"You got everything?" Nick asked as he entered the hospital room. Allie, using a cane, was standing by the bed, zipping up her bag and nodding. Nick walked across the room to the bed and picked the bag up by its handles and then looked surprised at its weight.
"What?" Allie asked. "You were only in here for a week, why's this weigh like a ton of bowling balls?" he asked. "I stole stuff," she replied, shrugging, "I didn't come in with anything, remember? Everything that's in that bag is stuff I stole from this hospital. Towels, tongue depressors, gauze, you name it and I shoved it in that bag. Except my tooth brush." "Please tell me your toothbrush isn't touching hospital gauze," Nick murmured. "Of course not," Allie replied, scoffing, "What kind of goblin do you take me for? It's surrounded by cute fish bandaids for children." "You are disgusting," Nick said, laughing as he left the room. Allie, chuckling to herself, turned and pulled the curtain back from around Jenny's bedside. She then pulled a rolling stool over to the bed and sat down beside her on it. Jenny looked over at her, best she could, her face still essentially covered. "I'll be back, okay?" she asked, "And if I don't come back, then tell everyone you're a mummy who cursed me. They'll buy that, look at how you're wrapped." Jenny tried to smile, but it hurt. "When's your surgery?" Allie asked. "In a few days," Jenny said, "hopefully they don't make me look any worse than I already do." "I don't see how that's possible," Allie replied, "right now you look like raw hamburger. The best outcome is you look like a nice steak." "Please stop comparing me to meat," Jenny said, "I don't appreciate being objectified like this." Allie laughed, as Nick re-entered the room. He stood in the doorframe and waited, watching. Allie looked over her shoulder at him and knew she couldn't wait too much longer, so she turned back to face Jenny, patted her hands and smiled. "I'll come for your surgery, okay? I'll be here when you get out," she said softly. As Allie stood up and left, Jenny watched the two of them and thought to herself why she was still defending someone who had put her in this hospital bed. Sure, it'd been accidental, but...it still had happened. Why was she so very desperate for the attention of a woman not interested in her, and who had done so many awful things to her? Jenny looked away from the door as it shut behind them, and sighed. She'd worry about all this later. Right now she needed to focus on getting her strength back for upcoming surgery. In about a week, she was going to have a brand new face. And one that nobody would see coming. *** "Mr. Ephram's expecting you," a woman said to Molly, who was waiting in the hall. She put her book down and headed inside Tony's office. He was on the phone when she entered, but he didn't shoo her away. Instead he merely waved at her politely, grinning, then motioned for her to take a seat, which she did while he wrapped up his phone call. "Yeah, well, let me know what comes of it," he said, "either way I'm working on something, and if this works out, we can fix this problem together. Alright, thanks for calling. Bye." Tony hung up and turned his attention to Molly. "So," he said, cupping his hands and leaning in on his desk, "I never really thanked you for the work you did on my new casino. It's beautiful. Sure, it...uh...has had its share of unwanted attention now, but ya know. That's Vegas." Molly managed to push out a small, seemingly unforced laugh, but inside she was nervous. "Anyway, you're an architect, I mean clearly, but I looked into your background. You're, like, a well established architect. You went to a good school, you've designed a lot of famous places here in town, always come critically acclaimed and highly recommended. I like your work on my casino so much I think I have another job for you." "...really?" Molly asked, "...to be honest, I wasn't entirely sure why you wanted to see me to begin with." "I know, I probably should have done this over the phone to lessen the tension but, hey, I prefer face to face," Tony said, lighting a cigar and taking a few puffs, "you don't mind if I smoke do you?" "Not at all." "Would you like one?" "...okay." Tony smirked, then lit up a cigar for Molly and handed it across the desk to her. As she started puffing on it, he stood up and walked over to the large window behind his desk, looking out at the cityscape below. A few minutes went by of silence, and finally he exhaled and spoke again. "You ever build a vault, Miss Hatchet?" Tony asked, "I know it's probably not technically architecture considering it isn't an entire building, but you ever done something like that? Design a vault? You know, like...like what they use at banks and stuff?" "...uh..." "The reason I ask is because I'm looking for a way to store something," Tony said, "...can you keep a secret?" Molly hesitated, then nodded nervously. After all, wasn't she already keeping a dozen secrets? What could one more hurt? *** Zoe was sitting at Molly's kitchen table while Effie served her breakfast, and then took a seat across from her, the both of them digging in. When Molly had left that morning, Zoe called Effie up and asked her to come over, and when Effie subsequently offered to cook an enormous breakfast platter, Zoe wasn't going to say no to that. Zoe took a sip of her coffee and sighed, looking at Effie scooping scrambled eggs onto a fork and eating them. "I don't deserve any of this," Zoe said, "this cute rom com bullshit." "I don't think your girlfriend cooking you breakfast counts as a rom com, but alright," Effie said, chuckling. "It's been a terrible few weeks, hell, it's been a terrible few days," Zoe said, "so I appreciate it either way." Effie blew her a kiss, making Zoe blush. For so long, this was all Zoe really wanted. Just a nice quiet home, a girl to cook for her, and to do magic with her idol. She'd sort of gotten all that, but with a giant caveat attached. Zoe wanted to tell Effie everything about what she'd been through, but she knew she couldn't. Effie couldn't get involved. She didn't deserve that. If Allie's entire argument was that she did what she did to protect Zoe, then Zoe was doing the same for Effie. Zoe started sniffling, and then full on crying, causing Effie to stand up and come around the table, sitting beside her, kissing the side of her head and rubbing her back. "Hey it's alright," Effie whispered, "you're alright. I know things have been fucked lately. Allie putting herself in the hospital has to hurt." Zoe started wailing and collapsed against Effie's shirt. Effie sighed and just held her, consoling her. She hated seeing what Allie was doing to this girl, but she was in a strange place. On one hand, she and Allie had a long time personal and professional relationship that she didn't want to damage, but on the other hand, she was now romantically involved with a woman Allie was - likely unintentionally - hurting, and that didn't sit well with her either. It seemed like there was no good way out of this situation. "Move in with me," Effie said, surprising her. "w...what?" "Yeah, you don't wanna go back to your sisters, you don't wanna see your family, you can't stay with Molly forever-" "Yes I can, she said she likes having a pet." "That's not a compliment, sweetheart," Effie said, laughing loudly, "come move in with me. We'll make it work. It'll be our home together. You don't have to live through the goodwill of friends. Live through the goodwill of your partner." Zoe smirked, which made Effie smile, who then took Zoe's face in her hands gently and pressed her lips against Zoe's. Zoe could never resist the taste of Effie, and her knees buckled even though she was sitting down. How could she say no to this sort of thing? "Will you make me breakfast every day?" Zoe asked. "Get off my back, woman," Effie said, the both of them laughing now before kissing again. *** Allie pushed open the door to her penthouse, with Nick in tow behind her. He dropped the bags when he entered and stretched, cracking his back. Allie sighed and looked around at her home, and shook her head. God...she didn't realize how much she missed her place when she wasn't capable of being in it. She turned back to face Nick, who was still adjusting his spine. Allie looked down at the handle of her cane and thought to her "accident". She sighed and looked back up. "Did you put me in Jenny's room on purpose?" she asked bluntly. "Well, I figured you'd wanna be with her," Nick said, "Considering what'd happened. But that doesn't mean that what happened can happen again, okay? You've worked too hard to get clean to backpeddle now." What? Allie was confused. She thought Nick knew she'd purposefully done what she'd done, but...oh no. It finally hit her. Nick thought she had genuinely tried to hurt herself. She fidgeted uncomfortably and chewed her lip as he walked to the minifridge and grabbed a soda, popped the top and took a long swig before leaning against the wall and looking at her again. "Seriously, Allie, I'm here," he said, "I was angry, but...I don't know, I'm sorry. I'm not saying I don't have the right to be angry, but I also don't want you to hurt yourself. I didn't think you'd be so upset that you'd try to-" "ohmygod," Allie muttered under her breath, unable to believe what she was hearing, even though she'd now missed a good portion of his statement. She zoned back in for the last of it though. "-but we can work on it together, okay? I still love you. I don't wanna see you get worse again," Nick said, approaching her, setting his soda down as he got closer and putting his hands on her hips and lifting her up onto the back of the couch and kissing her neck, whispering, "I don't wanna see you get worse again. God you smell good." "I do?" "Maybe it's just me. Maybe I've become attracted to the smells of the hospital. I do spend a lot of time there," Nick said. "Weirdo," Allie said, making him chuckle as he kept kissing her neck and she ran her hands through his hair, moaning lightly. How could she say no to this? All she wanted was Nick, and she had gotten him back by getting sober. She certainly wasn't going to lose him again now, not because of Jenny, and not because of her half hearted attempt to get into the hospital to see her. So she figured she'd let Nick believe whatever he wanted, because it gave her the upper hand. But this made Allie wonder...was she really as bad a person as he had said? Was she, in fact, poison? "I know I just spent a week in bed, but take me there anyway," she whispered, giggling, and Nick nodded, picking her up and carrying her across the suite. "With pleasure," he said, kissing her. When Allie woke up, it was later that night, and she stretched and rolled onto her side, cuddling up to Nick, who pulled her closer and kissed her forehead. She smiled and closed her eyes, snuggling up into him when she noticed the flashing lights outside. Sudden dread and fear filled her. Anxiety came rushing in. This was it. This was the last nice moment. They'd finally come for her. Allie stumbled out of bed and fell to the floor, before pulling herself back up, her hip screaming at her. She grabbed her cane and hobbled her way to the window and looked out cautiously. "What's going on?" Nick asked, sitting up now, before standing and joining her, "...the fuck? What's with all the cops?" Allie turned and began to sweat as she walked away from the window. She panicked. She had to tell Nick everything. Right now. The truth. The entire unvarnished truth. She turned and looked at Nick, who was still looking out the window. "I did something bad," Allie mumbled, and Nick cocked his head, pulling the window open and leaning out, looking upwards above them, but Allie didn't notice and she said, "Nick, I said I did something really bad, and I-" "Holy shit it's Molly," Nick said, and that caught Allie's attention. Allie rushed to join him at the window and looked out, noticing Molly was on the roof of the suites, standing on a window ledge. Allie's breath caught in her chest. She quickly pulled on some pants best she could and a tank top and, with her cane, rushed outside of her suite and up the stairs towards the room Molly was near. Allie bumbled through the door and then looked around the suite, trying to find the right window, until she finally saw a window open in the suite in the bedroom and approached it. Allie leaned out and noticed Molly standing there, overlooking the city below. "Yo, what the fuck," Allie said loudly, getting Molly's attention. "What are you doing here?" Molly asked. "I live right below this suite!" Allie said, "What are you doing, Molly?" "...I'm gonna jump," Molly whispered, her voice wavy and broken, "I'm gonna jump and remove myself from all this." "The fuck you're not," Allie said, climbing through the window, before remembering that perhaps being on a ledge when using a cane was likely not a god idea; she pulled herself back in and kept looking out instead, "Molly, what's going on? Talk to me." "...I just wanted to make buildings for a living," Molly whispered, "but then you two...you specifically, you had to drag me down into your bullshit, lying to me until lying no longer served your needs, and now I'm fully in it, man. I'm part of a criminal empire." "Okay first of all, I'll accept the criminal part, but the empire part is a bit of a stretch," Allie said, "Not saying I don't appreciate the thought, it's nice that you think of me as that established, but-" "Not you!" Molly said, tears rolling down her face, her lip quivering, "not you. Tony wants me to build a vault." "What?" Allie asked, half laughing. "...he needs somewhere to store money that isn't being collected in taxes, somewhere it can't be found," Molly said, "he says some of his associates are being followed for their part in a major tax dodge, and he's worried. He made me promise not to tell. I promised." "Then why are you telling me?" "Because I trust you, stupid as that must sound considering what you did to me, I trust you," Molly said, "I don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna hide things, I don't wanna steal bodies, I don't wanna build vaults. I just..." Molly bowed her head and sobbed, whispering, "..,i just wanna make buildings again." Allie felt her heart break. Danger be damned, she thought, and she put her cane on the floor and climbed out onto the ledge, keeping herself as stable as possible as she approached Molly. Molly looked over at her and Allie smiled, reaching and taking her hand, squeezing it tightly. "Then take me with you," Allie said, "cause I'm not gonna be somewhere you ain't. I can help you, Molly. Either jump and take me with you, or come inside and let me help you. We can figure this out together, alright?" Molly looked over the ledge again, her feet shuffling closer to the edge, and she thought about it. How it'd feel, to be so free, falling carelessly through the air to the inevitable end. But...but here she had a chance, a chance to do something better. To come out on top. "If you help me," Molly said softly, "I want the credit." "What?" "If you help me, and we put Tony away, I want the credit. My entire life was tarnished by a man hurting me in high school. Your life was derailed by a man offering you pills. I am sick and tired of powerful men putting their problems on the women around them, and then using those women to further their agendas. If we're going to take down a powerful man, I want the credit." Allie was dumbfounded. She'd never expected Molly to say this sort of thing. But...at the moment, what could she do besides no and agree? After all, she had to get her off this ledge. "Sure, yeah, just...come inside, and we'll talk through it," Allie said, "We'll find a way to make it work, alright?" Molly nodded, took Allie's hand, and together the two entered the suite as clapping and cheers from below sounded. Allie then, surprisingly even to herself, turned and hugged Molly as tightly as she could, and never wanted to let her go. *** "What do you think that's all about?" Agent Tropper asked, nodding to the television, as he and Agent Siskel sat in her apartment, eating chinese and watching the scene unfold on the news. "I don't know," Agent Siskel said, scooping some shrimp into her mouth, "but I reckon we'll find out any day now."
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
ABOUT
Allie Meers is what she dreamed of being since she was a little girl...a successful Vegas magician. The only problem now is she can't make all her problems disappear; Allie grapples with her strained relationship, crippling addictions and FBI agents on her tail, all while trying to stay at the top of her career. Archives
December 2023
Categories |