The Bodyguard

Questions and Not Quite Answers

The jarring sound of the door snapping shut behind her, brought Emilia out of her horrified trance with a small shake of her head and turning to face the front as Mr. Knyte climbed in before her, starting the car and glancing at her once in the rearview mirror before putting his shades back on. He felt different, before he had felt stiff and distant, just a presence there and now, he felt a little darker, not stiffer or more distant but cold. 

There was dead silence in the car as he began to drive, he clearly knew where he was going, but how? Oh, she realized just how dumb she is as she remembers that he is probably the one that had driven them to Jazz's apartment in the first place and had picked her up just that morning so of course he knows where she lives.

Emilia tries to lose herself in her own thoughts as she had on the way to the cafe, but things were gnawing at her insides, things she had to ask, and had to know the answers to. Taking a deep breath she opens her mouth, then closes it again. How could she ask this complete stranger these questions! The situation is already awkward! And she is just making it more and more awkward as the silence drags on! She mentally argues, cursing that part of her that makes her nervous in starting conversations.

Finally she blurts out to him, "Thank you." It comes out loud and rather sudden into the silence making her wince at the shattering of perfectly good quiet. But she had started, she couldn't stop now. "I mean, for saving me from her and uhm, the hot chocolate and everything." She murmurs, only then remembering that she still has more than half of it to drink. But with her mouth feeling like ash and as if she would swallow her own tongue, she didn't think it would end well to drink the hot liquid he had so thoughtfully placed in the cup holder in front of her.

"Just my job Emilia." He retorts, a little harsher than necessary she thinks, almost flinching at his tone. Her eyes travel to his hands clenched too tightly around the steering wheel to be completely calm.

"And I'm sorry."

"What for?" He questions, giving the shortest glance into the mirror again, his hands letting up a little on the steering wheel.

"For what I said, about not wanting a bodyguard. I'm not ungrateful to you, or don't like you or anything" After all, who could dislike a hunk that had just scared the shit out of her archenemy, "I'm just . . . frustrated with not being able to make my own choices at the moment." She attempts to explain, wanting him to understand that she really didn't hate him, just Mr. Delmont.

"I understand Miss, no need to explain." He seems to sigh, but she couldn't tell if it was out of relief that she didn't hate him or resignation that he had to deal with this annoying girl that didn't even want him around. But she had to ask him, she couldn't get it out of her head.

"May I ask, why do you have a gun?"

"To protect you." He responds again, giving the most obvious answer she could have hoped for.

"Yes, but I'm not important enough to protecting with a gun, Brittany is the only person I know of that could wish me harm, and her deadliest weapons are those fake fingernails." She comments wryly, giving a small smile at her own joke.

Of course, he didn't return the joke as he glances into the mirror again, staring into her soul as all she can see is the sun's reflection. 

"You are important to me, I have been hired to protect you at all costs from any threat that is posed to you, this means Brittany, or anyone else that may seek to harm you." He says, talking as if he knows so many more things than her. But who in the world would want to harm her!

"But I'm a nobody! Why would anyone target me as an enemy?" She questions, a little rhetorically but secretly wanting an answer, did he know something? Did Mr. Delmont know something? Did her mother know something? She thinks, her heart falling to her feet at the thought. Impossible, if she were in trouble her mom would have told her! And other than the ridiculous rules, seeming only posed so he did not suffer any published embarrassment, so why did she have a body guard with a loaded gun?

"It is not you that is their enemy, Emilia." He says, so quietly that she almost doesn't hear it, a whisper of doubt in her mind and all the things that she didn't know about her real father, her fake father, and maybe even her own mother.

The thoughts come to a sudden halt as the car gives a sudden and soft screech to a halt, yanking her against the seatbelt with that uncomfortable tightness it can get if you yank it too hard. 

"Sorry ma'am, but we have arrived." He says, his voice back to that calm and collected demeanor and the cold anger he had displayed before is gone. She quickly escapes from the seatbelt and hurries to open the door before he can get to it, not wanting another awkward encounter like when he had let her out at the coffee shop. 

That isn't to be however as the door swings rather hard into his arm and the side of his head causing a grunt to escape his lips and his glasses to come off and fall to the ground, cracking with a resounding snap as the result.

Horrified, Emilia jumps from the car and immediately takes hold of his shirt collar without a second thought, pulling him rather roughly down to her height so she can see the place she had hit him, examining it with the light touch of her fingers causing him to wince at the small bruise but she can feel his eyes on her, those gorgeous grey eyes watching her face as she quickly lets go and he stands straight again slowly.

"I am so sorry, I did not mean to hit you with the door! Are you ok? I'm sure Jazz has bandaids inside, how is your hand?" She asks, her voice rushed with the concern for the hurt she had just caused him as she takes hold of his arm to examine where she had hit him. Other than a small scratch on is very brawny hand and the light bruise beginning to form on his skull he seems to be alright.

"I am unhurt Miss Emilia, it takes more than a car door to take me down." He jokes, or at least, she thinks he's joking, it is hard to tell with the sun in her eyes as she peers up at his face. It suddenly occurs to her just how tall he is, or perhaps just how short she is as she quickly drops that muscular arm. She could almost see the small twitch at the corners of his mouth of just the tiniest of smiles.

The front door bangs open at that exact moment and she inhales sharply, taking the breath she hadn't even realized her lungs were deprived of. Hurried footsteps make their way over as Emilia turns to greet Jazz for the third time that day.

"Well! Move your butt Emi! I'm not waiting all day for you! Mr. Bodyguard can come back later, when you need a ride home." She yells from just barely out the door, holding it open because she clearly hadn't bothered to bring her keycard with her so she can get back in if it closes behind her.

Emilia can't help but grin and shake her head at her friend, moving towards her quickly. But before she gets even two steps a surprisingly gentle hand grazes her elbow and she turns to look at him and his questioning gaze. 

"I'll call when I arrive, Miss Emilia." He tells her, his eyes, oh God, those pools of fog that seemed to cloud her mind and paralyze her body, maybe it was his soul if his eyes did this to her, but if they are just a window to what is inside, then what could possibly be hiding behind them. 

He breaks the spell as he turns and climbs back into the car, peeling out of the drive way before she could even tell him that he doesn't have her number.