GOD DID THAT TAKE A WHILE OR WHAT! No but seriously, sorry for taking so long.
V lay the limp form down onto to black leather cushion of the couch, her hands clinging around his neck before unwrapping and falling to her sides. This was wrong. It was so wrong. It was never mean to turn out like this. It was of coarse obvious by the bandaging that there would have been some damage underneath but… it was like staring into a reflection. It couldn't be her. He must have grabbed the wrong patient in his hurry. She must have been moved to another ward. It wasn't that she was ugly, V assured himself hurriedly, but she simply wasn't Evey. She couldn't be.
"V…" she groaned. His heart melted like ice cream…Evey….my Evey…No. not "my"… not … "V-Veee" V remembered himself suddenly and ran to the bathroom to grab the first aid.
From her state of diluted reality Hammond could barely made out the figure scuttling around her, setting up equipment. A pinch of pain in her arm and then warmth and sleep veiled over again. Evey's dreams played about in their usual way: childhood memories of parks, art museums and lolly shops, old cartoons and Indian food, teenage fears of men with hidden double crosses, grey walls, shattered mirrors, painted masks. Streets flooded with sewerage and moons that shined for the first time. Fireworks. Terrors in the night. Smiles in the day. Warm eggy in the basket… blackness flickered on and off between thoughts. Now and then she woke. Eggs?… Eggy in the basket? V always called it an "Egyptian eyeball sandwich". A laugh escaped her leaving some small pains in its wake. Evey took a deep breath and the smell filled her nose. Eggs and Bacon. Saliva mingled in her mouth. An invisible blanket of relaxation draped over her shoulders and her muscles unwound. A hand landed softly on her mid back and for a sweet, milky, burgundy coloured moment her pain evaporated away. Then she fell unconscious again.
"Have you got it ready?"
"Jesus, Larry, give me a second." Brian carefully flattened down the pasted picture onto the draft sheet and handed it to his comrade. "Without the computers up and running, we have to do this shit by hand," he said.
"My father didn't even have to do that, back in his day I mean." Brian sighed.
"Well I got trained to do this sort of thing just in case."
"I don't know what I'd do without you." Larry gave the paper a look over, his eyes drawn to the headline: "HE'S ALIVE" bursting out the top of the page.
"What can I say?…shit happens," he observed with a smirk. "That's what I'm here for."
"Now we got to wait and see it they even buy it. No one trusts the media anymore. You don't know who to believe."
V pulled the lukewarm plate out of the oven and turned to set it on the table. It rimmed a moment before clattering into place, its owner had completely lost interest. V stared into the wide sad brown eyes in the doorway. He tried to speak but she beat him to it.
"…V…"
"Evey. Oh, please sit down. You needn't waist your energ-"
"V"
The smouldering fat of the bacon fizzed and popped eventually dying down to nothing. The two stood silent, eyes locked. There was so much to be said but no words were made. Moments passed.
"You are alive," murmured Evey. V couldn't remember her voice being as sweet as it was.
"Yes," he replied.
Her thin, red hand reached out and brushed the edge of his sleeve. Catching her arm in his hand before it fell, V took a step closer to her. A smile split Evey's face. She closed the gap between them, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her head into his chest. A laughter bubbled from her mixed with occasional sobs. Politely, restrictively, V set his chin on her shoulder and wrapped his hands around her waist.
"…e is alive! I know it! We all saw it!"
"That could have been anyone on that rooftop, everyone's got a mask! I've got a mask. No disrespect to the man but he's dead, England! And its time we got over it!"
"And what's your opinion on this Mr. Almond?"
"Well, Carolyn, our sources indicate that if indeed he were dead, as you say he is, the body would have been recovered by now. Since the abandoned and forbidden sectors have been reclaimed, police are in constant surveillance of the tunnels in which V's organisation created the bombs and a good 80% of the suggested hiding places not infected by the virus as suggested by the media have been thoroughly examined by both assigned agents and, of coarse, the occasional scavenging Londoner, my suggestion is that the man is either in a constant state of movement, hidden in the city amongst the public or, as your panel discussed last week, simply never existed at all."
"I'm afraid were going to have to conclude this segment gentlemen, do you have any closing statements?"
"Well, Carolyn, dead or alive, with the little assistance he's giving us to rebuild this country, we're all going to have to work hard all the same. Does it really matter?"
"I'm going to have to agree with you on that Mr. Richardson."
"Well… I don't know… now to say that he's doing nothing to rebuild this country is a bit unfair. The "V rebellion" party in the Soho suburbs and the "pre established government" act coming into play again over that last month. These are signs of England pulling itself back together. How do we know he's not behind them?
"And that ladies and gentlemen will be he topic of next weeks program. I'm Carolyn Martin for the NBBC discussion forum. Thankyou for joining me, goodnight."
A trickle of applause filled the studio as the screens slowly faded out into the "NEXT ON NEW BBC" montages. Half the citizens of London were listening. Outside the padded walls of the building, the streets were thick with noise. He was alive, they knew it, each and every one of them. Their hearts poured out to him.
"You seem to be getting around alright, but-"
"I don't need any help. I don't need any wheelchairs or support bars or anything like that. I'm just fine, V." tentatively, she placed a hand on his chest. "Don't get so worried." He gave a small breathy laugh.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to be so irritating."
"It'd just be heartbreaking to have me fall and snap a bone or two on Christmas Eve." A horrid image came to mind but V pushed it away. "I've been walking around for a month now without having to use that chair and don't you forget it… buster." She smiled.
"You've been watching too many westerns."
"I have," she laughed. Remembering herself, Evey pulled her hand off of him, leaving a cold spot where it had been. V stared at his shoes. "How's dinner coming along?"
"Oh!" V rushed off to the kitchen leaving the giggling Evey alone on the couch.
Eric stirred the oily concoction that served as a cure to a horrible hangover. With Dom gone and no car, the police system held together with tape and the telly broken there hadn't been any other way to celebrate Christmas. He certainly wasn't going to be marooned out there in the streets with an endless drunken crowd for company. Things had been worse, but last night was a night to be spent alone. People had dies out there.
Less than usual but certainly too many.
Reluctantly, he pulled himself up and decided to take a walk.
"Oh V! Oh its beautiful!" Evey pulled the long silk dress out of the box and pressed its patterns to her cheek.
"Happy Christmas Evey." She reached out and wrapped her arms around him, planting a firm kiss on his shoulder. A moment lasted without a word. The masked mans heart thundered in his chest.
"Where…" she pulled herself from him, "where did you get it?"
"Oh, in a crate along with a thousand others. On their way to a family in Norwich, I believe. I'm sure they wont miss just the one. Vietnamese."
"Wait just a minute, I'll go and get yours." She pattered out of the room. Vs hand closed over the place where her lips had been. He felt like he was on fire. He was sorry he couldn't have gotten a tree or so much as a wall hanger. Even so, she didn't seem unhappy. In fact she seemed more full of life than she had since he'd brought her back here.
Her nimble feet rounded a turn at the end of the hall and plodded towards him. Evey kneeled and set a box his feet, before sitting.
"I'd just like to say that its not very much," she said hands on the lid, "but, well, what do you give a man who has everything?" V, in all his years had never thought of himself as that man. Evey took off the lid. V's gloved hands pulled out a white mask with liquorice black facial hair. "I had it made at the shop down the street from me. Fairly cheep." She reached out and pinched the corner of Guy's grinning face, snapping it and putting the white chocolate fragment in her mouth. Her lips curled into a sweet smile. Tickles, climbed up V's spine.
"Might I enjoy it after supper?"
"Of coarse," she said. "What would you like to do now?"
"Now would be a decent time for a dance." Graciously, V helped Evey to stand. V froze. Somewhere distantly, footprints clattered on a sandstone floor.