Prison Break

Part 15

When she woke up again, it was much lighter out.  At first, she thought maybe it had been a weird dream, but then, she felt how light her head still was without all that hair.  Vi had put the mirror on top of her legs, she put her hands out to pick it up.  Way easier said than done now, but she managed after a couple minutes.
Nope, it definitely not a dream, there she was.  Still white as a sheet with purple eyes, but it was still her.  She giggled a little to herself.  "Powder."  It felt good to say, she smiled.  "I'm Powder."
"Never thought I'd hear you say that," she heard Ekko say from behind.  Powder turned the mirror a bit to see him coming up to her.
She looked down feeling shy.  "Better than Jinx?"
She felt him sitting down on the bed.  "Yeah, I think I'll take my best friend over some psycho who wants to kill me any day."  Powder couldn't help a laugh.  "She, um...  Sh-she's a lot cuter, too."
Powder looked up at him.  "Y-you think I'm cute?"
"I, uhm..."  Ekko stood up, not looking at her, and helped her sit up.  "I-I should probably change your bandages...  check on the wound, make sure it's..."
"Y-yeah."
"I'll be right back."  Ekko left to get the bandages.  Powder smiled and fell ty herself blushing.  He thought she was cute!
The next couple weeks felt SUPER slow.  A lot of the time, Vi would be gone before Powder woke up, and wouldn't be back until dinner.  Ekko would come in when he could to take care of her and keep her company, but he could never stay long.  So, most of the time, it was just her...  and the voices.  Powder tried to ignore them, but they always seemed to get louder the longer she was alone.  She couldn't even do anything to distract herself.  Sometimes, they'd get so loud, she wouldn't even notice when Vi came in.  When that happened, she'd always just want Vi to hold her for a while.  She always felt better when Vi was holding her.  It always made her feel safe, and she'd remember why what they were saying wasn't true.
After about two and a half weeks, the purple in her eyes was a lot harder to see, her skin was starting to get some of its color back in it, and the shaking in her hands had gone down...  some.  She was still getting blood stuck in her throat, but not nearly as often, and the voices, for some reason, weren't as bad as they'd been in a while.  "You know, I've been feeling a lot better," Powder told Ekko as he was measuring her hands for a pair of splints.
"Good," said Ekko, "means the medicine's working.  You look a lot better, too.  I-I mean, not that you didn't...  I just meant...  H-healthy.  You look healthier."
Powder laughed.  "You're weird."  Ekko just looked down smiling, and put the tape measure against the side of her wrist and up to the end of her thumb.  "Ho, it's gonna be good to be able to use my hands again!"
"I'll bet."
"I mean, I don't mind Vi helping me with things, It's just...  Y'know...  kinda nice to be able to do some things for myself.  And draw.  I miss drawing.  And making things.  Not bombs, I...  I think I'm probably done with making bombs, obviously.  Nm.  Wonder what I could make, though...  Well, I'll figure something out."
"Yeah, I believe that."
"Am I talking too much?"
"Nah, you're okay."  Ekko put the tape measure down and started looking over his measurements.  "Now, you're gonna have to have Vi take them off every so often to let your hands breathe for a bit.  Okay?"
"Yeah, sure.  How long you think I'm gonna need these?"  Ekko let out a long sigh.  "What?"
He reached out and held one of her hands.  "Powder...  Look, if they..."  His other hand came on top of it softly.  "If they haven't stopped shaking by the time you and Vi leave here...  they're probably not going to."  Powder swallowed hard and just stared at him for a minute, then down at her hands.  "I'm sorry, I wish I could..."
"N-no, it's fine...  I just...  I-it's fine."
Ekko moved one hand to her cheek.  "At the very least, the medicine working should keep bringing it down to a certain point, then stop it from getting any worse again.  It could...  get to where you only need the splints to do really precise stuff, or...  You know, like when you're tired."
Powder looked up at him and gave a weak smile.  "You think so?"
"Hey, you've been improving pretty fast.  I wouldn't put it past you."
Powder laughed a little.  "Yeah, well...  I have a pretty good doctor."  She reached up a hand and messed with his hair a bit.
Ekko looked down smiling.  "Well, um...  I-I should get to work on the design, okay?"
"Yeah, okay."
Ekko started to get up, but then looked back at her.  "I-I'll be right back."
Powder nodded, then leaned her head against her pillow as she watched him walk out.  That feeling was all over.
That night, Powder was on wrapped up in thinking about the conversation she'd just had with Ekko a couple hours before, she barely even noticed the door opening behind her, or the sound of feet coming up to the bed.  "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep," came Vi's voice as she felt a finger pressing softly on her nose.
Powder looked over at her sister and giggled a bit.  "Hey, Vi.  I have something to tell you."
"Oh, really?"  Vi went down to her knees and rested her chin on her hands.  "What is it?  I think I have a guess."
Powder tried to stop smiling for just a second, but she couldn't.  Oh, well.  "I have...  a boyfriend."
Vi shifted her head from her hands to the pillow smiling.  "Oh.  A boyfriend, huh?  His name wouldn't happen to be...  Ekko, would it?"
Powder felt her face turning red.  "Did...  Did he already tell you?"
"Yeah, the sudden look like he was getting ready to take a beating when he saw me kinda gave it away."
Powder stopped smiling.  "Okay, tell me you didn't do the whole...  'If you ever hurt her, I'll beat you into dust' thing."
"Powder, we've known him since we were kids.  Come on, I know he'd never hurt you.  He's a sweet guy."
Powder felt herself relax and smile again.  "Yeah.  Yeah, he is."
Vi brought a hand up and started stroking her cheek.  "I was more worried about...  Well, if you'll both be okay with not seeing each other for a long time after we leave.  We might not be able to come back for...  I mean..."
Powder cut her off.  "Vi, we spent years somewhat regularly trying to kill each other, and now, we just got together.  I think we can handle being apart for a long time."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, we...  We talked about it.  We're gonna write to each other as...  as much as we can.  We promised."  She smiled a little to herself.  "He told me...  he's been in love with me since we were kids.  He said that I...  I-I'd keep him up at night sometimes...  him thinking about...  how much he wished he could have helped me...  gotten me away from Silco.  You know, the first couple times I saw him after...  all that, I think he was trying to do that.  I'd tell Silco about it, he'd just say...  'You can't trust any of them, Jinx.  He's just trying to get you alone, then he'll turn on you.'  I guess that was...  just a lie, too.  Like how he lied to me about...  about you."
That night and the tea party started playing in her mind again, Silco and Vi both shouting, the voices...  everywhere...  all around her...  just screaming at her...  And then...  that click!  He had the gun, he was going to...
"Powder?"  Powder felt Vi's hand on her shoulder, and looked up into her eyes.  The thought suddenly hit her hard, she gulped.
"He...  H-he was...  trying to kill you."  Vi just nodded, then cupped Powder's face in one hand.  "Wh-why would..."
"I don't know.  Maybe 'cause he thought I was gonna...  I-I don't know."
Powder looked down for a minute.  "You'll be with her a day before she realizes you aren't that girl anymore, and turns her back on you," Silco said in her memory.  But...  But she was!  And Vi know it.  So, why'd he want her to not...  Unless he just...
She gulped again.  "H-he said just trying to keep me away from you."  Vi rubbed her one cheek, and she looked up again.  "Th-that's it, isn't it?  He just...  B-but you were trying to help me, right?  Y-you knew I was still..."
"I...  guess he just wanted Jinx."
"Yeah...  And he didn't want you to help me, so...  h-he tried to..."
"Yeah.  But then, you...  Well..."
Powder closed her eyes and swallowed hard.  "I-I shot him.  I-I didn't want to, I just..."  She stopped.  What if she hadn't?  He would've shot Vi.  She remembered the nightmares she'd been having sometimes about Vi being the one she shot, holding her head in her hands like she'd done with Silco.  That would've happened, she would've...  But it hadn't.  It hadn't because...  She let the thought roll itself over in her head a couple times, then heard herself say it before she could stop the words.  "I...  I-I saved you."
Vi nodded.  "Yeah.  Yeah, you did.  He still shot, but...  it missed me.  Barely, but..."
The words kept playing themselves over and over in Powder's head.  The thought made her feel...  She didn't really know.  Happy?  Relieved?  Angry?  Sad?  She put a hand on Vi's cheek, the words came out again.  "I saved you!"  They sank in more that time, just the relief came now.  Vi gave a little smile, then hugged her.  Powder closed her eyes, then put her arms around Vi's neck tightly.  Maybe she was right, maybe she wasn't a...  Maybe.
The next morning, Ekko came in holding the finished hand splints, and helped Powder put them on.  They felt pretty stiff and tight, probably the idea.  "That okay?" Ekko asked as he cinched up his straps on the first one.
Powder looked at her hand, covered in dark brown now, and slowly opened and closed her fingers.  It wasn't shaking.  At all!  For the first time jn...   She couldn't even remember how long!  A smile broke out across her face, she looked at him.  "It's perfect!"
"Not too tight or anything, right?"
"No.  No, it's fine.  I mean, I probably would've made them more colorful if anything, but...  I mean, I don't really mind if."  She let out a little giggle as a thought put itself in her head.  "It's...  kind .of like you're holding my hands all the time.  Just...  keeping them steady."  Ekko looked down, and she could see a shy, little grin on his face as he started to put on the other one.  "I think that's what I'll imagine when Vi and I are in Demacia, you know?  That you're there helping me.  Maybe that'll...  help me not miss you as badly."
"Maybe."  Ekko tightened the last strap.  "That one okay?  Not too tight?"
Powder looked at it and moved her fingers.  "No.  It's perfect..."  She put both hands up and cupped his face.  "Just like the guy who made them."  Ekko smiled and rubbed her arm, and she thought she could see just a bit of red in his cheeks.
"You're perfect."  The words suddenly cut into Powder's thoughts.  She could see Silco's face in her hands, him closing his eyes, giving still.  He...  H-he was dead!  Sh-she'd killed him!  She'd...
"Powder?"  She looked up at Ekko and swallowed hard.  "You okay?"
She shook her head and felt tears rolling down her face.  "I-I...  I shot him!  I didn't want to, I...  I just..."
"It's okay.  Powder, you..."
"No!  No, no, it's not, I..."  She felt her whole body starting to shake, then his arms going around her.  A second later, her head was in his chest, and she was sobbing hard!
When Vi got back that night, Powder told her what happened as they were eating dinner.  She could feed herself now, but couldn't really be happy about it.  "I-I know he was trying to kill you, but...  I don't know, I still feel...  I didn't...  want to hurt him.  But I know he was lying about everything.  He...  He was trying to keep me from you, I shouldn't still be...  I mean..."  Vi put a hand on her shoulder.  She sighed.  "Why can't I just hate him?"
Vi's hand moved up and down her arm.  "He...  took care of you for eight years, Powder.  It's not weird you still feel bad about what happened."  She took a deep breath.  "Part of me...  still wants to fix things with Caitlyn...  even knowing what she did to you.  It's okay."
"Well, yeah, but...  I mean, with her, it...  She didn't...  Sh-she wasn't just using you, I mean...  N-not like..."
Vi moved her hand to Powder's cheek.  "It's okay."  Powder kept her head held down.  "Hey.  I think I know what might make you feel a little better."
"What?"  She heard something crumpling softly, then suddenly saw several sheets of paper being slid under her hand.  She looked up to see Vi pulling a short, fat box out of her jacket pocket.  Her face lit up!  "No way!"
Vi smiled and opened the top of the box to show a few dozen brightly-colored crayons.  "Ekko cause me before I left and said he was gonna give you the splints today.  I picked them up on the way back.  Think that should be enough to keep you busy for a while?"
Powder gave a nod, then slowly ran her fingers over the crayon tips.  She could draw again!  And the colors.  So sorry colors!  "You really went all-out on this, huh?  I mean, this is...  Wo!  H-how much does a set like this..."
"Don't worry about it.  I got paid today, so I thought, 'Why not?'"
Powder looked up at her sister, she couldn't stop smiling.  "Y-you're the best, Vi!"  She took another look at the crayons,, then got a funny idea in her head, and started to reach for a bright pink.
"But if I see another one of your famous pictures of me, I WILL kill you myself."
Damnit!  Powder laughed.  "Aw!  You're no fun!"  Vi just shook her head.