The Marx Brothers

Chapter Thirty Five - 'Beautiful'

Soon after entering, Jett came into view.

"It's a few hours before the fight, where have you been?" Jett began on his brother

"Jett" Phoenix began, calm "Don't start, okay?"

It was a quiet but clear warning. Something told me he was becoming more nervous than he let on.
Jett looked at him a for a moment and then towards me, nodding "Fine" He held his hands up

"You did tell him to take it easy today" Nova sided with Phoenix, raising his eyebrows at Jett

As Phoenix disappeared upstairs, Jett turned to me "How did today go?"

"It was all good" I sighed, sitting on the reception desk, crossing my ankles

"The doctor didn't have any concerns?" He stood in front of me, his arms crossed, his face relaxed

I shook my head "I'll be fine, turns out I'm not as weak as I appear"

"You don't give yourself enough credit Eden" He smiled, his gaze on me narrow "You are one of the strongest women I know, look at where you are, what you've survived against"

"Only because of you guys" I defended

"Stop selling yourself short, you could have taken so many other routes out of this, instead you chose to defend our illegal decisions" He appeared thankful "I don't agree with majority of the things my brother has done, but you have changed so many aspects of his life, for the better"

"He's still fighting isn't he? That hasn't changed"

He took a step forward, checking for eavesdroppers before lightly speaking "Tonight will be his last fight Eden. This is it, he told me that if he survives through this, he's done. And you know why? Because of you, he wants normal life"

"You believe he can live a normal life?"

He tilted his head "Well, as close to normal as Phoenix can get, but all of this fighting business, it's done"

I was relieved, but that didn't mean it was going to work out between us. There was still the matter of surviving tonight and surviving my sister.
However, I was thrilled at the idea of things working out. In a perfect world, Phoenix would easy win the fight and Gonzales would keep good on his word of protection. Grace would flip out, but get over the truth and stay with Jett, happily. Phoenix and I could explore each other in the normal way a dating couple would.
In a perfect world.
It sounded easier than it would pan out.

"How do you think this will go?" I valued Jett's opinion, he would know more than anyone how well the night would work

Uncertainty flashed over his features as he pushed his long sleeves up to his elbows "Even I can't decide how this will turn out"

"That's unnerving Jett" I scoffed, jumping down from the counter as Phoenix reappeared

"Everything will be fine though, we'll take it one step at a time and figure it out as it comes" Jett smiled, patting me on the arm, attempting to put me at ease

I just nodded as we moved toward the middle of the room where Nova and Phoenix spoke to each other.

An hour was spent on talking strategies and situations. We were well aware that tonight was going to be full of tension, Dillon, Jaz, Gonzales, Reid, they were all going to be there. The past was coming back to haunt us.
I was particularly terrified to see both Jaz and Dillon. Dillon scared me the most, he was unpredictable and violent, he had after all, nearly killed me in such a personal manner.
I wondered how well Phoenix's self control was going to work once he also saw them, knowing what they had done. I worried this would explode into an all out brawl, and then I worried that it would go as far as someone bringing a gun or a knife, releasing a killing spree.