Ember's Eve

Candid Revelations

"I don't know I'm not good with these things."

Kenneth tossed the bouquet in the bin at the corner of the room. He grabbed the visitor's chair, pulled it closer to the bedside, and relaxed for a proper conversation.

"So, back to doing my job" He stared at the fluid flowing into Nina's Canula. "Do you remember anything from this surprisingly comfortable trip?"

"Not a detail" Nina responded.

"That night when you called me, what happened?"

"Well, I had just gotten a call from my boss at the NGO telling me to drop the Nkibo or I'd get dropped." she narrated "So I took a couple of shots to think the situation through, and then I called you."

"I'm so sorry.."

"Don't be," she stopped him "I remember sounding super messy, I shouldn't have done that to myself. Anyway, I went to bed in my work clothes and then I was surprised by a group of masked men in the room. I had no idea how they got in there and I tried to put up a fight but there's only so much fight left in a drunk lady."

"Shit," Kenneth cursed

"It's not your fault Kenny" Nina consoled him "So what's going on here, doc unplugged my television because she felt the news would stress me out."

"I'm in support of that"

Kenneth stretched his hand and tucked it under Nina's hair. He ran his hair down from the side of her temple to her cheek. He looked at her beautiful eyes and couldn't imagine what would've happened if he hadn't grabbed her from that container. His moment was short-lived. Nina's next question put salt on healing sores.

"What about the rest of the team, how's Jacob doing."

Kenneth took his hand off his face and reclined on the chair. He exhaled and lowered his head. Nina watched the detective and decided to respond to his body language. "Is everything alright?"

"A lot has happened in the past few days." Kenneth pinched his forehead "You need to rest."

Kenneth stood up and put the chair back in position "I have a big commitment today; I promise to come back with a better bouquet when I'm done."

Nina smiled as Kenneth kissed her before turning to walk out of the room. He stopped at the door and turned back to her. "I'm glad I found you, babe"

"Feelings Mutual"

Kenneth walked into the hallway to see Dimitri dressed in a suit with two men in black walking him out of the building. A couple of reporters stood outside with their cameras ready for the boy. Kenneth shook his head as he watched the speedlights flashing the second the boy emerged from the building. Kenneth changed his direction to find another exit from the building when he spotted Brian staring at him across the hallway. Kenneth walked up to the child and patted him on his shoulder. "At some point, I'm going to have to punish you for stalking."

"Don't do anything stupid detective." Diane's voice came from the exit to is right.

"Don't you ever get the tired lady? You're not important to me anymore" Kenneth grabbed the door handle "Go home and school your kid on how to give people their privacy and leave Dimitri alone. The kid's already been through enough."

***

Iva stared into her aunty's eyes. She could see a completely different person now, a woman who had gone through the pain to get what she wanted and would do it all again in a heartbeat. Felicia stared back at her poor niece, she wished she could take away all the painful emotions that she'd stirred up in the girl. But sacrifices like this had to be made to get things done. As much as she would love to see a smile on her niece's face right now, fixing Daunthill was of higher priority.