A/N Thank you for that one review! I really appreciate it, I love hearing feedback from those that read my stories. Well here's the next chapter, it's not that exciting. Sorry. But I hope you all enjoy it and I will hopefully update the next chapter very soon.
~Axelrocks~
Chapter 2
Evey jumped when the Underground suddenly began to echo with the sound of multiple gun shots. Was that because of V? Of course it was! But was he all right? She hoped that those gun shots were not aimed at V. But in her mind she knew they were.
Oh, God, please...let him live. Please...
Tears came to her eyes at the thought that she might never see V alive again.
It was only Creedy and V left now. And Creedy looked especially scared. V smirked at the way the man seemed to tremble with fear. In truth he was just as afraid of dying as Sutler had been. In the end they were all the same. Cowards.
He had already killed all Creedy's men before they reloaded like he said he would. Now it was Creedy's turn and he had to wonder if the part where he was going to die with V's hands around his neck was true. He didn't want to find out. He lifted up his gun and began shooting.
"Die! Die! Why won't you die?"
Five shots later Creedy's gun was empty and was backed against a wall. "Why won't you die?" He was in total disbelief. V should be dead. Any normal human would be dead right now.
V was breathing heavily. "Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea. And...ideas are bulletproof."
Just then he grabbed Creedy around the neck, choking him. And just like V said Creedy died with his hands around his neck.
He had to make it back to her. He had to see her face at least once before he died.
He stumbled and fell against a wall. But he had to keep going and he lifted himself up, leaving a smear of his blood trailing along the wall. He had to keep going. He had to see her.
Evey still sat on the bench, waiting. Her hands were clutched tightly on her lap.
Where was he? It had been awhile since she had heard the last gunshots and she hoped V was still alive.
She jumped when she heard a shuffle down the tracks. She turned in time to see V stumble through the door, his hat falling to the floor.
"V!" She was immediately at her feet running toward him. She caught him before he fell and together they slowly sank to the floor. V laid in her arms.
"Oh, God we have to stop your bleeding." She frantically tried to apply pressure to his wounds hopefully staunching some of the blood flow.
"Oh please don't..." His breathing was becoming more labored. "I'm finished...and glad of it."
She shook her head, tears sprung to her eyes. "Don't say that.
"I told you only truth," he took a breath. "For twenty years I sought only this day. Nothing else existed...until I saw you and everything changed." He paused and took more breaths.
"I fell in love with you, Evey, like I had no longer believed I could."
A tear slid down her cheek. "I don't want you to die." Her voice was barely above a whisper.
"That's the most beautiful thing you could have given me." And then he fell silent.
"V?" She cried. "V?"
No response.
This couldn't be! He couldn't be dead! She began to cry and laid her head down on his chest.
But wait! What was that she felt? Was it a faint heartbeat? She leaned her head closer to his mask and she could barely hear his shallow breathing. He was still alive!
Not for long if she didn't do anything. She hated to do it, but she began to tear long strips of cloth from his cape and used them to apply pressure to his chest hoping it would stop some of the blood flow.
She heard someone walk up behind her. She turned around and saw Inspector Finch. He was looking over at V.
"So, it's over then?"
"No. No, it's not. Please," she pleaded. "He's still alive. Please, is there anything you can do to help?"
His face softened and he kneeled by her.
"All right," he said, his slight Irish brogue evident in his voice. "I know some basic medical things, but I don't know how much good that'll do."
"Please," she said. "Just do anything that will help him. I want him to live."
"You cared for him didn't you?" Finch asked.
She nodded. And he cared for me too. She couldn't help but smile at his confession. He loved her.
"I see." Then he turned away from her and began to vigorously work on V. He tore off more strips off of V's cape and began to bind them around his chest. He hadn't taken a look under V's shirt to see exactly where he was hurt and Evey was glad. It would be feeling she was betraying him if she saw what he looked like.
She stood there and watched Finch work, but she felt useless.
That was when she heard the clock chime midnight and she saw the train. She knew what she had to do.
She raced to the opening to the train, ignored Finch's demands to stop, and grabbed the lever.
She paused. This was it. The clock still chimed. She took one more deep breath and pulled down the lever.
She stepped off the train, watched as the door slid shut and the train moved along the tracks. It totally disappeared just as the last chime echoed throughout the Underground.
Finch ran up to her, slightly out of breath. "What was that?" he demanded.
She looked him square in the eyes. "That, Mr. Finch, was the beginning of change.
They both were kneeling beside V's body.
"Miss Hammond, we need to take him to a hospital. They can do better for him than I can."
"No!" She cried and earned a sharp glance from Finch. "He wouldn't have liked to be taken to a hospital."
"He's on the verge of death, do you think he would really care?"
"If he lives," she hated saying those words. "I want him to wake up in his home and not a hospital. I fear he will be angry if he finds out he was taken to a hospital."
"He wasn't supposed to live, was he?"
She nodded, tears brimmed in her eyes. "He fully expected to die, he had even given me all that he had owned." She paused and wiped her eyes. "But I can't let him die, he means too much too me."
Finch nodded, understanding. "Then we mustn't let him die. Is there a place we can take him?"
She sniffed and nodded.
"All right then," he bent to pick V up. He struggled as he did so and looked over at her. "I'm going to need a little help."
They both struggled to carry V's limp body to his bed in the Shadow Gallery.
The first thing Finch noticed, once they had set V down on the bed, was the stacks of books. There had to be hundreds of them, thousands! Had V read them all?
"Mr. Finch?" Evey said his name and peered at him curiously. "Are you all right?"
"Oh, yes." He shook himself out of his trance and now focused on the task he had at hand.
Saving V's life.
"I'm going to need some medical supplies, Miss Hammond."'
"Oh, right," she said, nodding her head. Then she left the room in a hurry.
She returned moments later with a bag full of supplies. V had a stock pile of them and, not knowing what Finch would need, grabbed one of everything.
When she walked in she saw Finch sitting in a chair with a book in his hand.
He looked up when she came in. Closing the book, he held it up.
"This book was blacklisted years ago, by Sutler. How did he come by it?"
She set the bag down. "How did he get any of his things? We may never know."
"You're right," he agreed and set the book down on the little bedside table, then grabbed the bulging bag of supplies. "Now down to business. I'm going to have to remove his shirt to clean and examine the wounds underneath."
Her breath caught in her throat. "You mean you're going to look at his skin?"
"I'm afraid so."
She backed up to the door. "Then I have to leave."
He nodded his head. "I understand."
"Thank you."
She took one last look at V's still form and slipped quietly out of the room.
Evey shut the door and leaned against it. She hoped with all her heart that V would forgive her for letting Finch see what his body really looked like.
She would tell him that she had no choice but to. She had wanted him to live.
Finch wiped the sweat of his brow when he had finally finished cleaning and wrapping all of V's numerous gunshot wounds. He should have been dead. No normal person could have survived being shot so many times.
Maybe it was because he wasn't a normal person.
he pulled V's shirt over his newly bandaged torso, and began cleaning up his supplies.
A first the sight of V's burned flesh repulsed him, with the red skin, the multiple scars and the dozens of bloody gunshot wounds. But he soon overlooked it all and begun his extensive work.
He had pulled out numerous bullets and stitched up the many wounds, then he cleaned up the blood.
This man had been badly burned and it was of no surprise why he wore a mask. Finch didn't blame him. If his face was badly burned and scarred he would hide it too.
And V took great lengths to hide it. There was not one inch of exposed flesh. He really didn't want anyone to see it.
That was probably why Evey had left. She knew V didn't want her to see what he really looked like, so she had left the room. Finch received a new level of respect for her.
He zipped up his supply bag and set it on the floor.
Someone softly knocked on the door.
"Yes?" He called.
Evey's soft voice carried back to him, "Are you finished, Mr. Finch?"
He took one last look over V, then called back to her. "Yes, Miss Hammond, you may come in."
She opened the door slowly and cautiously and in her hands she held a tray with a steaming pot of tea and two tea cups.
"I thought you might like some refreshments, Mr. Finch. I hope tea will suffice."
He noticed the tray was shaking in her hands, he walked around the bed and took it from her.
"Tea is perfect, Miss Hammond. Thank you." He set the tray down on top of his book on the little bedside table.
He poured Evey a cup, then himself.
"Sit, please," he said and handed her a cup. Then took his own and grabbed a chair and sat next to her.
"So, Miss Hammond..." He began.
"Evey," she said after blowing on her steaming cup. "Please, I want you to call me Evey."
"Of course, and you must call me Eric."
"All right," she nodded. She took a sip and jumped when the scalding liquid burned her mouth.
Eric couldn't help but chuckle. "Careful, it's still probably hot."
He didn't know when was the last time he had laughed, or smiled in that matter.
She smiled and set her cup down. "It is." Then her gaze slid to V and the smile disappeared.
Eric sighed. "I wish I could tell you he was going to be okay, but at this point I'm not sure." He looked at her, she was still looking over at V.
He continued. "The bleeding has been stopped, for now, and his breathing is heading towards normal. But we won't know for sure how he's faring until he wakes up."
She picked up her cup and nodded. Eric noticed how tightly she was holding her cup.
"Thank you, for everything, Eric," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"You're welcome," he said and stood up and gathered up his things. "It's getting late and I should be heading home. I'll be back in the morning to check his progress."
She looked up at him. "All right." Then she noticed his gaze lingered on the book he had been reading earlier.
"You can borrow that if you want."
He looked at her, startled. "What?"
She smiled and picked up the book. "I saw you looking at this. Go ahead and take it. I'm sure V won't mind, he's probably read it already."
She handed him the book and he took it. "This was my father's favorite book before it was blacklisted." His eyes got a faraway look.
"Go on, take it. There will be no one to tell you cannot read it anymore."
"That's right," he smiled. "Sutler is dead."
He headed for the door. "See you in the morning, Evey."
