20. The Volunteer
THE VOLUNTEER
I headed back up to Scarlett’s room at hour number four.
This was the longest a villain had spent at the hospital and one look outside told me Captain Douchebag was setting up for another try.
She was giggling uncontrollably as I walked up to the door and knock softly.
Avalanche was the one to respond that I could come in.
Inside, Scarlett was grinning as he hung upside down from the ceiling, held up only by ice boots.
He’d shed his mask, blond hair falling from his face as he smiled wide.
He looked… Free. She looked… Better. Colour had returned to her cheeks, breathing not even a little bit laboured after all that laughing.
“I’m so sorry, it’s time for Avalanche to get going.”
“Don’t be sorry! He promised to come back next week. If that’s okay, I mean.”
I looked over at him, still hanging upside down.
“You did?”
He dropped from the ceiling, landing upright.
“You betcha! Can’t say no to my favourite patient, especially now that she’s feeling better.” He winked at her; she grinned. “If that’s okay with our favourite volunteer. I know it’s a lot of stress on you, so I can push it back if you need me to.”
“I’d have to check my schedule. I don’t think I’m here at all next week. I have my trip so I won’t be back ’til Christmas, but I can’t remember if I’m here or 56th. Maybe the week after would be better, is that okay, kiddo?”
She nodded vigorously.
“Maybe you could come later? Like last time, so the police don’t know.”
“We’ll figure it out.” Avalanche smiled. “But for now, I should get out of here so everyone can get back to normal.” He walked toward me.
“Forgetting something?”
I crossed my arms, leaning on the door so he couldn’t leave. I might be pissed at him, but I wasn’t about to let him blow his identity by walking out of here without his mask.
“What? No—” He followed my gaze to Scarlett’s end table, where his glacier mask had been discarded. “Crap. What would I do without you?” He secured it back on his face and turned to Scarlett. “How do I look?”
“Villainous!”
He grinned. “Excellent. Well, Miss Violet, lead the way.”
“I’ll send your parents back in and come around a bit later.”
“Thanks, Miss Violet.”
I gave her a soft smile before I shooed Avalanche out the door.
“V—”
I pulled him around the corner where there were no prying eyes. I needed to know what to tell her parents.
“What did you do? Is she cured?”
“No, not completely. I… It’s hard to explain. I like— I froze her cancer cells so that they can’t keep spreading. It’s not a cure, but it will help the chemo treatments and it will give her a better chance. You think I would be out here killing people if I could literally cure cancer?”
“I don’t know, Avalanche. I don’t even know who you are. How would I know what you would do?”
He flinched. “Violet—”
“I need to go find her parents. If you really want to talk you can meet me in my office. Otherwise, I don’t want to see you until Scarlett’s next visit with you.”
I walked away before he could get another word out.
I found Scarlett’s parents in the cafeteria.
I told them Avalanche had helped her, and she was looking a little better but made it very clear she wasn’t cured.
Mrs. O’Reilly was crying and hugging me, thanking me over and over.
No matter how many times I tried to tell her that it wasn’t me—I just made a call—she wouldn’t accept it.
She called me a hero; she called Avalanche a hero. I almost laughed at that one. I wondered what he would think if I told him. If he was still here, he probably took off running the second I stormed out of that hallway.
“He gave us more time with our little girl. You gave us more time with our little girl. Whether it’s a cure or not, we’ll be eternally grateful.” Mr. O’Reilly squeezed my hand, holding back tears.
He was a quiet man. Throughout the time I’d been working with Scarlett, he’d only said a handful of words in my presence. To hear him say that— I was one more word away from bawling my eyes out.
They both gave me a hug before heading back to their daughter.
And I headed back to my office to cry—maybe, probably.
I was feeling really overwhelmed with the roller-coaster of emotions I’d been on in the last four hours.
Scarlett was going to die today, now she won’t but still could in the future.
Avalanche ignored five phone calls but came running the second he heard about Scarlett. Then there was my mum.
I hadn’t thought about her death in months.
That stupid ERT captain had to go and open his big fat mouth like he knew everything.
He didn’t know shit. He was looking at everything in black and white when this whole situation was clearly grey.
Him and that stupid ass chief of police, Eric Ericson III.
The two of them were trying to paint the hospitals as the bad guys.
As if we were single handedly keeping the police from taking down the villains running amuck in our streets.
Meanwhile, they were sitting on their asses waiting for the villains to come to the hospitals instead of trying to track them down in a building not occupied by the city’s most vulnerable population.
But sure, I was the problem for refusing to let the police get a bunch of innocent people killed. Innocent people like my mum.
My office door was propped open when I arrived. Avalanche was leaning on my desk, head buried in one of my books, still in full costume. He probably thought he was going to find something dirty in here, but this was my place of work. I only kept YA and kidlit on the shelf.
He looked up as I approached.
“This is pretty good, maybe I should start taking recommendations from you.”
I stopped a good two metres from him.
“You’d have to be talking to me in order to take recs.”
He flinched as he dropped the book to his side. It didn’t escape my notice that he’d peeked at the page number before closing it.
“I was just trying to do what you asked.”
“I told you I would call if someone wanted to meet you. You sent me to voicemail five times. What part of that was doing what I asked?”
“I’m sorry.” His eyes were glued to the floor around my feet. “I… I was— It doesn’t matter. It won’t happen again.”
“Yes it will.”
His eyes snapped to mine. “No. It won’t.”
“I don’t believe you. A month ago, I would have.
But now? No chance. You know Eva asked me why I was ignoring you?
I thought it was silly, not worth voicing aloud.
Except it was exactly what happened. You were always there and I knew if I let myself keep going the way we were, you would leave and I would get my feelings hurt.
“But then you were relentless in getting back into my life, so I caved. And then you left, came back, and left again. But still, for some reason I thought if I really needed you, you would be there. Like you were the other night. But I called and called and you weren’t.
I needed you and you couldn’t be bothered to pick up your fucking phone.
“I couldn’t get my eyes open the other night when you whispered your whole it’s not safe speech.
The I’ll always be there if you need me, speech.
But now I can. So look me in the eyes and tell me that it won’t happen again, I want to know what you look like when you lie straight to my fucking face. ”
Angry tears were streaming down my face by the time I finished. He cleared the distance between us in two steps, hand under my chin to force my eyes to lock on his.
“I am not a liar. It won’t happen again. I’m here. You needed me and I came. Does it look like I’m lying?”
“I don’t know. I don’t trust you anymore.”
He stumbled back as if I’d punched him in the gut. A look of pain flashed across his face before he schooled his features—cold and emotionless again.
“Fine. Let me know when Scarlett would like me to visit again. Whatever works with your schedule.”
“Will you care enough to answer your phone this time?”
A growl ripped its way through his throat before my back hit the door behind me, slamming it shut as his hand found my throat to keep me pinned in place.
“You think this is fun for me? I’ve been keeping you at arm’s length because I’m worried about putting you in danger and you’re going to stand there and accuse me of not caring?
I care too much; don’t you get that? Can’t you see?
Every single waking moment since I met you has been filled with worry.
Worry that I might get you kidnapped, captured, or killed. I’m losing my damn mind, Nightshade.”
It had been real, every fucking word. Fucking moron.
“You’re an idiot.”
“Excuse me?”
“I held off a total of seven ERT raids and nearly a thousand different attempted muggers since I moved here. I have the contact information for seventy-seven of the most feared people in the world and haven’t batted an eye.
You think I can’t handle myself? You think I’m some weak little delicate flower that needs to be protected?
” I snorted. “Fuck you. Fuck you for thinking you know what’s best for me. ”
His grip on my neck loosened, his hand lowered to rest flat on my collarbone.
“I don’t think any of those things.” His voice softened. “I think that you are the strongest and bravest person I’ve ever met. But if anyone learned— Violet, I can’t keep putting you in danger.”
“Then don’t. Walk out that door and don’t come back.”
“Is that what you want?”
“No. I want to go back to the late night, inappropriate phone calls and our effortless banter. But if we go back there and you leave again it’s going to ruin me. So, this is decision time. No more of this half in half out shit; you’re either my friend or you’re a stranger. Pick.”
“What if I want to be more?” he whispered, leaning closer, his lips hovering over mine.
“That’s not on the table.”
His eyes flickered from my chest—very obviously breathing heavy—to my lips—trying really hard not to nibble on them—back to my eyes.
“Right now? Or ever?”
“I guess that depends on you.”
He stepped back. My hand went to the door handle to keep me upright.
“If I stay, could it be on the table?”
“Well, you can’t stay at the hospital looking like that. But, if you stop disappearing for weeks at a time, yes. It could be on the table.”
“Since I can’t spend all day here, I’ll get out of the way.” A sly smile spread across his face. “But I’ll call you later?”
I nodded, stepping out of the way so he could open the door.
“I would like that.”