Sophia was half sitting, half lying on her hospital bed. She looked to her left, at her hand. Max had a grasp on it since he had gotten there, at the hospital. Even when she hadn't come out of her unconsciousness, he had still kept her hand in a warm, comforting hold.
Then she slowly turned her sight towards the right. Tony was sitting on a stool, leaning his head back, against the wall. His eyes were shut. One could have thought he was sleeping if not for his occasionally twitching right eyebrow. Right beside him, Tyler and Parker were bickering in not not so hushed voices, to say the least. Something told Sophia that the twitching and the bickering were connected by a sacred thread of annoyance. Specially considering the fact that the bickering was about whether Tony's 'I am gonna kill everyone' mode is worse or his 'Stop talking! I am ignoring you' mode is worse.
Jake and Violet were with Sophia's doctor. Doctor Paige Miller, who is also one of their old friend. When Sophia had woken up, Doctor Miller informed her that she had a concussion and a small fracture in her right leg. Though, the doctor said that it was nothing too serious, she hadn't said anything about discharging Sophia.
Ryan, Cole and Stephen had gone out of the room some while ago. All three of them seemed in some kind of daze before they left. They never knew that having information about something can be cause of confusion. Because they knew that there was a whole group of secret agents present there, because they knew that their parents are a part of that group, because they knew that their sister could be in some kind of danger, because they knew that something big was about take place, they felt confused. They also felt confused as when they had started to so willingly think of Sophia as their sister.
Sophia felt tired, but she couldn't sleep. The moment she closed her eyes two very disturbing flashes of memory filled her head. Surprisingly, neither of them were about the previous night or the accident. One was of her life with Daniel and Lilian, her previous family. Their pretence of a perfect family. How their eyes and words always regarded her with hatred.
The second was a reflection of nine pair of eyes, each one full of concern. The nine Wilsons. When she had woken up in the hospital that morning, the first thing she noticed was the genuine worry every one of them had had covering their features. This flash of memory contained the way Max engulfed her in a hug, leaving her hand for just that once. She remembered how everyone joined their hug, some more reluctantly than the others, but still. She remembered the lingering feeling on her forehead where both Jake and Violet had kissed her. She remembered how eight out of them nine were constantly asking her if she was okay till the nurse had to shoo them away.
She opened her eyes when she heard a shout. "Beat it!" Tony's eyes were now wide and glaring. Tyler and Parker took that as their cue to leave, still sniggering at the same topic as earlier .
"Well, I better go with them too and bring the both of us something to eat." Said Max to Sophia.
"All of us." She narrowed her eyes at Max playfully to remind him of his other siblings in existence.
"Whatever," Max rolled his eyes. He unclenched his fingers from around Sophia's and got up. Sophia felt cold loneliness at the loss of his touch and as he exited the room. This feeling only intensified when she realised that she was left alone with the one Wilson who wasn't constantly asking her if she was okay.
Not that she expected or wanted him to.
She avoided even looking at Tony's face for forty-five seconds. She was looking at the ceiling, her blanket, the door, the window, her hand, her cast, she might as well have seen wind but-
"Oh, come on!" Tony snapped.
She immediately shut her eyes and contemplated snoring to add better effects to her acting.
"I know you're awake."
Sophia could hear the eye roll in that statement. She slumped her shoulders with a sigh and opened her eyes. Tony was now standing near the foot end of the bed. She felt her cheeks tainted in pink.
"Max and his dramatics are rubbing off on you, y'know," Tony said with a click of his tongue.
Sophia almost snorted at the truth in his words but held herself. She saw Tony sigh and sit on edge of the bed, facing her. He exhaled loudly again, as if preparing himself to do some difficult task. He finally looked at Sophia and asked,
"Look... do you hate me?"
"W-what?"
He groaned. "Of course you hate me. But..."
He trailed off, hoping Sophia would catch on but she didn't. "Look...I know it may seem like it, but I don't hate you, not anymore. And I don't want you to hate me either."
Sophia could see how hard it was for Tony to say these things. But instead of feeling any pity for him she found herself somewhat enjoying his misery.
"I don't- I don't hate you, Tony," She said lowly. "I mean, well, there has been times when I felt an intense dislike towards you." Sophia tucked in her lips and pressed her eyes close, trying very hard not to let her humorous expression show.
"Okay... when?"
"When what?"
"When did you feel this 'intense dislike' towards me?"
"Wow, someone's showing an unexpected soft side today," Sophia remarked.
"Someone's also being all talkative all of sudden. We all have our days, I guess," Tony raised his brows.
"Hmph, fair enough. So, to answer your question, you ate my dinner once." Sophia raised her brows back at him.
"It was not me, it was Tyler. And it was a prank that you were foolish enough to fall for. Plus, I just wanted to take revenge on Max. It was Tyler's idea to include you."
Sophia didn't know if she should feel good or bad that even then Tyler wanted to include her in something as it did cost her her food. She shook her head in an exaggerated manner, "Devil Duo."
"Hey wait! That reminds me. We never got back at you for the locker thing. Those were some of our the most embarrassing photos that you and Max stuck on our lockers. We got Max in the school, but somehow you escaped. I'm gonna have to plan a reve-"
"Well," Sophia tried cut his train of thought as she was sure that she wasn't going to like its destination. "There's this other time when we all together made a cake...or whatever it was that came out of the oven, you remember?" She continued and shuddered when she remembered the night.
"Yeah." Tony said too with a shudder at the memory.
"Yeah...at that time you didn't even want me to cut strawberries next to you. What did you think, I was gonna murder you with the knife or something?"
"Not me, but yourself. You cut only one strawberry but almost cut your finger twice doing that. I don't know what fool will ever trust you with a knife."
"I can cut fruits just fine," Sophia huffed getting a 'yeah sure' in reply. "Well, there this one other time that you-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Just how many times have you 'intensely disliked; me?"
"Just this one more time," this time Sophia's tone was not light and there was no hidden playfulness in it. It was sombre. "The day I came here. You said that we couldn't be family. There were other boys too, but you said it. And you really seemed to believe it too."
"The others fell for you too hard to stand by what I said. And I, I-I don't know why I said it... I guess I believed it at that time." Tony said in an equally sombre voice.
"And now? Do you still believe it?" Sophia asked without meeting his eyes. She was afraid that she would see an answer that she didn't want to, in his eyes.
"I believe that you are someone I have started caring about. Like all my other brothers. Though, I think many- if not all- of them already sees you as their sister. I think, it will take me some more time to get there." A scarlet blush of embarrassment was starting to cover Tony's face as he talked about his feelings.
"That's okay..." Sophia felt emotional after hearing Tony's words, his honesty and genuineness. She was able to understand him.
"What about you? Do you think we will ever be your family?" Tony asked.
Sophia thought about it. The same two flashes from earlier were again shading her head. Finally, it was making sense for her. All the time she was trying to find out the true meaning of family, she finally got it.
"You are."
She spoke further, "I don't know about a father or or a mother or brothers and sister. Maybe I'll understand that too someday. But right now, I know that you're my family. I care for you all and I know that you care about me. For now, let's just call me the Tenth Wilson."
Tony didn't say anything but she knew that her feelings had reached him.
"Okay, so now you tell me about the time that you hated me," Sophia was back to her light mood but Tony wasn't.
"There was only one time that I hated you. I think that was the only time all seven of us brothers hated you. When you came right through the front door with mom and dad. And reason for it is quite petty but I'll tell you. So, y'know our parents were always quite busy with work, always having to go here and there for business matters. And it only increased in the recent years, since Steph became eighteen, I guess. I know they love us all but sometimes it's just very stressful without them here, with us.
"And when you came along, I don't know, if we felt jealous or left out or just plain anger at our parents but whatever it was we conveniently blamed it on you, took it out on you. But then, both dad and mom had to leave for yet another trip the same day you arrived and I think it caused all of us to, like, snap out of it. Nothing had changed with them. After that, I think, everyone started to try to get know you. Maybe, bond with you. But still it's very hard to accept someone as your family, you must get what I'm saying."
Sophia listened intently to every word that Tony spoke. "Yes...and I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Tony replied calmly. "In fact, I'm sorry."
"Don't be."
No more words were exchanged between them. Just a peaceful understanding surrounded them. After a while Tony walked back to his stool and presumed his initial position, just without the bickering this time.
"Oh and by the way," Tony broke the silence. Sophia looked at him. "Don't mention this- whatever just happened- to anyone, even yourself, ever again." Sophia nodded, although she knew that she wasn't going to forget this whole conversation even if she wanted to. Tony continued, "And don't get used to this soft side of me. I rarely ever show it and only to my family."
Sophia smiled, "You don't get used to this talkative side of me. It's only because of the meds that I talked so much with you, Mr Broody Butt. They have done something to me and when it wears off, I'm so gonna regret talking to you."
"Uhuh, and why's that?" Tony narrowed his eyes at her.
"Because my brain just got some of my brand new embarrassing moments. And it's going to play it on repeat in my head, when I go to sleep tonight. I'm really gonna regret This. Whole. Thing," Sophia groaned. Then she saw the most amazing thing she's seen in days-
Tony laughed.
Sophia looked at him in shock for a few moments. Then she broke a smile and saved the scene a million times in her mind. Still looking at Tony she mumbled to herself, "Maybe not the whole thing, after all."
-STRENGTH-
Hey Guys,
Happy New Year !!
So, this is the first chapter of 2022....and.....also the first chapter in a very long time.
I don't think I can say how frequently I'll be able to update but I can say that I WILL. I WILL complete this story and there's no doubt about it. So, just hang with me, please.
Onto the chapter, how was it?
Any thoughts on Tony and Sophia??
Love,
Eternal_18