Nora hated the hospital. It was too sterile for her tastes. She was more comfortable in the mess and disorder of her law office, or in the minor chaos of Shaun's surroundings. But, her husband was in the hospital, so Nora was determined to be there with him, no matter her feelings. He'd been gone for a few months on "official business" and now that he'd shown back up beat to hell, Nora was not letting him slip through her fingers again. She turned the corner and smiled at Dr. Xavier as he left Derek's room.
He glanced at her and scowled as he stormed past her in the narrow hallway. Once he passed her Nora stuck her tongue out at his back. She didn't know why he was so sullen, but she figured having Derek as a patient couldn't help. The man could charm the bite out of a snake, as her Dad was fond of saying, but once he got even the slightest bit sick, he was miserable to be around. Putting on her biggest smile, she stepped into his room.
"What did you do to upset Dr. Xavier now?" Derek looked up and smiled at her. She sat down on the end of the bed, facing him.
"Well, I might have complained that none of the nurses were cute." Nora put her purse on the bed next to her and gaped at Derek.
"Why would you do that?" Derek laughed and Nora felt her stomach flutter. Even after all this time, he still charmed her.
"Well, you see my dear wife, I needed a cute nurse to make you insanely jealous so that you would demand I come home immediately and I could make it up to you. Possibly multiple times." Nora laughed, scandalized by his humor.
Suddenly she found herself in his lap and he was kissing her deeply, her body responding before her brain even realized what was going on. Pressing herself against him, she grabbed the back of his head and pulled him closer, her free hand bracing herself.
A sudden clatter made her jump and Derek threw his legs over the side of the bed.
"Damn! Sorry honey, guess I got a bit excited!" Nora laughed and cleared her throat. Derek went around the bed and started picking up what had fallen – a quick check of the bed revealed it to have been her purse. He handed her the purse and sheepishly grinned. Cocking her finger, Nora leaned forward, a smile on her lips. Derek leaned in, but she leaned even further and put her mouth next to his ear.
"If you broke my mirror, I swear you'll be making it up to me for a very long time." Kissing his temple, she leaned back and rose to leave. Derek kneeled on the bed and grabbed her hand.
"Nora. I'm sorry."
"For what?" Nora kissed his knuckles and breathed in his scent.
"I vanished again. And I don't know if I'll have to do it again. But I want you to know that I never stop thinking of you." Nora's heart sank under the weight of the sorrow in his words. Overcome, she pulled him close and held him. Guiding him back down onto the bed, Nora realized how much she had missed him. Kissing him chastely on the forehead, she returned to their empty home.
Setting her purse on the side table Nora walked through the small house and let her imagination fill it with images of Derek home again, watching Shaun walk across the living room, eating dinner at the table. She pressed a hand to her chest and leaned against the wall as her and Derek danced along with the radio. She held him close and wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him in for a kiss as they swayed in place, the phantom notes fading away as Nora roused herself from the day dream.
Reaching into her purse to find her keys, Nora's fingers brushed up against something soft. Pulling it out, she realized it was some toilet paper, folded neatly into a small square. Unfolding it, she found that it was covered in Derek's heavy scrawl.
Nora,
I need you to understand something. Something vitally important. I am not safe here. I don't know what is going on, but the doctors and nurses here are lying about something big. Honey, I know you always think that I'm reading too far into things, but you also know that my job is about figuring out these things.
Dr. Xavier is not a real doctor, he's a mercenary from a group of dangerous thugs that kidnap people to extort their families for money. I don't know why they've targeted me or you, but I need your help. I think I can keep them from figuring out that I'm on to them, but I'll need your help to escape them. Nora, I know you're scared right now, and maybe even a bit mad, but you also know that I would never lie to you. Not like this.
Nora, if you don't believe me and think that I'm making this up, I won't blame you. But, if by some chance you can see that I'm not lying to you and that I really do need you now, bring me a bobby pin as a sign of your belief. If you don't bring me one, I will never talk about it again.
Nora, I love you.
Derek
"What the hell?" She reread the note, looking on the back for any other hints as to what was going on but her search revealed no new clues. Just the frantic scrawl of her husband who claimed to be trapped in a fake hospital.
"Oh Derek, what are you doing?" More importantly, what was she doing, believing this note? It can't be real, but if it was…could she live with the consequences of it being a lie? Oh man, it was Pascal's wager. Should he be right and she worked with him, the rewards surely outweighed any risk of him being right and her not working with him? Right?
"Oh hell Nora, you always complained that being a stay at home mom was boring! Just put a damn bobby pin in your purse! Hell, bring a whole damn box of them!" Her mind made up, she did just that. With that settled she changed into her pajamas and crawled into her bed and slept soundly, the ember of rebellion burning deep in her gut.
The next day she made her way through the hallways to Derek's room, conscious of the rattling noise the box of bobby pins made in her purse. Ducking into his room, Nora kissed the top of his head and put her purse on the small night stand next to the bed.
"Hey Nora! How was your day?" Sliding over, Derek pulled her down next to him.
"Well, aside from thinking I'm going crazy, it was actually a pretty bland day."
"Going crazy? Did you forget your file for court?" Nora laughed, remembering the many times that very scenario had driven her up the wall in court. She hated being underprepared.
"No, but I found the most interesting article in the paper today. And I just couldn't stop thinking about it." Reaching into her purse, she pulled out the box of bobby pins and placed them on Derek's lap. "The article was about how husbands often times did the strangest things, but that their doting wives needed to have faith in their husbands. So, I figured that I would."
She turned and faced Derek head on and was surprised to see his eyes filling with tears. She almost asked what was wrong, but Derek hugged her close and between sobs thanked her for loving him enough to trust him. She let him cry into her shoulder for a few minutes, relishing in the feeling his touch.
All too soon, however, Derek leaned back and wiped a tear from his eye. Taking a shuddering breath, Derek smiled wickedly.
"Ready to go all the way?" Nora met his smile with one of her own.
"Let's do this." Derek laid out the plan for her, including her first step. Leaving his room to head home, she sought out Dr. Xavier and found him talking with a nurse about a patient. Waiting for a break in the conversation, Nora spoke loudly, her voice filling the empty hallway and nurse's station.
"I want to take my husband home."
"Absolutely not. His inflammation and injuries are far too great to be allowed outside the constant care of a hospital." Dr. Xavier didn't even look up from his clipboard on the counter. Nora crossed her arms and glared at the doctor's back.
"Are you telling me that I, as an American citizen, cannot take my husband home under our own free will?"
"No, what I'm saying is that your husband has to stay here." Had he been paying attention, he would have noticed the smirk on Nora's face.
"So, my husband must remain here even though he wants to leave." Dr. Xavier let out a frustrated sigh.
"Yes. Now please, visiting hours are over and you must go home."
"Oh, don't worry Doctor. I'm leaving. But I'm coming here tomorrow with an arrest warrant for illegal detainment of an American citizen by a non-peace keeping agent, an injunction against you and this hospital, and armed police to ensure my husband is no longer held as a prisoner in this hospital!" She shouted the last part and began storming down the hallway to the door, taking care to note that all the nurses and Dr. Xavier were following her, clamoring for her to stop and talk to them. Instead, she led them down another hallway and turned once all of her audience had filled in.
"Mrs. Evans! Please I must ask you to keep your voice down in the hospital!" Nora rose up to her full height. Even though Dr. Xavier still towered over her, she had spent her entire professional life dealing with arrogant men. She waited for him to fall silent, and spoke clearly and loudly – her "court voice" as Derek called it.
"Dr. Xavier, as you know, an American citizen may remove themselves from medical care of a professional so long as the patient in doing so does not put them or other in threat of harm. My husband is still injured from whatever happened to him, but unless you have evidence that he is in need of constant medical care, then you have no grounds to detain him here." Dr. Xavier opened his mouth to speak, but Nora cut him off. "Furthermore, due to the nature of the wounds and the relative healing speed of a healthy adult male, I would speculate that his wounds were caused by blunt and sharp force trauma approximately one to two weeks prior to me seeing him for the first time." Dr. Xavier snorted.
"And what would you know about how the human body handles a beating?" Nora resisted the temptation to stick her tongue out at his rude tone, instead, she busied herself by pretending to check her nails.
"I might not be a medical doctor, however, my extensive work in both criminal and insurance fraud cases have given me a deep well of knowledge of the human body. Such as how no professional would call it 'a beating', to quote you exactly, unless he or she was sure of the cause of the contusions. Oh, sorry, bruising." Dr. Xavier's eyes flashed dangerously, but Nora did not back down.
"And seeing as how the last time we spoke you suggested that it was a toxin that was causing the symptoms my poor husband continues to suffer from, I would say that you had changed your professional diagnosis. However, since you have not changed your treatment program nor even spoken about it with either my husband or me, as I am the person with power of attorney over him, I must assume that you're either incompetent or are trying to keep my husband prisoner. So I'll also be suing you for negligence or malpractice, possible both."
A loud buzzer sounded in the hallway with Derek's room, and Nora pulled her purse onto her shoulder, her hands dangerous fists around the strap.
"Now, unless you really want me to bring this hospital down into financial ruin, you will attend to whichever poor soul is asking for help immediately! Good day Doctor!" Moving through the small throng of nurses, Nora barely managed to keep the grin from her face. She loved telling off men who thought her too be just another vapid housewife. She was a woman, but that didn't mean anything in the courtroom. There, she was just like everyone else, except smarter and willing to go to great lengths to get what she wanted.
And she wanted her husband back.
Her job completed, Nora headed home and prepped for the next day. Derek had said that today was about setting up the chess board and that Nora's threats of legal action would galvanize Xavier into action on their terms. He said that being forced to move too early would make him weaker. She had no idea what Derek had planned, but she readied the tools he had asked for anyway. After gathering them, she stepped into her library, curious about the threats she had made to Xavier. If Derek's plan failed, it would be up to her to save him. And she might not have a lot of time to prepare for that outcome.
Settling into her bed, she donned her glasses and began reading the legal code until she fell asleep, laws and tactics racing around her head.
The next morning, she showed up at the hospital with legal books in hand and her tote filled with supplies for Derek's plan. Marching through the hallways to Derek's room, she was glad to see that many of the staff were afraid to meet her eye. They would respectfully nod and then quickly dart away to do something else somewhere else. Nora smiled and felt herself standing taller and walking more slowly as a feeling of power overcame her.
"Never let it be said that Nora Evans, Esquire shied away from confrontation!" Letting herself into Derek's room she let out a happy sigh and sat on the bed next to a smiling Derek.
"What's gotten into you?" Nora laughed and dropped the tote on Derek's lap.
"I have stricken fear into the hearts of everyone here! Derek, if nothing else, you have made me feel powerful, like a lioness about to strike one of them!" She let out another laugh and Derek pantomimed being a lion tamer, making cracking noises as he snapped his whip at her.
"I have to be careful here, lest the fierce lioness kill me in one fell swoop!" Nora swatted him and took deep breaths until the laughter subsided. Somber again, she picked up a book and continued reading from where she had left a bookmark.
"So, Mr. Lion Tamer, what's our next move?"
"Well, you set the board up. All the pieces have been moved into position. Now, it's time for the checkmate." She glanced up from her book and raised an eyebrow.
"I never knew you played chess." The look Derek gave her could only be described as evil.
"Oh, there's more than you'll ever know about me. Now, are you ready?" Shaken by his flippant comment, Nora pulled the open book against her chest.
"Derek, what exactly are you planning to do?" Ignoring her, he pulled out a bulky device and put it in her purse, pulling out her books until it fit and could be zipped shut. "Derek, look at me. Derek!" He finally looked at her, and Nora almost wished he hadn't. The mask that she saw was one that would inspire terror in people. She quickly slipped off the bed and grabbed her purse. "Derek, whatever you do, please just make sure you come back to me." Her request made, she stepped into the hallway and began walking away from the lights of the entrance. A nurse noticed her and started to speak, but a single glance from Nora was enough to silence the young woman who quickly escaped into a room.
Heels clicking loudly in the empty hallway, Nora reached an intersection. One path looped to the right, likely to the entrance. The other, darkened and cluttered with extra gurneys, continued to the left perpendicular to Nora. She hesitated, wondering if she could do what he wanted. Nervously shifting her purse on her shoulder, she heard something shuffling in there. Opening it, she found a box of bobby pins, the same box she had given Derek.
With one last wistful glance to the right, she turned left and began weaving through the cramped hallway. The hallway stretched on for a few minutes but ended at a pair of white doors blocked by a gurney. Nora looked around, wondering if she had missed a turn in the gloom, but found only the two doors. Moving the gurney, she pressed on the bar to open the door. A clicking sound, familiar to her through the numerous radio shows Derek listened to, came from behind her.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Evans, but you may not leave that way." Swallowing her fear, she turned and regarded the nurse holding the pistol. Her dark clothing made it hard to see her in the gloom, but her eyes seemed to glow with an inner light.
"Sorry? Why is this exit off limits?" The nurse didn't react except to hold out her other hand, palm up.
"I don't understand. I just want to leave, why can't I use this door?" The nurse blinked and Nora thought she heard something whirring in the quiet.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Evans, but you may not leave that way." Nora stepped back from the woman, her back pressing into the door. The nurse pointed the gun at her head, mere feet from her. The two women regarded each other when finally Nora moved forward and hung her head.
"Alright, I'm sorry. I'll leave through the entrance." The nurse started to pull the gun back but Nora lunged and grabbed her hand. Letting her momentum carry them forward, Nora slammed the nurse into a stack of gurneys, the clattering of the metal deafening in the silence.
The nurse struck out with her hand, burying it into Nora's stomach, but Nora kept her grip on the gun and pulled hard, harder than she ever had. The gun slipped out from the nurse's hand and slid across the room. Her hands suddenly free, Nora grabbed the nurse's now empty hand and swung her into the other side of the hallway. The nurse hit the wall but, much to Nora's dismay, seemed unaffected. Instead she launched a wicked punch that hit Nora's head with enough force to send the woman to the ground.
Dazed from the fall, Nora shook her head and saw the nurse heading for where the gun had fallen.
"No!" On instinct, Nora kicked out and managed to hit the nurse in the back of the thigh, knocking her down. Nora launched herself at the nurse and tackled her to the ground, her purse becoming a bludgeoning weapon. She battered the nurse a few time before the nurse smashed her head into Nora's face. Falling back from the force, Nora lost her grip on the nurse and the nurse broke free, scrambling for where the gun was.
A sudden memory surfaced in Nora's scrambled thought process. It had been early in Derek and Nora's courtship and Nora had just told him about a client she was worried about. She didn't remember why, but she knew the client could be dangerous. Derek showed her some simple holds from his martial arts training in case the client showed up. The holds weren't supposed to hurt the other person, but it was enough to hold them still, long enough that Nora could figure out a new plan.
Nora flung herself forward, grabbing the nurse by the ankle and pulling her down to the ground with a heavy thud. Pulling herself onto the nurse, she looped her arms around the nurse's and linked her fingers behind the nurse's head. The nurse arched her back trying to get free but Nora rolled over with the nurse so that the two of them were sitting. The nurse fought and struggled, but Nora managed to hold on.
"Okay, I'm going to admit I didn't plan for this. But obviously you plan to kill me and I can't let you do that. So, sorry about that." The nurse turned her head and glared at Nora.
"You traitorous, dim-witted bitch! He's the answer to our survival, and you're letting him escape?"
"Hey, watch your language, and what exactly do you mean?" The nurse sneered and shook her head.
"Oh my god, you actually think you're her! That's so quaint, but tell me doppelgänger, what do you think he's going to do with you once he's done with you?"
"What do you mean?" Nora couldn't keep the note of desperation out of her voice. She had a feeling that the nurse was holding a key piece of information, and Nora desperately needed it.
"Poor little robot, all ready for the real world, but with no idea what the means!" She pushed up, ripping free of Nora's hold. Turning, she kicked Nora in the side of the head, sending her sprawling.
"Little N0-783 is so ready to be someone she isn't. But she can't. He'll never love you, you're nothing but a-" The gun in Nora's hands went off and the bullet through her head silenced the rest of the taunt. She fell to the ground silently and Nora fought back the bile that rose in her throat. Shakily standing, Nora stumbled over to the fallen nurse and gazed down, morbid curiosity seizing her.
The nurse's eyes were still opened, and Nora could see a bit through the bullet hole, the inner workings of the nurse's head exposed. Except, where was the blood? And the brain matter? Nora had seen enough crime scene photos to know something was wrong. She opened her purse and pulled out the device in it. Turning up the brightness, she held it over the nurse, the greenlight giving everything a decidedly odd look.
But nothing was odder than the wound. There was no blood, and Nora couldn't see any bone fragments in the wound. Instead it looked as though there was plastic and metal. Moving the light off the nurse's face, she realized what she thought was blood on the floor was too bright. Dipping her finger in the liquid she realized it was cold and felt like oil. Rising from her crouched position, she continued to rub her fingers together as she tried to understand what had just happened. Had the nurse called her a, robot? Nora stood in the dark hallway, lost in thought when the fire alarms started to sound.
She flinched from the sudden cacophony, and realized Derek was moving onto his next step. She fled outside and pressed the switches on the device like Derek had shown her. A message popped up on the screen and she put the device down, waiting for Derek to start the final part of their plan. Looking around the barren landscape Nora wondered why there seemed to be lightning in the distance. But she didn't have time to wonder. Behind her, she thought she heard an explosion. Whirling, she suddenly realized she hadn't held onto the pistol in the shock of killing the nurse. She held her purse up, ready to bring it smashing down onto whoever came through the door.
A few more explosion, closer this time, and Nora could hear someone screaming in pain. She heard someone running down the hallway and nearly swung her purse, but she saw it was Derek and instead she let her purse fall to the ground, the device inside clunking loudly on the hardened ground. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around him, to relieved to care about the weird armor he wore.
"Derek, thank god!" He held her but pulled her off and swallowed some pills, looking nervously at the sky.
"Derek! Are those chems?" He shook his head and pocketed the pills.
"Rad-X, how else do you expect me to survive out here?" He knelt and put on the device, tapping it as he softly spoke to himself.
"Rad-X? Derek, what do you mean?" Derek looked up, confused.
"Do you not see the glowing green air? This place is laced with rads!" He held out his arm and pointed at a dial on it. "The Geiger counter is going crazy. Do you seriously not see the green sky, or the lighting?"
Nora looked around at the blue sky. She did see the lighting, and there was a funny taste to the air, like she was standing by a power station. "I see flashes of light, but the sky is blue." Derek shook his head, a look of sadness making him look older than his years.
"Yeah, it's blue." He tapped the device a few times before nodding and reached into the duffle bag beside him. It was a large gun, which he checked over a few times. Checking the magazine he popped it back in and noticed Nora's slacked-jaw look of shock.
"What, you honestly thought that we could just waltz out of here?" Nora's already whirling brain barely registered the dangerous tone that she'd never heard in Derek before. Before she could speak, Derek grabbed her and pulled her back into the hospital.
He put a finger to his lips and crouched low, pulling Nora down with him. Outside, a low humming noise started and began getting louder. Soon she couldn't hear anything over the noise, and dust started flying through the air, stinging her eyes and coating her mouth. She looked outside and nearly gasped out loud, only Derek's hand clamping over her mouth silenced her.
It was a Vertibird, like the military uses and inside where three people in full power armor, the metal glinting dully in the light. They got off and one started looking around, the weapon in his hands raised to his facemask. He turned and gestured to the other two, pointing at the open door. Nora turned to ask Derek what to do, but he shook his head and shot her a menacing glare, his hands working on something in the dark.
The three started slowly moving to the door and Derek threw something through the doorway, pulling Nora close to him. A deafening blast rattled the gurneys and sent dust flying through the air. Not waiting for Nora's sense of balance to return, he roughly yanked her out the door and past the three figures and the small crater from the blast.
They got to the Vertibird when a fourth figure in an odd orange jumpsuit launched himself onto Derek. Twisting, Derek threw him off, but the man pulled out a small gun and started shooting what looked like lasers at him. Nora shook her head, still reeling from the blast when a line of bullets ripped across the sand between her and the Vertibird. Derek threw himself backwards, and with a muttered curse dragged the stunned Nora away from the Vertibird.
With a practiced motion he pulled the gun from his shoulder and lined up a shot. It hissed out and Nora saw the young man's head explode, the body dropping in the cockpit where he had been furiously working. Derek thrust a gun into Nora's hand and pulled out a different gun from the duffle bag.
"I hope to God you know how to shoot! We've got synths on the way, and the BOS pinning us down!"
"Derek! I don't understand! What's going on? Who are those people, what are you doing? Derek, who are you?"
Derek lined up a shot and shot at flying Vertibird. Another figure fell from it, dropping to the ground limply. He put his arms down and turned to Nora as he shoved what looked like spikes into the gun.
"I'm Derek, the sole survivor of vault 111. And right now, I'm the one telling you that you'll either help me fight or we'll both end up dead. Does that answer your question?" They both raced around the corner of the building as blue lights shot out of the hallway at them and the Vertibird. Leaning against the wall the two of them panted.
"No! But if you need my help, I'll try my best." Derek nodded.
"Good, now to shoot that thing you point it at whatever you don't want shooting you and pull the trigger. Go ahead and pull it a few times. Make sure your target is really down. I need you to keep anything away from that Vertibird. I'll handle the Brotherhood. Ready?" Nora shook her head, but she held her gun like Derek held his and checked the magazine.
"GO!" Explodin