Fallen

Chapter Eight

Heels are horrible. The backs of my shoes rubbed against my ankles, causing a terrible sore. Tomorrow on both ankles horrible blisters would be left behind. But my stride didn't slow while I walked the opposite direction of Noah.

The interaction with Noah was the easy part. The hard part would be to stand through the rest of the cocktail party.

My heels clicked on the polished floor of the hallway. A couple doors down, Alec stepped out of a room.

"You took your time," he said. He eyed the dress I wore only for a moment before he turned his attention back to my face. "With those heels, I am surprised you can even walk."

I shot him a look. "Oh, you try walking in them."

"They can't be that bad." Alec stepped toward me.

In my hand was the paper I took from Chris' office. I handed it to Alec. "You want to try them?"

"My feet wouldn't fit." Alec took the paper. He scanned it, flipped the paper over and looked up at me. "That is it?"

"Yup. I had to talk Noah into working with us. He will. At a later date he could find us more information." I stood beside Alec so I could read the paper too. Listed on it were numbers and abbreviations, the whole thing made little sense. "What is it?"

Alec shook his head. "Blair and I will work on it. You need to get back."

Twenty minutes. That was the window I had to reach the office, talk to Noah, and return to the party. By now it was pushing thirty minutes.

"You're right. I will see you later." I walked away from Alec. He mumbled his goodbye, while he turned to walk down the hall, his eyes still on the paper.

He and Blair could figure it out. I could help but I got the damn thing to begin with. The back of my heels screamed in pain all the way downstairs to the cocktail party.

The double doors to the room remained open and people mingled around inside. Entering the room, no one noticed me. Good, I wasn't missed.

"Where have you been," Audrey hissed beside the open door.

The words made me jump, I spun to her. In the months of knowing her, I had never heard talk in that tone. Of course, there were times before when she was angry with her parents when she was given to Ming to marry. But that was different. Her anger had never been directed toward me.

"What?" I asked.

"Ben. He needs you."

Scanning the room, I didn't see him. "I don't-"

"He's not here," Audrey said, her tone kinder, sadder. "He, sometimes..." Audrey stopped to refocus herself. She was at a struggle for words or feelings with how her face distorted in frustration. "Sometimes he has episodes. Bad memories return out of nowhere. They happened a lot after Colton, his mentor died. He just... He was with your dad and Cedar and he got pale and clammy."

"But what can I do?" I asked. I hadn't dealt with one of his episodes. Hell, I didn't know he had them.

Audrey glanced toward the hallway and I took her meaning. We went into the hall, away from the chatter of people. "I've been there when he has an episode. He goes, I can't quite describe it. Not dark. But not sad. He's distant. Anyway, I tried to comfort him but there was nothing I could do. I thought maybe since you two were close and you both been through things, you could help."

He's been there when I had episodes. Having him near eased whatever dark thoughts that haunted me.

"Where would he be?" I asked.