Disclaimer: I disclaim all but my original characters, including any references to songs or movies.
My mind was blank for five whole seconds until it hit me like a walrus in a shopping cart.
What? What? What? What the ever-living-almighty-Jesus-frickin' hell?
"You want me to be your BABY MAMA? Are you RETARDED?" My face was bright red and all thoughts that could have been attributed to fear had vanished in a heartbeat. "What the hell! Do you have any idea what you're saying? Do you have any idea how easily I break? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
"Lucy!" Rickie called. I could barely hear him passed the blood rushing through my ears. He wrapped me in his big arms to keep me from hurting myself. I stared at the monster who was pissing me off. My ribs were protesting, but I ignored them.
The monster, Marcus, looked at me without anger or guilt, only interest. "Lucy?" He spoke softly, "Your name is Lucy?" I calmed down a bit. His eyes and voice and scent that clung to my nose were really quite tantalizing. I couldn't focus well on my anger anymore.
"Lucille Ann Baker," I gritted between my teeth, "You may refer to me as Miss Baker. And you can tell that monster who led me down here not to be so friendly with me in the future." My voice got stronger as I kept going. "And I want to know my options. If you want me to do something for you, you have to give me something in return!"
Marcus almost seemed amused by the time I'd finished my rant, but maybe I was imagining things. That face didn't looked like it actually moved very much, even to talk. Rickie pulled me closer, because Marcus had taken a small step in our direction.
"Tu sei come la luce del sole. Come brillante." He spoke softly, and reached to touch my face again, with both hands. His cold fingers pulled my hair around my face, and he bent to kiss a few strands trapped in his grip.
Now, if anyone starts blaming me for getting a little flustered, I will hunt you down and kill you. When was the last time a sexy man spoke to you in Italian? Seriously! Rickie tensed behind me, and, to be completely honest, he was holding me up because my legs were non-functioning. My face must have been bright red, because Marcus raised an eyebrow at me. His eyes almost seemed teasing when he looked at me, though he didn't appear to me to be the type to tease.
"Your heart beats so quickly Luce, One would think that you are not so averse to the idea as you claim?" Then, before I could make a comeback, or even realize what he'd said at all, he swept to the door and out of our prison cell to God knew where.
"...Lu?"
"Shut up."
I couldn't even think well enough for Rickie to be questioning me. But I needed to be able to think! How was I going to anything for us if all my mind could do was run circles around an image of that thing's face? I finally looked up at Rickie, and it was a good thing I did too. He looked scared and confused and angry all at the same time, and it was enough to distract me from Marcus. I calmed my breathing and heart for a few minutes. Rickie watched me nervously without speaking.
I used the time to take in our surroundings more. I was stone, of course, and it was relatively dim; the light all came from lanterns hanging against the walls. I was seated on a cot against the wall opposite the door, which seemed to be made of some sort of rusty old metal that might have been weak to the proper force. But I'd already decided that forcing our way out wouldn't work, so really my entire inspection served little purpose, but, by the time I was through, I was prepared to talk with a little more sense. It wasn't like it really took any time for me to make my decision. It was effortless, like breathing, but sometimes breathing hurts.
"Rickie, I think I might be able to get you out of this mess, just be patient and calm," I said to him in a quiet voice.
"Get me outta here? W-What about you Lu?" Rickie whispered in a panic, "You... you can't mean for me to leave ya' behind?" His eyes grew very, very wide and I hated myself for what I was going to say next.
"I'm going to stay and have a monster baby with that demon." It only took a split second for him to explode.
"NO! No! No! No! You are NOT! Don't do this Lucy! You can't do this! NO!" He was shouting, and I knew they could hear us, or, at least him. He grabbed my shoulders in his big hands and knelt in front of me, "They'll kill you! He'll kill you! Lucy, don't leave me!" He was shaking and sobbing now, and he sunk down onto the floor until his head was in my lap.
"Rickie, it's possible for me to have sex without breaking into pieces," I said sarcastically, "I'm not that fragile, and who knows, maybe they've heard of artificial insemination?" Rickie looked at me angrily, and then he was shouting again.
"What! D'you think they're gonna come after you with a turkey baster or somethin'?" I slapped him, and it hurt my hand.
"Ew! I did not need to hear that Rickie! What is wrong with you? Jesus! Either way, it's fine! I won't be able to leave, because they want me for something, and they do have the upper hand here... There isn't anything I can give them except what they want. They don't seem to need money at all, and that's all I would have to bargain with. If they really want my uterus, they can have it as long as you go home safe."
"No!" he said again, and wrapped his arms around me, "I can protect you! Don't give in to them!" He looked so determined and brave in that moment that I wanted to let him try. But I knew better. These things weren't human, and my Rickie was. Maybe he was stronger than me, but I knew without a doubt that they would kill him in a heartbeat. My gut was telling me so, and I trusted that feeling.
"Don't be stupid Cocoa-Butter. There's nothing you can do to overcome them. There's lots of them, and we're in their territory. You wouldn't stand a chance."
"You keep sayin' that like they're animals or somethin'..." He said more quietly, and he clutched me like a child again, trying to deny the truth.
"They aren't human Rickie. Don't try to lie to yourself," I replied. He whimpered and buried his face in my chest again.
"I feel so damn helpless... What do I do Lu?"
"You wait for me to get you out of here." He didn't answer me, but nodded against my aching ribs quietly, because he knew what that meant. I patted his back with my free hand and leaned against the cold, stone wall behind me. We were both quiet for a while, and I went to my happy place for a while.
I was in my greenhouse, sitting on the wrought iron bench beneath my favorite willow. To the left of me was an artificial pond dug into the ground, complete with fountain, water lilies, and koi fish. To my right was an intricate iron trellis. Twined around the trellis was jasmine and honeysuckle with a thick, sweet scent that itched my nose a bit.
On either side of me in pots, as well as buried in the ground, were all sorts of plants blooming and flourishing. Butterfly bushes and azaleas, blueberry and blackberry bushes, hibiscus and hydrangea, petunias and pansies, gardenias and the roses... veteran's honor red roses with the perfect blooms. White roses, yellow roses, pink roses, and lilies, irises, gladiolus's, daffodils; of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Thick green foliage; soft, dark soil, and pretty little stepping stones that wound around red buds, willows, peach trees, cherry trees, pears, and crepe myrtles and little bushes and plants in a shady path towards the entrance.
Butterflies were everywhere, fluttering around, and birds too, picking at berries and making sweet little nests in the trees. I never knew how they got in or out, but I had never cared. Filtered light shone through the filmy glass that rose high above it all, arching into the sky several meters above the tallest tree. There was a hummingbird feeder on a stand beside the trellis, and a feeder with birdseed by the pond.
Of course, not everything would be blooming at the same time, but it was my happy place, my rules! I dragged myself back to reality with a sigh. All that was left to do now was wait for the monster to come back. I rubbed Rickie's back again, pressing the knots in his muscles, and he wrapped his big arms tight around me, pulling me forward to the edge of the cot. I had to wrap my one good leg around his torso so that he could get closer. He rubbed his face on my shirt, and somehow I knew it was covered on snot.
"Come stop you're crying, it will be alright. Just take my hand, hold it tight," I sang to him, and he started to chuckle sadly. He lifted his head up to look at me.
"Tarzan? Seriously?" I smiled down at him. Yup, snotty.
"Disney is forever dummy," I replied coarsely, "And don't you forget that!" He laughed now, shaking us both, and rattling my broken bones. Ow.
"Hakuna Matata, right?" He said bitterly, and the wave of anger and sorrow I felt almost overtook me. My voice trembled when I answered.
"Yeah Rick, whatever you say."
The woman was indeed interesting. Perhaps she even qualified as entertaining... Marcus frowned. Since when did he ever find anything entertaining? He watched the monitor again as he rode the elevator up to floor level, where he knew his brother to be waiting for him. Her expressions when he'd revealed his intentions had been delightful. How angry she had become. Sure, one would suppose anger would be a natural emotion under the circumstances, but shouldn't she be just a little bit frightened?
Marcus lifted his hands up to inspect them. They still felt heated by the warmth of her skin. And she had been very warm, heated by her reaction to him, his Luce. Her scent was... bearable in the sense that he wasn't dying to kill her. She smelled like all sorts of flowers, gardenia, jasmine, and honeysuckle especially. He hadn't lived for so many years to not have any self control at all. He just needed to grow accustomed to her, it wouldn't be a terrible challenge. He wouldn't suffer unnecessarily.
Not the way that child of Carlisle had suffered... La tua cantante... What if she had been? The thought pained him, and Marcus gasped in surprise. Ah! It must be because of that bond! And such an intriguing bond it was turning out to be. It had started so small, a tiny strand of color, a wisp of smoky scent, light and delicate, like she was. But as the had met again... when he touched her for the first time, how it had flared! Many bright, swirling colors, and it smelled like her, and a little like him. That was not completely uncommon with bonds between couples, but for it to spring up so quickly, that was another matter entirely.
It was almost frightening, the way it happened, and he had always thought that Didyme... that nobody would ever make him feel like that. Not again. It wasn't quite the same, but, with the way it grew so unexpectedly, what if he did fall in love with her? Could he bear the same pain when she died?
And there was such a high chance of that. She was so fragile, and the experiment was so very dangerous. Would he let another woman fall through his fingers like that? What would Aro do when he knew?
Marcus swallowed back and emotion that he didn't care to name. They came to him now, emotions, creeping through his indifferent heart like like a fog. His head felt clogged and the parts of his mind that he never used seemed to be waking up. What would Aro do? He would want to nip that emotion in the bud and separate them before it became too strong Before Marcus got too …attached. Perhaps he would decide to make one of the guard the father. Marcus snarled out loud at the thought. But what could he do? How could he possibly protect her from his brother? Marcus felt cold chills take away the warmth that Lucy had left in him.
It was then that the elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. Thankfully, the lobby was empty. Aro had given him more time than Marcus thought he would. The doors shut after a while, and Marcus stood there, contemplating. Perhaps he should go back to her, and find a solution there? Whatever he did, it would have to be quick. He couldn't afford Aro reading his mind, seeing his confusion.
Marcus pressed the button for the basement floor again, and watched the numbers on the monitor. He would find a solution. He had to.
Hey guys! I uploaded this as soon as possible, so there may be some mistakes. If you find 'em, let me know, and I'll proofread again when I have a few minutes. I wanted to move it along further in this chapter, but there were so many things I had to resolve first. :/ I still have some issues to resolve between the characters before I can really take this where I'm going with it. Thanks for support! I hope to have the next chapter up soon!
