It's been a while, I'm sorry :(
(Staind reference anyone?)
Beth.
“I’m going with you.” Luke immediately said, already moving his feet to follow me out the door. I shut the door in front of me, turning around so that I faced him.
“No, you’re going to stay here. Or go visit your mother, it’s your choice.” I offered, remembering that he has still yet to pay a visit to his mom.
Luke sighed, his eyes momentarily closing as he ran his right hand through his hair. “You know I can’t do that, Beth. It’s too painful.”
“You still don’t think she deserves to know that you’re still alive?” I questioned, crossing my arms in front of my chest.
“Beth, we’ve been over this before.” he responded, his voice raising. “What happens if all of this fails? I don’t want to give her that false hope that her son is alive only for me to die. That’s just cruel and I won’t do that to her!”
“And what about me, Luke? You didn’t think it was cruel to let me in?” I retorted, my voice quivering slightly.
“You know why, Beth, we’ve been through this before.”
I laughed without humor, pressing my hand to my forehead as I tilted my head back. “I know this, I know that, that’s all you say but, Luke, I don’t understand.”
“Beth,” Luke sighed, taking a step forward towards me. I shook my head, holding my hands out in front of me to prevent him from coming any further.
“Luke, don’t, just..” I grasped the doorknob and opened the door, quickly stepping outside, “don’t follow me.” I said, not bothering to turn around and face him but I knew he had heard me by the way the door slammed shut.
**
I put my car into ‘park’ as I arrived at the police station, turning the car off and slumping back in the driver’s seat. Was I really about to do this? Would it really help me figure out Luke’s case or would it only distract me further since I would be under the pressure of actually having a job?
“Beth, what are you doing?” I muttered to myself, leaning forward as I rested my head on the steering wheel. The fight with Luke was pointless and I knew it. I still don’t know why I picked it with him, he was right, we had discussed it before. Maybe all the stress was getting to me?
“You okay in there?” Holden called out as he knocked hard on my driver’s window, startling me. Attempting to calm my now speeding heart rate, I sat up straight, taking a deep breath before I turned to face him. I opened my car door, turning my legs so that they were now outside the car.
“Oh, hey. I was actually just coming to look for you.” I laughed, trying to discard from his thoughts any of my emotions he might have just seen.
“Really? What for?” He asked, brushing some of his black curls back. I ran a hand through my own hair, biting my lip as I realized the possibility that his offer might be expired by now.
“You remember that time that you caught me searching for a job? And you offered me one here at the station?” I asked hesitantly.
He placed a hand on the edge of my door, turning his head to look at the street behind my car. “I remember that. Feels like ages ago. What about it?” he asked, turning back to face me, his blue eyes connecting with mine.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I mentally crossed my fingers for a positive response to my next question.
“Is that position still available?”
Holden laughed, a huge smile overcoming his features. “You’re adorable, Beth, really. Have you noticed where we live? Of course it’s still available.”
I sighed out in relief, a smile spreading its way onto my face as well. “Well, that’s good news. Is there anything that I have to fill out?” I asked, finally getting up from my car. Holden stepped back, allowing room for me to comfortably get out and close my car door behind me.
He turned around, and started walking towards the police station’s front doors as I followed closely in step. “Just some basic paperwork. You’re only going to be doing filing and handling non-emergency phone calls.” he explained, turning his head slightly to address me.
I nodded in acceptance, his description of my future tasks not sounding difficult. “Simple enough.” I responded.
“It is.” he smiled at me, reaching for the handle of the door as he pulled it open. “Ladies first.” He smirked, gesturing with his hand for me to enter the station. I abided, stepping in, and my eyes meeting several of the officers’ who were sitting behind their desks and doing nothing.
“It’s been a slow day.” Holden joked, leaning forward as his curls tickled my ear.
“I can see that.” I whispered back.
“Just come over by my desk. I’ll print out a copy of the application and you can fill it out there.” he instructed, once again making me follow him.
He fell into the swivel chair behind his desk, and I pulled out the hard, wooden chair in front, crossing my arms over the surface of his desk as I waited for him to print out the application.
“So what have you been up to this summer? Without a job and all?” he asked, making small talk as he searched for the application on his computer. Oh, just hanging out with my supposedly dead boyfriend and trying to figure out who killed him. The usual.
“I’ve been slumming, I guess.” I replied, keeping it simple.
“About Luke?” he assumed, not taking his eyes off the computer screen.
“Taking it day by day with a box of chocolates and Netflix.” I responded, trying not to let my voice give anything away.
The sound of the printer whirring interrupted our dialogue, and he turned to grab the paper from the dispense tray.
“Here you go, Laude.” He said, setting the set of papers down in front of me with a pen. “I have work to do so I’ll just keep quiet while you fill that out.”
I nodded in agreement, grasping the pen in my hand as I proceeded to fill out the application, the next few minutes drawn out in silence as we both focused on our individual tasks.
“Your phone’s buzzing.” Holden said a few minutes later, pointing to my phone that I had absent-mindedly place on top of the desk.
“Oh.” I responded, my eyebrows furrowing at how I hadn’t heard it. My focus must have been so invested in filling out the application that my mind tuned it out.
I set down the pen and picked up my phone, noting that I had a few text messages.
“Who’s sending you so many text messages? Your boyfriend?” Holden teased, knowing very well that I wouldn’t move on from Luke so quickly. Or at least I hope he did. Looking down at my phone to see who the text messages were from, I knew that Luke would definitely be pissed at Holden if he took into account the context of Holden’s statement and who was texting me: Calum.
12:51: Hey are you busy?
12:51: It’s okay if you are.
12:51: I’m just asking because I have a question.
12:52: I’m sounding really stupid right now, I’m sorry I should just get to the point.
12:52: Do you have time to drive into Tulsa today?
12:53: There’s a lab downtown that I work at, I want to show you something.
“Um…” I held my phone, my eyes scanning over the multiple texts again. “Well I finished the application, and it looks like I have to go. I’ll see you around, hopefully I’ll get the job.” I smiled, pushing the application toward him.
“I don’t know.” Holden sighed, shaking his head. “You have some stiff competition, Ms. Laude.” he said sarcastically, quirking a small grin at me.
I rolled my eyes, stilling smiling and turned around to exit his office. “See you around.” My phone buzzed again, and I looked down noticing I had another text from Calum with the address of where he was attached.
**
“So this is where you work?” I asked as I entered the lab room, awkwardly standing by the doorway. Calum jumped in surprise, quickly spinning around.
“Beth? Hey! How did you get up here?” he asked, walking over to me to pull me into an embrace. I wrapped my arms around him, feeling really only the material of the lab coat.
“The receptionist in the lobby told me where to find you.” I explained, letting go of him. “So you said you wanted to show me something?” I asked, moving the conversation along.
He nodded, scratching his head as he looked around the startingly white room. “Yeah, I do. Hold on, let me find you a lab coat.” He said, quickly dashing to a back storage room and leaving me alone in the lab. I walked over to where I saw all his stuff scattered, placing my purse down on a nearby stool.
“Here you go.” Calum smiled, coming back into the lab with a white coat held open for me. “Just in case any chemicals spill, I don’t want you getting it all over your clothes. Trust me, it’s a bítch to get out.”
I slipped into the coat, and putting on a pair of lab goggles he held out for me.
“So how did you manage to get a job here?” I asked, sitting down on one of the stools as I watched Calum flit around the lab room, looking for materials.
“I want to be a chemistry major in college, so I applied for an internship here. With this internship there’s a possibility I might get a full-ride to Oklahoma University, which would help me out so much financially.” he explained to me, grabbing a syringe from one of the stacks.
“But I thought you were into sports?” I questioned, confused. He shrugged, now grabbing a vial from the chemical freezer that was inside the lab room.
“I like sports, yes, but I love this. This is what I want to do.” he replied. “Quick question, are you afraid of rats?” he asked, turning around to look at me with a hesitant look.
My eyes widened, and I felt myself freeze.
“Why are you asking?” I gulped.
“Because I’m about to bring one out. But don’t worry, they won’t do anything to you.” he comforted, before he walked into another room, leaving the room slightly ajar behind him. A few seconds later he came back out, a small, white rat in his hand. “See it’s harmless.” he smiled as he walked around to me, showing me the rat.
“Is this what you wanted to show me?” I asked, my face twisting into one of distaste.
“Not exactly.” He responded, putting the rat into a box that was sat on top of the lab counter. He walked over to where he left the syringe and vial and came back over.
“See this vial?” He asked, holding it up so that it was clearly in my vision. I simply nodded. “This is a dose of Atropa belladonna, it’s nightshade, mixed with something else. What that something else is, I can’t tell you in case you try to reproduce it and use it for evil. Lab rules.” he joked. “Anyways, I came across this in the lab the other day, I think it might have been misplaced, and against my better judgement, I tested it out. And I found out that it does something cool.” He smirked, and I could tell that he was incredibly excited about his discovery. He grabbed the syringe and poured some of the liquid from the vial into it. Placing it down beside me, he turned to the box and retrieved the rat from it. “See, you inject the rat with this,” he began, holding the rat with one hand and grabbing the syringe with the other, pressing the needle into the rat, “can you hold the rat for a second? It won’t do anything to you, it’s drugged.” He said, putting the rat in my hands and not even giving me a chance to respond. I look down at the small, white rat in my hand, trying my best not to cringe. It wasn’t moving so it made my mental job a little bit easier.
“Sorry about that.” Calum said, running back over, a monitor and wire in his hands. He pressed the sensor attached to the end of wire on the rat’s chest, taking the rat from my hands. “Anyways, continuing from before, as you can see his heart monitor flatlines,” he explained pointing to the monitor he pulled out, “but,” he paused for dramatic effect, holding up a finger, “the rat still has a heartbeat. It’s just too faint for any monitor to pick up. But come back a few hours later and the rat’s heartbeat is normal again. How cool is that?” Calum exclaimed. “Of course, I didn’t know all of this at first, I thought I had killed the rat. But I came back in a few hours later, and it was running around inside the box. I was really confused at first, so I decided to look up the serum in the lab’s index book, which explained what it does. Then it all made sense.”
My mind was taking in all this information, it was all incredible really. A plant that basically assists in faking a death?
And just like it had hit Calum, it had hit me. I turned to Calum, my eyes widened as all the lights in my head flickered on.
“Calum, you are an absolute genius.”
A/N:
So things are being unveiled, slowly but surely
This is actually a long chapter, it took a while to write so please vote and comment! And I'm sorry it has taken me forever to update, if you've been reading my statuses, you know that I've been busy with uni. It takes up a lot of my time, getting adjusted and all. But reading your comments really makes my day, so please continue to comment :)
Also I'm going to start dedicating chapters to people, (I'm going to start from chapter 1 and continue to future chapters) so comment and vote if you want a dedication, thank you
-M
P.S. how cute is that gif of Luke I can't