Bianca

“Hey Vee- I think she’s finally coming around. Look, her eyes are fluttering”
“I can’t see anything. Do you think we should go get Brian?”
“Are you kidding- she’d pass out from the shock of him smothering her all over again. He was nearly in tears himself when she passed out the first time, he’s going to kill Tuck for doing that to her when he next sees him”
“I guess you’re right”

My head hurts like a motherfucker. That’s the first thing I register at least. It takes me a moment to really work out what’s going on and where I am, or what’s happened up until this moment in time where I’m keeping my eyes closed and listening to the two women above me gossip like I’m still stuck in a blissful state of unconsciousness, but it’s time to give them what they really want, and by the sounds of it, what Brian really wants too. I can’t help but feel my heart soar slightly at the idea that the guy I’ve been crushing on for so long might have some sort of feelings for me, something more than just ‘you’re looking after my child so I kind of have to like you’ way, the only vibe I’d been getting from him up until now. I let my eyes open slightly; clenching them shut again when they meet the bright light of the room.

It takes a moment for them to adjust but when they do, I glance up again to see the worried faces of Vee and Alex looking down over me, one hand pressing a cool wash cloth to my forehead and the other grabbing something from the side table. It hurts to the very innards of my skull to look sideways at what Alex is doing, but I look anyway and curse under my breath. I can see a handful of pills there and now my head hurts even more than it did before. I want Brian. I sound needy, conceited and so much like the sex slaves that those men employ to become ‘there’s’, much like Vee and Alex have become, but I really do want him here. With him, I feel protected. Safe. Like, even if there is no romantic attraction between us he will always be there to keep myself and Athena away from harm, even if he’s kept in the dark about all my dirty little secrets.

“And there I was hoping for a miraculous Hollywood moment where you woke up with amnesia. Christ, Bianca, you wake up from being unconscious for six hours straight and all you can do is curse?” Vee mutters to me as I attempt to push myself up into a sitting position, my eyes widening as far as they can without pain shooting through my forehead. Six hours? I’ve been dead to the world for nearly six hours- Brian must be a nervous wreck. I know I’d be if I was stuck in his shoes.
“Six hours, really? I must’ve been really fucked up”
“You have no idea” Alex smiles as Vee disappears through the bedroom door, Brian’s bedroom door I might add, obviously to go and find the man himself before he does something crazy in a bid to stop his nerves from shredding.

“As soon as you passed out he came down in a fit, he had no fucking clue what to do. Honestly, Bee, he’s lost without you. I think it would do him good to get a girlfriend for once, and to be perfectly honest with you, I think you need to be that girlfriend”
“What? Don’t be crazy, I could never be the girlfriend of a trained assassin, much less Synyster Gates”
“See, that’s exactly what I thought when Zacky asked me to be his, and what Vee was thinking too when Jimmy approached her for the first time. Brian doesn’t have the balls to tell you how he really feels, Bee. You’ve got to pry it out of him- and if I know Gates, he’s smitten with you”

I’m about to retaliate with something so witty and insightful that I haven’t even thought of it yet, when I hear the sounds of thundering footsteps crashing through the house and Brian’s hurried yelling echoing across the walls as he runs up to me. With a quick turn, Alex pushes me back down onto my back and holds the towel over my forehead.
“Close your eyes and pretend you’re just waking up. He’ll be more sensitive that way, cue smoochy lovey-dovey moment” she orders with a quick smirk and even though I roll my eyes at her, unable to believe how forward she wants me to be towards Brian, but following her orders nonetheless, eyes slipping shut as I hear Vee talking quickly to Brian as the two of them run. The door opens and there are footsteps against the floor, which tells me to keep my eyes shut until the right moment comes along to come back to life again.

“You told me she was waking up” Brian’s soft voice says accusingly and I turn my head to the side, much as it pains me to do so, and Alex presses the damp cloth over my forehead again, hushing me soothingly.
“She is, but she’s been dead to the world for six hours, it’ll take a little time for her to adjust. See look- she’s even opening her eyes” Alex says gently and my eyes begin to flutter once again, the faces of the three people above me swimming into focus slightly as I force myself to recreate my waking up moment just a few seconds before.

“B-Brian?” I whisper hoarsely, reaching out a shaking hand for a comforting hand, and his large palms intertwine with mine, a soft kiss being pressed against my forehead as he shuffles onto the bed beside me. He feels warm and intimate, as though it’s just the two of us and he’s holding me so tightly I’m sure that he’ll never let me go.
“I’m here Bee, I’m here. It’s all going to be OK” he soothes gently, dismissing Alex and Vee to their various owners as I haul myself up to sitting height and collapse against his muscular chest, taking a few deep breaths to steady myself. It’s scary being unconscious, but it’s more scary having to see the effect that it has on everyone else around you.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Brian this relieved to see me awake and even though we’re alone, he presses sweet kisses to my cheek as he cradles me as delicately as a porcelain doll, waiting for the right moment to start talking.
“You really had me worried there. I thought we were going to have to make a trip to the emergency room” he breathes gently as I close my eyes for a moment, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over me suddenly. It’s almost as though I haven’t been sleeping for the past six hours, instead I’ve been up working like normal- exhaustingly.

“I’m sorry. I worried myself- I haven’t passed out like that since…well, since ever” I murmur into his suddenly comfortable shoulder as he pulls me closer towards him, the scent of his cologne creeping into my senses as my brain becomes a mangled tangled web of connections all wondering how perfect this man who is holding me smells. Divine I think is the right word.
“Don’t be sorry, Bee. You were worth the worry” he whispers, holding me tighter as he speaks, eyes wandering out of the large windows on the side as I tell myself to breathe evenly and not get worked up about anything. I need to be calm.

From the crib, Athena begins to sniffle and whine, wanting to make herself known to the two people in the room she’ll end up calling her guardians, as well as every other man and woman within this large building, and as he gently lays me back against the headboard of the bed, Brian leaps out to cradle the little girl in his arms and stop her from screaming bloody murder, carrying her over to the bed and slipping back into position, one arm wrapped around my weak body and the other cradling Athena tightly.
“My two girls” he says under his breath, but I can’t help but feel myself stiffen under his touch at just the notion of his words. Am I his girl now, after the cute nickname and the constant worry about me? The notion doesn’t sicken me at all, like I imagine it will, on the contrary a soaring feeling begins to fill my veins and I smile softly, wondering if he’d ever feel the same way about me that I felt about him.

“Bianca, I have to go out tonight. We’ve got another job and it’s one that we really cannot afford to turn down. I just need to know, from you, one little thing” Brian asks me gently, hand stroking down my cheek and I open my eyes again, turning to glance over at him.
“Anything”
“Who’s Violet? You kept saying her name before you passed out and I couldn’t help but worry that she might be a threat to you…” he trails off as I stare back at him knowing that I have only two directions I can go in.

I can either lie to him and say that she’s an old friend and I must have been hallucinating about my childhood, or I can bare a fraction of the truth and explain to him that Violet is my older sister. He doesn’t need to know about her being the mother of ‘his girl’ right this second.
“She’s not a threat Brian. Not anymore. Violet…she was my sister” I say softly.

But he doesn’t need to know that she was the woman whose baby he rescued. At least not yet.