Author note:

Finally. We made it to this chapter. Now we can actually GET ON WITH THE PLOT.

That took way more stress than I was anticipating.

Enjoy!

Chapter 11

How Did We Get Here?

/ - Elliot POV - /

In an attempt to return to a somewhat normal lifestyle, he had decided to attend Gideon's party. Despite asking Shayla to accompany him, he felt more alone in that room than he had in his apartment. He was currently outside, a little shaken from Gideon's intense mind-games. Elliot knew the boss was suspecting him, but he had bigger issues to worry about.

The thought of Gwen had returned once more, and fighting the urge to blanch, Elliot focused on the night sky. It was pointless. Gwen persevered in his head.

The look on her face when she had shot down the camera, every time it surfaced in his mind's eye it caused Elliot's heart to speed up. In fear.

Gwen looked terrifying at that moment. He couldn't see a single resemblance between her and the girl who had wept on his bed, begging him to remember her. The Gwen who had walked out of the office, who had blood on her from head to toe, she was a person Elliot couldn't recognize.

She's a monster.

But even knowing this, he found himself still drawn to her. He still held the impatience for her to be back.

Elliot shivered and dug his hands deep into his pocket. He trudged back inside to, reluctantly, talk to other people. Shayla looked up at him from her position on the sofa, and he gave her a nod. She was doing well, for someone as cut out of society as he was.

Angela smiled at him when she noticed him looking her way. He kept her gaze for a couple seconds before turning away.

A sharp voice on the television caught his attention and Elliot shifted to face the screen.

Everything after that happened too quickly for him to absorb.

One moment he was watching the reporter nonchalantly mention how Terry Colby had been involved in the incident that caused his father's death and the next moment his foot was hitting the pavement and he was moving speedily away from Gideon's place. Elliot's mind was a mess.

Are you seeing this? Is this happening for you too?

He didn't know how to feel at that moment. The reporter wasn't confirming what he had always believed. Rather, she was reminding him of something that he had been struggling to forget.

He walked even faster.

The cold air was wrapping its embrace around him and even his fast-paced walking couldn't keep him warm. As his feet hit the grass, Elliot felt his knees give out and he tumbled over, kneeling to look at the tombstones just ahead of him. The moon reflected off the concrete softly and Elliot couldn't take his eyes off his father's grave.

Oh god.

He didn't know how long he'd sat there, in that position. He was cold, alone and in complete shock. He'd never felt smaller in his whole life. Who did he have? People usually went to the ones who loved them for comfort when these things occurred. Who was there to comfort him during this? His distress was his alone.

There was no one.

Nobody was coming for him.

Elliot would continue to suffer alone, as he always had. Bringing his knees up to his chest, Elliot locked his arms around him and rocked slowly. No one would ever comfort him like this, and he had to be strong. But just for tonight, he would let himself mourn again.

/ - Gwen POV - /

It had been a fucking test. The whole set up, her being kidnapped, her blasting the brains out of those men after they'd told her what she wanted to know. For the whole night, after the event, Gwen's memory was blurry when it came to thoughts of what had happened. But after blacking out from exhaustion, when she woke, Gwen was pummelled with recollections.

The imagery of the blood, the eyes pleading her, it shook her to her core. Had that really been her? Had she really done that to all those men? For all their misdeeds, most of them had families to go home to. Someone would have to live without a father, without a husband and it had all been her fault. She had killed them.

After her actions, she knew that the higher-ups would be after her. But she didn't care.

Let them come.

She was tired and the determination from before had faded, leaving only a dull ache in its absence. She was growing tired of this act and all she wanted to do was go home and stick to her mundane jobs. Gwen, not for the first time in her life, just wanted to be normal.

It was around lunchtime when he appeared. Scared the living shit out of her as she walked from her bedroom to her kitchen only to find a stranger sitting at her dining table, flicking through the newspaper as if he lived there.

"The fuck are you?" She spat out as she drew a knife from its holder. The man calmly folded the newspaper and placed it on the table. He uncrossed his legs slowly and stood up. His slow, methodical actions put Gwen on edge, but her grip on the knife remained steady.

As he stepped toward her, Gwen felt her hand begin to tremble, ever so slightly. His calmness was creeping her out. The man acted as if he knew she wasn't going to hurt him

You are so wrong, buddy.

As he stepped within range, Gwen shifted her weight forward and charged at him, dodging under the hand that shot out and popping up behind him. When she swung for his neck, the man ducked and slammed back into her, grabbing the hand holding the knife and using it to swing her over him.

The throw slammed her into the ground and Gwen, winded, couldn't get up. He took the knife from her grasp and examined it.

"You know," he drawled out with a thick accent, "I wouldn't go trying to stab your uncle if I were you."

That got her attention and she slowly rolled over to the side, sitting up and trying to regain her breath. The man pulled the chair he had previously been sitting on over and plopped down on it. He crossed his legs again and straightened out the front of his blazer.

"Uncle? That's crazy, my dad has no brothers."

The man raised an eyebrow, his finger stopping at the tip of the knife. His gaze flicked over to her and he stared her down. "Last time I checked, uncles could be a mother's brother too."

Gwen was up with her hands grabbing the collar of his jacket. She stood a little shorter than him but had no trouble pulling his face down close to hers. "The fuck you say about my mother?"

"Relax, Lana."

That got her to let go and step back. Apart from Elliot, Gwen hadn't been called that name in a long time. It was her from another life, she felt. She was not that person anymore.

"Why would you let me kill them?" She blurted out.

"Who?"

"Your men."

"Ah," the man made a noise of understanding, "They were criminals anyway. Betrayed the family."

"So, you let them die?" She asked incredulously. The guy was insane.

"Well, you're the one that killed them, no?"

That made her speechless. This man was just full of surprises. Who was he?

"I'm not here for a merry little visit, niece. I'm here because I need to give you a warning. You need to stay out of this business. After all, your mother went to so much effort to leave the family. You wouldn't want her efforts to go in vain, would you?"

Gwen stayed silent, mulling over his words.

"These men are dangerous. While you may consider yourself apt enough to take several of them on, the moment you face the masses, you will be slaughtered. You will not survive. The Dark Army is a dangerous group and I suggest you leave it alone. I don't know what your cute little vigilante hacker group think they can achieve, but I can assure you all you're doing is playing right into White Rose's hands right now."

"What do you have against the Dark Army?"

The man breathed a sigh and stood up as if he was tired of her questions. "They killed your mother, Lana. What more reason do I need?"

Speechless, once more.

As he turned to leave, Gwen grabbed his arm. The man didn't pull away, but he didn't turn back to look at her either.

"Were you the one who helped me escape? The one that's been giving me hints?"

That earned her a laugh. "No. Your hero hails a lot closer to home than you think. And you might want to check on your little saviour. It seems that someone powerful is playing with his head. Recently released news has surely got him in a tight spot. I'd say it is due time that you booked a flight home. Your little pet won't survive without you for long."

Gwen waited until the man had left before she sank onto the floor. So much had just happened and her head was doing laps as the thoughts spun round and round. She knew exactly who he was talking about, unfortunately.

Is it unfortunate? Maybe you knew all along. Who else would make you feel that thrilled, that angry and that excited at the same time?

It only took her a few seconds to google the news back in the States. When she'd flicked through it, she knew exactly what the man was referring to. Gwen picked up her phone and dialed, trying to calm her beating heart.

/ - Elliot POV - /

Buzz buzz.

Elliot picked up his phone. He was numb. He was angry. Who was stupid enough to call him at this time?

Oh fuck. Fuck off.

It was Gwen.

Remaining silent, he placed the phone to his ear. On the other end, Gwen remained quiet too. Elliot slowly felt all the anger that had built up over the course of the night spill over and he opened his mouth to tell her to piss off.

Her soft, tired voice stopped him. She was shaking too, he could hear it in her voice. What was she doing?

"Elliot."

It was as if his heart simultaneously burst into happiness and in fear. On the one hand, hearing her say his name meant that whatever they had, whatever still existed post-breakdown in his apartment and post-China, it was enough to keep her around. On the other hand, how had she figured out it was him?

He'd been so careful.

Elliot, not knowing how to collect his thoughts, remained unspeaking.

Gwen breathed heavily on the other side, her intakes of air shaking slightly. It was so real that Elliot could almost feel it wrack through his own body. Something had happened that had made her this scared. But at that moment, Elliot was going through a hard time too.

He felt his anger return. Had she called him to console her? He had come so close to managing his feelings about her, so close to calling it quits on trying to rectify their situation. Had she come to draw him back into her clutches?

"Elliot, I'm so sorry you're going through this alone."

His breath hitched and he forced back his tears. It was as if her words had opened the floodgates, reduced his self-hating to a minimum and embraced him with so much comfort.

"I should have been there. I shouldn't be here chasing ghosts. You were so strong for me and all I've done is run. Let me help. Let me be worth something. I know it must feel as if you've lost him all over again. So please let me be here for you.

"Death is such an ugly thing. You deserve a hand to hold throughout this. Let me be here for you."

He had no words, no way to stop her. She was chipping him further while he was already cracked. In his emotional state, she could have said anything sweet and he would have let her in. He hadn't realised how desperate he was.

Oh god.

He was so desperate.

"Okay." His voice was raspy from the cold air and it came out barely above a whisper. But he knew that she'd heard him because moments after he'd spoken, her sweet voice filled his ear again.

She was singing, the song was so familiar to him and yet he couldn't place a finger on it. It reminded him of warm nights in bed, before his family had fallen apart. It reminded him of laughing with his father as they played around with gadgets.

It reminded him of what it felt like to be loved.

And suddenly, Gwen was crying too.

She kept going through her tears, her voice coming out strangled and breathy. Elliot couldn't hold it in any longer.

There, in that graveyard, staring at his father's tombstone, with Gwen's voice in his ear and her comfort warming him from the cold, Elliot let himself grieve.

Tears came sliding down his cheeks in streams and he hiccupped loudly. Gwen didn't pause at his break down, singing louder and clearer. It was as if she had forced herself to be strong, for him.

This only made it worst and he felt the first sob echo through his body. It was painful, to be crying this deeply. But he let himself. He let himself let go and cry out all his pain.

Because he had been wrong. He had been so wrong.

He did have somebody.

He wasn't alone.

Gwen had been holding his hand the whole time.

End Chapter 11.