Trust- (noun) firm belief in the reliability of someone.

Chapter Ten

His right leg and his left arm are wrapped tightly in cream-colored bandages. His first worry is how he will control the events of the next couple of days, and his second worry is Nina. He'd recognize this hospital anywhere: Beth Zion. His wife is also a patient here. What'll happen when she finds out about his injuries? He has to make sure that no news is delivered to her on this. He has to.

He presses the red nurse call button continually, trying not to panic. Ellen rushes in, carrying a wooden clipboard and a Capri Sun.

"We didn't have any water," she explains.

Duncan breathes. "Nina can't know about this."

"She won't be notified."

He sighs. "Good." She hands him the Capri Sun and sits down.

"See? Now we've both visited each other in the hospital."

He takes a few sips of his cherry beverage. "What happened to me?"

"Well, after you took a steep fall down my staircase, you fractured an arm and a leg. I had to call an ambulance because you were unconscious."

"Ellen, this is a big problem."

She chuckles. "If you didn't want to be injured, why did you tumble down the stairs?"

"Not funny. You know what this means."

"Look, Sandrine and Kramer and whoever else can take care of things. You know that they're a good team, right? Isn't that why you chose them?"

"Kramer wanted to help Nina and Sandrine needed the money. They'll fall apart without me."

"They'll get it together. And even if they don't, we'll figure something out."

"Ellen?" he asks. "Do you want to help me?"

"I think you know the answer to that."

"Then you need to take this guy out before someone else does."

"Why is he such a terrible man? Or is this all for the bone marrow? Because, if it is-"

"He raped Nina's mother, Ellen," Duncan says. "He wanted to delete all evidence of that crime. Nina's evidence. He thinks that Nina's dead. Do you have any idea what'll happen if he discovers that she's still alive?"

She stares at him with wide eyes for a minute, but blinks to bring herself back. "Why didn't you just tell me that?"

"How was I supposed to trust you?" he says questioningly. There's a pause.

"I probably would've killed him if I'd known," she says softly and indignantly. "No one else would've died."

"Oh? So now it's my fault?" he asks, voice fretful and uneasy. "You had your chance, Ellen. You prolonged this mission. This was supposed to be done two weeks ago. Finished. And here we are." Ellen takes a few steps forward, getting right up in his face.

"You have no idea how scared, and afraid, and used I felt. You were using me, plain and simple. You destroyed everything and you don't even care." She breathes in deeply. "And here we are."

"I was doing it for the sake of the greater good, alright?"

"There are other ways of handling things."

He goggles at her. "What do you expect me to do? Say, "Hey, Mr. President, wanna lend me some bone marrow for your cancerous rape child whom you believe is lamented?" Do you expect that to just blow over?"

"What I'm saying is that you didn't have to hold my family hostage! Why would you want to do that?"

"You wouldn't understand," he huffs. And he's right; she wouldn't. Not under these circumstances.

"Tell me right now."

The information she'd like him to disclose is extremely classified. Only a few earthlings have knowledge of this. It could foil everything. It'll be like he is trashing the possibility of them returning to their usual lives unharmed.

He's not sure if he cares, and at the same time, he wants to be honest, and at the same time, he knows she'll find out eventually, so he'd better just get this over with, even if it means sacrificing the future of, well… just about everything he'd hoped for with her. He doesn't want to unnerve her. He wants her to fight and fight some more, just how she was meant to. He cares about her now. He was never supposed to care about her, but now he does, and he's sick of all the lies, and if he isn't forthright then he'll lose it.

"The original plan wasn't just to kill the president, Ellen," he says. "The original plan was to kill you, too."

"I already know that."

"I mean, even if you cooperated."

"…is that plan still in place?"

He swallows. "It is. But I won't go through with it. The others will." He tries to move his arm but has no success. "See? No regulation. I can't control them from a hospital room. Too suspicious. And I can't ask anyone to take my place. The mission is blueprinted exclusively for me. That's a problem. If they find out about your knowledge, they'll end up killing you and your family, leaving no one to kill the president, leaving no one to save Nina. You can't tell anyone, under any circumstances, what I've just disclosed to you. Do you understand?" She barely manages to nod.

"Wh-Why can't you just order them not to kill me? Aren't you the boss? Couldn't you do that?"

"There are people above me, Ellen. Believe it or not, I don't make all of the rules. If I tell them to abort your assassination, well… that's a very bad position for us to be in. It doesn't work that way. We need to think of something else, and fast."

Ellen's sullen eyes fill with tears and she bangs her head against the wall. "Why!? WHY does it have to be us?!" She slams her fist on the wall, and slowly, her eyelids close. "Why did this have to happen to us? Why?"

"Ellen, this has only made you stronger, and you know it."

"Fuck it, Duncan!" she screams, storming over to his bedside. "My husband's in a psychiatric ward, my sister's in there with him, my daughter's pregnant, my son was dealing drugs, and the man I'm in love with is a murderer. That's it. That's what we're dealing with here."

"…Brian killed someone?" he says.

She holds her head in her hands. "I'm in love with you, you asshole. You act like everything's fine and that me, having to break the promise I made to the president, and to myself, is not even a big deal. For you…apparently, killing people, innocent or not, isn't such a crime." Duncan shuts his eyes, hoping that when he opens them again the sun will hit him and Ellen with a ray of golden light and all will be well. Instead, there's a crying, sobbing, Ellen Sanders standing there, broken, and unable to take much more of the Hell she's had to live with. And all because of him.

"I don't have it in me to lie to you anymore, so I'll just say that I love you, too."

For once, she looks at him, with that same desperate look in her eyes. "I know. I'd forget about it because it doesn't matter. It never did."

"Is that what you're doing? Forgetting about it?"

"Don't we have other things to worry about?" she fumes. "Is this your method of procrastination or something? I'm going to die. And so are you. Take something seriously for once instead of just blowing it off like it's nothing!"

"I have been taking this seriously! My wife is going to die. You know that I'm doing this for her. I'm more seriously than I've ever been in my entire life. So stop accusing me of anything less."

"I'm gonna die too, you know."

"I said we'd figure something out."

"Who do you even care about, Duncan? Me or her?"

"Weren't you the one who just told me to forget about you?"

She stiffens. "That's not what I said."

"So now you're just using me as a safety net? Is that how you see me?"

"Duncan," she says tiredly. "I don't wanna do this anymore. We clearly can't talk about our feelings without arguing about our feelings,so maybe we shouldn't talk at all. We need rest, and our arguing isn't helping much." She sighs slowly. "I'll come back in a couple of hours. Try not to think about anything." She stands in the doorway with her back facing him. "Thoughts can destroy you."

A/N: I'd pretty much lost all faith in this story, but I've decided to wrap it up for you guys, because everyone's been so faithful. You people have given me faith and I feel like you deserve a proper ending, and I feel like this story deserves a proper ending. I'd expect to see around 4-5 more chapters. I've had a specific ending in mind since I begun writing the first chapter, so that's the ending you're going to read. That's all for now!