Please. Please, just tell us where he is." Villefort sighs, "I cannot, mademoiselle. He was handed over to the king's men. I can understand your pain at this betrayal. But my advice, to all of you, would be to forget Edmond Dantes."

And his eyes shift back to Hadlee when, releasing the tongue she'd been biting for so long, she says, "If you knew anything about him, at all, you would know that it is not possible to forget Edmond Dantes."

He gives her a falsely apologetic look, and then turns back to Mercedes and says, "For you, I understand this must be exceptionally difficult. But take comfort in the solace of your good friend here. And perhaps, some good may yet come of this unhappy affair."

Hadlee couldn't actually believe what she was hearing. Mercedes and Fernand were only trying to wait a respectable amount of time in the eyes of the public before they went after each other, Hadlee knows that. But this man… he seemed to be almost granting them permission, which would shrink the time they spent waiting infinitely. What the actual hell was going on?

Villefort then leans forward at his desk, "Now, you will excuse me. I have to attend to some other matters." Edmond's father shouts, "My son is no traitor!" And then he nearly falls down, except Hadlee slips under his arm and supports him. Morrell comes to his other side and helps her escort him out the door, all the while Fernand declares that he will try to reason with Villefort about revealing what's happened to Edmond.

Morrell offers to take Edmond's father to the carriage to go home. Hadlee debates for a brief moment just how much trouble she's willing to get into. Then she takes off back into the building. Outside of Villefort's office, where the guards have briefly left it unattended, she presses her ear to the crack there and listens for what is being said.

And what she finds… appalls her more than anything else has in her entire life. Sure, she is but eighteen years of age. But she has had time to see and hear some rather unappealing things. And this topped them all. She knew her brother was desperate to get Mercedes to marry him. She knew that Danglars hated Edmond for being promoted to Captain over him. And she had been able to tell, just from watching him moments earlier, that Villefort was acting strangely about this whole affair.

But to learn that Fernand had reported Edmond receiving a letter from Napoleon. To learn that Villefort had condemned Edmond because he'd known his own father to be the recipient of that letter. And to learn that both men were now plotting the deaths of their own fathers.

Hadlee was definitely going to be sick. She needed to get out of here. She needed to tell Morrell and Edmond's father. Surely they would…

Alas, she remained at the door for too long. The guard grabbed her by the arms, pulling them back behind her painfully. Then he escorted her into the room, announcing that she had been there eavesdropping for quite some time.

After the guard left, Villefort looked alarmed and ashen for a moment. How much had she heard? What would she do? How much damage could she cause his reputation?

Fernand, on the other hand, looked her up and down once, and then rolled his eyes before saying, "Oh, don't look so surprised." "You betrayed him! You're best friend, and you…" Fernand looked back to Villefort and said, "Our father already thinks poorly of her. She has no connections to use against us. I dare say, even Morrell would look at her as though appalled that she might accuse us of such a plot."

Glaring at both of them, she says, "Someone will believe me. Too many people know of Edmond's true character to think he would…" Fernand looks back at her and says, "The character of a simple sailor? Come now, Hadlee. The man could not read or write, but he was a fool to think Napoleon's letter was innocent. And one thing that people won't think of him now that he's gone, is that he was a fool. A traitor, yes. But a fool? No, they won't think that. All you will accomplish with your words is to embarrass yourself, our family, and disgrace yourself so that no man ever wants to marry you."

Back to Villefort, he says, "She is of no concern to us." Hadlee marches up to him and says, "I will tell everyone, until someone believes me." "Go ahead. But Napoleon himself wouldn't believe such a ridiculous story. Especially one told to him by a woman."

Both men snicker at that, until Hadlee reaches down and jerks the knife from Fernand's pocket. Holding it to his throat, she says, "I will see you die for this!" Fernand goes very still for a moment, but then simply turns his head to look at her. Smirking, he says, "Go ahead. But you will accomplish nothing. I'll be dead. Edmond will still be gone. And you will be arrested for murder, after which no one would so much as dare to hear even a single word you have to say on the matter of Edmond Dantes."

Hadlee considers it for a moment… but she knows he's right. Being a woman, and a woman without connections at that, already made what she was going to try and do difficult. Murdering her own brother would make it impossible.

Lowering the knife, dropping it to the floor in front of him, she looks at both of them. Slowly, and in a tone far too controlled for their liking, she says, "Before my life is ended, by God's judgment and wrath, I will see you both suffer for this. On that, you have my word."

She did everything she could. She went to everyone she knew. She went to everyone she didn't already know personally. Anyone that would stop and listen to her story, she would tell and plead for help. But even Edmond's father, who loved her dearly for her unwavering devotion, could not fathom such a plot.

She took care of him as best as she could. But she could only ever force the man to eat so much. And eventually, he died of both starvation, and of the rope he tied round his neck. Within a month of Edmond disappearing, though Hadlee had tried to warn her father of Fernand's plans, their father was indeed killed. Leaving Fernand to take over and become Count Mondego.

Within that same month, Mercedes also agreed to marry Fernand. Apparently that was as long a wait as was necessary. Sure, the letter that she'd received declared that Edmond was dead… but seeing as the signature on the paper was 'Villefort', Hadlee had spat in disgust and put no stock in it. But for Mercedes, it was enough. Well, that and given that Edmond was considered a traitor now, it made sense that they only had to wait that long.

Without Edmond's father alive for Hadlee to care for, she spent the money from her dowry on acquiring passage aboard ships. She'd already visited every prison within one hundred miles of Marseilles, trying to find Edmond Dantes. Now she would search for him in the prisons beyond a carriage's reach.

This proved futile too. Not all of the prisons would allow her entrance. Those that didn't, claimed that by her description, they did not have the man she was looking for.

Fernand had practically disowned her by the time she returned. And when she did, he certainly didn't let her back into the house. Her attire now resembled more what a pirate captain's wife would wear, rather than a lady of society. Her long dresses and skirts had been replaced with tighter bodices to keep everything in place as she ran around the ship to help keep it going. They were lower cut as well, but that had nothing to do with men whistling at her. It got really hot on a ship. She had pants or leggings to wear with boots that ran up to her knees, short skirts or skirts with a short front and long back to wear. Even the long skirts that remained on her person had slits up the sides now.

No… no she most definitely didn't appear to be a lady of high society anymore. And she had no intention of returning to such a place. With what little money she had left that she hadn't spent, she bought a shop in Paris. The shop itself, was small inside. But out back was a large yard, huge enough to plant any and every kind of flower and herb she could possibly want.

Fernand, for his part, would've cut her out of his life altogether. But she still bore the name Mondego, which made it impossible. Plus, now that he'd started cheating on his wife, Mercedes did not want Fernand to be the main influence on her son's life.

She may not have been the best of women in Hadlee's eyes. And Hadlee would never forgive Mercedes for moving on so quickly from Edmond. But when Mercedes revealed to her who Albert was… who he really was… Hadlee could not say no.

She became the boy's tutor and guardian. And in time, when Albert needed advice, or had a problem he needed help with. Hell… when the boy simply wanted to get away from his quarreling father and mother, Albert would go to see Hadlee.

She never stopped looking for Edmond. She wrote down everything she knew in a back room. She had boards and charts and maps scattered all over the place, strings running from location to location. X's marked where she was certain he was not, question marks showed where she was uncertain, and circles showed where she thought he might still be.

But in spite of all her efforts, she never could find him. And every time Fernand would ever see her. Be it in the privacy of his home, or even in the midst of a grand and public party… the look of hatred that crossed her face was unmistakable. And the words she'd promised him came rolling back through his mind.

And when she would see a very real tremble of fear run up his spine, Hadlee couldn't help but grin.

Chapter 2! Done! And for those interested in knowing, this story will consist of 9 chapters. :)