[COMPLETED] After finally turning eighteen, foster-kid Callista Ford, goes out to party with a group of friends, in hopes of coming out of her shell for once, and maybe even snatching up the cute green-eyed guy staring at her from across the room.
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ALEC stirred, and blinked his tired green eyes open, as if sensing her mental battle. His eyes ran over her rage-graced features, and glassy eyes.
He rolled to face her. ''Are you okay?''
Her lips were upturned in a sad smile, and her eyebrows lowered and pulled closer together. ''Are you?'' She asked.
''What?''
''Alec,'' She said, looking him directly in the eyes, because they were the most vulnerable part about him. ''I know.''
Confusion swarmed his irises.
''I know.'' She repeated, and this time she could tell, he knew what she was referring to. He maintained steady eye contact with her, only to make it look like he was unbothered by what she had said.
''I don't know what you're talking about.'' He stated in a flat tone, that somehow held more hurt than his eyes. ''Just go back to sleep,'' He added, finally looking away. ''You're losing it.''
This time she sat up, her eyes glued to the imprint underneath his white T-shirt. ''Alec, you were shot.'' She said, and suddenly she could see it.
His constant winces, the shirt he always wore underneath another shirt, in case he needed to take one off, the reason he always wore a wrapped bandage around his right shoulder.
It was because Jarvis shot him when he was younger.
And his bullet wound was never treated.
His arm shot out as a defensive mechanism when she reached, snapping in place on both her wrists. Rather tightly, but she didn't care.
''Alec, please.'' She pleaded.
She stared at him
He stared back at her.
A minute.
Two.
A sigh.
He released her wrists, causing her to massage them, and the redness that was spreading. ''I just... want to see it.'' She said.
He lifted his shirt a bit, not enough to show everything, and the Abs he definitely had, but enough for her to see the bandage tightly wrapped around his shoulder, with the hints of red peeking through it.
That couldn't be good.
''Alec...you have to let me treat that.''
His shirt dropped back down, eyes downcast.
She figured he didn't want to get it treated, so she left it alone for now.
There were so many emotions running through his eyes at once now, emotions he didn't bother masking.
''They hurt you.'' She said.
He didn't reply, but from the look in his eyes. She knew her words were true.
''And that's why you wanted to protect me and my ring.'' She continued, feeding off the look in his eyes. ''Because you didn't want what happened to you... to happen to me.''
He nodded.
This time she couldn't contain her tears.
It was the distant, betrayed look in his eyes that had done it for her.
He didn't hesitate to comfort her, burying her in his warm arms.
''I'm sorry, Alec.'' She told him truthfully, her tears falling down her cheek, and to her neck. ''I'm so sorry.''
He ran his hands down her cold arms, on her face, wiping at her tears, though her hair, in any way he could comfort her.
She couldn't even believe he had ever comforted her when she had a nightmare about their parents, when they were the same people who had done him so dirty.
Who had thought it was wise to pick a ring over their son.
The same ring Callie wore on her finger every day.
They had chosen that ring over their son.
''Stop crying.'' He told her, but she couldn't help but cry. Even though she had done nothing, she couldn't help but feel guilty by association.
He was doing all this to help her, her ring, her dead parents, and the fortune they had cursed her with, whilst losing his foster family in the process, and the public's view on him, and for what?
She didn't deserve a single ounce of his kindness.
She didn't deserve... him.
He was too good for the world, and it had taken her a month and a half to see that.
''You don't even have to be here.'' She realized. He didn't owe her, or her... parents, nothing. He didn't have to fulfill his promise to take care of her, because he owed them not.
He entwined his fingers with hers, lifting her chin so she could look him directly in the eyes. ''I'll always take care of you, you hear me?''
She nodded numbly.
''And, I don't regret anything.''
His words made her happy on so many levels, but her heart still clenched painfully, and her tears didn't dry. She felt guilty for the feelings surfacing in her stomach.
''But why...'' She noticeably struggled, but looked him in the eyes regardless. ''Why couldn't you have told me you were my brother sooner?'' She asked.
It was his turn to look away.
He bit his lip, and let the silence eat away at them for a good two-and-a-half minutes, but in a moment he glanced back at her, eyes shining with sincerity as he voiced the words, ''I'm sorry.''
He said it, and he meant it, and that's what messed her up the most.
