(Wrote this for a couple of sweet fans that gave me the gusto to want to write again! You know who you are!)
When Nova arrived back at the apartment that her and Robin shared, she immediately stripped off her clothes, placing the shirt that Q gave her neatly on a chair in her room, and jumped into a shower. After getting clean and literally washing the day off of her, she changed into a comfy pair of PJ's and began to think about the conversation that happened between her and Q.
She still didn't 100% know how she felt (or how she was suppose to feel) but with all objectives aside, it did feel good to talk to him again. She didn't really like to think of the night that the two of them broke up because there were so many triggers that she was still not completely over but she found herself sitting on the couch, dwelling over it with a cup of tea.
Robin was out at a big opening of a concert for an upcoming band she was promoting so Nova had the silence she needed to sort through her thoughts.
She remembered Jimmy coming on to her strongly in her apartment and then her throwing him out. Even though she knew what the scene must have looked like to Q, she didn't picture him being the kind of person to not stick around and see if she was okay at the hospital after she was struck by a car. That is where it all really hurt Nova because she really felt like they had something good going between the two of them, and it made her question her own judgement on how she perceived things.
There was no way that he could be that spiteful of a person, even if she did wrong him the way he assumed she did, he was not so unforgiving that he wouldn't have cared if she lived or died...Or was he?
"No...That just wouldn't make sense with how he was with me today" Nova thought to herself. She felt like she was missing a big piece of the puzzle and there was something she was just not seeing. She set her glass of tea on the end table next to her to rub the tension out of her temples that all of this was causing when she heard her phone vibrate on the couch.
She looked over and sure enough, it was Brian Quinn.
She took a deep breath to ground herself and then answered the phone. "Hello" she said as if she were expecting his call.
"Hey! I'm just leaving your old apartment, you don't live here anymore?" Brian asked. Judging by the background noise, it sounded like he was walking to his car.
"You went to my apartment?" Nova asked, shocked and surprised that he would do that.
"Yeah, I figured it would have been better to talk to you face to face, I didn't know you moved?"
"Ohh, yeah...After...Well everything I wasn't exactly able to afford my own place or be on my own. I ended up moving in with Robin. A lot has changed"
"Ohh shit...Wow I'm sorry. That's really awful, I know you liked that place" Brian said, sounding sincere.
"Yeah, I know it wasn't much but it was home" Nova said short and gloomy.
"Well that's cool that Robin let you stay with her, if you keep working at the network I'm sure you will have a place of your own in no time."
"Yeah I guess so" Nova said, wondering when they were going to get to the heart of their issues.
Brian was quiet for a moment and so was she.
"So, uh...Other than that, how have you been doing with everything?" Brian asked awkwardly.
"I'm good I guess. Still taking one day at a time. I know that is not why you called..." Nova went straight for the punchline.
"No...It's not"
Q paused and Nova heard him let out a deep breath on the other line.
"The truth is Nova...Well, I know I am extremely late on this and lost my window...Feel free to hang up on me anytime...But the truth is...I cannot stop thinking about that night...The night when we...You know...I know I didn't listen to you before and I was a huge jerk for walking out on you the way I did without hearing your side. I seriously regret it and I wish there was anything in the world I could do to make it up to you, but I know I can't. I just want to let you know that even though I am late, I am listening now and I am so sorry for the way I left things...I am so sorry for everything."
Brian poured his heart out to Nova and she even heard his voice shake at the end. He took her breath away and she did not predict that he would have had this effect on her. She fully thought that this was her moment to tell him off and to get out all of her anger and frustrations that she had been holding in since that very night, and she just couldn't do it. He sounded so raw and honest, there was something in her that just couldn't rip him to shreds like she had fantasized about every time she would imagine this conversation between them.
It took her a moment before she could respond, and Q patiently waited on the other end. His heart cracked when he heard her sniffle.
"Oh Brian...Things would have been so different if you would have just stopped and listened to me that night...I never messed around with Jimmy...Not that night...Not once when you and I were together."
Q's heart dropped. Something about the way her voice sounded let him know that she was for sure telling the truth.
"Jimmy came to me that night and yes, he wanted to mess around. He had a rough night and he was looking for someone to rebound to...just like we used to do, but I told him that I could no longer be that person for him. I was so...So infatuated with you, I couldn't even look at another man the same way I looked at you, and the thought of doing that disgusted me. I threw him out of my apartment the moment when you came walking up...And that is what you saw."
Q's mouth suddenly felt dry and his heart began to race. He couldn't remember the last time he felt this stupid, and not on purpose. Sure enough, Joe was right. All of this wasted time where they could have been building their relationship stronger and he chose to throw it all away based on a speculation. A speculation that he couldn't have been more wrong on. He lost his girl over it.
He closed his eyes and rested his head against his steering wheel. "I'm so sorry Nova."
He didn't know what else to say. What was there to say? He made this poor girl feel so bad for something she didn't even do and the way he chose to deal with it affected her terribly and changed her life forever. He felt sick and disgusted with himself, there was no way Nova would forgive him and there was no way he would accept if if she did.
"I'm just so sorry. I feel terrible about everything...There is no excuse for what I did and I really don't expect any forgiveness from you, not that I deserve it. Just know that I am sorry. You didn't deserve any of that."
Nova now had silent tears pouring out of her eyes. She nodded her head, even though she knew Brian couldn't see. He said everything that she felt like she needed to hear to move on. She had pushed everything that happened deep down inside and only focused on healing her physical injuries, she hadn't begun to deal with the emotional side of things, and his words were like ripping off the band aid.
"Thank you for saying that" Nova said after a while. Brian kept hearing her little sniffles and decided to let her have a moment before he said anything else.
"I really mean it...And I don't mean to sound tacky but if there is anything I can do, Anything you need, let me know. I just want to help, that's all" Brian offered.
"I'm okay" Nova said, picking her head up. She couldn't tell if she said that for Brian, or for herself. "I will be okay."
"Look, I don't expect you to give me the time of day after everything I put you through, but in the spirit of us working together, I would like it if we could maybe try to be friends? If that is okay with you?" Brian asked, sounding hopeful.
Nova paused for a moment. "Yeah..OK...I think we can do that" She said strongly.
"But first, there is one more thing I want to ask you" She said, trying to get all of their issues out and to the surface.
"Yeah sure, anything" Q said as if he were at her mercy.
"Why didn't you go to the hospital that night, after everything happened?"
Brian's response was definitely not one that she was expecting. She expected him to be silent at first and then say something along the lines of him being afraid or him not wanting to upset her further, or even him not having a choice with his career hanging in the distance. His response was about to send her through another whirlwind of emotions that she wasn't sure if she was ready for.
"I was at the hospital...I met Robin there and they wouldn't let me see you because she was your emergency contact and you were in ICU."
Nova felt the air leave her lungs.
"What?!" She exclaimed, not sure if she was believing what she was hearing.
"Yeah, Robin didn't tell you I was there? I texted you later that night and you responded...Don't you remember any of that?" Q asked, wondering just how bad her head injury could have been.
Nov abruptly stood up.
Nova's hand's started to shake as she tried to remember all of the pieces of this story that Q was telling her. The though of him potentially lying crossed her mind, but that wouldn't make sense with how truthful they were just being with each other.
Unless...
Nova dropped her phone when the reality of the situation hit her. She remembered how Robin said Q never showed up and how she said that she called him but he never came. If Q was never at the hospital that night, then how could he have known that Robin was her emergency contact or that she was in ICU. She had never told him that before, and the only other ones here in New York who knew that information was Heather and Violet. That could only mean one thing....
Robin had been lying to Nova all along...
Nova noticed she dropped her phone and she quickly picked it back up. "Q?" She said into the phone.
Q heard the change in her voice. She sounded panicked. "Yes, I'm here" he said meaning it in more ways than one.
"I...I need to see you...Can you come pick me up?" she asked, walking to her bedroom to change her clothes.
"Yeah sure! Just text me your address and I'll be on my way"
"Okay, I'll see you soon"
Nova hung up the phone. She had to get to the bottom of this. She had to know exactly what Robin lied about and how much she bent the truth to make Q look like more of a monster that what he was.
And most of all, why she lied in the first place! She had some investigating to do before she could confront her. She didn't understand it! Robin was her best friend and her first friend in New York. How could she put Nova through all of this and give her the impression that Q didn't care about her?
It was such an evil thing to do to anyone, she knew Robin could have a vicious streak in her (She had seen it before) but not to herself. She just didn't get it and she didn't want to believe that her friend would do that to her. Granted, Q wasn't 100% innocent that night, but if he was there at the hospital, what could Robin gain by keeping that from her?
She didn't know, but she was going to find out!