Falling For His Charms

CHAPTER 42

Sophie opened her brown eyes slightly, the world around her hazy. There were blurs of colour moving around her, almost in the shape of elves... But there was no knowing for sure. A painful headache throbbed in her brain, and she groaned as she sat up, trying to figure out where she was.

"Where am I?" She mumbled; she felt as if she had just been profoundly drugged or punched in the face. Then, she saw something move in front of her face. She could make out a mouth... Maybe hair? And were those... Teal eyes?

"Morning, sunshine," An accented voice whispered to her. Sophie was glad that Fitz had whispered instead of talked at his usual tone. Her brain felt like it was about to explode.

"Good morning... What happened?" She asked, wanting to know the answer. The events that happened before she fell asleep were quite vague.

"Well, we had that ball -" Fitz started, and as soon as he said 'ball', many memories came rushing back. "-and let's just say that the plan did not exactly go as planned. On the contrary... It was quite far from the original plan.

"Everything was going just fine until everyone stopped dancing and began to stare near the balcony; in other words, they were looking at you, and that man. You were being held in a choke hold, and it did not look like you were breathing properly. I had told Keefe to distract him while I approached, though it was proved to be difficult. Your captor continuously looked in my direction. Eventually, I arrived, though you had been cut slightly. I knocked the man out, with you in the way unfortunately. The blow made you a bit hazy, and... Here we are."

Sophie nodded, taking in the load of information.

"And... everyone else is alright?"

Fitz smiled. "Everyone else is perfectly fine. The man who harassed you is actually being interrogated at this moment; in the next hour, one of the guards will inform me of the information that they have found."

Sophie sighed. A lot had happened in the time that she was asleep. Speaking of- "How long have I been asleep?"

"Not long, considering how hard you had been hit. Only a few hours, at most. And I would love to stay and talk, but your family is waiting outside to see you."

She smiled, and pulled him in for a hug. "Thank you, Fitz. For everything. " Fitz hugged back, and if possible, even harder than her.

"Anytime."

Their hug was interrupted by Grady, Edaline, Dex, and Lex barging into the hospital wing, all looking extremely stressed.

"Sophie! Oh my Gnome, are you alright?! Why do our children continuously find themselves here?!" Edaline fretted, pulling Sophie into a bone-crushing embrace.

The younger elf tried her best to say that she had missed her mother, but it was quite difficult. Edaline seemed to be suffocating her lungs.

"Alright, Eda, I think Sophie here needs to breathe..." Grady pulled Edaline away from her, and Sophie smiled gratefully. Grady smiled back and he too hugged her, though it was brief and less painful.

"How are you feeling, kiddo?" Asked her father, a look of concern flashing in his eyes. "You look like you had a rough night, there."

"I'm feeling pretty good for after what had happened, actually. A little tired and sore, but I'm used to it," Sophie joked; no one laughed. Lex gave her a weird look. She rolled her eyes. "I'm alright. Really. And on the plus side, we now have someone that we can get answers from-"

Just as she said so, a guard knocked on the infirmary door, and entered.

"Speak of the devil," Dex muttered. The guard strided past him to Fitz, who fixed his posture and put on a serious face.

"Your Highness," Spoke the guard, "I have news on the prisoner."

"Please, continue."

"Sir, even in front of..." The guard nudged his head in the direction of the Ruewens, who tried to look like they weren't listening to the conversation. Well, they were. Fitz nodded, so the guard continued. "It happens to be that the prisoner is part of some band named the Neverseen. We haven't figured out what the prisoner's name is, however we found out that he is a telepath, and one of the main leaders. We haven't been able to figure out any more at the moment, though there will be more interrogation tomorrow."

"Thank you; you are dismissed." The guard nodded, and walked back outside, closing the door behind him. As soon as the door closed, Sophie jumped out of bed, and scrambled to find shoes. "What are you doing?" Asked Fitz.

"I'm going to the library!" Sophie replied, bending down to look under the bed. "There must be some answers there..." She grinned as she saw her slippers, and reached out to grab them. However, before she could grab them, she felt someone grab her and push her back into bed.

"You are not going to the library, young lady," Edaline said, glaring at her daughter. "You need rest, not mental stress."

"Reading is not mental stress!" Sophie argued, crossing her arms and looking angrily and Edaline. "It is called finding answers; if I don't know more about this subject at this very moment, I'll be stressing out about that."

Grady shushed her, and Sophie was about to argue back, when Grady glared at her. She closed her mouth, and her father looked triumphant. It had actually been Edaline's glare from behind Grady that made her shut up. That woman was scary.

Elwin, who now walked into the room, shooed everyone out so that he could do some tests on Sophie. Dex and Lex left, waiting outside, however Grady and Edaline were rather hesitant to leave. Mostly Edaline, who wanted to be there to protect Sophie in case there was a break-in. Elwin had reassured that nothing would happen on his watch, so she and her husband left, making sure that there was a lock on the door.

Fitz was now the last visitor left, and Elwin was kind enough to give them some space; Sophie was sure that he suspected that something was going on between the two of them.

Fitz sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I'm... I am really, really sorry for hurting you, Soph. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be in here right now-"

"Fitz, don't apologise. You did what you had to do. And... Thank you for that. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be here at all. I'd be somewhere much worse."

He smiled, and bent over the bed to hug her. She hugged back, smiling into his shoulder. Their hug only lasted a few seconds; Elwin had come strolling in, carrying a tray of medecine viles.

"Alriiiggt, medicine time!"