Thank-you to everyone who has reviewed all my stories so far, I really appreciate it. Hope you enjoy this next installment.
P.S. After watching the new episode on Friday, I realized how much I really can't stand Connor. Even though it was against my better judgement, I really wished he'd been dead. *insert evil grin here*
Chapter 2: Personal Hell
True to her word-the sentence itself a contradiction-a limo was there to pick up Daniel from his apartment. The driver helped him from his wheelchair into the car, and Daniel spent the entire ride contemplating how he was going to get through the next four days. He stared out the window, watching the lights of New York fly by. He saw a group of giddy looking men exiting a pub with three gorgeous women.
"Should be me" he thought jealously. The limo came to a slow stop in front of Wilhelmina's apartment. Daniel's eyes nearly flew out of his head. The outside was lavish beyond imagination, the building itself a towering skyscraper that reminded him of something that once belonged in Gotham city. Daniel slid jerkily into his wheelchair, playing with the piece of paper in his pocket where Betty had written a phone number ("In case of emergencies, Daniel" she'd whispered gravely before leaving Mode earlier that afternoon). He wanted to make sure he kept a hand on it, should he ever feel the need to use it. A tall bellboy helped him and his luggage into the elevator and deposited him at Wilhelmina's doorstep. Daniel handed the boy a twenty and said, "Thanks, but I've got it from here." The boy looked doubtfully at him in his wheelchair, but shrugged and walked off nonetheless. Daniel turned back to Wilhelmina's door. He raised his hand to knock but stopped, and slowly lowered his hand back into his lap. "Am I seriously sitting here like a toddler because my mom told me to? Screw this, I should be out having fun; I should be out at a bar; I should-"
Suddenly the door swung open, revealing an unamused looking Wilhelmina in a black negligee. "Does she even know how freaking cold it is outside?" Daniel thought incredulously. She tilted her head to one side and cocked her brow as she looked him up and down. He realized he must've looked kind of stupid, just sitting there, a grown man in a wheelchair surrounded by suitcases. He looked back at her as defiantly as he could.
"I'm not staying here" he said, trying his best to sound gruff and determined. She opened the door all the way and rolled her eyes.
"Don't kid yourself, wheels, you weren't going anywhere" she said, turning and leaving him in the hall.
"Hey," he called angrily, "couldn't you at least help me with my crap?"
She turned back to him. "Not my fault you don't know how to travel light." With that she was gone, and he could hear her heels clicking down the hall. He sucked in an angry breath and piled as many bags onto his lap as he could, trying to wheel himself forward, which proved difficult since he'd only been in a wheelchair for a week and couldn't see where he was going. He huffed and puffed angrily and when he figured that he'd wheeled his way into the living room he shoved the bags off of him.
"Three down, two to go" he muttered, looking at the bags strewn on the floor. He heard a giggle to his right and raised his head, his eyes landing on Wilhelmina. She was leaning against the wall of the hallway that led to what he assumed was her bedroom, as well as several others, sipping champagne, a bemused look on her face.
"No use looking back there, Daniel, because you're sleeping on the couch" she said, stepping forward and putting the glass down next to a table lamp. She looked down at his suitcases. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to be more careful with your things?" she said, wrinkling her nose, but smirking at him all the while.
He glared angrily back at her, his shirt and jacket rumpled from his trek from the front door.
"You said you weren't going to help me, Wilhelmina" he hissed, trying to spin his chair in such a way as to reveal his anger toward her. He found this to be more difficult than spinning on his heel.
"Oh for God's sakes, Daniel" Wilhelmina said, easily passing him as he struggled to turn his wheelchair toward the front door. She stepped out into the hall and kicked his bags into the foyer, too disgusted to actually lay a hand on them. His mouth dropped.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you to be more careful with other people's things?" he asked, his voice rising.
"How the hell should I know, she was never around" she said, glaring at him and shutting the door.
"Oh" Daniel said, feeling almost sorry he'd said anything. He turned himself back to the living room where she was placing his things onto a large, firm looking sofa.
"Alright, Meade, if you're gonna stay here you're gonna wanna make sure you follow the rules" she said, looking at him like he was suspect little child. He rolled his eyes, but listened nonetheless. "First, no inviting over anyone who's dumb enough to be your friend-that includes Betty. Two, I go to sleep at 10:00 every night, so if you're still awake, keep it down or I'll lash you to your chair so you can't use the bathroom. Third, there's food in the fridge-"
"Whoa, wait a second, you actually get your nourishment from things normal people eat?" he asked sarcastically, pulling back his head and grinning at her.
She gritted her teeth, raising an eyebrow and slowly making her way toward him until she was directly in front of him.
"Only to sustain me long enough until I find my next victim" she said softly, crossing her arms in front of her. "I had Marc put food in there so I wouldn't have to hear you bitch about being hungry. Loaded up on Twinkies and marshmallows, stuff you can gum in case I knock out your teeth." She turned and walked into the living room.
"Oh, this'll be grand" Daniel thought, shaking his head. She reached toward an armchair and threw two animal fur blankets onto the sofa. "These are real Bengali tiger skins, so there's no way you can get cold but in case you do there's more in that cabinet over there" she said gesturing toward a large mahogany cabinet at the far end of the living room. Daniel looked around the apartment.
"Do you not believe in electricity or something?" he asked, directing his eyes toward the glass encased fireplace that provided the only source of light in the room. Even the hallway to her bedroom was completely dark.
"Do you need a nightlight?" she said, pouting her lips and frowning mockingly at him. "This isn't Yankee Stadium, you know."
Daniel sighed. "I was just asking, Wilhelmina."
She looked a little surprised that he hadn't thrown back a zinging retort. She sighed, annoyed, but decided nonetheless to satisfy his seemingly endless amount of curiosity.
"Why would I put in a bunch of lights in a place I live in alone?" she asked, walking back toward her bedroom. Daniel realized this was the second time she'd referred to being alone. He looked at the floor, and wheeled around.
"Wilhelmina" he said.
He heard her footsteps slowly returning to the living room. She appeared out of the dark, and he realized there was a certain weariness about her face he'd never seen before. She stared at him, waiting for him to speak.
"I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate the fact that you're letting me stay here."
"I'm not doing this voluntarily, Daniel" she said, looking at him like he was a colossal idiot.
"I know, but you did anyway and that's what's important. You could've just left me at my apartment."
She pulled back her head in surprise, as though the words had made physical contact with her body. He realized she probably didn't do anything to deserve a thank-you often enough not to be struck by the fact that he'd said it. She stared at him a moment longer, as if trying to figure out how to respond.
"You're welcome" she said emotionlessly, then turned and retreated to her end of the apartment. He heard her door click softly shut. It occurred to him that she probably wasn't used to having people invade her home. "Probably been alone ever since Connor took off" he thought, hoisting himself from the chair and slipping under the blankets on the couch. He thought about all the times he'd wondered what her life was really like, what she did after she went home. He realized he would've preferred his ignorant assumption that she hung upside down in a cave every night. It felt odd to him, feeling sorry for her. As he waited for sleep to come, he realized that the mild loneliness he felt being in a room so large must only be worse for her every night.
Wilhelmina was sitting on her bed, the TV flickering brightly in her otherwise dark room. She finished her champagne and made her way toward the kitchen for more. She stepped into the living room and stopped at the sight of Daniel, mouth slightly open, a light snore escaping his lips. She grinned in spite of herself. "I should take a picture" she thought mischievously. She was about to walk away when she noticed half of his right cast-covered leg was uncovered. She paused, then quietly put the glass on the coffee table by the sofa and reached a hand toward one of the blankets, carefully pulling it back over him.
"The last time I did that was when Connor was still around" she thought sadly. She looked down at Daniel. He looked so young and naïve in his rumpled shirt, his boyishly handsome face having resigned its usual intense expression to sleep.
"Molly" he said suddenly, startling her. He was talking in his sleep, his face looking almost forlorn. She realized that he must've been expressing in dreams the sadness he was too proud to express while he was awake.
"Looks like we've got something in common, Daniel" she whispered, thinking of all the times she'd dreamt that Connor had returned what he'd stolen from her and begged for forgiveness. It took her a while to realize that the bastard had taken her for everything she'd worked for and hadn't even loved her enough to feel bad and return it. She turned away and walked softly toward the kitchen.
"You're too busy grieving to know how lucky you were, Daniel" she thought as she filled her glass to the brim. "Molly loved you so much she fought Death to stay here as long as she could." She gazed out of the window into the sky, downing yet another glass of the only liquid that could so readily numb her emotions.