Justice glared across the room at Angel as he sat back with an amused smirk on his face.
How had it come to this?
She knew they'd somehow end up alone together eventually but never did she think it would be this soon, or under these circumstances.
Odessa tapped on the window of the observation room and gave Angel an expectant look.
"Begin!" She ordered through the speaker. Through what she'd been told by Angel and Justice, she had come to the conclusion that the only way to induce Justice into having a vision was to have Angel be the stimulus.
Justice sighed and reluctantly took a seat making sure she was a safe distance away from Angel.
"Well?" She started. "How do you wanna-"
"You look well." He said with a flutter inducing smile.
She swallowed. "Thanks. You too."
"Yeah?" He said brushing himself off. "Which part?"
"What?"
"Which part of me looks well?" He sat back with a smirk.
Sighing at his amusement, she shrugged.
"Your hair? You cut it. It suits you."
She wasn't lying. The Angel she remembered had a head of perfectly messy waves that he liked to run his hand through when he frustrated. When his hair was like that, she found him boyishly handsome. But now, his short fade gave him a rugged, brawny look. Not to mention the stubble around his jaw.
This was a man before her, and she wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it.
"That's it?" He asked snapping her out of her thoughts. Angel had gotten up and started to walk around the room pretending to be interested in the detailing of the wall panels.
"What about my body?" He asked playfully. Turning to face her, he flexed one of his arms. "I've been working hard you know. Switched up since you last saw me."
"I can see that," She tried not to smile. "How often do you work out?"
"Everyday. Without fail."
"Love the determination." She nodded.
"You look different."
She subconsciously put her hand to her cheek, frowning slightly. "Different how?"
"I don't know," He stopped and cocked his head to the side. "Just different."
She knew what he was doing. He was trying to bait her. He knew a comment like that would rile her up and he knew she was the type to bite his bait.
"But what does different mean?" She asked feeling herself becoming agitated. "Good different? Or bad different?"
He laughed and picked up one of the artefacts, throwing it between his hands. "Different means different!"
"Well, I see you're still as annoying as ever." She scoffed
"Why? Because I noticed something about you?"
"So it is something!" She squinted her eyes. "Like a specific thing, that you don't wanna say because you love the fact that you can get a rise out of me!"
"Why are you so upset?" He asked grinning.
Consciously lowering her voice, she answered, "I'm not upset."
"You seem upset." He raised a brow. "Still not matured after all this time."
She recoiled, slightly offended. "I am very mature actually."
"Yeah?" He chuckled. "You're having a fit because I said you look different."
Justice swivelled around in her chair to face him behind her. "I am not having a fit!"
Justice cursed herself when she heard how many octaves her voice had risen. Angel, clearly amused with himself, moved over to her stopping in front of her.
"What are you doing?" She asked wearily looking up at him.
He let out a breathy laugh looking down at her. "Stand up."
"Why?" She shifted in her seat.
Taking a step forward, he took her hand and hauled her up. "So I can take a good look at you."
The contact had her heart racing, and the way his eyes wandered over her made it worse.
Taking a step back, Angel allowed himself to really take her in.
He wasn't lying when he said she looked different. Justice had changed, to him anyway. But in the best way.
To him it felt as if he was seeing her for the first time all over again.
He let go of her hand and reached up to stroke one of her golden curls between her fingers.
Her breath hitched as he tucked it back into place.
"I'm only messing with you." He said softly.
Distracted by the lack of distance between them, she looked up at him with furrowed brows. "What?"
"It's a good different. You look good. Better than I imagined you would."
Justice closed her eyes, willing herself to get it together.
He was too close.
He smelled too good.
His voice was too soft.
She needed to run but her feet were firmly planted where she stood and seemed to have no intention of taking her anywhere else.
In that moment, every feeling she had for him came rushing to the surface. It took everything in her not to throw herself at him and tell him how much she'd missed him.
But in contrast to that, she felt like she could throw up from the guilt. How dare she feel like this when she had Luc waiting back home.
Luc, who she had these incredibly intense feelings for. Feelings that brought her way out of her character.
"Just?" He called her softly.
She opened her eyes slowly, looking up into his green orbs.
God she loved the colour of his eyes.
She loved the colour of Luc's eyes too. And the way he looked at her.
Shaking her head, she took a step back.
Lightheaded and sweaty, she swayed slightly, grabbing on the table to hold her up.
"Angel," She warned, feeling the room start to spin. "Tell them."
Without delay, he scooped her up, shouting for Odessa to come into the room.
"It's happening?" She scurried in, followed by a few of her colleagues.
"From what I remember, her eyes will start to roll back and then it'll happen."
"Okay, quickly!" She beckoned him over to the chamber. "Lay her down. Benedict, attach the probes. Lacey, set up on the monitor."
Justice felt her eyes rolling back in her head and her body shook with convulsions and before she knew it, familiar sights flashed before her eyes.
The hoard of bodies stood still, as if they were awaiting command. The pleading pair of eyes. The hovering body...
It was a strange thing, to see herself hanging in the air. To hear her own whimpers, begging for her life. To see the blood draining from her weak body.
And today, the images were clearer and more vivid than they'd ever been.
She desperately tried to take in the surroundings so she could try and figure out the location, but it wasn't easy. The room was dark and murky, and she could only conclude that it was somewhere with a lack of light. Underground maybe?
Next, she tried to focus on finding anybody else on the scene. Who was she pleading to? Who had taken her there?
Frantically scanning the room, her eyes wondered in every crevice and corner looking for anything that caught her eye. She was close to giving up when she caught a glimpse of a shadow on the wall. A broad, tall shadow that she knew could only belong to a man.
Someone was there with her.
Before she had time to consider who they might be, smoke clouded her vision and she was back in that dark tunnel. The recurring sound of a deafening scream plagued her and she started to run towards it.
The tunnel seemed to be never ending. The more she ran, the fainter the screaming got and before she knew it, the scene began to falter.
She was regaining consciousness.
She heard the murmur of voices, and felt the stinging brightness of the lights as she opened her eyes.
Laid on her back, she looked up at several pairs of eyes staring down at her.
With a push of a button, the chamber opened and she sat up slowly, very aware of the cautious way everyone was staring at her.
"Justice, are you okay?"
"Yeah," she croaked roughly. "I'm fine. Did you manage to get it all?"
"We have it, yes." She paused and flicked her eyes over everyone in the room before looking back at Justice. "We'll pass it on to the elders, if you'll permit it?"
Justice nodded, trying to ignore the uncomfortable atmosphere that had taken over the room.
"Well, I don't think we need to over exert ourselves with more training today. We can resume tomorrow." Odessa placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and gave a small smile before leaving with the rest of her colleagues.
"Justice?" She turned back to her in the doorway. "You did well today."
When the door shut, Justice turned to Angel who hadn't said a word since she'd woken up. She watched him unplug the probes from the monitors and cleared her throat to get his attention.
When he didn't turn around she said, "Did I miss something?"
"What do you mean?" He said unable to look at her.
"Why is everyone acting as if my puppy died and no one wants to be the one to tell me?" She joked.
Angel snorted. "I don't know if living in that hell hole has numbed your senses to dark shit, but what you just saw was pretty grim."
He turned around somewhat annoyed that she was taking this so lightly.
"Are you ... angry with me?" She blinked, dumbfounded.
"Why are you so chill about this?" He whipped around, glaring at her.
"Angel, it's ... I don't know how you want me to act."
"Do you not see how much danger you're about to be in?"
Each of them were looking at the other as if they were crazy.
Justice, for the life of her couldn't understand why he was so upset. It wasn't him she saw having the life literally drained out of him.
"What do you want me to do?"
She pulled each probe of her head slowly, ignoring the sting it left behind. Sliding to the edge of the bed, she stood up. "I can't wallow in self-pity. I have to get to the bottom of what's going on. That's why I'm here."
Angel sighed and sat down in the nearest chair. Holding his head in his hands, he shook his head.
"I'm sorry." He muttered. "This is all just fucking with my head a bit. You being here, and now this."
Feeling a little bad, she took a seat next to him and gave his leg a reassuring squeeze.
"I'm sorry too. The last thing I wanted to do was come here and stress you out."
Angel looked up at her and snorted. "It's not like you asked to be hung up and tortured."
"Well ... yeah. Not my idea of fun to be honest." She chuckled a little.
Angel glanced at her and swallowed. "I don't know if it's okay for me to say this to you now but," he turned his body towards her. "I'll go mad if anything happens to you."
Uh oh.
Why did he have to go and say something like that? She cursed internally.
She mustered the courage to look up at him, and the two of them engaged in what can only be described as a battle of who would break first.
When she looked into his eyes, it was as if she knew exactly what he was thinking, and everything he wanted to say. She knew because she thought and felt the same things. If anything happened to Angel, she'd be distraught and heartbroken, even after all this time of not seeing him.
To even think about it had her clutching her chest with pseudo-pain.
Justice was the first to break eye contact. She didn't trust herself to speak and wasn't even sure how to respond.
Aware he'd made it uncomfortable, Angel sighed.
"Sorry," He said sighing. "I didn't mean to make it awkward."
Justice shook her head, gesturing that he didn't. "You don't need to apologise."
"Not crossing boundaries?" He teased.
She smirked. "Letting me know you care? Nah. It's actually kinda nice to hear."
Angel raised his eyebrows, planning out the wording of his next question very carefully.
"Does your..," He couldn't bring himself to say the word husband. Instead he settled for, "Does he not? Tell you he cares about you?"
Justice looked at him with a slight frown, then went back to playing with her fingers.
"He's more of an "actions speak louder" type of guy."
Angel nodded in response.
No one spoke for what was probably on 30 seconds. They both wanted to say so much but didn't dare, not sure how the other would take it.
"Are you happy?" He asked after a while.
Justice looked up at him and Angel searched her eyes for the truth. Because any small inclination that she wasn't was all the reason he needed.
She opened her mouth to answer him but nothing came out.
Was she happy? She hardly knew.
She wasn't unhappy. And being around Luc certainly made her feel things that someone could only describe positively. But happy? She didn't know.
Angel moved in towards her at eye level, cupping her right cheek in his large hand.
"Justice," He began.
They heard the creak of the door and when Dahlia walked in, Justice jerked her head back.
Dahlia studied the two of them. The look of disappointment and slight annoyance on Angel's face, the slight look of angst on hers. Just what had she interrupted?
"I've come to take you home." She said with a plastered smile on.
Justice couldn't get up fast enough, murmuring something about being starving as a means of distraction.
"We can pick up something to cook on the way back." Dahlia suggested as she came towards her.
A red faced Justice, smiled in response as she walked past her out the doorway, not daring to look back at Angel.
Dahlia however did, and gave him a WTF look before going after Justice.
Rolling his eyes, Angel stretched and placed both hands on top of his head, thoughts swimming through his head about the day's events.
"WTF is an understatement."