Archer's POV
"You can't keep me from her I'm Archer's-" she goes to say but there is no way she gets to say that, she lost the right to finish that sentence a long long time ago, which says a lot since I am only ten. "YOU DON'T GET TO FINISH THAT SENTENCE" I scream, wriggling out of Addy's hold so that I am standing in front of the squad, the cast all standing to the side as they watch us. "AND HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU! MY NAME IS AJ!" I continued my yelling before sprinting across the set and tackling her onto the floor, making sure to tangle my fingers in her hair as I started to pull, screw fighting educate I want her to feel pain like she caused me. I have had it with her. All those years of wondering about her only for her to act like nothing has happened, maybe I should give her a black eye to start, that would make her look better. I have given her the benefit of the doubt these last two weeks, ignored her existence and tried to co-exist, but she doesn't get to have any claim on me. Nope. None. Because she isn't anything to me, not anymore. She walked away. She chose to not be part of my life. So she chose to not have a claim on me. She isn't my anything.
"WOLF!" "ARCHER!" "AJ!" A chorus of yells echoes around the room as the squad and cast yell for me, not that I care. I just continue my attack on that idiot, she deserved some scrapes and bruises after everything. I was planning on escalating my attack to punching her in the nose, I think it would be a kind act to her face if it got rearranged when someone tried to pull me off a screaming Xanthi. Although there was no way I am letting this go, I have held onto this for a long time and now I get a chance to let it out I am not stopping. So I just wrapped my legs around her waist tightly, which worked at both hurting her and stopping whoever was trying to pull me off of her. Win-win for me and a lose-lose for Xanthi.
Ok so I am stopping, but only because three of the UK's best commandos pulled me off of her. And while I may be strong and scrappy I can not fight off three guys over the size of six feet, I mean I am ten and only four feet tall. Not to mention, have you seen Bear? He is built like an actual grizzly bear, I had no chance as his hands hold my waist, Daddy and Snake each holding one of my arms while Hawk tries and gets me to focus on him instead of a still screaming Xanthi.
"Wolf, you need to chill" Bear yelled, trying to grab my attention but it was no use, my vision is red and I am locked in on my victim, who is currently getting checked over by Newt. "Wolf, I need you to take deep breaths" Daddy tried but I just tried to keep fighting them off of me, not even caring that I could feel a sharp pain in my shoulder as I flopped around in their hold. "Wolfie, you are going to tear your shoulder off, you need to stop," Hawk said, his voice more serious than I have ever heard it before. But still, I don't care, I just want to hurt Xanthi the way she hurt me, not that I think that is possible.
I was fully prepared to rip my own shoulder off if it gave me something to beat Xanthi with. So I kept fighting, I honestly think I could go longer than those three could at this, especially the way I am right now, I mean thank you ADHD because I am hyped to the max right now and I am whiling to use all my energy to beat Xanthi to a pulp.
It wasn't until a familiar body was wrapping itself against me and holding me tightly, pulling my head into their chest, that I even considered calming down, I didn't want to hurt her. Hurt me? So be it, hurt the squad? They could take it. Hurt her? Never. "Shhh Archer, it's ok. Let's have some cuddle time, huh? A lot is going on and I think you need a little time to clear your head. Why don't we go to my trailer, just you and me and we can have all the cuddles you like? How does that sound, honey?" She cooed, holding me tightly as I slowly stopped thrashing, although my leg continued to twitch, way too worked up to be calm right now—stupid Xanthi.
I could feel Scarlett's hand on my ear as made sure my head was in her neck, effectively blinding me and cutting off all the noise around the set, although that didn't stop all the noise in my head that was still screaming at me to get Xanthi, to give her what she deserves. Despite the stampede of elephants in my head this method of calming me down, cuddle time as Scarlett calls it, works well, and I don't know how Scarlett figured this out but I will be forever grateful that she did. Although something tells me this method would only ever work with her, I mean Bear for example is why to hard and uncomfortable to cuddle with like this.
Scarlett doesn't even know I have ABH, whatever. It's not like I told her, I can barely remember what I have so I couldn't tell her even if I wanted to and while I trust her I wouldn't want her to treat me differently if she did know. Actually, Daddy probably told her earlier while I was having episode one of today, so she might know now. The point is, she knew how to help me before she even knew what the problem was, which is why I am convinced she is magic. I have never felt as safe with anyone as I do with her, which is saying something since the squad are some of the best people in the world to protect me. She just... I don't know. I have never had a home but if I did I think it would feel like Scarlett's hugs do, at least that is what I hope it would feel like.
I'm not sure how long it took for my leg to stop twitching but I recognised at some point Scarlett moved us, probably to her trailer since I caused such a scene on the set. As per usual I risked hearing again first, nudging Scarlett's hand off of my ear gently as I listened to the quiet around us. Normally the TV was on, or Scarlett had been talking to me, so it was weird that it was so quiet right now but I think that is what I needed. Yet another example of Scarlett knowing exactly what I need when I have no clue. With that in mind, I let myself look up at Scarlett, who was staring blankly in front of her, to the point she hadn't even realised I was looking. "Scarly?" I ask quietly, not wanting to get in trouble for disturbing whatever was going on right now but also not liking the sad look in her eyes as she stared at the wall.
I must have startled her because she jumped slightly before looking down at me with a soft smile, that's better. "There she is, you gave us all a bit of a scare then. Are you feeling better now honey?" She asked softly, pushing some hair off of my forehead, which must have come loose during my fight. I just hummed as I kept my head resting on her chest, my hand yet again moving to play with the arrow necklace she had on since we were both still in costume.
Scarlett gives the best cuddles ever, period, the guys all have too many muscles and Newt just isn't cuddly, I think it's because she thinks the guys would treat her differently but that's just a guess. Whatever the reason is, nothing beats cuddling with Scarlett. "That was quite the show you just put on, do you want to explain? Your Dad and the squad are dealing with Xanthi and the rest of the cast all went home slash to their trailers for the night" she asked, looking at me with soft eyes as I shrugged.
I don't know what to say. I have never told anyone before. I mean the squad were all there when it happened so I have never had to tell anyone about it. Heck, even the therapist Daddy got me already knew what I had been through, and although he asked me to tell him myself, I declined that. So there has never been a moment where I have needed to explain this whole thing, and now that someone wants to know I am at a loss for words. It's not that I don't want to tell her, because a big part of me does want to explain. I need her to know I don't normally attack people like I just did. But I have no idea where to start even, I mean it is kind of a complicated story.
"That's ok honey, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. Do you want to sit here for a little longer or do you want to go find your family? I'm sure you are excited to spend the week with them" She asked, making my head snuggle more into her neck. She is right I am excited to see the others, but right now I think I need some more time to cool off, some more time cuddling with Scarlett to be specific. I am not ready to run twenty laps for being violent, which is the go-to punishment for letting my thoughts go wire and lashing out. Which is fair since I can't even control it sometimes. Although I could definitely control myself this time, I just didn't want to. Xanthi deserved everything I gave her and I am not going to serve a punishment for something she had coming. "Alright, we can stay here" Scarlett cooed, breaking me from my thoughts, which had me relax completely into her.
She is so comfy and more importantly, she feels so safe.
"My Mommy she um, she died when I was really little, actually died when she had me, she had some health complications. Daddy was only eighteen but she was older, like a lot older. In fact, she already had a daughter the same age as Daddy, that's how they met. Daddy and my sister went to school together before he joined the army as an officer. Cause of Daddy's job he had to leave me and since Mommy was dead he made other arrangements for who I would stay with while he wasn't there. My sister was in charge of keeping me safe, I am fairly sure she only did it because it meant she got to travel around the world. She wasn't amazing but she loved me and she tried, at least I thought she did. I was five when it happened. Daddy and the team, their job is high risk. Everyone had prepared me for them not coming home, it had been drilled into me since I can remember. All the risks they would be facing. No one was prepared for the risks their job had for me." I pause, trying to think of the very limited good memories I have with my sister, rather than the awful memories pushing their way to the surface.
"It was while we were stationed in UAE we had been there for six months. She, um, had gone out one night and left me alone. She was trying to date this Sheikh. That's when they came for me. You see Daddy's team had single-handedly taken out an entire Al Qaeda cell, the problem is that while doing so they got spotted and they somehow found out who Daddy was. In a plot for revenge, they came after me. What better way to send a message to the UK military than to kidnap the daughter of a highly decorated soiler? Because I was under the care of my sister we were put up in an apartment off of the base, she didn't like being around the soldiers. I would spend my days on the base with the guys and then she was in charge of me overnight when I was back at the apartment with her. I didn't stand a chance. There was a squad of them, five, and I was well five and Bear hadn't started training me back then, so what could I have done? My sister didn't even realise I was gone until she came home three days later. When she let the base know they immediately pulled the squad back to base and they were tasked to find me" I explain, my voice tensing as the memories try and push through their lockbox. Not today though, I can't handle anything else today.
I cleared my throat as I willed the tears to go away "you know that scene I filmed? The one for the post-credit scene? I didn't need to act to do that scene because I went through something a lot worse, because my version was real. The only difference is I didn't get any superpowers just these" I huff, before shifting slightly so I could pull my top off of me, exposing my back which is covered in whip lashes, it was their favourite thing to do to me after all, it made a good film to send home. I could hear Scarlett's gasp. I could feel the soft brush of her fingertip as she ever so gently traced the scars. Scars I know will never fade. "Archer, honey" she whispers, I could hear it in her voice, the pain, the pity. This is why I don't tell people.
"I um, I was with them for what felt like years, but turns out it was only two months, the only reason they didn't kill me is that they wanted to use me. They would film videos of the stuff they would do to me and send them to Daddy and the squad as warnings, they were trying to send a message. Back off or look what we will do. One of the videos even got picked up by the British media, they blurred my face but they did a series of articles on it. It then got picked up and put on BBC News. The squad eventually found me, at which point I really was half dead. Daddy met us in Germany, where I was air evacuated as an emergency. He wasn't allowed to come with the squad to find me. When I woke up in Germany he was there and my sister wasn't. Daddy found out she wasn't there when they came for me and blamed her. We never spoke of her again. She never came to see me or spoke to me ever again. No explanation, nothing" I explain, trying my best to not think about the details, I can not deal with a flashback episode right now. I don't think I have the energy to have a PTSD episode right now.
"It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Xanthi is my big sister. Do you want to know the worst part?" I ask, not wanting to give her a chance to comment on all this. "She didn't even recognise me until I flipped her over my shoulder. I spent that whole first day trying to work out if she did it on purpose or not, but I know she didn't. I should have known, I mean she never thinks of anyone but herself. Flipping someone over their shoulder is Daddy's equivalent to Black Widows' scissor kick take down. He had taught her to protect herself against scum bags as he called them. After my vacation as I like to call it, I went through a month of intensive training, once I was ok to do so, and that was the first move he taught me. I should have known that doing it to her would make her recognise me" I shrug my shoulders as I keep staring at the blank television on the wall ahead of us, my hand still fidgeting with her necklace as my leg started to bounce slightly.
"The worse part is I think a part of me wanted her to recognise me, I wanted her to talk to me, to try and apologise. But over these last two weeks, she hasn't even tried. I mean I know I haven't made it easy, but I thought maybe she would at least try to talk to me about it" I mumble, my words getting quieter and quieter as I start to really think about the words I have just said.
"I mean she left me alone Scarlett, she left me and something awful happened. But I never blamed her, if she had been there they would have done it to her too, or worse they would have killed her since she wasn't related to Daddy. I'm actually glad she wasn't there because it kept her safe. But why did she never check on me afterwards? Why didn't she even call, just to explain she wasn't coming back? She didn't even recognise me when she saw me. She was the only person who was there for me when Daddy couldn't be and she deserted me. Is everyone going to leave me? Are you going to leave me Scarly? I really don't want you to go" I wail, the tears starting before I could stop them. Screw being strong right now.
"Why wasn't I good enough for her Scarly?" I ask, before turning back to her, finally braving a look at my favourite person, don't tell Daddy and the squad. The look she gave me just made me cry harder, feeling guilty for the pain I had caused her. Not even her amazing acting could hide the pain in her eyes as I looked at her sobbing. "Oh honey, I am so so sorry. I had no idea or I would have gotten Keven to get rid of her, after today I promise she will never be on set again. I don't know why she left honey, but I know she is missing out. She will live to regret not knowing you Archer because you are a star. I am so thankful you are in my life honey and I promise I'm not going to leave" Scarlett managed to get out, her own tears falling, which had me throwing myself into her chest, desperate for comfort. The two of us just sat there as we held each other tightly, tears streaming down both of our faces.