A/N: Another fast update! What can I say, I'm bored with everything else and didn't want to keep you guys waiting too long.
Also, seeing a lot of conflicting reviews about not understanding Helga's behavior and what not, but just remember, something like being held hostage by a group of Ethiopian slavers for four months can change a person. So can two tours in Iraq. That's why I originally named this story what I named it. That's the whole point of this story, changes!
He's nervous. Doesn't know what he's going to tell her. But he has a plan. He hopes he can get through to her before she gets hurt. If Roy hurts her, he might not be able to hold himself back.
He zips up his grey hoodie and steps out of his car, making his way through the dorm parking lot. It's still early in the afternoon, hopefully she's still her dorm. Reading her note helped calm him down. He knows what to focus on, protecting her. Making sure she's safe. He knows she left for a reason, and understands that it was hard for her to leave the way she did. From what Eddy told him, what he said to her was just lashing out in anger that she came back with someone else. He wishes he hadn't let it slip that he was in love with her when she left. He never got to tell her, and it was something he always regretted most apart from letting her go in the first place.
He opens the door and quickly makes his way up the stairs and up to the third floor. The dorms are surprisingly quiet for a weekend. He takes a deep breath when he stops outside her door. Lifting his nervous hand, he knocks and anxiously waits, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. The door opens and his heart stops. She's wearing a baggy sweatshirt, an old pair of jeans, her hair undone in a low pony tail, and a blank, emotionless look on her face. "Hey..."
"What do you want, Arnold?" She says, the tone of her voice telling him that she's trying to end this conversation as quickly as possible.
"I need to talk to you."
"I don't think I want to hear it, Arnold." She says and slowly crosses her arms tightly across her chest.
"Please, Helga." He says, hoping she believes his honesty. "I'm sorry. I was out of line last night." He shrugs.
"Arnold, I can't hear this right now." She says, quickly turning back into her dorm room.
"Helga, wait-" He begs and quickly grabs her wrist to stop her. But when his hand makes contact, he hears her suck in a sharp breath in through clenched teeth, wrenching her wrist away from his grasp that immediately loosened when he heard her hiss. He stills himself, his blood already starting to pulse through his veins with anger. But he pushes it down and gently reaches down with one hand and softly lifts her wrist up and sliding the baggy sleeve of her sweater up her wrist, his hand ghosting across her warm skin. She doesn't flinch, doesn't rip it away, knowing what he's looking for.
His hands gently cradling her forearm, making sure that despite the fury he feels trying to flex every single muscle, he doesn't hurt her. What he's staring at is exactly what he was afraid of. In the middle of her bottom forearm, a large dark blotch of bruised skin circles her wrist, the impression of a forceful hand can clearly be seen. "Helga."
"It was just an accident." She quickly defends and pulls her wrist away, hiding the bruise under her sleeve, and hiding her eyes by looking away when she speaks.
He pauses, letting his hands fall to his sides. "I want you to look me in the eye and say that." Her eyes first glance in his direction, her head still remaining turned off to the side. "Look me in the eye and tell me that it was just an accident."
"He didn't mean it." She says in a voice so small he can barely hear her.
"No?" He leans his head toward her, but she still isn't making eye contact. "Helga, look me in the eye and tell me you don't want out."
She glances over to him again, and he can clearly see her eyes brimming with tears. When she finally turns to look at him fully, he knows how truly scared she is. "Arnold, I-I..." Her voice falters.
"Helga," He starts, taking a slow step forward and cautiously puts his hands on her arms, "tell me you're not scared." She nods her head away, her lower lip quivering. "You tell me to leave and I'll go. I'll stay out of your life if that's what you really want. But it has to be you that says it. Not him telling you to."
"Arnold..." She starts, looking toward him again, "I..." She says, her eyes breaking away from his for a moment before they find his again, "I'm scared."
He lets out a slow breath and takes another step forward, wrapping her in his arms, with her bringing her arms up and curling them up in his chest. He commits one hand to running up and down her back and he can feel emotion overwhelming her from her wrenching her fists in his hoodie. He moves his head and gently places his lips against her hair, he remembers that kissing her hair puts her at ease. "Helga." He says and softly urges her back with hands on her arms. She lifts her head off his shoulder, sniffles, and reveals red rimmed eyes. "You're safe with me, Helga."
"Arnold, what do I do?" She asks, her hands still gripping the front of his hoodie.
"I want you to go to my apartment. Eddy's outside waiting in his car, he'll take you there. He'll stay with you until I come back."
"Where are you going?"
"I have something I need to take care of." He says and starts rubbing her arms again, hoping that she won't try to stop him. "You can use my computer, take a long shower if you want, find something in the fridge, take a nap, just settle in and wait for me. Okay?"
Helga looked away when he said he had something to take care of, and hasn't looked back up yet. And he's worried that she'll say she can handle it on her own. But he hopes that he got through to her considering she openly sought comfort with him. "Roy, he..."
"You don't have to worry about him anymore, Helga. I'll take care of it. Hey-" He says and gently puts his fingers under her chin and leads her to look up to him again. "Do you trust me?"
She looks him in the eye, doesn't respond, instead nods a few times. He smiles, wraps his arm around and leads out downstairs. Eddy's parked right behind him and is waiting in his car. He leads her over to the passenger side, hugged tightly into his side the whole way, and he opens the car door and she climbs into Eddy's SUV. He closes the door and moves over to the other side, pulling the thumb drive out of his pocket. "Get on my computer and look over these files. Are you still on good terms with your ex?"
"Nancy? I can call her if I need something, if that's what you mean."
"Send her everything on that thumb drive. If she's as smart as you said she is, she'll know what to do with it." Eddy nods and starts the car. "Eddy." Arnold says before he rolls up his window. "Keep her safe."
"You got it, Bright side. When are you getting back?"
"I don't know. I have to play this by ear."
"Hope you know what you're doing, Arnold." Eddy says and pats him on the shoulder. Arnold turns and heads for his car ahead of Eddy's.
"Me too."
He checks the clock on the radio of his car and see's he's been waiting for about twenty minutes. His heart beats calm, his mind is focused and he knows what he has to do. He's parked at the end of a street of apartment buildings and is waiting. He pulled his current address, made a call to his bank and faked his way into getting his schedule for the day. He's due out the door in about five minutes.
His eyes have been trained on his door for the past twenty minutes, waiting for him to walk out. He sees the door open and then him walking out in a dress shirt and blazer. He grabs the dark baseball cap on the seat, puts it on low over his eyes and gets out of the car, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and hunching is shoulders forward. He walks quickly down the street. There's an ally in between every building, and he needs to get him in one of those.
He's just a few feet away from him, and he goes for it. As Roy passes, Arnold quickly grabs onto his collar, spins him around and tosses him into the alley next to them. He stumbles and falls into a pair of metal trash cans and rolls onto his back, and Arnold starts toward him. He sees Roy reach into jacket with his hand and knows what he's going for. He almost laughs. Roy pulls out his gun and Arnold takes his right leg and kicks it across the alley, then pinning his wrist into the ground with his boot.
He kneels into Roy's chest, grabs into his collar, and sends his right fist hard into his jaw once, twice, three, four, five times, each hit getting harder and stronger, the groans coming from him getting louder and harder each time. He raises his fist to send it down across his jaw again, but stops when Roy's head falls back, dazed. He lets out his breath and stands up. Stepping over him, pressing his weight down onto the wrist he had pinned, hearing him groan sharply at the pain, he walks over to the gun he kicked out of his hand and picks it up. He never did like glocks.
He releases the clip and slips it into his pocket, then racks the slide and lets the bullet fall into his palm, sliding it into his pocket with the clip. He turns around, seeing Roy still writhe limply roll around on the ground. He walks over to him and looms over him. When Roy looks up, Arnold lifts the gun, aiming it directly at his forehead, making sure he's staring down the barrel.
"No, no, no no no-" Roy begins begging, "no no no no no!" He stops when the gun clicks.
Arnold kneels back down, still holding the gun to him and pulls him up by the collar, blood running down Roy's nose and his teeth stained with blood and his eye already starting to swell. "You touch Helga again, and I'll make you wish this gun was loaded."
Roy, his chest heaving and face battered, "Is that a threat?" He says, acting as if he's not scared.
Arnold lifts Roy up closer to him, clenches his teeth and looks him in the eye. "It's a promise."
He throws Roy back to the ground and walks down the alley, opposite the way his car is. He lifts the gun, racks the slide back, flicks the switch next to the safety and slides the slide off. He tosses the grip into a passing dumpster, takes out the barrel and the slide into a dumpster on the other side of the alley. He stops, unzips his hoodie and tosses it into the metal trash can at the end of the alley, then slips off the cotton gloves he was wearing, walks out and puts them into the trash can next to the bus stop, along with the black baseball cap.
He takes a deep breath, looking down at his knuckles, seeing them bright red and cut. He lets out the breath and slips his hands into the pockets of his jeans and makes his way around the block and back to his car.
Getting back to his apartment takes about fifteen minutes, and now it's around four o'clock. He makes his way up, and hears the TV going inside his apartment from the hall way. He opens the door and sees Eddy sitting in the corner of the couch, watching a football game. He looks over and nods. "Finally, what'd you do, have a god damn tea party?"
"Where's Helga?" He asks seriously and shuts the door.
He lifts his head toward his bedroom door. "She's been in there the whole time."
He walks up to his bedroom door, stopping before going in. Instead, he lifts his hand and knocks softly, cursing himself for a split second for forgetting his injured knuckles. "Helga?" After not getting a response, he reaches for the knob, "Helga, are you okay?" He opens the door, finds the light on and her curled up on his bed, her eyes shut and one of his pillows hugged up against her chest. He smiles and quietly walks in, taking out one of the thermal blankets from his closet and puts it over her. She's safe.
He walks back out, quietly shutting his bedroom door behind him and walks into the bathroom, washing his hand off, then grabbing the gauze from the medicine cabinet, then out into the living room and sits down on the opposite side of the couch from Eddy, starting to wrap his hand. "You send the files?"
"Nancy said she'll take a look at them and run them up the chain and get back to me. From what I saw from those files, you were right to want an eye kept on her."
"If anything ever happened to her, Eddy, I'd..." He wants to tell him that it is a very real possibility that it was her that they saved that day in Ethiopia, but decides to keep it to himself. She's safe now, and to him, that's all that matters. "Did she say anything?"
"Not really. Just came inside, wandered around a bit. After about ten minutes, she went into your bedroom and never came out."
He nods and finishes wrapping his hand. "Thanks, Eddy."
"Well, I'm heading out, Bright side. You know where to find me."
"Yeah, thanks again, Eddy. I owe you one."
Eddy leaves, leaving Arnold sitting on the couch with the girl he loves safe in the next room, fast asleep.
He hopes Nancy can help them out. He wouldn't have gone after Roy without going to her first. Eddy's ex-wife is an FBI financial investigator. Eddy met her during their days on the squad, part of their civilian contractors team. After that, she joined up with the FBI. Their marriage didn't last long, but they both agreed it was for the best. And if anyone can link Roy to his banks money laundering, it would be her.
Arnold lets out a long breath, his hand running through his short hair. He takes out the clip from Roy's gun and puts it down onto the table, along with the content of his back pocket, forty dollars in cash and a small pocket knife, and the picture of her he's carried with him for five years. He stops and stares at it. He hasn't seen her smile that genuinely since that first day in class, when she jumped up and wrapped her arms around him for the first time in five years.
He leans his head back, shuts his eyes, and relaxes in the knowledge that at least she's safe.
A/N: One thing I always regretted in the original was the fight scene. It was based off of the basketball scene in the first Expendables movie. Not all that realistic. This one was based loosely off of a scene from Fringe, during the first season if anyone has watched it. Hope you guys liked it.