Hours later, after the nurse had finished her rounds, Brook and Michelle lay side by side on the patient's bed. Brook had insisted she lies down next to him and refused to go back to sleep unless she complied. Of course, with her next to him, all sleep had fled and he only regretted that his arm was held down by the IV needle so that he could not hold her closer.
"I take it the others are okay?" Brook asked.
"Yes... they got away safely. Payton and Paige are on guard outside. Oh, I should let them know you're awake." Michelle half got up but Brook pulled her down with his free arm.
"Not yet. I want to be alone with you for a little while more." Michelle lay back down resting her chin on his shoulder. She gazed at his face from the side.
"What are you thinking?" he asked.
"Whether you're planning to run away again the moment I fall asleep." She replied. "I'm also wondering where I could get a pair of handcuffs..." Brook grinned softly.
"You don't need handcuffs, Michelle. You've already got me as a prisoner in your heart."
"Don't start with the cheesy lines, Brook; I'm still mad at you," Michelle said, turning her eyes to his chest. Brook listened to her steady breathing and knew she was fuming.
"Michelle..." he called softly.
"Revenge isn't gonna solve anything you know. Do you really think we'd be able to live a better life if you just – took Jackson down? Do you think you'll feel better?" Michelle asked.
"I didn't do it to feel better, Michelle. You know that. There's nothing I want more than to live a normal life with you – be in a normal relationship with you where the only crisis in our lives is finding out all the best restaurants are fully booked for our date night." Michelle smiled wistfully at the thought.
"Then we'd eat at home – between you and me I'm sure we could whip up a fancy sandwich dinner for two." She said. Brook grinned, but it faded quickly.
"But you know that's not possible the way things are." He said. "We'd never be free of Jackson unless he was..."
"Taken down for good?" Michelle finished for him.
"It's the only way."
"And if you became a murderer, do you still think we could live a life together?" Her voice was so full of pain he looked down at her face and saw she was crying silently. He wiped a tear off her cheek with his thumb.
"I don't know what else to do Michelle."
"You're not doing it for us Brook. That much I know. You want to do it for revenge. I don't think even your dad would want that."
"How do you know what my dad would've wanted? He sacrificed his life trying to take down the Inferno Ghosts!"
"And you and your mom suffered for it. Do you think your dad would've wanted you to have blood on your hands?" Brook remained silent.
"Brook, if there's even the slightest possibility that there's a better way to take down Jackson, I want to do it. Without you having to sacrifice yourself in the process. Because I'm not letting you go ever again."
"You really think that's possible?" he asked, sounding doubtful.
"I want to believe it is. Screw the Inferno Ghosts! I'm not gonna let them keep us from a better life." Brook smiled at her ferocity.
"But how are we gonna do it?"
"We'll – figure something out. I already thought of something before you ran away."
"Really? Makes me wish I had stayed to hear it." Michelle squeezed his hand harder than normal.
"Yeah, you should've. If you weren't so hurt right now – I'd pound you for that. and I'm not the only one who wants to do that."
"I'd take whatever pounding from you but no one else."
"Hmm. I probably should warn you I took a crash course in self-defense from Paige. I can easily turn that into offense, you know."
"I'm sure you can. My girlfriend is tougher than she looks." He indulged her.
"Are you saying I don't look tough?" Michelle asked, slightly offended.
"Yes, you don't, you look beautiful and sweet. Doesn't mean I'll underestimate how tough you really are."
"Good." She buried her head into his chest.
"Did they – hurt you a lot?" she asked softly.
"Nothing I couldn't handle." Brook brushed off. "I had to stand my ground for my girlfriend now, didn't I?"
"You don't always have to act so tough, you know. You can be weak around me."
"Believe me, Michelle, I am." Michelle glanced up to see his face.
"Do I make you weak?" she asked.
"You do. You make me weak enough to forget the whole world and just think of running away with you. Weak enough to give in to my desires." He ran his fingers down her arm. She shivered at the feeling.
"But you also make me strong – strong enough to believe in the impossible. Like living a life together, as a normal couple. And I'm gonna make that happen one way or another."
"We're gonna make that happen." Michelle corrected.
"Right." He said. He heard her suppress a yawn.
"Get some sleep, Michelle. I'm not going anywhere."
"I should – I haven't slept in two nights. I wonder whose fault that is." Brook grinned sheepishly.
"My bad."
"You'd better still be here when I wake up." She said, closing her eyes. His lips lingered on her forehead.
"I will. I promise."
It was broad daylight the next time Michelle opened her eyes. She heard an unnatural amount of noise in the room and sat up to see where it was coming from. Payton and Paige were seated on the couch squabbling over what to have for breakfast. Brook was sitting up in bed next to her. She noticed he was already dressed in a different set of clothes from the night before.
"Morning angel face. You're the last one up." Paige said.
"Where did you get those clothes? Did you exert yourself? You're supposed to be resting!" Michelle scolded Brook as she hopped off the bed.
"I'm fine Michelle, I'm not an invalid." He said. "And Payton loaned me the clothes. I can't get out of here in a hospital robe."
"You can't leave yet, you just had a bullet removed from your insides!" Michelle said in shock.
"We have to go if we don't want to end up getting killed by the Ghosts. They're still after us and it's only a matter of time before they find us. And anyway, Brook's all better." Payton said.
"All better? Payton, he got SHOT last night!" Michelle shouted.
"Payton's right. We should get going. If Jackson's been searching for us all night, he's had a pretty good head start." Brook said.
"But – but..." Michelle tried to counter-argue that.
"You can cuddle with your boyfriend later, Michelle. We really have to start making tracks." Paige said, getting up. "Oh and one more thing. We have to sneak him out of here."
"What? Why?" Michelle asked.
"Don't you think the hospital would be suspicious about treating a patient with a gunshot wound? We have to avoid the cops. I'm sure the hospital's already called them." Payton said.
"And if they find three six-figure sum sports cars in the basement –" Paige clicked her tongue. "You figure out the rest."
"Fine, but I'm driving Brook," Michelle said obstinately.
"That's a given," Brook said with a smile.
Sneaking out of a hospital was harder than getting away from the Inferno Ghosts Michelle thought. And sneaking a patient who'd just had a bullet removed from his body was even harder. She wanted to make sure he didn't pull a stitch on the way out and had to act as his shield from rushing nurses more than once.
"You may be a little too short to be my bodyguard Michelle," Brook said as they hid behind a wall a few meters from the exit. Waiting for no one to be around in a hospital was next to impossible but Michelle wasn't to be deferred.
"Pipe down. I wasn't about to let Payton yank you about while we escaped. You had a freaking gunshot wound, for crying out loud!" She whisper-shouted.
"Remind me not to make you mad," Brook muttered.
"Now's our chance! Let's move!" Michelle said, grabbing his hand and sneaking him through the exit. Once in the underground parking lot, they headed straight for Michelle's car. It wasn't until Michelle's earpiece turned on did she stop.
"Cops are here! They're at the front entrance!" Paige's voice blared in her ear. "You guys take the highways! We'll distract them and get out some other way."
"The cops? Oh no, that means I have to take the back entrance at the other end of the building!" Michelle said in dismay.
"Why? What's wrong with the back entrance?" Brook asked. Michelle swallowed.
"I don't do well in mazes."
The yellow McLaren zoomed through rows and rows of cars in the dimly lit parking lot. Michelle began to hyperventilate as she drove through, around, and around.
"Breathe Michelle, we'll get out of here no problem," Brook said.
"No problem?! I'm driving a patient who just got shot through four floors of cars and I have a serious case of maze phobia! I consider that a very big problem!" Michelle rattled off.
"Maze-what?"
"Fear of mazes! I can't breathe if I get lost in a maze! Where the heck is that exit?!" Michelle became more and more wound up as she drove.
"Michelle, we're not gonna get lost. Focus. I'll keep an eye on the signs, you drive." Brook said. Michelle exhaled rapidly.
"Okay, okay. Just tell me the direction quickly. I don't want you to pull a stitch if I break too fast."
"Take the next right," Brook said, pointing ahead. Michelle sped up and took the right.
"Good. Now blaze up the ramp –"
"Are you sure this is the way out?" Michelle asked, panicking when she saw more rows of cars.
"Trust me," Brook said reassuringly.
"Okay. Here we go."
"Now go straight and – uh-oh." A car was just reversing out of a spot. Michelle was driving too fast to break.
"Ah! I can't stop!" She shrieked. Her car narrowly raced by the other car, missing it by millimeters.
"Damn, that was close!" Brook said with a nervous laugh.
"Not helping Brook! Where do I go next?" Michelle asked, clutching the wheel nervously.
"Take that left!" Brook pointed before she could miss it. she took and the car rolled out into the bright sunlight.
"Oh thank God! I thought we'd never get out of that maze!" Michelle breathed out looking genuinely relieved. Brook couldn't help laughing at her.
"I have never met a girl afraid of mazes. How did you make your way into the parking lot last night?" he asked.
"I was a little too preoccupied trying to get my bleeding boyfriend to the ER!" Michelle returned. "You were practically unconscious, beat up like you got mugged, squirting blood like a fountain and –" She yelled in frustration.
"I thought I was gonna lose you!" She said angry tears filling her eyes. She blinked them away trying to focus on the road.
"So your fear for me overrode your fear of mazes," Brook said half to himself. "You really care about me, don't you, Patterson?" his voice softened.
"What do you think?" Michelle asked rhetorically. Her palms were wet with nervousness and she lifted one to wipe on her pants. That's when she realized they were stained with blood.
"What the-?" she examined the steering wheel. She had left streaks of blood on it from her hands last night – it had dried up and moistened again with her perspiration.
"You have to be kidding me!" She said checking both her hands.
"I'm guessing that's mine," Brook said, eyeing the blood.
"What can I say? When my boyfriend acts the hero, he leaves a trail of blood everywhere!" She slammed her head back on the car seat.
"Here, let me get that," Brook said, pulling out a handkerchief and wiping her hands one at a time. Michelle sighed in exhaustion.
"There's a sanitizer in my purse, it'll come off better with that," she said not looking at him,
"Right." Brook got the sanitizer and squeezed it over the hanky before wiping her hands again.
"It's no use," Michelle said after a minute. Brook looked up at her.
"That blood's not gonna ever come off my hands." She said quietly. Brook looked up at her tone.
"What are you talking about? Of course it'll come off."
"No Brook, I don't mean it like that." She paused for resolve before going on.
"When I was little, I got a bad case of food poisoning and my mom took me to the hospital. I had to get an IV full of antibiotics. It was my first time and I wasn't afraid of the needle. So this nurse who was injecting me asked me about it. I said there's more reason to be afraid of hurricanes and earthquakes than a silly little needle. Know what happened?"
"What?"
"She couldn't find my vein. So when she pulled out the needle after the first attempt, my blood squirted out. That's when she realized she had gotten my vein. But it was too late, my blood had already dripped all over her hands."
"And?"
"She told me this – may be because she felt sorry for me or she was trying to calm herself for messing up I don't know – but if a person's blood spills on another person, that person will never forget that person, ever. She said she would always remember the little girl whose blood fell on her hands. It's like – a bond by blood."
"So you're saying..."
"I won't ever forget you, Brook. Your blood will always remind me of you. You can't just – leave me and expect me to forget you, to move on. So DON'T EVER ASK ME TO DO THAT AGAIN." Brook leaned back, taking in her words.
"I won't forget you either." He said at last.
"What?"
"Remember when I found you in the desert? Your blood got all over me too. So in a way, we're both tied by blood. No matter how long I live, I'll never forget you either Michelle." She glanced at him.
"I hope you remember that." She said in a voice filled with emotion. His only reply was the intense gaze into her eyes.