He Stole My Cab (Benedict Cumberbatch Fanfiction)

Chapter Ten

Benedict POV

Damn it! I hurled my phone onto the sofa behind me and rested my heads in my hands. Why didn’t she answer the phone? She’s been calling me for days and the one time I try and phone her she doesn’t answer. Typical.

I sat down on the sofa rubbing my tired eyes, I hadn’t been able to sleep very well the last few nights; my mind full of distorted images of when I found her and that creep in the alley. She left her phone here when she left and at the time I was so angry and broken that I needed answers so I phoned up Tina, who was at the top of her messages list, and asked her who this Jamie bloke was.

Tina, once she had ascertained who I was, told me what I assumed was the majority of the truth. She told me that they used to go out but then things changed, but she didn’t go into much detail, but she didn’t need to. My imagination ran wild as I stood there her phone in my hand staring at the still open door and I pieced together what I knew and the rest seemed to slot into place. I didn’t understand what she had just done though but I needed to find out so I grabbed my coat and ran from the apartment.

Luckily a cab was there when I ran down the steps and I jumped in, slamming the door behind me. I shouted her address to the driver and he rolled his eyes at me, “That sort of attitude won’t get you nowhere mate” he said his south London accent thick. “No but this will” I said pulling a wad of cash from my wallet and flashing it at him. With that the driver was quiet and accelerated off, the car lurching violently. I bounced my leg up and down and my mind raced faster than the speeding car. I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to calm myself down but all it did was remind me of when Theresa had pushed my hair back, the kiss we had shared, and that certainly did nothing to calm me down.

What if she wasn’t here? What if he had already got her? Images the bruises on her stomach and the one on her arm when we were in the restaurant kept popping up in my mind and it had made me wonder what else he had done to her, what else he could be doing now.

The driver screeched to a halt outside the apartment block and I chucked the cash at him and ran from the cab. I ran past the iron gates and to her building, I ran straight to her door, banging on it loudly. A woman answered the door in a dressing gown who I assumed must be Tina, she looked confused when she saw me but I had no time to explain. “Is she here, where is she?” I called pushing past her into the apartment. It was much like I had expected it to be, and I wished that the circumstances under which I would first see her apartment would be very different to what they are now. “Hey, you can’t just storm in here   who are you?” Tina called as she followed me as I opened every door to see whether she was in the room.

“Have you seen Theresa? Where is she!!” I called again, something in my tone must have made Tina pay attention and she stood staring at me worry crossing her face. “No I haven’t seen her since she left about three hours ago, why? Who are you?”
“There’s no time to explain, we spoke on the phone” I said and realisation crossed her face. “But she was supposed to be with you, wasn’t she?”
“Look I can’t explain now there is no time, I think she might be with Jamie” Those words made a look of pain and disgust cross her face, confirming my suspicions.

I left her apartment, running down the stairs, not bothering to wait for the lift and ran back to the main road. I hailed a cab and was just clambering inside when I heard something that made by blood run cold.

It was her. I knew it was, it had to be. My eyes darted around looking for where her scream could of come from. I spun round on the spot, looking for open windows or doors or anything. And then I saw it, a little side road just off to the right. I sprinted towards it, my palms sweating, my mind a whir of thoughts and my heart hammering hard against my chest.

I didn’t see it at first, see them. He was holding her far down the other end of the street, blocked from vision by an outside staircase. I felt like I was going to be sick, seeing her like that in his arms, one hand clamped tightly over her mouth the other was deep under her clothing. I ran as fast as I could down the alleyway, hurdling over bins. As soon as he looked up and saw me, he dropped her and took off fleeing down the other end of the street, but not before I had a chance to see the sick smile on his wicked face. I would never forget that look.

Her eyes were closed, and I feared the worst. Blood poured from a gash on the back of her head from where he had dropped her and it must have hit the ground. But her arm was the worst. It stuck out behind her in an unnatural position and you could see the bone protruding from where her elbow was. After dialling for an ambulance I picked her up in my arms, carefully making sure not to move her arm in case I made matters worse.

I couldn’t help but blame myself as I looked down at her in my arms, and brushed her hair back from her face, trailing my fingers down her ghostly white cheeks. If she hadn’t left my house none of this would have happened, she would still be with me, where she belonged. Because I needed her, I needed to hear her laugh, see her smile, the deep blush in her cheeks.

The ambulance arrived shortly and I rode in the back holding her hand tightly the whole way. They connected a ECG machine to her chest and the beeps where infrequent and slow. Her hand was cold in my hand and glowed eerily. When we arrived at the hospital it was a frenzy of nurses and doctors all crowding around her and I sat in a chair in the corner, my head in my hands praying that she would be ok, that I would be able to see the light in her eyes once more.

At least two hours passed and something must of happened as suddenly all the doctors were filling the room again, the beeping noise faster now and getting faster. A tube was put in her throat and I stood up feeling useless and walked to her bedside. Panic filled my body as I looked at the machine next to her and it was just one continual line, one continual beep, and I had seen enough shows to know that this was bad, very bad.

My breathing quickened and I could feel a lump forming in my throat as I began to suspect the worst that could happen, my vision began to blur for the tears in my eyes but I didn’t care and let them fall on my cheeks. One of the doctors produced a needle just as her eyes flew open. “Benedict!” She screamed and even though her eyes were open I had a feeling that she wasn’t seeing what was before her, that she was somewhere else.

I tried pushing past the doctors to hold her hand, let her know I was here, that I wasn’t going anywhere but the doctor with the needle turned to me and ordered that I left, immediately. With that he turned back and put the needle into her arm, and she fell back, lifeless once more.

And that was the last time that I saw here. It’s not that I didn’t want to, of course I wanted to, but I knew that she needed to rest and not only that but I was still confused about everything that had happened and why she had said those things to me.  If I was honest with myself I still doubted her feelings for me, she had said those words like she meant them. But then why would she scream for me, twice.

But today I had had enough, I needed to see her, to hold her, I wanted to be there to protect her, like I should of done ten days ago. I had dialled the number at least ten times before I pressed call, and with each ring my heart sunk a little lower, and by the time the answer machine message came up my heart felt truly broken.