Fractured (Broken Part 2)

Prologue: Aftermath

Time stood still as we stared at one another for what felt like an eternity.
"Malcolm? Oh my God, Lily? He told me what he did to you. Oh my God, that's so much blood. Why am I covered in blood... Oh my God, is he dead?" Ainsley began to panic forcing me forward towards her.
"Ains, Ainsley. Honey, it's okay." I took her by her shoulders and turned her away from Nicholas' body.
"No. Don't look over there. Look at me." I insisted when she tried to look over my shoulder at him.
"He said you were dead..." She shook her head.
"Honey, I'm not dead. Look at me." I took her bloody hand in mine so she could feel my skin.
"I'm not dead. I'm going to be fine." I assured her.
"Did I kill him? What did I do? Why am I covered in blood?" She looked up at me, her entire body trembled violently.
"Hey. Listen. All right? You did nothing. I did this, Ainsley. I killed him." Malcolm spoke up touching her shoulder from behind me.
"Ainsley, Malcolm and I are going to take care of this. I need you to go with Sophie, get cleaned up and rest, okay?" I asked gently.
"Sophie?"
"Yes, she's a friend. She'll take care of you." I promised nodding at Sophie.
She met my eye and nodded before disappearing back down into the tunnels under the estate to retrieve her car.
"Come on. Trust me, Ainsley." I pulled her out of the room and away from the body.
I lead her out to Sophie's car and Sophie helped me sit her in the front seat.
"I programmed the address into your GPS. After you drop her off and she gets cleaned up I need you to bring her clothes back here. I need all the evidence here." I instructed Sophie gently.
"Of course. You really should be in a hospital." She looked at me cautiously.
"I know. Right now the adrenaline is pretty strong."
I looked over her shoulder at Ainsley staring expressionlessly out the windshield.
"I'll take care of her, Lily. I promise you." Sophie assured me.
I nodded.
"Thank you, Sophie. Go on. I'm okay." I assured her.
I watched them drive away before rushing back into the house.
"Oh my God! Lily!" Malcolm exclaimed finally really looking at me for the first time.
"Don't worry about me yet." I instructed looking down at Endicott's body.
"You need to call your father." I sighed.
"What?" He asked looking at me incredulously.
"We need to get this cleaned up. There's a fairly good chance Ainsley won't remember actually killing him. She'll believe you did it and the only way to shield her from all of this is to get it cleaned up. I'll make a formal report about what he did to me and it'll look like he ran when he realized I wasn't dead." I explained as gently as I could.
"Call your father and find out what we need." I repeated.
I found my left arm largely useless despite the adrenaline coursing through my veins vaguely aware of Malcolm speaking to his father.
"Lilian?" Dr. Martin Whitly's voice broke through my haze.
"Yes." I answered.
"How badly are you hurt?" He asked gentler than I'd anticipated.
"Bad. Two stab wounds, he slit the muscle in my left bicep, two shallow cuts; one at the base of my throat and another along my jawline. He used the trifecta." I answered.
"You should be dead." He stated matter of factly.
"I would be if Sophie hadn't found me when she did."
"Sophie?"
"Yes, Martin. Turns out you last intended victim doesn't harbor any ill will towards Malcolm or myself for your actions." I sighed.
"I probably have less than an hour left before the adrenaline crash so if we could move it along."
"Of course. Of course. You'll need a large plastic tarp and something to protect Malcolm's clothing."
Malcolm collected the materials and laid the tarp next to Nicholas' body.
"There's a lot of blood." Malcolm told his father looking at me.
"All right, forget the blood. Deal with the body first. Rigor mortis will make dismemberment a real bitch."
"We're going to chop him up?"
"This is for your sister, son." Martin reminded him.
"What do we do?" I asked struggling to push through the fog slowly clouding my mind.
"Lilian, do you think you can help Malcolm move the body onto the tarp?" He asked.
"Yeah. I think so."
"Malcolm grab his shoulders." I instructed grabbing ahold of his ankles.
Together we lifted the body and laid it in the center of the tarp.
"Okay." I sighed stumbling into the back of the couch.
"Malcolm, my boy, there's an electric circular saw in my study in the basement. I need you to get it."
Malcolm got up and rushed out of the room.
"You shouldn't have done that." Martin said.
"I know."
"You're going to bleed out before we finish." He continued.
"I know." I sighed pain starting to push it's way into my consciousness.
I forced myself over to the Whitly's phone.
"Lily?" Aaron's voice asked.
"I need you at the Whitly house." I forced out.
"What?"
"Aaron, now. Please."
"I'll be right there." He answered.
"Who's Aaron?" Martin asked.
"A friend, Martin. He'll help us." I answered slightly annoyed.
"I found it." Malcolm announced rushing back into the room.
"Lilian, you need to hold the limb steady so Malcolm can saw through the bone." Martin said.
"Start with the head. It'll be the easiest."
I forced myself to move to hold Nicholas' head still. We moved steadily and silently around the body removing the limbs and cutting them into smaller pieces then loading those pieces into garbage bags for transport.
"Lily!" Aaron's voice called out as the door flew open.
"Oh my God. What happened here?" He asked taking in the blood that covered the Whitly's living room.
"Malcolm's sister killed Endicott. I need you to get the body out of here so we can start cleaning up the blood." I answered.
"Where do you expect me to take a dismembered body?" He asked looking at me as Sophie walked back into the room.
"Sophie, Aaron. Aaron, Sophie." I explained when she looked at me, her hand on the top of the pistol on her waist.
Malcolm still sat on the floor near me staring at the blood covering the hardwood floor, the rug, everything; almost as if he couldn't hear us.
"I don't care where you take it, Aaron. As far as you can." I instructed as gently as I could muster as my head spun from the blood loss.
"Okay, but you need to let me take you to the hospital." He insisted.
"No, Aaron. If I show back up to the hospital without Malcolm they'll know something's wrong." I sighed leaning against the back of Jessica's couch.
"Malcolm." Aaron turned on him.
"I have to get this cleaned up. We have to protect Ainsley." He muttered almost as if in a trance.
"Malcolm!" Aaron said firmly.
"If we don't get Lily to the hospital now she's going to bleed out. Look at her." He pointed at me.
Malcolm's eyes finally found mine.
"Let Sophie and I help you. I've worked for Lilian for over a year. I trust her. We'll help you."
Malcolm continued to look at me as if looking for approval. I nodded painfully.
"It's okay baby." I murmured.
Finally, he nodded.
"I'm going to start on the clean up while Sophie takes you both to the hospital, okay?" Aaron asked looking at me.
I nodded.
"Put the body in the large room under the basement. You and Sophie can move it after." I said.
"Sophie, did you bring back Ainsley's clothes."
She nodded handing Aaron another bag.
"Malcolm, can you carry her?" Sophie asked.
"Yeah, I can." He answered.
My eyes drifted closed as he lifted me up into his arms.
"Malcolm." I muttered his name as the sedition began to wear off.
"I'm here, baby. Everything's okay." He answered, his voice soft but full of concern.
"I'll get the doctor." I heard Sophie say.
"Sophie?" I sighed.
"Yeah, baby. Everyone's here."
I felt Malcolm's fingers smoothing my hair gently.
"Ah. There you are, Dr. Russell. I'm Dr. Timothy Michaels. I performed your emergency surgeries." A tall man with dark hair and hazel eyes said walking into the room behind Sophie.
Out of habit I tried to push myself up.
"No, Lily. You need to rest." Malcolm said gently laying his hand on my right shoulder.
"You have a serious puncture wound to the upper left quadrant that barely missed the base of the left lung and another to the left shoulder that slipped right behind the clavicle. You're left bicep was slit nearly in half, interestingly that'll be your biggest issue moving forward. You're actually surprisingly lucky, Dr. Russell." Dr. Michaels explained.
I'd figured as much.
"We lost you more than once but you're definitely a fighter. I think you'll be just fine with time."
"Thank you, doctor." I nodded.
I winced slightly trying to find a comfortable position after he left.
"Do you need more medication?" Malcolm asked taking my hand.
I thought on that for a moment then nodded.
I generally handled pain very well but I'd been suppressing it for so long that it felt like my entire left side had been set on fire.
"We've been giving you morphine. Is that still alright?" A young nurse asked entering the room.
I nodded and she disappeared as quickly as she came.
"I went to get her." Jessica said easing my confusion.
"Gil?" I asked looking around, my heart rate speeding up.
"He's right here, Lil." Malcolm moved a little so I could see Gil's unconscious form lying in the bed next to mine.
"They wanted you to have a completely private room but I explained that you'd want him here."
"Thank you." I sighed.
"Hey. Why don't we give them a minute? We'll get some coffee? My treat." Jessica suggested.
"I love you so much, Lily. Baby, I'm so sorry." Malcolm leaned down and pressed his forehead to mine.
"No, baby. This isn't your fault." I assured him.
"He hurt you to hurt me, to hurt my father. It is my fault."
"Malcolm Bright." I sighed his name shaking my head.
"I love you so much, Malcolm. Do you really think that Nicholas Endicott wouldn't have come after me anyway? Eventually? Your father was right about one thing, I am the only one that could rival Endicott. Money. Power. Influence. And I'm a Chief in the FBI. It was only a matter of time before I caught on to Nicholas even without Eve's help." I explained.
"Maybe you're right."
"Of course I'm right, Malcolm. I'm a genius." I smirked at him.
"There's my girl." Malcolm smiled at me.
"Okay, Dr. Russell. I have your medication." The nurse smiled at me walking back into the room.
"Thank you." I smiled at her.
She inserted the needle into my IV. My heart rate increased slightly for a split second before the morphine began to take effect.
"It's okay to sleep, Lily. You need to rest." Malcolm took my hand as I slowly drifted back to sleep.