33I imagine this one to take place immediately after "The Risks Taken." Patch left the meeting (as Scott) and got him home safely. Some of you will be pleased to see that it is, in fact, told through Scott's eyes.
I also want to make a quick note that these are my own ideas on what the Nephil-Fallen angel possession might be like, as Becca Fitzpatrick never went into great detail in the books. So, while I'm certain that it isn't totally accurate, I took a shot at it. I hope you enjoy!
Scott's POV
Everything came reeling back to me at once and I shot up into a sitting position. I had heard the creaks and whines of the bed springs under me, but I still couldn't see anything no matter how many times I blinked. I was still in the dark. There was this awful, heavy panting in the room too, like some kind of feral animal. After a moment, I realized that it was me. What was going on?
A shadow shifted by the door and my eyes snapped to it.
"It's just me," It spoke in a voice that tugged with familiarity.
I swung my arm to the side, towards the nightstand, and twisted the lamp's knob with uncoordinated fingers. Light flooded the room that I quickly recognized as my own bedroom and illuminated the shadow at the door.
Patch stood with his body angled and his hands out towards me, palms up, like I was a lunatic with a barrel aimed to his chest. My mouth formed an 'O' as the memory of tonight came washing back to my brain.
"You alright?"
He asked easily. Despite my freak-out, he seemed completely unaffected and calm. As always. Sometimes it scared me how cool he could act in the worst situations. It made me wonder if there was anything that would make the guy snap.
"Yeah," I said and nodded, more to convince myself than him. "Just-"
"Confused?"
I looked up at him and slowly nodded again.
"Just give it a minute." He suggested.
Patch relaxed against the door while I found a more comfortable sitting arrangement on the mattress. I had the strangest feeling, like I wasn't completely awake yet.
"You can sit down, you know." I finally said, nodding pointedly at the chair propped in the corner nearest him. "You're making me uncomfortable, standing there like you might need a quick getaway."
Patch smirked but slowly lowered himself to the edge of the chair like I asked. He looked ready to say something but didn't, and I was glad he kept it to himself because I was certain it was some sly comment. I found it strange that he was still here, meaning that I expected him to get the job done and dump me back home to hurry back to Nora. I grinned.
"Nora making you look after me?"
He fixed the ball cap on his head and looked down so that there was a shadow over his face while he thought. Finally, I could just see the grin on his face.
"I guess you could say that."
I snorted and swung my legs over the side of the bed. "Figures. I didn't take it you were the type to really consider my well being."
He tipped the brim of his hat up to get a better look at me.
"Feeling better already, I see."
There was a light tone to our teasing and each of us wore giant smirks on our lips. He was an alright guy when he tried to be. A little too cocky sometimes, but that was just who he was. There was no changing him, so I might as well grit my teeth and try to deal with it.
"So, Tuesday?" I said, more to confirm that I was remembering the meeting rather than the day.
Something in his expression changed.
"Tuesday morning. And we were lucky to get that."
I stared down at my hand, ruffling the sheets with my fingers.
"It wasn't as bad as I expected." I told him quietly. I didn't look up but I could feel his gaze. He knew what I was referring to; the whole experience of being a vassal. You feel helpless and erased, like you don't exist but were still left behind to watch the outcome. It wasn't a good time, by any means, but I had pictured it being much worse. After a moment, I heard the chair creak with his shifting weight.
"It could have been worse."
This had my attention. I hadn't expected that kind of reaction from him. I might have pictured a "Told you so" or "You were overreacting," but not this. It was a warning almost. Finally, I raised my eyes to see his and he stared back darkly, steadily, waiting for his words to sink in. And they did. It could have been much worse, he was right. Maybe it was his way of convincing me to keep on fighting for my own freedom and not to give up just because it "wasn't as bad as I expected." It was quickly noted and stored away for the back of my mind to revisit later. I looked down at my hand again and was reminded of the meeting. It wasn't a significant detail to the meeting, but I remember wondering about it. The table, when Patch had felt the rough edge with the thumb that I was rubbing now.
"You know, I would have at least allowed you to give her a hug."
He glanced up, slowly raising his head so that our eyes were level. He seemed puzzled by it for a minute before realization sank into his features. He shook his head,
"That's not what I was there for."
"I know that," I said quickly and louder than before. Maybe I should have been thanking him for that not being the reason he was there. Like he said, it could have been worse.
"So you can't feel anything? Nothing at all?" You know that, Scott, you idiot. Why else would the fallen angels go nuts for Cheshvan?
He sighed, shaking his head. "Nothing." He muttered and pushed himself to his feet. Hmm, so it was a touchy subject. Patch made towards the door and I stopped him.
"Hey," I said and he turned. "What if I wasn't done getting answers?"
"Answers?" He chuckled, probably wondering what answers I was looking for, and glanced at the door before turning back.
"What if I was done giving them?"
I made to stand up, a little too quickly might I add, and felt the spinning in my head before I sat back on the mattress.
"I guess that's unfortunate for you. I do remember you saying that you owed me."
Patch simply raised an eyebrow that was lost in the shadow beneath the rim of his hat.
"What kind of answers are we talking, exactly? Truth or dare? Would you rather?" His teasing grin only grew wider. "Wouldn't it just be easier if you read my diary?"
"Funny," I commented without humor and nodded to the chair again. "Why don't you sit there and find out instead of playing guessing games?"
He hummed thoughtfully, glancing to the chair and then taking inventory of the room.
"As fun as that sounds, I think I'll pass. If I remember right, the last time I was here, my fist was in your face."
I followed his gaze and my face flushed at the memory. I'd had one too many to drink that night, or maybe two too many. Me and Nora...well, and Patch...needless to say, his fist had enough reason to dislocate my jaw that night.
"Yeah," My radish-red face nodded. "I guess this place might not bring back the best of memories."
I stood, a little slower this time, with success and reached into my pocket for the keys where I remember Patch putting them last.
Ah-ha, found them. I weighed the keys in my hand for a moment before reminding myself of the rushing in my head. I glanced up and Patch smirked, holding his hand out for me to toss them to him.
"I can see I'm not getting out of this one."
...
"There's fine," I pointed to the three or four parking spots that belonged to the little park's picnic area. The car crept forward and rolled to a stop. Patch reached up to the ignition and twisted the keys far enough that the engine stopped purring but the radio still played softly in the background.
"Okay, Parnell." He sighed and leaned his head back against the seat with his eyes closed. "These better be some good questions that you have for me."
"Like you have anything better to do." I muttered and rolled the window down.
He smiled. "I can think of a thing or two."
And I was sorry that I'd said anything. He peeked at me from the corner of his eye, caught my expression, and closed his eyes again with an even bigger smile on his face.
"Sleeping, of course. What were you thinking?"
"Mmhmm." I murmured and rolled my eyes but I didn't say anything more of it.
"So," He interrupted himself with a yawn. "Ask away."
I thought for a minute. Any other time, I would have curiosities bubbling over the rim, but now that he was there and willing to answer my questions, I couldn't think of the ones to ask.
"First thing's first," I began and proceeded with a simple word that, over the past few weeks, had come to mean quite a bit to me.
"Vee."
Patch turned his head against the headrest. "You're asking me for relationship advice?" He said it doubtfully, like it might not have been the best idea.
"Of course not." I snapped. I was doing just fine with that on my own, thank you very much.
"Well," He shrugged slightly. "I still think you're asking the wrong person. I don't know much about Vee."
"Oh, I think this is one you'll know."
Patch looked at me in question and I continued.
"Care to fill me in on why she hates you so much?"
He grinned. "I can't figure that one out either. I'm typically a very likeable person." There was some heavy sarcasm in his voice.
"No, really." I said. "She can't stand the fact that Nora's with you because she worries that you're not good for her, her whole mood darkens every time you're brought up in a conversation. I mean, you and Nora have had a rocky couple of go's, but why do I have the feeling that it's more than that?"
Patch sighed and stared up at the car's ceiling. Finally, he asked softly, "Do you remember Rixon?"
Rixon? I narrowed my eyes. Why would this involve that son of a- oh. I had a clear memory of the fallen angel with a gun in his hand and a girl on his arm. Vee. Patch continued speaking before I had even answered.
"When I got rid of him, I couldn't have her remembering anything about him." His face was unchanging while he said it but mine twisted in anger. So, what, he thought it acceptable to wipe her brain? It upset me, even though I knew that I wouldn't want her remembering him either.
"That, and the fact that she believes, along with Blythe, that I had something to do with Nora's disappearance..."
His voice trailed, lingering on that thought just a little longer.
"To tell you the truth, Vee hasn't liked me from the start. She had more sense than Nora." The last part was said very quietly and I turned in hopes of finding an answer in his expression, but there was nothing there that gave anything away. At least he was being honest with me.
"Speaking of Nora," I said and cleared my throat, attempting to get the subject moving along.
"How exactly did that come about?"
Patch finally turned his head to look at me and his eyes seemed brighter now that the subject was on Nora. He laughed softly.
"What are you asking?"
My shoulder pulled up in a shrug. "I don't know. How you met, I guess."
His eyes darkened, if that were possible, and he turned his face away again.
"That story won't make you like me any better." He warned in a low voice.
"It isn't your typical beginning to a happily-ever-after."
I smirked. "Well, it can't make me like you any less." I teased, shooing a mosquito out the window with my hand. He was quiet and so I tried again.
"Maybe if you start out with, "Once upon a time" it won't seem so bad."
Patch shook his head. "Aren't you tired yet?" He must have known how exhausting it was to spend a good chunk of the evening as a possessed vassal, because he hit it right on. I was beyond tired, but interested enough to at least keep my heavy eyelids parted.
"Are you going to tell me, or what?" I demanded.
He sighed next to me, reached his hand down to the lever on the seat, and reclined the chair back a little further. From there, he settled deeper into the headrest and yanked the brim of his hat down so that it nearly covered his face. I thought he might doze off, but he crossed his arms across his chest.
"Once upon a time,"
He began and I could see the corner of his lip pulled up in a smirk.
"There was an archangel who didn't sit well with following rules. He wanted something more- a new opportunity, and when he pushed against the rules, his wings were torn from him and he was banished from heaven." I shifted in my seat, watching him while he talked. This was far more than I had expected to get out of him.
"He thrived on earth, found himself a Nephil that swore his oath to him. It wasn't enough though. He was always looking for more, so when he found a book with forbidden ideas, he started getting ideas of his own. These ideas all revolved around the goal to become human, and he knew just how to do it."
Patch paused for a breath and I was still.
"To become human, he had to track down his vassal's female descendant. A simple sacrifice was all he needed to get what he wanted. The answer was obvious, wasn't it? He had to search for her." His voice had grown low, quiet.
"That searching took him to Maine, somewhere he never would have considered visiting had his target not been there. A sad little town called Coldwater had his name all over it, and all to find this one girl. It didn't take long for him to find her, but getting her alone was proving to be an impossible task. He had to get closer to her."
"Before long, he was enrolled in her high school and struggling to find opportunities to rope her in."
Patch shifted uncomfortably where he sat.
"Well, needless to say, he found a way. He only needed the perfect moment, the right time to strike, and then he would have what he wanted." He trailed off again and even hidden, I could see the strain on his face. His jaw was set when he continued in a rushed tone.
"He could have done it on the ride at Delphic, or when she met him for a game at Bo's. He could have done it there in her own home when she invited him in that night, but he chose not to. They started spending more time together and for some reason, he kept telling himself, "Just one more day. I'll do it tomorrow." Turns out he was so focused on the girl that he had failed to realize that his vassal had followed him to Maine."
Patch reached up slowly to tip his hat up over his eyes. They were dark, but hard around the edges.
"Chauncey was his name. You might have heard of him." I nodded mechanically. Truth was, I didn't care much about the Nephilim. I was more curious as to what happened to the girl. Nora.
"Revenge was what he wanted from the fallen angel that had made him swear his oath of fealty. He had been waiting, watching, and he thought he knew just what the angel's weakness was." I held my breath. "Chauncey found a way to get to the girl. Wanted to use her against the angel."
Patch still hadn't looked at me and for a minute, I was glad of it. I couldn't decide through the horror of this confession if I hated him more. How could I trust him to protect her if this is how he came to know her?
"He tried to get to her, climbing after her to the rafters of the building. She must have realized at the top that there was no real way out of it and so knowing that she was his descendant, and that her sacrifice would destroy him... she jumped." Patch winced while that word lingered in the heavy air of the car and I went numb all over.
"Chauncey fell, the girl was gone, and the angel stood with everything that he thought he had wanted. The girl had sacrificed herself. He could have been human, had he accepted her death." Patch's eyes closed and he breathed out through his nose and said softly,
"But he couldn't."
"Why not?" I demanded with a strange kind of anger that I hadn't realized was simmering so close to the surface.
Patch gazed up easily, like he was expecting my snap, and slowly shook his head. "That girl changed him."
It made me sit back. Okay, deep breath. Don't flip, Scott. My own mind was ordering me through the exhaustion that gave all my senses a strange, hazy cloud. I knew I wasn't thinking straight and it was feeding that temper of mine. I had to get this straight. Patch was some kind of rebel that got himself kicked out of heaven, found some twisted book that fed his already sick mind with crazy ideas, set out to sacrifice the girl he's now trying to save, got her killed, fell in love, brought her back, and...what? I felt like I was having a more difficult time understanding this than I should have.
"Well." I tried in a cracked voice. "You were right. It doesn't make me like you any better."
Even though I had watched him the entire time he told the story, I couldn't get myself to even look at him. I could hear him fix the seat back into a sitting position.
"Don't expect pleasant answers to the questions you ask me."
His voice was kind of bitter. It was said in the same accusing tone that I had used. Way to go, Scott. You've pissed him off.
"No, you're right." I said finally and brought my hand up in defeat. "You didn't have to tell me, but you did."
I would have thanked him for it, but I didn't. I couldn't bring myself to it just yet.
"So when you didn't accept her sacrifice," I began again, not wanting to give him enough time to think about starting the car and ending this conversation. "That was it? Everything went back to normal?"
Patch shook his head slowly, sliding a hand up to rest on the back of his neck.
"Because I saved her life, so to speak, I became a guardian. Her guardian angel, in fact."
I stared down, confused again. Wasn't he a fallen?
"And Marcie," He sighed heavily. I looked up in surprise. Another confession? I wondered idly if I wanted to hear about his fling with her, and if Nora had heard this story herself.
"When the archangels caught wind of the relationship that was quickly sprouting with Nora, they changed my assignment. They assigned me to Marcie."
I let that sink in for a minute before I wondered quietly, "Why are you telling me this?"
He grinned, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"Because I know you think I did Nora wrong and ran off with Marcie. I figured I might bring up everything that will set me straight after confessing all the things that you hate me for."
Patch suddenly looked tired, but not necessarily from all the events or the late hour. I could almost see the regret.
"So you and Marcie, you were never an item?" I wanted to clarify before I went on with my own assumptions.
"No," He said and I suddenly felt bad for having all those awful thoughts about him when I had seen how hurt Nora was over the whole thing. I won't deny that I'd imagined bashing his head in a time or two.
I sat for a minute, chewing on my lip.
"Why go through all the trouble?" I asked.
Patch turned to look at me finally and I continued.
"Finding the female descendant and the sacrifice. All that to be human?"
His hand reached up to the steering wheel to slowly slide down the side of the smooth leather.
"For the same reason that you pointed out earlier." Patch muttered. "I can't feel anything."
I stared at him for a minute before asking,
"And that doesn't bother you anymore?"
Obviously he didn't have that same, intense desire to be human if he was so desperate to keep Nora safe.
"It does," He said without really considering my question. His hand dropped to his lap and he stared out the window.
"But there are more important things to me now."
More like important thing. I couldn't doubt that the guy loved her. Hell, I didn't see how anyone could doubt it if they'd spent any longer than five minutes with them in the same room. The thought reminded me and I leaned over to twist the key in the ignition, holding back a laugh as I watched Patch stiffen.
He stared at me with an arched eyebrow and I flung both arms up.
"Well, go on. Wouldn't want to keep you from those important things any longer."
Patch smirked, yet again (remember what I said about being cocky?) and slid the car into reverse. The ride home, which might have lasted two whole minutes, gave me the time to decide that this little get-to-know session had been a good idea. Nora didn't have her dad around to approve of the guys that she hung around with, and so I felt the need to take that responsibility onto my own shoulders. It eased my mind, if only a little bit, that I knew a little something about Patch Cipriano and that the facts had come from his own mouth. I hated hearing dirt on him through the grapevine or from Vee, or even Nora. Sometimes it felt good to know something that you were supposed to know, and not because somebody spread their own thoughts about something, like Marcie Millar often did.
"Where are you parked?" I asked after looking around and Patch got out of the driver's seat. He nodded to my right.
"Down the street a little ways."
I shut the car door and he tossed the keys to me and then looked up to the dark windows.
"Normally, I don't make a bad gentleman but I think I'm going to have to politely insist that you walk yourself to the door." Even in the dark, I could see his lopsided smile.
I pretended to look offended.
"Are you afraid I'd expect dinner and a movie?"
He chuckled.
"I'm mostly afraid that you'll ask me to sit and talk with you in your bedroom again. A lot of things fly okay with me, but that was enough to make even me feel awkward."
I laughed, walking up towards the door.
"You're just afraid that you'd make Vee jealous." I called over my shoulder.
"Of course I am," Patch's voice carried from the distance. "She frightens the hell out of me."
I let myself in with a smile still playing on my lips. I didn't even bother flicking on the lights to see where I was going. I could really feel how tired I was now and so I flopped onto my bed, kicked the shoes off my feet, and was asleep before I could utter another chuckle about the dark and fearless Patch being afraid of the girl I was falling for.
Well, it isn't a Scott and Nora scene but it is Scott so I hope that it's at least enough to satisfy the cravings that a few of you might have until I'm able to post the one-shot between him and Nora. I promise, it's coming along with the other requests that you wonderful people have made in your reviews. Don't give up on me yet! There's more to be seen!
This chapter has also given me the idea to post some Scott and Vee moments because I feel that they were such an adorable couple in the books, but we never got to see them together. I'd love to know what you guys think about that.
Keep reading and reviewing! It's what keeps me going. As for this chapter, I give to my readers a game of "Truth or Dare" and "Would You Rather" with our favorite Hush, Hush boys. In Scott's room, of course. ;D