Chapter goes out to everyone who has read my story, glanced at it and definitely reviewed, alerted and favorited.
Quick suggestion to all. If you can find it...read Thirteen Reason's why by Jay Asher. It's sad, but it's good.
They got back maybe six or seven hours after she did. The pilot grumbling about the incompetence of military personal, who don't fly planes and think all planes can carry infinite amounts of weights. Kelly sat quietly in living room on their floor. She had her feet up on a table and her bandaged hands were flipping through the pages of a book. She'd finished it a few minutes before they came in. She didn't want to talk to them, she didn't want to talk to anyone.
Wade hadn't gotten on the plane like he should've. After ten minutes she just told the pilot to take her back to base. "Ain't you supposed to stay with the men?" He had asked. She had lifted her hands to him in reply and he just nodded, he didn't seem to care much about whether or not Stryker got back.
After checking with the doctor and having fifteen small rocks taken out of the sides of her hands, she had gone to take a shower. Then she explored a little. She explored mainly in James's room. She didn't know what made her go to that room first, but she went to it. And it still smelt like him. His room was also bigger than hers and wasn't apparently connected to a timer, so she decided that she was going to take it over. The room also had a large double bed, with thicker blankets on it.
The room was luxurious for a military base. The things she had she moved over. She had found a couple of books he had left behind. Her exploring had ended then; she grabbed a book and went to living room of their floor and red to pass the time till nightfall.
She had hoped they'd get back after she had gone to bed and freak out slightly when she wasn't in her usual room. It would serve them right. She closed the book and laced her hands over it as she put it on her stomach. She had her feet on the coffee table in front of her and her head pressed in a relaxing position against the back of the sofa. She watched as her hands and the book rose and fell with each breath she took.
The memory was, at first, barely but a shadow. Over time some people forget things they remember. The body never forgets. It's engraved in the skin; it is what made them who they were. But for a person who has access to anyone's memories by just touching them, and concentrating on their breathing alone, had access to their own memories forever. It didn't matter if breathing is the easiest thing to do it is always in the subconscious of a person. And while she never concentrated on her breathing, she was doing it now. So at first the memory was barely a shadow in the back of her mind, but then she remembered it.
It had been the night in the hospital. She hated hospitals even before Carter had to go to one, even before the FBI called to tell them that Cater had been attacked in his own home and would probably not survive the night. He had already been through surgery, for what good it had done, and was laid unmoving, unconscious and so perfectly still in the bed that at first she had thought he was already dead. Her mother and father had still been talking to the doctor. He was bandaged from head to toe. Back then she hadn't been able to think of anything that could do that to a human. She had done what she always did when she couldn't sleep and when he needed to be comforted. She had curled up next to him and put her head on his chest. Her head rose and fell with each strained breath he took. And with each beat of his heart she had known, always known. Her parents were still talking when his breathing and heart stopped. She knew it before the machines did. She had known but didn't move. It hadn't taken the doctors a long time to come in and shoo her away (that's at least how it felt, it couldn't been noting but seconds in reality). Not that it matter. She had known he wouldn't wake up. Maybe it was the fact that she heard his heart stop. She didn't know. She didn't care to know. But she had known.
Kelly found it strange in that moment that her eyes weren't burning. They were strangely dry. James and Chris had lost nights of sleep because of that memory, because she would remember too late not to concentrate of her breathing before going to sleep, before she learned that if she concentrated on the breathing she could control the memories. They had lost nights of sleep and never knew why. Chris found out late, by accident, much like Wade had. "Why do you eat cookies so much?" He had asked.
She had shrugged and grinned at him. "The first time Carter and I were alone at home in a morning, it was the only thing he could find to make breakfast of." She had said. She had then remembered it so fondly.
He had laughed softly. "I bet your brother misses you." And she had snapped. She had told him everything. With him it had been worse. She had screamed and broken things and Chris had taken it all as he tried to comfort her. They had to go out and buy new things, new dishes and glasses and all that. And he never mentioned Cater after that again, except before he left. She still didn't know why his words made her snap.
She figured it had something to do with what Carter had last said to her. "I bet, if you really think about it, that when you runaway from their arguing, when you runaway like you say Amy-Lee ran away from you, then you will miss us. You will miss mom and dad. I bet you will miss me." He had said. She guessed if Chris never said he missed her, then she wouldn't have snapped. But that day Carter and smiled at her, ruffled her hair and told her he'd see her the next day. He had a date with some hot girl.
Her name had been Casey Jensen. She died at the scene, in his apartment where they had found him. She had been a single kindergarten teacher. And had been dating Carter for a while. She had been the first person she had known everything about. But that had been an accident, as nothing had happened after that before they moved to Texas. Carter, according to memories, was the best thing that had happened to her since he last abusive boyfriend. She was a kindergarten teacher with a small four-year old little girl.
But she could've bet Carter didn't know that. Carter wouldn't have known because Casey had been afraid to let any man near her daughter, especially if she didn't know if he would hit her or if it would last.
Kelly opened her eyes as the memory of Casey's little girl flickered (she had dark blonde hair, always tied in two tails, a little pink dress and pink flip-flops, because that's what she could dress herself in that fit) out of existence and the only thing behind her eyes were darkness and the incessant snapping in front of her. It was David, and on the other side of the table stood Victor and Stryker and to her right stood Wade. A sheen of worry behind his brilliant eyes.
David sighed in relief and for the first time she is surprised by that. He had never shown any signs of giving a damn about her. "The doctor said you drank some painkillers and a few other pills, I was just…"
She dropped her feet and picked the book up. "I'm fine." She said with a light shrug. "I took the painkillers for my hands and a couple of sleeping pills. Two. Nothing more. I'm going to bed. See you." She walked to her room slowly.
Kelly walked into Stryker's office with a frustrated sigh. She was twenty-one now. For four years she has worked for the bastard and he had the audacity to be on the phone when she walks in. Two years ago was the last time she really spoke to anyone on the team.
She had made sure she was busy, never really keeping in contact with them. When she got back to base, she was too tired for anything beyond a shower, a quick dinner and going to sleep. She'd be out of the base by three-thirty and off to the gym to train for an hour. Then she'd shower for an hour and be out for the day's duties, which consisted mostly of interrogating people.
Usually her assignments are simply left on her bureau, but not this time. She waited for him to finish his call and glared at him as she plopped herself down in the chair. "His name is Derrick Johnson." She glanced at the file slid across the desk to her. "I want to know where Remy LeBeau is and I want to know fast."
She nodded slowly and grabbed the file. She flipped it open outside; she didn't want to seem too reluctant in the office. The fact that LeBeau actually escaped pleased her. She had seen him when Victor had brought him in.
Victor had never done anything half. The poor guy had looked like hell. There had been a long black leather coat, a hat and a staff with a crystal knob carried in Victor's free hand. He was older than her, by a couple of years. But like all things she got attached to, he also left, ironically with her help, but not much. She failed to see why that was so bad. His escape, his leaving she didn't mind so much.
She nearly jumped out of her skin when a hand was thrown over her shoulder. Wade grinned brightly at her. She could never revert back to just calling him Wilson. Suddenly he was Wade. David stood next to her, a mini smile on his face and a curt nod of his head. "We're your supervising officers for this interrogation, Miss Armstrong." Wade told her in the most official voice he could muster.
She almost smiled but tried to keep it down. "Well, Mr. Wilson, if you would be as kind as to remove your arm from my shoulders we can start with this interrogations. You are aware of what supervising means, are you not?"
David nodded for him. "We are, but we would also like you to know that if we find anything out of order in this interrogation, we will step in." Business as always.
She turned her head to him, gazing intently at him over Wade's arm. "Are you implying that I don't know how to conduct an interrogation, Mr. North?" Her tone was icy.
He shook his head. "No."
Wade pulled her closer with his arm and lowered his head to her level. His breath was warm over the side of her face. "I know something, you do." She wondered if he knew that wasn't how the rhyme went. She squashed that thought immediately, one this was Wade Wilson. The one man whom spoke more than any woman on the planet. He is bound to know that little rhyme, and two this man for all intents and purposes could get quite violent, and dangerous. So in her own best interest she'll have to get him to tell her what he knows. "I know something you don't want me to know." He continued.
David looked over at them and studied them subtly curious. If it weren't for the constant interrogations she's been doing for two years straight, she wouldn't have even noticed it. But as of late she picked things up a little easier. She flicked Wade's arm off her shoulder and walked a little faster. "If you're so sure about that, Wade, why don't you tell me all about over dinner?" She asked, a moment later she wanted to slam her head into a wall at the suggestion. She couldn't believe she had just asked the cockiest of all men out to dinner and that in front of David North.
Maybe she was ill, something like a terminal illness according to some guy of some place or something. Maybe she needed to go see the doctor. Kelly frowned. What exactly was she supposed to tell him? 'Hey doc, I just asked Wade Wilson on a date, is there a cure for that?' Or it couldn't be a date. She'll dress casual and just out right ask him. "A date! Yes! I'll pick you up at seven, I know this great place." He said and disappeared into the room next to the interrogation room.
She sighed. "It is not a date." She muttered; then glanced curiously at the door. The only thing around them for kilometres upon kilometres is trees. Unless he could fly a helicopter or something in those lines, she had no idea where he could take her.
David chuckled softly. "You shouldn't have given him that opening." He said.
She glanced at him before smiling at the door. "Maybe I wanted to give him that opening."
"Then be careful of getting hurt." He said before starting for the door.
"I feel honoured." She said with a smug tone and turned to the opposite door.
She could feel his dark eyes on her. "And why is that?" He asked.
"You care." She walked in and smiled sweetly at the man sitting in the chair. "Mr. Johnson, I'm Kelly Armstrong, Interrogations officer here at the base. Welcome." She stuck her hand out and dropped the guard around her mind, she concentrated on his chest rising and falling. She allowed his memories to filter through into her mind. She smiled when she saw Remy. Mister Bordeaux, as Johnson would know him.
She let go of his hand and sat down. She placed the thin file of Derrick Johnson on top of Remy's relatively thick file. "There are people behind that window." He said, not asked.
She glanced at it and took her own dark hair and eyes in before nodding slowly. "Yes, not that I would call them people. Manner-less noobs really." She said.
He chuckled softly and seemed to relax a little. "You are young Miss…or is it Mrs?" He asked.
"I'm not spoken for, so I assume…" A knocking on the mirror's other side interrupted her. She grinned. "There is one of the manner-less noobs now. He'll be by in around…oh…three, two…one." The door opened with a bang behind her.
"Armstrong." Wade said in his most superior voice. "Outside." He said and turned around.
She left the files. She knew the man wouldn't touch them. She closed the door behind her and gazed at him smartly. "Something wrong, Mr. Wilson?" She asked
He narrowed his eyes. "You are not to lead the hostages on." He said darkly.
She smiled and nodded. "I was merely trying to get him to relax. It should be common knowledge that people talk more easily to those they trust." She turned around. "But, I'll make it clear then, as you say, that I'm not leading him on." She put her hand on the door and waited for him to enter the other room first.
She walked back in, smiling, and the files exactly like they were. "I do hope nothing is wrong." He said earnestly.
She shook her head. "No, nothing wrong. My supervisor would just like to inform me that I am not to lead any of those I interrogate on. It's Miss, though." She said in reply.
The man was clearly trying to hold laughter back as she sat down. "You are quite young, Miss Armstrong, I never thought to see a young woman in a place like this. As for your charms, I wouldn't dare fall for them. I am rather happily married." She grinned and placed Johnson's thin file aside and opened Remy's.
She pulled a photo of him out. A recent one. Or at least before he escaped. She slid it over the table to him. "I was wondering if you have seen this man." She said.
He studied the picture for a long time. "No. I've never seen him." He wouldn't have. Remy had worn a coat with a thick hood over everything else he normally wore.
She nodded and took the picture back. "I suspected that much." He studied her curiously. "Is there a possibility that you might've met him before. Travelled with a lost stranger?" She asked. She drummed her fingers lazily on the table as she watched him.
"Strangers? No, I've never picked up a stranger." He said, he sounded almost guilty. She nodded. Of course, it was a lie; he picked up a hooded stranger, Jeremy Bordeaux, as he had introduced himself, and drove him to the nearest casino. After that, he hadn't seen Remy again.
She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know. This is just a routine question…hypothetically, if you were lying, would it come as a surprise to you that the supervising officers wouldn't be too happy?" She asked.
He stared at her a long time. "I guess not. But I swear. I'm not lying." He was pleading, yet his tone was exactly the same as before.
She nodded and got up. "It's a hypothetical. I know you aren't lying. No use in killing a man who isn't lying, it's a waste of time and makes it longer before we catch the actual bastard." She explained and grabbed her files. "A pilot will come by and take you back to where they had picked you up, shortly. Goodbye, Mr. Johnson." She walked out, closing the door behind her.
She heard David and Wade come out of the other room and jog to catch up with her. "What the hell was that?" David snapped.
She sighed and glanced at him. "What was what?" She asked.
"That. With that man. Dammit, my source told me he had seen LeBeau with that man!" David was never agitated and was rightfully not so again, he was just severely pissed of.
"Your source was wrong. I never saw LeBeau in that man's memory. He wasn't there. The man had never met him. What were you paying your source? All mistakes root back to money. Check that out and you have the answer." She snapped back.
He stopped, but she and Wade continued walking. "You do realize that if you are lying about this an innocent man will die." David called after her.
She gazed coldly at him. She was surprised to find that she didn't give a damn. That somewhere inside of her the normal reaction, the one she knew should've been there, the one that had her begging David not to kill the man; wasn't there. She shrugged. "Innocent? David, that man, your supposed source is about as innocent as Victor soaked in the blood of his recent victim. Not my problem." She said and walked away.
Wade threw his arm around her again. She was suddenly very much in the mood of getting whatever he knew over with and soon. "So what is it you know that I don't want you to know?" She asked.
He laughed. "Oh no, no, no. That's not happening. You'll have to wait for tonight. And dress nicely." He said, he dropped a kiss onto her cheek and was off. She stared at him his retreating back and frowned.
He was up to something. She smiled and wandered off in the direction of the kitchen. How bad could a date, not a date, with Wade Wilson really be, right? He was a gorgeously handsome (sexy) man. There was no denying that.
The girl sitting with her, Emily Potter, a rookie in the name and field, gazed at her curiously. They chatted whenever they saw each other. She was one of the most recent additions to Stryker's army. A doctor, who had joined the team a couple of weeks after the Africa thing, wasn't Kelly's type to communicate with. Kelly wasn't much on dressing up and so on, but that woman could barely even match a white coat with what she was wearing. And Emily on the other hand, made a damn camouflaged uniform look good. The girl had curves in all the right places. Unfortunately. Kelly felt flat against the girl.
"So, how do you dress for a mystery date with Wade Wilson?" Kelly asked as she threw another pair of jeans on the bed, the one that used to be James's.
She laughed. "Not jeans and a t-shirt. I can tell you that. Go for elegant, yet sexy." She said.
"You've been on a date with him?" Kelly asked turning to the girl as another pair of jeans and four more shirts joined the pile.
"Yeah, but he said you haven't spoken to him in two years. I didn't know you guys had a thing going." She said quickly.
Kelly waved it off. They didn't. What Wade did with his time was his problem. "I haven't. And I don't have elegant or sexy in my closet." She really didn't even have a dress in her closet.
"Come on, I think I've got something." Emily led her down the hall towards the timed rooms. She shook her head. The poor girl.
"You know, Chris Bradley's room is still empty. And the shower isn't on a timer there." She said casually.
Emily glanced at her and laughed brightly. They entered the room and Kelly was surprised to find it so casually comforting. Everything was in light blues and purples. She had the room painted. There were many things that could be said about Stryker. But their personal life was just that, personal. They could do whatever they liked as long as they followed his rules to a T. She walked to an over stuffed closet and Kelly watched as she pulled the door open and had it bursting with clothes.
Clothes spilled from that closet. She pulled huge dresses, small dresses, inappropriate dresses and all kinds of dresses from it and dropped them onto the bed. She was getting even more dresses when Kelly noticed one she liked almost immediately. It wasn't really fancy, and where it would've fit Emily above the knee, she could tell it would fit a little below the knee for her.
It was a dark pink in colour. The seam of the dress had black lace added to it, for maybe about a centimetre or two. There was a thin, single black bow, not too big and definitely not stiff. The two invisible strips that were the straps, made it look like a strapless dress. She called dibs on it immediately.
She headed back to her room with a pair of black heels and a cut off jacket made up from some very soft material she didn't have a name for. It wasn't silk. Whatever it was, it made her think of a cheesecake, which was also very soft.
It was her first date with any one since she left home four years ago. And she couldn't help but feel and odd giddiness build up in her. It was two-thirty in the afternoon when she started to get ready with Emily's help. She was done at maybe two minutes before seven. The longest time she's taken to get ready for anything.
Her junior Prom she was dressed and ready to go in under an hour.
But she heard the knock on the door, and froze. This was also her first date with an adult. And he was older than her. She was sure by more than maybe ten years, she knew of the age suppressant Stryker was feeding them. So she had no clue about how old he really was, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that this was her official first date.
He knocked again and she glanced at Emily. The girl was stifling her giggles in Kelly's pillow. "Ok, go. And when you get back, I want to know everything." She gazed at Emily for a long time; three more knocks (could've been ten or eleven), and wondered what it was with her incapability to keep people at a distance. Why she always set herself up for heartache? "Go!" Emily scolded as she went to the door.
Emily didn't wait and simply opened the door.