“You said I was shot?”

  “Yeah, twice. Look, James, you’re fine. I promise.”

  Even though Addison was trying to quiet and calm her lover, James’ heart was pounding in her chest and her head became dizzy. She looked quickly around the room and it was as if the walls were closing in around her. James turned and looked over her body the best she could, trying to assess the damage.

  “Lily?”

  “She’s fine, she was nowhere near when it happened. She’s with the boys watching a movie in the media room.”

  Addison ran a hand over James’ good arm and used the touch and movement to support and comfort her.

  “Lily is perfectly fine and happy right now. She has no idea what’s going on.”

  James visibly relaxed when she heard that the child was fine. “Okay. So, I was shot?”

  The two women nodded and confirmed it once again.

  “By who?”

  There was a shared look between the two of them, and James’ mind bounced a snippet of memory. The man standing at the end of a corridor, walking towards her with gun raised and bald spot shining as the lights passed by overhead.

  “Oh, well that was unexpected.”

  “For all of us.” Norma replied. “But not to worry, he won’t be able to harm anyone now.”

  Norma held another cup with water to James’ lips and refused to move it until James drank more.

  James began to feel as though she was being crowded. With both of them hovering over her, her view of the room was limited.

  Putting aside her unease, she asked, “Why?”

  Norma shook her head; she really didn’t want to answer that question at the moment. Ignoring the question, Norma continued. “It doesn’t matter right now, what matters is he can’t hurt anyone anymore. Now answer me this.”

  Norma had a hand on James’ leg, and James refused to look at it, focusing on Addison instead.

  “What was it that he wanted?”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m sure he shot you for a reason, did he say?” Norma let out a frustrated sigh as she glanced at Addison.

  “Oh.” James licked her lips and forced her mind to go back once more. “Something about if he had known…”

  “Known about your gift?”

  James nodded in response to the woman’s query.

  Norma hummed. “That was exactly what I was afraid of. Did he say anything else?”

  “Not really, but I think he was the boss.”

  “What?” Both Norma and Addison questioned at the same moment, their faces registering their shock.

  James repeated herself, “I think he was the boss, the way he was talking made it sound like he knew a lot. He said that he rigged everything. That he was the one who planned the entire set up and kidnapping. I can’t be one hundred percent if he was the mastermind and leader of the organization, because he never actually said that he was. But I think he was. It’s just a feeling for the most part.”

  “What did he say, exactly?” Norma asked, drawing out the last word to make it poignant.

  “That he wouldn’t have helped me escape, that if he had known… he said that he was the one who told them to take us, but that doesn’t mean he planned everything or that it was his idea.”

  James looked at Addison and her eyes softened. “I don’t know why I’m defending him, but I wish I had known. I should have known. I should have looked deeper.” James started to berate herself.

  “This is not your fault, at all.” Addison tightened her grip on James’ fingers and smiled. “In no way are you responsible for this.”

  “If we had known what I was then he wouldn’t have hurt you.”

  “You don’t know that.” Addison’s eyes widened in her sincerity, and she refused to look away from James. “You don’t know anything except what he said, the words he said, not the meaning or the intention behind them. I’m glad he didn’t know.”

  “I’m not. He might have left you alone.”

  “And who would have taken care of Lily, then?”

  “You, of course.”

  The tension in James’ chest was rising, and she was finding it far more difficult to breathe. Trying to draw in a deep breath of air, she ended up sputtering which forced her cheeks to become red with exertion.

  “All right, both of you need to calm down.” Norma finally intervened and sat James up further to help with her airway. “Take deep breaths.” Her cool fingers were at James’ cheek again, and James reveled in the feel of them against her hot skin.

  “Where is he?”

  “He’s not here.” Norma reassured but missed the slice of anger in the woman’s eyes. Addison, however, did not.

  “I didn’t ask where he isn’t, I asked where he is.”

  The breath she drew in was ragged, but it was still filled with the oxygen necessary for life. Norma repeated her previous statement and James glared at Addison.

  “Is she stupid or is there a reason she’s not answering my question?”

  “She’s not answering because he’s dead.”

  The response stunned James into silence. So much for anger and revenge tactics, she was speechless. Taking another deep breath, James relaxed back.

  “What happened?” When she was greeted with silence, her frustration grew again. “You can either tell me or I’ll find out. I’m getting far better at this gift thing than you realize.”

  “Better than even you know.”

  Norma’s answer gave her pause, and James’ eyes flicked to the woman’s face that was etched with stress and worry lines. “What do you mean by that?”

  “When we found you, he was dead.”

  “When you found me?”

  “Yeah. There was a quick autopsy done, but the damage was fairly obvious, particularly on an x-ray.” The words left Norma’s tongue as if she was giving a lecture: hidden emotion and facts only.

  James canted her head, judging what had been said. “Okay, slow down. What did you find?”

  She leaned back and took a moment to settle herself. Norma was not the one who opened the conversation and, honestly, James could see that she felt backed into a corner. But James wanted answers, and she wasn’t going to accept a run-around at that particular moment.

  “Simply put, his brain was melted.”

  James opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She moved to look at Addison and saw that whatever Norma said was most certainly the truth. Biting and gnawing on her lip for a few minutes, she finally brought forth a single word.

  “How?”

  “I was hoping to ask you.”

  “I don’t have any idea. I don’t even remember what happened.” James closed her eyes and started to play through the events. Lunch, she had been getting lunch.

  “You must.”

  James looked sharply at Norma before she relaxed again. “Really, I don’t.”

  James racked her brain for any memory that might explain it, but she was having a great deal of difficulty. “All I remember was lots of pain. I was pissed, but mostly I was just scared.”

  “Which is understandable,” Addison said.

  “Yeah,” James continued and paid little mind to what Addison had said. “I remember being very angry, thinking about Lily and how I had put her in danger.”

  “You didn’t—”

  Addison was cut off by Norma with a wave of her hand and a question. “When you were thinking of Lily, what were you thinking of specifically?”

  “The fire she had to set to help us escape. I didn’t want her to be forced to use her gift, but it was the only option. I felt like I forced her to do something that she didn’t want to do. Like coming here, like dealing with this whole situation. I should have been able to keep her from that. But I couldn’t. I was pissed that I couldn’t, and I was pissed that that little twerp of a man thought he had the right to do that to us. All he wanted was blood.” James was shaking her head.

  “You thought of the fire, and you aimed it at him.”

  “Wait.” The pallor in James’ face left with surprising suddenness. “You’re saying I killed him.”

  “Unintentionally, of course.”

  “I killed him.”

  Her eyes closed and she drew in on itself. Addison had seen James do it plenty times before, but this was the first time where it actually scared her.

  “I killed him,” she repeated it once more time before dropping Addison’s hand.

  “Norma, I think she needs some time to absorb this.” Addison’s voice rang through the room, the bell on a foggy night to ward off evil.

  “All right.”

  Norma drew in a deep breath, licked her pink lips, and stood. “She needs eat soon, maybe in a few hours, but stay in the bed.”

  The last part of the sentence was aimed at James who gave no indication that she heard. Norma shook her head and stepped out of the room, shutting the door quietly.

  “James.”

  “Don’t talk to me.”

  “Please listen.”

  “I don’t want to hear it.” Her eyes lifted and they were filled with tears.

  Addison made to move closer, but James scooted away.

  “Please, don’t touch me.” She sniffed. “Just go.”

  “Okay.” Addison took a deep breath and stood with her hands hanging by her sides loosely. “I’ll be back in a bit. I’m going to check on Lily.”

  James nodded, but didn’t look up as she left the room.

  #

  Addison was in the small room that had been reserved for James. A day had passed since James had been shot. Addison found it ironic that her lover was in her bed, exactly where she wanted James to be, and she was here, in James’ room. Life never went as planned, which was why she was there in the first place.

  She lay against the pillows as their regular doctor, the one that the house boasted, looked her over. He ran tests and requested that he needed to take one last look at her before they talked about what was going to happen. He wanted to have more information before they discussed a treatment plan, but Addison had a niggling fear that it was a stalling tactic. The fact that he didn’t have a needle, saline bag, or any type of medical equipment with him, made Addison particularly nervous.

  “How are you feeling today?”

  “Fine,” she answered, wanting to get to what he obviously didn’t want to tell her.

  He patted her leg. “Get dressed, I’ll be right back.” He gave her a strange smile; it made her feel uncomfortable.

  Addison slowly started to pull her clothes on after he left the room. She was feeling better, but certainly not as good as she could have felt. She was just buttoning up her shirt when there was a knock on her door and he came back in.

  He made for the window and the seating there; his eyes didn’t move up to greet her as he walked.

  “All right, sit down, Addy.”

  She did as she was told and sat in the small chair next to the window; the doctor across from her remained silent. Addison broke the reverie and spoke.

  “I’m assuming this isn’t good news.”

  He shook his head, his soft brown eyes rested on her face. Addison drew in a deep breath, trying to keep any and all tears from her eyes.

  “I told you it was liver cancer and that is a very hard form to treat. What we’ve discovered since then is that it has metastasized beyond your liver. There is basically nothing we can do except treat your symptoms.”

  “I don’t have any symptoms,” she mumbled back, the previous information still churned in her head.

  “Your weariness, inability to hold down food, pain in your abdominal region: these are all things that you have mentioned to me.” He fiddled with her chart as it rested in his lap. “All of these and more are symptoms of the cancer.”

  “I know.” She let out a long breath. “I’m just trying to take all this in. There’s really nothing you can do?”

  He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. You’ll start to deteriorate rather quickly without any medication, and it will take some time to find the right medication. That is if we can find any to help your symptoms.”

  Addison nodded. “So, how much…” she had to stop to breath, “how much time are you thinking?”

  “A few more weeks at your present health, maybe less. The damage done to your body in the kidnapping and not eating properly for that entire ordeal took a great toll. I think part of the reason you didn’t realize what was happening before was because of your insane standards of health and fitness.”

  Addison nodded and wiped a tear that trailed over the curve of her cheek. “So, where does this leave me now?”

  “I’m going to order some of the medications, they should be here in a few days and we’ll start with a low dosage.” He made a few notes in her chart. “Until then, rest, relax, don’t do anything stupid like I know you sometimes do, and take it easy. There’s nothing you can do to change this.”

  “Taking it easy. Not exactly my strong suit.” She was smiling at least, and he nodded.

  “I know.” Leaning forward, he pressed a hand to hers. “We’ll work on it, okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  She nodded and the doctor paused before leaving. Addison turned to look out the window and happened on the tree that Lily had fallen out of. The past three weeks of her life had been anything but ordinary, and her mind was begging to erase the memories of it. She could do it. She’d never done it for such long a period, but she could simply wash away the memories of waking in that tiny cement cell, of the torture, of watching James lay there unconscious. She could make James forget, too. It was one of her gifts and perhaps she should. She didn’t want those moments to all be gone, but she certainly didn’t want the devastation and terror to be present in either James or Lily.

  Rain fell outside. Just a gentle fall of water drops as the sun struggled to pull its way out from behind a cloud. The sky was gray except for a ray of light that shown every once in a while before it disappeared. James would be far better off if she had never been introduced into this world. Addison couldn’t help the thought that came unbidden. The guilt took hold of her and started to wreak havoc in the pit of her stomach.

  Addison curled her legs under her body and rested her head back, still staring out the window at the sky and the tree. Maybe she should. But if she erased the last three weeks, what was left? A gap for sure, but a gap could be forgotten. Kidnapping, pain, fear, torture and the likes could not be so easily lifted away. The memories could be, but not the feelings and emotions associated with them. At least not in the world James had come from. What had she done? She had taken whatever semblance of control, life, and peace that James had ever known and turned it upside down, and all for what? Some sick pleasure that she wasn’t the only one there, that she really wasn’t alone? Letting out a long sigh, she missed the click of the door opening and the padding of feet as they crossed the room.

  A warm hand was pressed on her leg and Addison turned to see the small face of a beautiful child staring up at her. Lily. She’d done it for Lily. She did it for the child that had in no way, shape, or form, been living the life that she could be living. She introduced James so that they could introduce this world to Lily. Addison had wanted some semblance of normalcy, without James being brought into her crazy world that would never have happened for Lily.

  Opening her arms, she waited as the blonde, little girl climbed into her lap and pressed damp hair under her chin.

  “Were you playing outside in the rain?” Addison’s voice sounded tinny even to her ears.

  “Yup.” Lily turned her face up, her dark brown eyes locked on Addison, and she smiled. “We splashed the puddles.”

  The way that she sounded so pleased with herself brought a grin to Addison’s lips, and she tightened her arms around the kid.

  “Did you get anyone wet when you were splashing about?”

  “I won. Bobby said he did, but I won.”

  “And how did you win, honey bee?”

  “I splashed the biggest.” She was giggling. “It wen’ in Bobby’s face.”

  “That wasn’t very nice. Did you say you were sorry?”

  Addison was swaying back and forth and it took her until that moment to realize it was unconsciously done.

  “No,” the last syllable slid up and down before she finished the word. “He did it first.”

  Lily’s brows furrowed in a form of anger, and Addison brushed a hand along her back trying to calm her. Addison didn’t answer; she would work it out later. Bending her neck, she pressed a soft kiss to the top of the damp head and continued her rocking motion.

  “Addy?”

  “Hmmm?” Her eyes were closed and she was enjoying the moment. A simple moment that she could never erase.

  “Why you so sad?”

  “I’m not sad, honey bee,” she whispered the words before she really thought them over. It was what anyone did with a child: deny the sad, depressing and bad emotions and play on the light and happy ones. No one wanted to ruin a child by making them feel what they shouldn’t.

  “You’re sad.”

  Lily’s words were simple, and Addison found that she couldn’t deny them. Pressing another kiss to her hair, she answered, “Yeah, I’m sad.”

  “About Jamsey?”

  “No, not about James. I’m sick, baby.”

  “I get the doctor. He make you feel better.” Lily sat up straight, and Addison had to hold on tight to keep her from leaving.

  “The doctor can’t make me better. I’m not going to get better.”

  She brushed her fingers over Lily’s cheek and the girl’s eyes started to water.

  “Don’t be sad, Lily. It’ll be okay, I promise.”

  The girl nodded, sniffled, and brushed closed fists under her eyes to wipe the tears away.

  Addison resumed her rocking motion and it wasn’t until hours later that she realized Lily must have fallen asleep because she began to stir. The girl was old enough that she didn’t really need naps anymore, but it wasn’t as if Addison was going to deny her sleep. Lily was always a snuggle bug when she woke anyway, and as Addison felt the warm cheek against her neck and the tiny arms wrap around her it brought a smile to her face.