Crisis Of War

{ XLIV }

She nods slowly, letting the fresh air fill her lungs slowly. 'I need more time to think, so we'll talk first.' 

I throw a bag of popcorn her way and grab a bottle of Pepsi since the CocaCola was nowhere to be found, and two cups. 

'You planned this all out, didn't you?' I shrug and take a seat next to her, pulling her into my arms for a hug. 

'Okay, so ask what you want to know and I'll answer as detailed as possible.' I start, filling the two cups with Pepsi. 

She takes one of the cups and frowns when she sees the bottle. 'We were out of coke.' 

'Alright,' She mumbles as she tries to get comfortable, crossing her legs on the couch we're sitting on, 'how did you and Rio become friends?' 

I can't help but chuckle at her confusion and try to come up with a simple answer. But that would be impossible. 

'It just happened because we were searching for you, so I guess you could say that you are the reason we became friends.' Now that I think about it, she is the reason we became friends. 

'Alright, where did Vincent, Killian, and Nico come from?' I honestly thought she would ask questions about Rio or my sexual assault, anything else but this. 

'According to Rio, we needed more people to get you back. We went to Amsterdam to get them and asked them to join us in our search, which they did. Vincent is the hacker, Nikolai is the buff guy, and Killian is a translator.' They all have a purpose. 

'And Vincent likes Celine?' I nod and grab some popcorn, before bringing it to my mouth. 'Alright...' 

She takes a handful of popcorn herself and leans back, letting everything settle in her head. 

'What about...' I turn to her as I take a sip of my glass and almost drop it when I see the look in her eyes. 'Nevermind, we don't have to talk about it if you're not ready.' 

'Why did you blame Rio?' I don't want to go into detail just yet, but I want to know why she's blaming him. 'Because he sent you in there alone.' 

'He didn't know something like this was going to happen.' I shouldn't have started this conversation. I should've just asked her about how it was for her, instead of asking her that question. 

'He didn't rule out the possibility either, Neveah.' 'Neither did I.' I say, making her frown for some reason. 'Yes, because you trusted Rio to handle it for you.' 

'A little, but I could've thought about it before going in there. So if you're going to blame him for something that he had no control over, you should blame me as well.' 

'Dear God, Neveah! He made you go in there and he knew the risk.' What? 

'He didn't make me do anything, he asked me to go and I said yes.' It takes her a few seconds to come up with a reply, but I can tell she didn't know about that part. 'He made it sound like he didn't give you a choice.' 

'Well...' I say, grabbing another hand of popcorn, 'He did.' 

'I still don't think he should've let you go in there alone.' She stubbornly mutters. 

'Cataleya, he didn't know. No one did.' 

'But he-' 'He could've thought about it, but so could I. There were a million things that could've happened that night and it was just a fucked up thing that happened, but you can't blame him.' It's not his fault. 

It's Johan's and... Mine. 

I should've listened to Kai when he told me to get a drink before, I should've never let him lock the door in the first place, I should've never agreed to do anything and let them hire someone else.