After Finale, before the Epilogue.
Nora's POV
It was dark and I was alone. I spun on my heel to try and navigate where I was by my surroundings, but there was nothing that gave much away. Everything was still and shadowy and smelled of sawdust, and I was certain that I had never been here before. What memory had I landed myself in? I wasn't sure how accurate it was each time, but I had pushed my fingers against Patch's scars with the hope to find a scene with Dabria in it. Needless to say, I wasn't convinced that I'd found one until I heard a car door open.
I ambled closer, finally spotting the glow of the moon reflecting off the hood of a midnight-black pickup. No wonder I hadn't seen it. It had pulled up without lights and parked beneath the added shadow that a large pine offered. I caught the flash of a blonde head, hair looking ghostly in the night, jogging around the front of the truck. A Ford F-150 I noticed, and then it hit me. Patch's Ford F-150.
It was all I could do to make it to the door and fling myself into the backseat before the truck started backing out.
Dabria was tucking a cherry-red phone into her pocket when I finally sat up.
"I didn't think you'd come for me. The odds didn't look good." She said into the silent cab. Patch glanced into the mirror and, if I didn't know better, I would have thought that his dark eyes were watching me instead of the road behind us. He didn't say anything in response though.
I glanced behind us too and caught the crooked roof of an old, abandoned-looking building, and a memory of my own reminded me that Dabria once told me she hid out in an old sawmill after running from a group of Nephils. If that was true, if that was the sawmill, then I knew exactly where this memory of Patch's was heading.
"Where are we going?" Dabria's wavering question came from the passenger seat. I knew the answer before it was even given.
"I'm taking you to Portland. You can stay in a safe house and get by just fine as long as you don't go sniffing around for ways to land yourself in these situations." His voice had a sharp edge to it that took me by surprise, seeing as it was the first time he had said anything.
Evidently, Dabria was shocked to hear it too. "It was for you, Jev! All of that was to help you!" Her wild burst shrilled out but, despite that, Patch kept an even tone.
"And it's appreciated, but I never asked you to hand out false prophecies and tail a car full of Nephilim. If you had stuck to what I told you, we wouldn't be doing this." The razor side to his voice wasn't present anymore, but he seemed sincerely annoyed.
She sat back against the seat harshly. "Look, I've already apologized for losing Blakely." And it was clear that she was upset. Scared, even.
Patch was quiet for a minute, probably listening to the fear in her voice that I detected also. Finally, he muttered, "Don't worry about Blakely. We'll get him."
Silence again and I spent the time observing Dabria's nerve-wracked display. She would fold her hands in her lap and reach up to push her hair behind her ear, glance at the floor, at Patch, out the window, in the mirrors. Dabria was obviously bothered by the night's previous events and for one insane minute, I almost felt bad for her. Suddenly, both of her hands fluttered to the controls beneath the glowing clock that showed me their faces and she rattled the knobs with shaking fingers, making a mess of things.
I had never seen her in such a wreck. It felt sick to consider it, but it made me feel slightly better to know that she wasn't always smooth and perfect like she had everyone believing. She twisted the heat knob again and pushed her hands over the air vents before groaning.
"Ugh, how does this damn thing work?"
Patch reached forward automatically and calmly fixed whatever she had mangled in her panicked fit.
"What's the problem?" He asked coolly, not even taking his eyes off of the road and still managing to get heat flowing through the cab.
"I'd like to dry my clothes," She defended breathlessly, gesturing violently to her pant legs that were soaked through.
He only raised an eyebrow in question before thinking it over for himself. "The river?"
Her head bounced with a fierce nod and I shook mine in amazement at her mood changes. Shock didn't sit well with Dabria. She didn't know how to handle it. One minute she was on the brink of tears and the next, she was snippy.
"Hell of a night." Patch said and I could hear the soft sound of rain pattering the roof of the pickup before I could see it splattering the windshield. Each drop hit the glass and then curved drastically to speed off the window due to the racing speed that Patch took the road.
We had finally found civilization again, with lights from gas stations and street lamps illuminating the slick road. Patch had slowed the vehicle to a reasonable speed, until we approached a traffic light. He would punch it to make it through the green lights and, even when one of them flickered yellow to red, there was no stopping him. I knew by the looks of things, we weren't far out from Portland and part of me wondered just how long this memory would last. The more time I spent sitting there, the stronger the desire to shove Dabria out of the moving vehicle became. I didn't like her so close to the man that we shared a love for, but there was nothing that I could do to change it. This had already happened. What's done is done.
My head snapped to the sound of Dabria's voice, much softer now than it had been before, asking,
"What makes you see that any of this is worth it?"
Patch turned too, to get a look at her expression. It was the first time that I had really seen him move since this little car ride began.
She looked up at him when he didn't answer. "Any of this. Wouldn't it all be easier, Patch, if you went on your way and forgot about her? You don't care about these things. You don't go through all this trouble for anything. We shouldn't have to act concerned about any of this." Dabria was noticeably calmer, but her hands still wrung together in her lap and her eyes were wide.
His eyes, however, were thoughtful. At least, what I could see of them before they returned to the road as he steered the truck to the right. Even and final was what his tone was when he replied.
"Don't pretend that you know who I am."
"Who are you trying to kid?" She demanded. "I know you better than anyone, maybe even yourself, and especially more than that-"
"You knew me, Dabria." He boomed to cut her off but he quickly regained control of himself, probably reminding himself how upset she was. I couldn't decide how much it bothered me that he was taking her feelings into account and I almost wished he hadn't interrupted her so that I could hear what she was so close to saying about me. "A lot has changed since those days."
I looked back to find her looking down at her hands. "Enough to say that you regret it?"
Immediately, I sat forward on the seat and slid closer to hear his answer. Too many achingly long seconds ticked by before Patch made a sound and gave an answer that about crippled me.
"Not regret," He clarified hesitantly at first and I held my breath. My mind was begging for him to take it back. It scared me that he was putting so much thought into an answer for that monster. Her eyes danced with something that I could only describe as hope and all feelings of pity that I might have had for her moments ago went up in flames.
"Enough has changed to make me look past all of that. I won't regret it because I can't change it." Patch continued and then he was echoing my own words. "What's done is done."
The truck was slowing when he finished. "It doesn't mean that I don't try to forget it, though. I won't live in those days anymore, Dabria." His voice warned. "I have other things to live for."
We came to a stop beneath the pooling light of a lamp post. Patch left the engine running and looked over at her, dark and expectant. She didn't take the hint right away.
She no longer appeared as confident, sitting there and staring out at the safe house that she was to stay in.
"I'm staying here alone?"
"That's the idea." Was his simple reply and I felt a small grin touch my lips.
Dabria looked in the mirror and then back towards the dark walkway. "Aren't you going to walk me in?"
In the driver's seat, he didn't miss a beat. He shook his head.
"You're a big girl. It's the second house to the left, maroon door."
Her head whipped to look at him and I expected a glare but there was only fear.
"It's raining." She told him as if he couldn't see it flooding the street gutters. He finally turned his head in her direction and the glow that flooded from the streetlight outlined his jaw.
"Afraid you'll melt?"
His beautiful smirk taunted her and I would have clapped at the expression that it put on her sour face.
Surprisingly, she brushed it off with a sigh. "Thanks for getting me out of there before they caught up." To this, Patch only hummed in acknowledgement to her words. I could see her eyes watering from where I sat.
"I mean it," She said in a thick voice and flipped in her seat, readjusting herself, and I knew what was coming because I had seen the photos that Dante gave me so long ago, but I didn't know how to prepare for it. I frantically looked at both doors, searching for my escape because I was certain that I really didn't want to see this. Watching him with Marcie once before was enough of a kick in the side to bruise for a lifetime. I didn't need more reason to hate Patch.
Her arms reached across the space that separated them and slithered to encircle his neck. As much as I prayed for it to happen quickly, everything seemed to defy me and slow so that I could pick out each painful detail. I saw his eyebrows furrow, his nose scrunch up, before her hair spilled over her shoulder and curtained the kiss that she forced onto his mouth. I winced but couldn't turn away in fear that I would miss him displaying some emotion or want that he had failed to tell me about. I couldn't even move enough to cast a glance around the near area for Dante snapping a picture of this.
Dabria, obviously pleased with the fact that he hadn't pushed her away yet, shifted into Patch in an attempt to deepen the kiss. His head pulled back abruptly, but not soon enough to save me from the hurt that followed. Her breaths came ruggedly from where she sat but I could hear nothing from Patch, who had turned his face away from her. She leaned against the seat like she was waiting but he didn't give her anymore of his time.
I leaned to peer through the gap in the headrest, just far enough to notice his set jaw. Anyone that knew him well enough wouldn't mistake it as anything but anger.
Dabria seemed to notice it too and so she reached down to the door handle and clicked it. Rain fell through the crack in the door at an angle.
"You wanted to know if it's all worth it?"
He asked suddenly, harshly. Dabria paused. With simmering black eyes, Patch scrutinized her beneath dark lashes and told her,
"She is. She's worth every part of it and more."
That was it. That was his way of reminding her of the line that she had crossed, and it in turn reminded me that Patch didn't want what Dabria did. Patch was with me, for me, loving me even when he was kissing another woman and I was nowhere near to stop him. When I looked back, Dabria was letting the passenger door fall back into place and throwing an arm over her head to protect herself from the pelting rain.
I felt a tug and the scene started to fade. The inside of Patch's pickup was slipping away until I was instead sitting on a stool in a noisy little hole-in-the-wall type bar or club, but I wasn't interested enough to stay. One memory involving Dabria was enough to drain me enough to want to return to Patch.
My hand moved from Patch's scars and rested on his shoulder while I awoke from his memories. He let me regain myself before his hand reached up to cover mine that rested over his warm skin.
"Have I scared you away yet?" He whispered to me and I blinked before smiling. This was my Patch in the present, not the one that I hated for kissing Dabria.
"Is that what you're working at?"
He smirked and turned to plant a kiss on my hand before standing up. I could see the questions burning in those midnight eyes. He wanted to know what I'd seen. I could tell that it was eating away at him.
Much to my disappointment, Patch shrugged back into his faded navy shirt and I was left leaning against the edge of the couch.
"So," He started and I looked up to find his eyes on me.
"You're not talking. That can't mean anything good."
I offered a small grin. "It was a memory with Dabria." I informed him first and watched his eyes tighten slightly.
"And?"
"And she kissed you." I said and then realized, with a flush rising to meet my cheeks, that it wasn't enough information to let him know which memory I was talking about. Of course, she had kissed him on more than one occasion.
"It was the night that Dante took the picture of you two."
And this explanation seemed to be enough. Slowly, he nodded.
"Are you alright?"He asked low and level, stopping in front of me to skim my arms with his hands.
"Hungry." I replied and he grinned.
"Pizza?"
"Mmm." I sighed and Patch was disappearing around the corner leading to the kitchen. I followed him, naturally, and pulled myself up to sit on the counter. He bustled around the kitchen for a few minutes, obviously in search of something, while I shifted through Patch's memory in my mind. The way that he gently reached forward to adjust the heat, the way that he fixed his tone so that he wouldn't upset her.
"I didn't realize your culinary skills stretched further than tacos."
I meant it to sound light and teasing. It did, but my voice had to break through my thoughts on him with Dabria.
Patch stopped across from me, looked down, and then spun to open a drawer.
"A-ha."
I watched him reach in and pull something out. With a triumphant smile, he turned with the phone book in his hands.
"Who said I was making the pizza?"
I tried to keep a straight face but failed and laughed with him.
A half an hour and two calls from the lost pizza man later, the doorbell rang. Patch insisted that I stay at the kitchen table while he sauntered off to get it and less than a minute later, he came walking back with a white and red box.
We had settled on a combination pizza, loaded with everything from green olives to spicy sausage, and garlic dipping sauce.
"I think you could have pulled this off." I told him, picking an onion that had fallen to my plate.
Patch sat back. "And I think you have too much faith in me. Tacos are where I draw the line."
I smirked. "You could have been thirty dollars richer if you'd tried."
He laughed. "But was it worth it?"
"What makes you see that any of this is worth it?"
The smirk fell off my face like the onion had tumbled from my slice of pizza. There were too many unsolved questions about that memory dragging on my mind.
"Nora?" Patch tried when I didn't answer.
"Angel, what's wrong?" He was out of his chair and walking around the table to me.
And so I asked the question that I wasn't sure that I wanted an answer to.
"Do you miss her, Patch?"
He didn't pause in the process of dragging his chair closer to me. Only when he was seated and grabbing both of my hands in each of his did he speak.
"What's this about, Nora?"
I was quiet but I didn't know why. "She's gone, Patch. She was someone you were close to. Do you miss that?"
He gazed at me, unmoving, as if waiting to see if that was all I had to say. When I met his eyes with silent gray ones, he blew air from his lips and sat back.
"Sometimes," He began. "I miss knowing what the future might hold. Sometimes I miss being able to send her somewhere to be the eyes and ears for me, and not have to worry about whether she comes back or not." Dark eyes assessed me carefully.
"But do I miss Dabria?" Patch's gaze was unwavering. "She came with more trouble than she did anything else. She would never show up when I asked her to and yet would be there whenever I least wanted her to be." The corner of his mouth pulled up to one side but it was without humor. "She was like that rock in your shoe that you just can't seem to get rid of."
That comment made me smile a little.
"And she was always more set on driving a wedge between you and I than doing anything useful." He added softly. "So, your answer is no, Angel. I don't miss her."
I should have been thrilled by his response. I should have been smiling and throwing my arms around him, but I couldn't help it. My own stupid, envious thoughts keep reeling and my mouth was only too willing to run with them.
"But you don't regret it."
I didn't even recognize my own voice then. Patch blinked at me and I couldn't sit there. I had to move.
Standing up and walked around the counter was done without any thought and I heard Patch's chair screech as he stood to follow. I knew he was standing somewhere behind me and I could almost hear my name starting to form on his lips.
"You don't miss her, but you don't regret anything that you shared with her." I turned my face in his direction but not far enough to see him.
Quietly, he said, "You already know the answer to that."
"Any of it?" I shot, suddenly angry but I knew that it was all inspired by the hurt that I felt. "The kisses, Patch!" I all but screamed at him. That was the trigger, and I knew it. Watching that kiss between him and Dabria unraveled more than I would have liked to admit, just like it did with Marcie. I was silent for a minute and so was he.
"Did you ever make love to her?" I demanded in all of my jealousy, unable to turn around and meet his expression. It was a question that had always nagged at the back of my mind and now I wanted to know.
Behind me, Patch was quiet. I wondered for a moment if he had left the room. When my mind began thinking the worst of his silence, I spun to face him. I found him already staring at me, leaning against the counter with his hat pulled low, his head tilted to one side, and his thumbs hitched in his pockets. He looked especially dark and incredibly sexy where he stood, but I was too worried about his refusal to answer to focus on anything else.
"No," He said finally. "I've never made love."
I stared at him incredulously, waiting for some kind of smirk to erupt on his face. Patch looked back steadily with eyes that gave nothing away. He was serious.
"You're insane if you really think I'm going to believe that you're a virgin."
A small grin touched his lips. "We weren't talking about sex. You asked me if I'd made love."
"What's the difference?" I snapped, exasperated.
Patch withdrew his thumbs from his pockets and slowly pushed himself away from the counter. His eyes bore into mine, dark and hungry, and I nearly squirmed with the feeling that it awoke in the pit of my stomach. Nerves, excitement, anxiety, or maybe a fine combination of the three. Whatever it was, it only intensified as he got closer.
His eyes never left mine and his hat shadowed all of his face except for the faint five o'clock shadow that lined his jaw. My breathing hitched when he leaned closer so that his lips were at my ear, all pirate-smile and cinnamon, and promised with a gravelly edge,
"Someday, Angel, I'll show you."
I was kind of excited to get this chapter up for you guys. I wanted to show that even though Patch and Nora live out a happy ending, they still have their moments that need to be worked through.
Also, as much as we'd like to think that Patch was saving himself for Nora, we know that he's got a heavy past and so I didn't portray him as the goody-goody that I'm sure some of you would have liked to see. No, Patch is not a virgin in this story...but we do know that he's only ever been in love with one woman. ;P
As for the Patch and Dabria kissing scene, it is mentioned on page 284 of Finale and on page 290-291, Dabria explains the scene that I wrote out in a memory. Yes, I tried telling it as accurately as possible. You might wonder why I keep informing you of the page numbers and I'll tell you that it is for your own personal benefit. I leave the page numbers here so that, if you feel the need, you may go back and read those pages and then read the one-shot that I've written for them. I would hope that it would clear everything up. :) If you're ever confused, you know where to go.
Anywho, thanks again to my wonderful fan and to the amazing Becca Fitzpatrick for creating these beautiful characters.
To my readers tonight, I give a plate of Patch's homemade tacos and midnight ride in the rain with him and his black Ford F-150.