The rescue force transported me back to their camp by snow mobile, and from there I was taken by car, to a med clinic in another county. I didn’t ask to be taken to Justin, because I knew my injuries weren’t serious enough...
And I guess...I guess I wanted him to settle back into his life without me. I know what I promised him, but over the few hours I was being transported, I started to think about it, really think about it, and I knew he was better off without me. I’d done my job, done it well, but just like I always told him, there was no bond there between us. He needed to get back to his family, get better and move on. My presence, I knew, would only force him to be stuck in the past and focus on me instead of what he needed to do so he could have his life back. Yes, I opened up to him a little bit, but it was a desperate situation. He needed to talk and I guess I didn’t see the harm in talking to him.
But that’s all over now.
The moment I arrived at the med clinic, I could tell what I’d gotten myself into when I took a job flying with a famous pop star. Even though it was still the dead of night, there was a huge mob of press stationed outside the place. There were police there too, of course, and it was a good thing, because the moment I was helped out of the car and to the door, cameras were shoved in my face, and they were all yelling my name, demanding answers from me about our ordeal. I was sure it was only because Justin was shut away, shielded from their shouts and shoving by his family and security that they were trying to leech news from me.
I decided if anybody had to deal with them, it was better off being me. I wasn’t famous. They wouldn’t tail me forever, but they would be up Justin’s ass for months. He deserved a break, and if I could stall them, I would.
“I’m just glad that this is all over,” I said, as I paused at the door. “Justin is a strong, professional person, and he helped me through it as much as I helped him.”
They seemed to like that answer, and so, I was able to go inside and get medical attention, finally, after that.
My ankle bone has a clean break, easily fixable, and I have a boot on my foot that makes walking as easy as always. The doctor said I was lucky. I won’t need surgery. I developed a small case of the flu as well. A temperature, a cough, and a sore throat. It’s the only thing that’s been keeping me in this place, but I’m going to leave as soon as I can.
It’s been three days.
My sister flew in last night.
I wish I could say I was happier about seeing her.
“I can’t believe you left her with Wayne.”
“What the hell was I supposed to do, Fi? You’re my sister...and you had nobody else to come to your aid, so I flew out. Wayne’s responsible. He’s her Godfather for crying out loud.”r32;
“You’re the only one I trust with her. You know that, Cass!”
She crosses her arms and narrows her eyes at me. “So I should have just let you sit here alone, while a world wide news story broke out about you. You didn’t need my support, right? You could handle it yourself, like always.”
“Forget me! Mack needs your support,” I say darkly. “Fuck...you know, I’m getting on that flight tonight. I can’t stay here another day...I can’t let her just...rot in that hospital bed without either of us.”
“You heard what the doctor said...”
I rip the IV’s out of my arm. “Fuck what the doctor said. Three days is enough.”
“Fiona!” She gasps, and tries to hold me back as I get out of the bed. “You can’t! You’re sick...”
“I’m fine.” I tear away from her, and rip some clothes out of the drawer next to the bed. “I’m changing, and calling a taxi. If you want to stay here, then you do that, okay?”
“You’re being impossible, you know? Christ, Fi, I thought you were dead.”
I stop, and turn back to look at her. “You know better than that.”
“The plane was charred and burned. I saw it...I saw it on fucking CNN, Fiona.”
I see tears in her eyes, and I sigh. I know, she must have been terrified. My little sister, who I raised, when mom left us with grandma so she could go live her life without us. She’s always depended on me, from that day forward, and a few days ago...she thought I was gone for good. I have to take a step back, try to be compassionate...like I’ve been working on. “Cass...”
“What was I supposed to do?” She whimpers. “What if you never came home?”
I sigh, and walk forward, pulling her close to me. “I’m right here.”
“I was so scared, Fi. I just...I just came out because I wanted to make sure you were all right. I’m sorry...they said it was okay. Wayne said he would watch her, and so I thought you wouldn’t be mad...”
I pull back from her gently after several moments. “I’m not mad at you, okay? I’m...I’m sorry I freaked out.” I stroke her face and force a smile for her. The one that’s always been able to dry up her tears in the past. “It’s just been a lot...Kenz, and now this. I just want to get home to her, you know?”
She nods. “Was he sexy at least?”
It gets me to laugh, even though it’s so inappropriate. Still, that’s my sister, at her best, and I’m glad she hasn’t lost her mind completely. “You would have had a cardiac.”
She smiles.
“Miss Carmicale.”
I glance at the doorway, and I see my doctor standing there, with a burly black man standing just to his left. I give him an odd look, and pull completely away from my sister. “Yes?”
“This is Eric Masters. He’s come to escort you to Vail Hospital.”
r32;I shake my head and scoff. “But I’m...I don’t need a hospital.”
“It’s not for you.” Eric steps forward, and his entire body seems to fill the doorway. I just stare at him, and after a moment...I figure it out.
Justin is sending for me.
But I can’t go.
“Justin and his mother would like to see you,” he says, and is voice is strangely gentle for somebody like him. “They sent me to pick you up.”
Cassidy nudges me, and I glare at her. “I’m actually about to head home. My daughter...she’s going to need me.”
“He wanted me to tell you that he took care of the money.”
I just stare at him, and I hear Cassidy gasp.
“Do you mean he paid for the transplant?”
“That’s right. She’s also being relocated to another hospital, today. Her surgery is scheduled for next week, and you’ll be home in plenty of time for it. Some of the best child cardiologists in the world fly there to operate, and he’s set her up with the very best one for her case. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
“Relocated!” I’m so mad at him. So mad at him for going behind my back like that. I told him...I told him I didn’t want his help. “Nobody decided to tell me!”
Eric just stares at me.
Cassidy puts her hand on my shoulder. “Fi...I think...I think it’s a good thing....”
“Call Wayne. Find out what the hell is going on.” I grunt it at her as I shrug her off and glare at Eric. “You tell Justin he has a hell of a nerve.”
r32;Eric laughs. “You can tell him yourself.”
“I’m not going.”
“I think you owe it to him, to at least say hi.”r32;
I’m so angry. So angry and so frustrated, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I told him...I told him I would figure it out on my own, and I guess I thought being separated from each other, would stop him from giving me charity money for Kenz. I was wrong though. He hasn’t forgotten about me, about the things we talked about in the tent.
He never would. He’s not like me...doesn’t just cast people he cares about to the side so he can move on to the next thing.
People he cares about.
Maybe it’s time for a change...
God, but I don’t want him to care about me. Not like that, because I can’t return the favor.
“I promised him I would get you to come,” Eric speaks up after a while. “Come on girl, don’t make me look bad in front of my boss.”
“That’s your problem.” I cross my arms.
“Fi..it’s already done.” Cassidy comes up behind me, phone clutched in her hand. Wayne said they moved her last night, he’s with her right now. She’s in North Shore.”
I whirl around. “North Shore?”
She smiles and nods.
It’s the best place for her, hands down. I would know. I wanted Kenz to be treated there, but the hospital fees, just to room her there, were entirely too expensive, so we had to settle for a place closer to our home. Now she’s there, in a private room, with world class nurses and physicians all around her. If she ever had a chance to be a normal kid again, this is it.
And it’s all thanks to him.
I don’t know what to do, and I don’t want to cry. I don’t.
But I can’t help it.
“How about we go.” I hear my sister whisper to me after a few moments. “Just to thank him, and then we can go home tomorrow or the next day. Okay?”
I can’t answer. I only sob, and a few moments later I feel her guiding me forward, out of the dingy clinic bedroom, and out the door to an awaiting town car. Cassidy helps me into it, and I can smell the leather interior already. It’s nice, sleek and posh, and I don’t think I’ve been in one of these since my wedding. It’s a different world.
His world.
I’ve never felt so out of place, but there’s nothing I can do. It’s too late now. I’ve given in, and so, I just lay my head against my sisters shoulder as she whispers consoling things in my hear. Eric gets into the front seat, talking on his cell phone, and then the driver starts up the car and pulls away from the clinic.
There’s no turning back, and I have no idea what to expect, or what my emotions will be like when I finally lay eyes on Justin Timberlake again.
**********
When we arrive, Eric and a few members of hospital security have us enter through a hidden entrance in the back of the hospital. It’s better this way. The mob of press stationed outside the main entrance is three times the size of the one that awaited me at the clinic, and seeing me would have set them off and made them rowdy. We’re lead down hallway after hallway until we finally reach the appropriate set of elevators. When the doors open, another very large black man is on it, and I’m assuming this is his job for the time being, to ensure nobody gets onto Justin’s floor that isn’t supposed to be. By the looks of him, I can tell he works with Eric on a daily basis. The way they joke and laugh on the elevator ride giving it away immediately
They’re Justin’s private security personnel, and I can’t believe I didn’t realize that sooner.
When the elevator doors ding open again, there are a pair of security personnel stationed just outside of them, waiting for us. Cass and I both have to be issued special visitor stickers before we can continue into the actual hallway.
It’s crazy. I guess...being alone with him, in the middle of nowhere, made me naive to how famous he actually is, and what it takes to protect him from psychos and idiotic press people. It must be tough, being in a relationship with him.
Maybe that’s why he’s single.
I shouldn’t care anyway.
“This is a really nice hospital,” Cass whispers, like it’s supposed to make me feel better.
But it doesn’t.
I’m still pissed.
Eric and the other man lead us further down the hall. It’s completely deserted, aside from a couple of nurses and a guy that’s wheeling a bin of linens down the corridor. I know the truth, that Justin is the only patient on this floor, and that’s crazy. There are at least twenty five other children on Kenz’s floor.
But when you’re rich I guess they pull out all the stops.
We stop in front of a closed door, and when Eric knocks, I know we’ve arrived at Justin’s room. I back away slowly, determinded to run back down the hallway, but I bump into the other burly black dude, and he laughs at me.
“Where you running to?”r32;
I swallow hard. “I just...”
“He doesn’t bite, but his momma might,” he laughs.
Oh god, for real?
There’s nothing I can do, nowhere to go, and so I turn back around just in time to see the door opening. A pretty blonde woman stands before us, her expression serious at first, but it turns gentle, motherly, once she lays on me. She has short wavy blonde hair, and the same blue eyes that Justin does. She has his smile too, and I know she must be his mother.
“Fiona?”
God. I suck in a breath and nod slightly as make my way closer to her. “Hi.”
“Oh, it’s so good to finally meet you.”
The woman yanks me to her, and holds me so close, so tight, like I mean the world to her.
And in a way, I guess I can understand why, so I return the embrace, praying she pulls away soon.
“I’m so...I’m so thankful, for everything you’ve done for Justin.” She holds my face in her hands, her eyes filled with tears. “You’ve saved our family. I just...I can’t thank you enough.”
“It’s...it’s nothing.” I force a smile. “I was just doing my job.”
“She’s modest,” my sister speaks up. “Don’t mind her.”
I glare at her. “My sister...Cassidy,” I tell Lynn before she can ask me the question. “I had to bring her along. I hope that’s okay.”
“No, not at all.” She smiles, and pulls away so she can give my sister a brief hug. “It’s wonderful to meet the both of you. Come on in. Justin woke up a few minutes ago, and has been asking when you were coming, Fiona.”
My sister gives me this look like ‘holy fuck’, and I just roll my eyes. Of course he’s been asking for me. I pulled him out of a snow hole...we were lying naked in a tent together...I saved his life, and those aren’t things you just...forget about.
“Fiona.” Justin smiles as soon as I walk into the room, his smile wide, and I know...seeing me, is all he’s been focused on since we were separated.
After this, I hope he’ll just forget about me all together.
“Hey,” I smile for him, and Lynn pulls a chair up for me, and one for Cassidy as well.
“You girls have a seat,” she smiles, and hugs me around the shoulders. “I’m going to get some coffees and snacks. You’re hungry aren’t you?”
Not really, but I can’t say no to that woman. She’s too hell bent on making me feel as welcome as possible. “Sure I can eat.”
“Great.”
She walks away, and then it’s just Justin, my sister, and I.
“This is my sister, Cassidy.” I tell him, as he stares at her, curiously. “She flew out from New York last night.”
“Great to meet you.” He smiles brightly and sticks his hand out, and I pray she can keep herself composed.
“God, I have always had like the biggest crush on you.” She shakes his hand and giggles.
Justin laughs, and looks my way briefly.
Just great. Leave it to my fucking sister, I swear. “Take a walk, Cass.”
“But...”
“Cass.” I glare at her, in that motherly way I always have.
She sucks in a breath. “Fine, whatever.”
She leaves.
Finally, alone.
“You didn’t have to send her away. I’m used to that crap,” Justin smirks. “I’m sure she’s a sweet girl.”
I shrug. “She’s young and excitable, that’s all. I need to talk to you anyway.”
“You’re okay then, right?”
“I have a broken ankle, and a cold. I’ll be fine.”
He nods.
“I told you I didn’t want your help with my daughter,” I tell him before he can say anything else. “You went behind my back...”
“Hey, I told you I was doing it. Did you think I would have forgotten? No way, I didn’t want to hear about how your daughter got worse. Now, she has an even better chance at recovery. I talked to her surgeon. He’s going to do a great job...you know?”
“Still.” I rub my forehead. “You should have talked to me first.”r32;
“She couldn’t wait. That’s what I was told...that’s what I knew too, from what you told me. If she was going to be moved, it had to be right away, so I just...gave my lawyer the go ahead to do what he had to. It’s done. Now you dont’ have to worry so much anymore. Everything will work out.”
I shrug.
“Fi...I...there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you now, you know?”
I shake my head. “Don’t talk like that. Like you care...”
“Maybe I do.”
I look him dead in the eyes. He can’t be serious, he’s still just...caught up in the moment, and that’s all it is. Besides, I’m not ready for that, and he’s...not my type. Yeah. “You shouldn’t. It’s not worth it.”
“Why do you think you’re not worth it, Fi? You’re the strongest person I’ve met in a really long time, and...and I’m here, I’m alive, because you wouldn’t let me quit.”
“Justin, look, there’s a lot that you don’t know about me. You really don’t know me at all...”r32;
“So let me.”
I stand up, and sigh. “No.”
“So you’re too scared, right?”
“I’m not scared, I’m just not interested. I have a sick child, and that’s my priority.”
“What about when she’s better. What then? What excuse will you make up to shield yourself from the rest of the world then?”
“You’ll have moved on with your life by then. I will have too. I really...I really do appreciate the sacrifice you just made for Kenz. You didn’t have to, but...you did. So I’m thankful for that, and I’ll always have a place in my heart for you Justin. But as far as friendship or anything else goes, there’s no room in our lives for it. That’s all.”
He lets out a bitter, disgusted laugh. “You’re unbelievable, you know?”
I shrug. “I told you that I had a job to do, from the very beginning.”
“Yeah...but then other things happened. Remember the last night...”r32;
“Just stop,” I tell him, firmly. “Stop.”
“Why’d you really do it?”
“It saved your life.”
“But then you let me hold you too, stroke your face and talk to you...like I cared. You broke down Fi. You told me things too. You started to care. I saw it. I know...”
“It’s over now!” I yell at him.
He just stares at me.
“Fuck..I knew this was a bad idea. I knew it was.”
“Fiona.”
r32;“Christ, Justin. Move on with your life!” I storm to the doorway. “I’m moving on with mine, without you!”
His eyes get sad, his expression solemn.
I know just how shitty I’ve made him feel.
But I can’t afford to give into him. Not now. Not ever.
“I guess this is goodbye then, Fiona.”
I nod slightly. “I guess so.”
“What...where are you going?” Cassidy asks me, when I get back into the hallway. “What happened?”r32;
“I’m flying home,” I tell her. “Whether or not you’re coming with me. Right now.”
“But...”
I keep walking.
Then she’s right next to me, the one person who knows exactly how I am, and she won’t protest my mood. She knows once my mind is made up, set on something, I don’t turn back.
I have an aching feeling in my stomach when I punch the button on the elevator.
Like I’ve done something wrong. Like...like I should have stayed, spent time with him.
But I just...I just can’t.
I can’t open up like that to somebody else, even if he went out on a limb to save my kids life. He knows I’ll always be thankful for what he’s done.
But that’s the extent of my feelings. It has to be.
I have the nurses in the main lobby call a cab, and we wait inside, away from the mob of press until they tell me it’s arrived. Then we’re escorted out, through the press mob, and over to the awaiting car. They push and shove, snap their pictures in my face, in my sisters face, but we make it. Then we’re in, driving away, and I don’t look back.
I can’t.
My sisters phone rings a half hour into our journey, but I close my eyes and lay my head back against the seat, tuning out the sound, trying to cure my massive headache and get rid of the little voice in the back of my mind that’s telling me I made a terrible mistake.
That I should have stayed and talked to Justin.
That I should have accepted the fact that I might care about him, just a little bit.
But I made my choice. I did.
“Oh God.”
I look at her. My sisters face is pale and she’s holding a hand over her mouth. I sit up, immediately, my eyes growing wide, a sick, desperate feeling forming in the pit of my stomach. “What?”
She won’t look at me.
“Cassidy!”
“I...we’ll be there tonight. Okay...Wayne no...just wait for us...tell them not to touch her.”r32;
She’s sobbing.
No.
No.
It can’t be.
“What...what is it! What?”
She flips the phone closed, and looks at me, the tears pouring out of her eyes.
It can’t be happening. Not now. Not when...not when we’ve gotten this chance, this money. Not when I made sure I survived so I could get home to her in time...
I wasn’t there, and she needed me. I could have flown out yesterday. I could have held her hand and made sure she knew how much I loved her.
Now she’s...I know she’s gone. My sister doesn’t have to say it.
“It’s too late,” she croaks. “Kenz...she...she just...”
“Don’t you tell me that shit,” I grit out, feeling the tears falling down my face immediately. “Cassidy don’t you dare.”
She sobs harshly. “She’s gone, Fi.”
“Liar!” I scream.
The cab driver glances back at us, but I just don’t care.
“She...passed away in her sleep a few minutes ago,” she tells me, putting her hands on my shoulders. “They said her body just had enough...Fiona, my God, I’m so sorry...I’m sorry!”
I’m numb, completely fucking numb. I don’t know what to do...scream, cry, punch the windows out? Nothing will help.
Nothing will bring her back.
Ever.
My baby is dead.
“Fi.”
I sob. There’s nothing else I can do. I’ve shut down, mentally. I don’t even know if I can get out of this car and walk onto the plane. I have no desire to. I have no desire to do anything now.
“It’ll be okay.” She sobs into me as she holds me. “It will be.”
But she’s so wrong.
There’s no coming back from this.
Author's Chapter Notes:
You guys will probably hate me for this but it's what I had planned originally. Thanks for reading.
Story Tags: enemiesturnedlovers
