What Goes Around...

Part Twenty Nine

Chapter Twenty Nine

Silence, not even the hint that there was someone inside. How worried should he be? Should he kick the door in just in case? Coop wanted to laugh at the thought of Freya's face if he burst into her home. He could imagine her sitting on the sofa with those two damn cats on her lap scowling at him for intruding. Because this was ridiculous, her friend had said that this Simon was coming to see her. He had said hurt her, but there were a million ways to hurt someone as gentle as Freya without touching her.

This man had the chance to extinguish the fire in her eyes. That made him sadder than anything else. But he did know that this Simon character was some sort of lab geek, he was hardly America's Most Wanted, he wasn't going to hurt her, he was just trying to implicate her in something illegal. He needed to rationalise this, keep his wits about him and not make things worse.

But she wasn't answering the door! Coop hammered on it again.

                "Freya, FREYA, I need to tell you something, it's urgent."

Then he heard faint footsteps approaching the door and he released the breath he didn't know he was holding. She only opened it a crack, and stood in the space, blocking any line of sight into the home.

Freya looked pale, but her eyes were sparkling with a million emotions, when she spoke her voice was devoid of any emotion, a stark contrast to her face. "What is it Coop? I'm busy."

She NEVER called him Coop, never. If he needed more reason to know that something was up, that was it. He stared at her, his eyes felt like dinner plates, but she wasn't reacting to that. Other than the glittering eyes she was almost TOO still, TOO calm.

His eyes moved a million miles an hour as she searched for another sign as to what was happening behind her. "I just wanted to talk...you ok?"

She nodded, "of course, fine. I'm just having a sleep...the kittens..." He didn't imagine that, she stressed that word "...they need food first."

Other than the word kittens, her words were normal, chit-chat, but her eyes, they were suddenly wide, pleading, she looked scared.  Terrified even.

                "The kittens?" A little nod. She was worried about them, again there was little external reaction, but the flare of her eyes made him realise that she was REALLY worried about them. He was trying desperately to read her non verbal clues, but he wasn't sure. If she was concerned about the cats...then he had to get them out of there. That was presumably easy? "Well I've called the vet...I'll take them back to mine, get them checked over, ok?"

She nodded, almost smiled, then shut her eyes for a brief second, then breathed, "hold on, I'll just get them."

Then she closed the front door, and suddenly Coop knew real fear, what the hell was going on in there? And how long did he wait until he kicked the door in?

                "He needs to take the cats to the vet." Freya turned calmly and tried to smile genially at Simon. He stood across the room, still with the two, now scared kittens dangling from his fists. She walked towards him but then almost cried when he snatched them out of her reach with a shake of the head.

Freya wanted to gulp, needed fresh air in her lungs, she felt strangled, "you want me to get rid of him? That means giving him the cats, you can't have both things here, they need the vet."

He shook his head, "no way. Get rid!"

She had to get those tiny animals out of his grip, he was becoming menacing and she had no intention of letting them get hurt on her watch, they'd almost died once that day. She'd fight him over this she suddenly knew that.