"Well, that was rude." I said as Vee teleported.
Bridget huffed and puffed as she slammed her hands on the bed, making a muffled thud. "Fuck are we supposed to do now?"
I shrugged, "we can't go back until you recovers."
"Right," Beckett said, "we gotta make sure people don't think we're dead. Don't wanna make our parents lose their marbles."
I nodded and grabbed a phone that Vee had left for me on the table.
"Who do we call first?" I asked, opening the dial screen. "Bridget's mom, right?"
Beckett nodded like he agreed, "Yeah, she's probably freaking out by now. Let her know we're okay but that Bridget needs some rest and won't be able to come home for a bit."
I dialed Bridget's mom's number and waited as it rang. After a few seconds, she picked up, sounding giggly; she might've been drunk. I put the phone on speaker, to Bridget's embarrassment.
"Hello, ma'am this is Wyatt," I said in a relaxed voice, "just letting you know that Bridget is staying at my place for a while--"
"Woah, slow down, Wyatt, jeez." her mom said, confused for some reason.
After slowly repeating what I said in earlier, she seemed to be clued in.
"Is that okay with you, ma'am?" I asked, "if she stays at my place?"
She chuckled over the phone, "oh, so you're finally dating, huh?"
I panicked and felt my jaw lock as I struggled to speak. Bridget looked with me an urgent look, eyes wide and lips pursed. She gestured for me to speak.
"Uh, yeah," I chuckled. "Yep, we're dating now."
"Took you two long enough; the looks you guys always shared were hard to miss and—"
Bridget buried her head in her blanket as Beckett's face became red, straining from holding his laughter.
"Yep." I said, "I'll bring her back in two days; we have no classes for this week."
She cackled over the phone, "just make sure you use protection!"
Just as I ended the call, Beckett let loose with laughter, filling up the room with his stifled chuckles and giggles. Bridget did not like those. She pulled her head out and gave me the deathliest death stare that ever death stared. I'm just glad she bedridden and not on two feet, 'cause I for sure wouldn't have survived what would have come next.
As things simmered down for a bit, and the laughter toned down, Bridget snapped at us, speaking at a hush. "Guys." She muttered, "who's next."
"Wyatt's dad?" Beckett guessed.
I scoffed, "he doesn't need to know. It's better if I call Chamber?"
"No offense, but what's your maid gonna do to help us?" Bridget asked.
"Wouldn't hurt to try.." Beckett Added.
I opened the dial screen again and input Chamber's number, she answered almost instantly; like she'd be waiting for the call. She picked up, her voice frantic and panicked; she seemed more concerned than I thought she would be.
"Master Wyatt, are you alright? Where are you?" She asked.
Bridget and Beckett gave me confused looks as I answered her, "yeah. All good here, just wanted to know if you could help me with something. And please, it's just Wyatt."
"Anything you need—"
"Could you take the chopper and come pick us up?" I asked, seeing Bridget and Beckett's eyes going buck wild as they scrambled to reach for the phone, hoping to knock it out of my hand. Seeing it all happen in slower-motion made it easy to zip out of the way. I gave them both a look and kept talking to Chamber. "I can send you the location."
"No need, master Wyatt. I'm on the way."
"Wait, what?" I said as she hung up.
In that confusion, Bridget was quick to speak up again. She didn't want to waste any time.
"Beckett's parents are the only ones left." She chuckled, "I wonder what they have to say about this.."
"Th-they know," Beckett admitted. He seemed like he was drowning in guilt, just then. "My mom knew first and it didn't take long for dad to figure it out from all the shards and bullet holes in my clothes." He said in a softer voice.
Bridget seemed more disappointed than I was. She grit her teeth and began to stir as she balled up her fists and stared straight up daggery knives at Beckett who could only look away in what felt like shame and frustration. She slowly pulled off her blanket and began to limp towards him. "What the fuck else have you been hiding from us, huh? All the shit we don't know about – the shit you don't even elaborate on, keeping us in the dark, huh?" Before we both knew it, she was already face to face with him, standing despite the dozen bandages around her legs, arms and head. With each question, she weakly punched him in chest, hitting and hitting until she collapsed in his arms. And for the first time, I actually saw her cry. Something that broke my heart more than I thought it would. She seemed so broken and hopeless. Might've been that losing her dad was still a fresh wound – one that'd be made worse with Beckett's shenanigans; she didn't want to lose him too, I guess.
"It's okay." He said, "let's get you back on the bed; V left you something for the pain."
Bridget quietly nodded, sinking deeper into his arms as he picked her up on gently set her on the bed. He handed her some pill from a blue, marked bottle. She took it and was out like a light, peacefully drifting off into that good, good night. And for once she didn't look completely crazed out like some conspiracy nut, rambling off about secret government experiments.
"Fuck, man." Beckett said as he walked away from the bed and stood next to the window that looked out into the mounds of snow. He seemed lonely as I joined him.
I put one hand on his shoulder, "you alright?"
"This is a fucking mess; all of this." He said just before nibbling on his nails. "Bridget shouldn't have been there – you shouldn't have been there.."
Y'know, I'm not the person whose shoulder people lean on to cry. That person's usually Beckett; in fact, it's always Beckett. Every time anybody feels about anything, he always knows what to say, but this time, he seemed out of it. And that made me feel even worse, whose shoulder does the shoulder cry on? And to honest, it made me feel like utter shit to see him like that; I figured at least try.
"Look, man, we can sit here and fuck this and fuck that, but it's not gonna change jack shit." I tapped him on the shoulder, turning him to face me, but his head was still down. "We gotta like, uh – ah, fuck. I'm not good at this motivation thing—"
Beckett scoffed at what he thought was me fumbling and stammering. False, by the way.
"This is nobody's fault, I know, I just gotta keep her safe." He said, nudging his head at the room Paige was in. "Whatever happens, she doesn't get hurt."
I raised an eyebrow at him, "I thought you were single?"
"We used to date," He sighed, "way back then. I never brought her up 'cause it was different."
"Different?"
"You'd have to ask her yourself." He said, "and to answer your question, yeah, she's my girlfriend."
I nodded, knowing I would get nowhere near her. "How's she holding up?"
"Well enough; Vee said he'd bring some doctor to check up on her once a week, but I don't know, man." He sighed heavily, again. "This shit's getting blown way out of proportion."
"You didn't have that figured when you got superpowers?"
"Yeah, you're right." He said, finally smiling. "If I could handle that, then it shouldn't be that hard for us, right?"
"I'm just mad that Bridget's actually been right this whole time," I said, "I thought we were just gonna break into some boring storage facility, get busted and then I'd have to call my dad to bail us out again."
He shrugged and tapped my shoulder, "I'm gonna check on Paige, see how she's doing. You wanna come say hi? I've been meaning to introduce you but, that'd've been hard to do behind steel bars."
"Figures," I said as I followed him to the room where Paige was.
The room she was in was darker; the lights were off. She was on the bed, looking unhealthy as hell, but her features was still noticeable. Her almond eyes, the straight black hair and darker olive skin. She looked about our age, give or take a few years. There was also a wheelchair next to the bed, just a few inches away from where she was sleeping. Beckett gently moved the wheelchair away and sat at the bedside, slowly rocking her arm to wake her up.
She had a black eye along a dozen or more bruises on her arms and face. She was more beat up than I'd seen anyone ever be, before.
"Beckett?" She said in a soft groan, her expression lightening up as she began to caress his face. "Where are we?"
He smiled back at her and put his hand on her forehead, "somewhere safe."
Her eyes went wide as she noticed me off to the side. Her pupils glazed over into a faint blue as I felt my chest lock up; my whole rib-cage felt like it was getting crushed as I got shoved into the wall by some invisible force.
Beckett was quick to snap her out of it, "he's not gonna hurt you; he's one of us!"
I felt relief wash over me as I could catch my breath again, falling a few feet onto the wooden floor of the lodge room.
"Sorry," she said, her irises turning back into their dark brown coloration. "I didn't know."
As I went to extend my hand to shake hers, she shrunk back toward the wall, like she'd seen some shit. She hid her face and began to softly whimper. The only thought going through my head was 'What the hell did she go through?'