Supervillain Girlfriend!

Part Two, Chapter Fourteen: Revelations

   Beatrice sat beside Lin in the hospital room in her Pajamas. She was pretending to read, turning the pages of the book Charlie had gotten someone to send over to her, but glancing up at Lin every now and then to see if he was going to pass out or not. He certainly looked tired to face plant the floor.

   "If you want to take a nap, I can keep watch for a little while." She said casually. 

   "S'fine." Lin said without looking up at her. His gaze was fixated on TJ. It had been since they had gotten here, six and a half hours ago.

    "I'll wake you up as soon as he's awake." She said. 

    "It's against regulation.” he mumbled. He was technically on duty at the moment, and Beatrice knew what he was talking about, but she pretended not to understand. 

     "What?"

      "It’s against regulation! Because you're not wearing your suit anymore."

      Beatrice rolled her eyes. 

      "Come on now." 

       Lin sighed and ran his hands down his face. 

      "I don't see how you can even sleep right now. How are you not freaking out?"

     Beatrice closed her book, and carefully sat it back down in her lap. 

     "I think therapists call it ‘dissociating' but I've never been to therapy so I can’t say for sure." 

   Lin shook his head like he was disappointed but didn't say anything else. Maybe in his current state he was too tired to chastise her. 

    "Come." She said. "Just take a quick nap. Five minutes. I’ll set an alarm." 

He didn’t respond at all this time, only slouched over onto the arm of the stiff hospital couch, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. In less than two minutes, he was asleep, his shoulders rising and falling slowly and rhythmically. 

“Idiot.” she said under her breath. 

Beatrice picked up her book and attempted to actually focus on reading this time, but found she still couldn’t concentrate, and ended up tossing it to the side. 

She looked up at TJ, still unconscious in the hospital bed. They were waiting on whatever cocktail of drugs the people who were holding him put him on to keep him sedated to get out of his system. He was underweight, anemic, and vitamin D deficient, but he would be fine.

That’s what the doctors had said to her. That he would be fine. 

Fine.

 But would he?

You could recover from vitamin D deficiency, sure, you just do what the doctors say. But being held captive for years? Doctors couldn’t give you pills or transfusions for that. 

Beatrice knew that all too well. 

She hated looking at him. It made her skin crawl, like the guilt she felt for not trying harder to find him had come alive, and was worming around just underneath. He wouldn’t have given up on her, even if he had been told she was dead. She knew that. 

He was stronger than she was. He always had been.

How many nights did he stay awake, wondering if anyone was looking for him, if anyone was going to come to his rescue, only to be disappointed, time and time again. Had he given up eventually? How long did it take?

Bile rose up in her throat at the thought of it, of how awful it was of her to have forgotten him, to have left him to suffer. She didn’t want to think about it. 

So she chose not to.

It was what she usually did when she was confronted with something too uncomfortable or too upsetting to deal with. 

She sighed and stood up, walking over to the book she had unceremoniously thrown to the ground, fully intending to make another attempt at reading it. But before she could try again, there was a soft knock at the door, before it creaked open.
    
Charlie cautiously walked in, and gave her tight smile. Maybe it was more like a grimace. Beatrice couldn’t really tell. 

It didn’t matter. Just seeing Charlie instantly filled her with relief. Charlie always saw the best in her, even when she so obviously didn’t deserve it. She needed that sort of comfort right now. She needed it desperately.

She just didn’t want Charlie to know how bad she needed it.

“Hey.” She said.

“Hey.” Charlie said back. She paused briefly, glancing over to where Lin was sleeping curled up on the couch. When he didn’t stir, she continued. “How are… things?”

Beatrice glanced away from her for a brief second.

“The same, more or less.”

Charlie swallowed visibly, and nodded. “He looks like you. Or you look like him, I guess. Since he’s older.” There was a strange sort of tension. Beatrice wasn’t exactly sure what it was yet.

“DNA does work like that.” Beatrice said back.

    "I, uh, actually need to talk to you." Charlie said. She seemed nervous somehow, and Beatrice immediately feared the worst. She knew then that the comfort she had been expecting, she wouldn’t get. 

    "What is it?" She asked.  

     "My dad told me something that I think you should know." She said. Her eyes were on the ground. "He said that he owns the company that was holding your brother."