Lisbon to home, that was all she could think as she boarded the plane, armed with the information that she had needed to find. A large part of her heart was heavy with regret, since she hadn't truly wished to believe that John was faking his results, but the weight of their dead patients had superseded her grief for her friend. She had sent a quick text home to Henrik, telling him to meet her at the airport, and he had agreed, which eased her burden a little.
Roxanna followed the others onboard, slinging her bag over her shoulder a little as they went along. She knew that she had to stay calm, to try and sound rational when she spoke with Henrik, since she had no idea what tales John had been spinning in her absence. She knew now that he would stoop to any low, as long as it got him what he wanted. It was something she should have seen back in Boston, but even then, she had wanted to believe the best in everyone, even when she felt like she was drowning beneath the weight of false gaiety.
"I'm coming home," she murmured after stepping onto the plane and finding her seat. Again, she had managed to get a window, and she sighed with pleasure as she slid her case beneath the seat in front of her. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she checked to see if Henrik had sent her anything, and smiled a little to see that he had remembered her.
There's been a slight change of plans, Roxanna, and I've been pulled into surgery. I've asked Lofty to pick you up, since he has always been a steadfast, dependable, young man. I wish that I could have been there, but with Sacha still on leave, there was no one else to perform the surgery. Stay safe until you're back here. H
She couldn't deny that she was disappointed by the change, but she did understand. Letting out a soft sigh, Roxanna wrote a quick reply before turning the phone on airplane mode and thumbing through her photo gallery. Her heart clenched a little painfully to see the happy smiles on the faces of David and Henrik. They were the loves of her life, and it seemed as if both had left them in the worst ways possible. Oh, she knew it wasn't fair to think that Henrik had left her, but it did seem that way from her perspective, and it was hard to shake that notion.
Even though the flight was only three hours long, Roxanna found herself falling asleep about twenty minutes into the it, the weariness of her soul overwhelming her body. It wasn't until the flight attendant shook her shoulder gently that she came back to the waking world, and she threw him a grateful smile as she stretched a little and then gathered her bag before leaving the plane and exiting to the terminal. There was something delicious about the scent of home, even if it was recycled air. She was never more grateful than that moment that she hadn't brought any luggage with her, since that meant she could just breeze through customs and head out to meet Lofty.
"There you are, Ms MacMillan!"
Roxanna turned to the sound of Lofty's voice, a soft smile on her lips as she closed the distance between them. "Thank you for coming to pick me up."
"I would never have left you hanging, ma'am," he said softly as he held out his hand. "May I take your bag?"
"It's not that heavy."
"Maybe so, but I'd still like to carry it for you. You've been traveling for so long, that any ease of your burden might be welcome?"
She chuckled a little as she handed the bag over to him, somehow knowing that she wouldn't be able to say no. "I suppose." Handing the bag over to him, they began to head out to the carpark, and she took out her phone, quickly scrolling through her notifications. There was nothing from Henrik, but she supposed that he had gone into surgery sometime while she was in the air, so that made sense. She was a bit stunned to see a message from John, asking to meet with her when she returned, but she supposed that she would have to get that over and done with before she went to Henrik with everything she had found out.
"Are you done with your travels, then? Mister Hanssen made it seem like you were."
Roxanna nodded absently as she watched out the window. While nothing appeared to have changed, she felt like everything had, an impending sense of doom clouding her mind as the sun shone outside. "I have found everything that I was looking for, yes. I'm not pleased with the results, but I'll have to live with that."
A silence fell over the car the rest of the drive to the hospital, and she wasn't surprised to find Lofty fairly dashing from the car in order to escape her mood. Shaking her head a little, Roxanna shouldered her bag and started towards the entrance, her mind focusing on what she was going to say to John. A startled gasp escaped her lips when she felt a strong pair of hands grab her from behind and push her up against the brick wall.
"What did you think you were looking for in Lisbon?" John hissed as he leaned in close to her. For the first time, Roxanna noticed how cold his eyes were. There was no emotion there, no feeling, and she shivered involuntarily, fear filling every cell of her body as she tried to pull away from him. His fingers just tightened around her upper arms, feeling like iron vises holding her there. "Answer me, Rox!"
She blanched, pulling away from him as much as she could with the cold brick unyielding at her back. "I found exactly what I was looking for, John. And when Henrik sees what I've brought back, he'll see you for what you are, too! Nothing more than a megalomaniac playing at being God!"
Roxanna watched John's nostrils flare a little, and she flinched as he raised his hand as if to strike her. Instead, he smacked the brick wall firmly, right near her head, and she tried to swallow the scream that tore at her throat, though it came out as a strangled whimper nonetheless. "You will do nothing of the sort, Rox, if you know what's good for you. I have worked too hard for too long to see everything fall down around my feet in shambles. You do not want to cross me."
The first frightened tears began to roll down her cheeks as she nodded, finally able to pull her other arm free from his grip. "You've changed, John. You've become a monster," she murmured as she rubbed her upper arms, trying to ease the feeling of his hands away from her body. Unwilling to turn her back on him, she carefully made her way from the secluded alcove they had been in, not feeling safe until she had escaped into a throng of colleagues, not really caring what her face looked like, certain that it was full of fear and trepidation. And she was more certain than ever that Henrik would be the only one who could save her from this nightmare.
