A/n: so, Charlotte actually let her hair go long. its like in the picture above (because shes on the run and everything)
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Winchester England - 3 weeks after Joe
"Yeah. I already told you that I can't have it done by Monday. If you just give me a few days to meet the dead line-" Charlotte pauses abruptly, being interrupted by the voice on the phone.
She rolls her eyes as she walks up the steep stairs, her hands filled with paperwork and files.
She growls into the phone, desperation inching up her.
"And I already told you that I can't have it done by tomorrow." She says, anger tinting her tone.
She reaches her apartment floor, her head leaning to the side as she tries to balance her phone on her ear while rummaging through her purse to find her keys.
"Look, Adam, you can go to whomever you want and ask them to do this for you, and I assure you, no one is going to have it done by Monday either, so it means that-" Charlotte stops abruptly as she watches the door, frowning as she finds it hanging slightly open.
Her hand reaches for her phone and looks around the hallway in a suspicious manner, her eyes narrowing before putting her phone on her ear once again.
"You know what Adam, I'm going to have to call you back" She says into the phone as she hangs up, her eyes never leaving the door.
She slips the phone slowly into her purse, grabbing ahold of her hand gun and laying her files on the floor quietly before pushing the door open slightly with her foot.
She creeps in slowly, looking around her apartment, her gun held high and her back tense.
She turns the corner, heading into the living room when she sees a silhouhette on her window.
Her senses heighten, and she clicks her bullet into place.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" She demands, her tone not wavering as she takes a step towards the person.
"I said, who are you?" She questions again, her tone deadly and vicious as she pulls the bullet int the chamber.
The person raises their arms slowly, turning around with a smile on his face.
"And I thought you'd recognize me" He says, his tone smug.
Charlotte opens her mouth, a retort on the tip of her tounge, but she falls silent, her face turning pale as she looks at the man's face.
Then she pulls the gun down slowly, sighing out the words.
"James?"
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James's heart stops for a few seconds when he turns around to face her. In two years he'd thought not much would have changed, but apparently he was wrong.
Her hair had long grown out past her shoulders, framing her face. Her eyes, which had once been pure snark and wittiness were now tinted with coldness and bitterness. James wondered for a moment what had happened.
Her skin had lost that healthy glow that it had once had, and her lips had lost their colorHe scanned her face, his eyes stopped at the bags under her eyes for a moment before trailing downwards. She had clearly lost weight. Her cheeks were sunken in, and her pants seemed overly baggy on her.
James tries to compress a shiver. Seeing her like that... it was like she had been living a nightmare. It hurt his soul to see her like that.
Still, he shrugged it off and put on a smile, as if they had seen each other for lunch just yesterday
Charlotte struggles for the right words as she steps forward, letting her back slump on the floor. She scans James.
He has a beard, for once. It was something she'd never thought would happen. He also seemed to have gone to the gym, because she could see the muscles in his arms shine through his blue shirt. His hair had grown out longer than she'd ever seen it; it was pushed back over his ears, which made him look rough, like he'd just come out of a bar.
Charlotte hesitates, a feeling of warmth invading her. It's the first time she feels that in a long time.
All the times that she had come close to being discovered my someone in Monarch, or the times that she had gone to dark ends to be able to live, they were all forgotten. Because for the first time in two years, she felt safe with James.
She looks at James from head to toe, a gobsmacked expression on her face.
"How- how did you find me?" She questions after a moment, her tone slightly wavering.
James shurgs, looking around the place with an unamused expression. Charlotte can see something flash in his eyes, but before she can recognize what it is, he masks it off, turning to her.
"Took me a while have to admit, you're kind of difficult to find, but here I am, aren't I?" He jokes, chuckling, avoiding her gaze.
Charlotte doesn't laugh back.
Instead she crosses her arms over her chest, looking around the apartment with attention.
"I'm being serious. Did Monarch find me? Do they know where I am?" She questions, looking at James.
James shakes his head, his smile fading as he sees how serious she is.
"No, I'm not with Monarch. I'm here on my own" He says after a moment, looking at her with a frown on his face.
He watches as Charlotte lets out a relieved breath, letting her shoulders sag.
James looks at her and sits down on the chair besides the couch, waiting for Charlotte.
He taps his fingers on the arms rests as he looks around the apartment.
"So... this is where you live now" He says as he turns to look back at her, trying to start a conversation as he looks at the dingy apartment.
The place was humid to say the least; the paint in the walls was slowly peeling off. the windows were filled with water at the edges, a sure notice that no one had given this place a second look in a long time, not bothering to seal in the windows. The rain outside splattered on the glass, casting a calm but eery feeling over the both of them.
Still, James couldn't help but feel like he was enveloped in warmth, the scent of Charlotte penetrating his sense.
Charlotte nods, letting out a quiet breath as she scans his figure.
"Its' the only place I can afford. The chances of me getting a good payday are one in a million now a days. Everything I do or try to do is diminished by men " She complains as she looks at him.
James nods, his face showing no emotion as he watches her.
And then he finds himself feeling angry, for leaving so quickly and without a goodbye. For disappearing like she had.
"Why did you run?" He asks, out of the blue after a moment of silence. he looks at her with a straight face.
Charlotte stops mid scentence, quieting down as she stands up and heads to her balcony, closing the doors slowly, turning her back on him for a moment and taking a deep breath before turning around.
"What do you mean?" She asks, avoiding the point as she cocks her head to the side. James can clearly see that she is hiding something. Her eyes dart from wall to wall to the couch. Anywhere but at James.
James stands up, looking at her, his face contorting in anger.
"I mean, why did you leave like that. You left me with nothing, not a trace, nothing to hold onto and me and Mason had to deal with Monarch on our own" He says, accusation on his tone.
Charlotte's brow furrows and she takes a step towards him.
"Are you implying I left because I wanted to? Because it wasn't. I left because I didn't want to be forced into something I didn't want to be a part of. I didn't want to be a part of some... company that wanted to find strange creatures like Kong and kill them. I wanted to get away from all that as fast as I could." She pauses for a moment before continuing "Did you even try looking for me when I left? Or did you just assume I did it because I wanted to have fun?" She tells him, anger glistening on her eyes.
James sighs and he takes a step back, his anger starting fade.
"Look, I didn't come here to argue" He says simply, running a hand through his hair and turning to look at Charlotte, who stands there, an eyebrow raised high as he looks at him.
"Yeah? And why did you come here then?" She asks, and then shakes her head, scoffing "I mean, you didn't come here because you wanted to see me. Of course not. You want something. What is it? Out with it" She tells him, annoyance tinting her tone.
James lets out a breath through his nose and looks at her.
"I need your help" He says simply.
Charlotte's eyebrows rise, and she cocks her head to the side, curious.
"My help. With what?" She asks. What could be so important that James had finally tracked her down after two years?
"There's a guy, and he wants to find this animal, like the skull crawler, but worse" He explains.
Charlotte's eyebrows rise, and she shakes her head, scoffing.
"Are you kidding me? We haven't had any contact for the past two years and you come back out of nowhere and you ask me to do this? Do you have any idea of the shit i've been through to avoid another problem like this one? Then amount of favors I've had to pull in order to keep me off the grid?" She asks, her tone incredulous as she scoffs and shakes her head.
"No. I'm not doing it" She finally declares, shaking her head and shrugging as she sits down on her kitchen stool.
James takes in a breath.
"Charlotte. Come on. The guys offering us a bunch of money" He pleads.
Still Charlotte shakes her head.
"No. I'm not going into another murder mission for a mad man like Randa. I'm just not" She denies, not meeting his eye.
James walks towards her, stopping when he is a few feet away from her.
"Charlotte. This isn't some random mission. Were talking about the whole world. This animal could be one hundred times worse than the Skull Crawler. It can wipe out hundreds of people, and to stop it we need to help this man" He says, reasoning with her.
Charlotte meets his eyes, sighing and massaging her temples, trying to rub off a headache.
"Fine. Lets say I agree. What do we do after that. Where do we go?" She asks, her arms crossing over her chest as she stares at James.
James scrables for the address, pulling the wrinkled paper it out of his pocket and handing it to her.
"We go there. When we get there, the man - Joe, will explain everything" he explains, pointing to the address and falling silent, waiting for her response.
"And you're saying that the whole world might be in danger?" She asks as she turns from the paper to James.
James nods.
"Yes."
Charlotte sighs, running a hand through her hair as she contemplates.
Then she looks up, turning to look at James, sighing in defeat.
"Fine. I'll do it. Just because the entire world can be in danger. Just because of that. Not because of this Joe man. And definitely not because of you" She tells him, her eyebrows rising as she stares at him with her index finger pointed in his direction.
James smiles slightly, looking at her.
"Sure. Whatever you say" He tells her, humor tinting his tone.
Then he turns around, nodding and walking towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Charlotte asks, looking at him.
James turns around, the doorknob in his hand as he looks at her with a smirk.
"I'm going to go now. I'll meet you at the airport doors today at 10. Don't be late, the flight leaves at 12. We need to be there by morning" He tells her, earning a wordless nod from Charlotte.
And with that, he is gone.
Just like that he had come in, let a shitstorm back into Charlotte's life, and then left, as if the past two years had been nothing.
Charlotte sighs, turning around and putting her hands on the table and resting her head on them, thinking for a second.
The past two years she had thought of nothing but James, keeping herself from going straight back to Monarch and finding him herself, and for two years she had resisted with every fiber of her being. Trying to avoid thinking of him by burrowing herself in work, by taking extra shifts. She would do whatever she could to get him off her mind.
But now... things had changed. And she had no choice but to meet James on the airport in less than two hours.
She sighs, running a hand through her hair in a stressed manner and looking at the apartment wall in front of her before grabbing her purse from the floor and picking out her phone, dialling the number she had memorised like the palm of her hand over the last few weeks.
One ring, two rings, three rings.
The person finally picks up.
"Hey, Adam?" She questions before standing up from her chair and walking towards the window.
"About the paperwork you needed..."
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(Edited Dec 12 2018)
a/n: Yayy! My first 2000+ word chapter in this story!
Im sorry if the chapter seems a bit rushed,
but after this it gets much more better and the story
progresses much slower than this chapter ! Comment any advice,
comment concerns! I would be glad to know any way
I can make this story better!
Also... we have almost reached 100 reads! I'm so happy!