The Truth Be Told

Chapter 5: Gaining trust

The next day I went back to work and meet Manning about my next mission with THE TEAM I meat yesterday. For this mission I'm just going to barry my feelings towards them and just trust that they got my back. I'm in the training room going threw my normal routine with the punching bag when someone gets my attention.

"You throw quite a punch for a girl your size.", he remarked. I look at him with a glare .

" What do you want Erin? Can't you see I'm busy doing something.", I remark as I continue to punch the punching bag.

"Don't worry I just want to talk to you.", He says while walking to me.

" Talk about what? Mom and dad or the years we've been apart?", I question in an angry tone.

"Yes to both. But let's just play our question game. Remember?", he says with his usual calm demeanor. The question game is when one person asks the other a question and the other person answers and backfires a question to the first person(if that makes sense). It was our favorite game as children, even our parents joined in the game every once in a while.

"Alright.You first.", I answer.

" What's your favorite color? Or is it still the same?", he asks me in order to start the game.

"It's the same I like red or blue it depends on my mood. Ok, what about you what's your favorite color or is it still green?", I ask with a slight smile on my lips. For some reason he could always make me smile and laugh even in my worst of moods.

" 'haha' It's still green. Do you have any pets yet? You alway said that when you grew up you would get a dog or maybe a cat like dad.", he said with a smile just like it was a normal day, having a normal conversation with his sister.

" No not yet but I'm planning on getting a dog. I did have a cat but it ran away.", I said with all honesty.

"How do you lose a cat?", he asked with bewilderment both in his voice and on his face.

"I don't know but, it was an outdoor cat though so... maybe it got hit by a car or someone else adopted it but it's probably in a better place.", I say with a little laugh at the end.Me and Erin talked for a while. We talked about what happened after foster care, what we did for a living, and more.

Erin is 22 years old( he's older by one hour), likes the color green, is about 5'9. He worked as a forensic anthropologist for criminal justice.He's well built, has a calico cat named Sally(Nightmare Before Christmas) and lives only 5 blocks away from me coincidentally.

As we were talking our parents walked in. I looked at them as a parent would look at a child with their hand in the cookie jar. I really didn't want to talk to them and they could sense it. I then started to punch my punching bag again as they walked closer to me and Erin.

"Hey Artemis we need to talk to you.", dad (A.K.A Hellboy) said with calmness.

"What's there to talk about? To me you two just left me and Erin to go do your own thing and things happened and pufff we're here. So again what's there to talk about?", I say with disgust with my punches hitting the bag harder and harder each time.

"We want to explain what happened and why.", mom (A.K.A Liz) says.

It took me a moment to let my thoughts process.But not wanting to come to a conclusion I just went with it.

"Fine but you have to explain first.", I say while I stop punching so I can look at them to see if they're lying or not(I can tell if someones lying or not).

"Well first we were still working here at the BPRD only for level 9 monsters or higher so we can still be with you two and be home. But at the time we were called for a level 10 monster in Gila National Park, New Mexico,and we knew that we would be there for more than a few days plus we were both needed for the mission and we didn't know who to call to take care of you.", Liz says with sad look plastered on her face.

"Then I suggested Miss Garnet. At the time we didn't know she was going to have a stroke so, we dropped you two off there so she can take care of you while we were gone. While we were in Gila we had no cell service where we were.", Hellboy said looking at the ground as if ashamed of what had happened.

Liz picks up where Hellboy stopped "And by the time we got the voicemails from the police, you two were already in foster care. We asked Manning to find you guys with his connections and he said he would do his best. We barely ate, and we didn't work or sleep while we looked for you.", she stops for a moment to collect herself so she wouldn't start crying," Then Manning came to us with a file and he just said that he found one of you but, was still looking for the other.", she said still going to continue but was interrupted.

"Let me guess it was Erin's file because he got adopted before me.", I (Artemis) says with a little sarcasm and a hint of anger in her voice.

"Yeah, it was his. Manning said we could go and get him we just had to clear it with his adopted parents and we were set. But we still didn't know what happened to you.", Hellboy says and continues. "When we got to his home we knocked on the door and the parents came to the door and we talked about Erin. While we were talking Erin comes around the corner and sees us and screams 'MOM, DAD You came for me!! I knew you would!!' he ran to us and we were so happy to see him.He just turned 6 a month before we found him.", He finishes with a light smile.

"We took him home and ... ", Liz starts but gets cut off by Erin.

" They asked me questions. ' Did they treat you well? ', ' What happened while we were gone? ', ' Where's Artemis? ', ' Do you know what happened to her? ' and things like that but I could only answer so many before I didn't have any answers for their questions.", he says as if it just happened.

"He told us what foster home you were at but...", Liz started but was cut off but Artemis this time.

"But it had been put out of business and all the children were moved to other foster homes across the city. Yeah I know what happened after that because I was there.", I (Artemis) says with some sadness.

"So do you forgive us for what happened or are you still a bit mad?", Hellboy asks looking at me with hope in his eyes.

"Look I do forgive you but I don't trust you yet because, I haven't known you for almost 12 years so you have to earn my trust.", I say to them.

We walk to each other and have a big family hug in silents. But the silents was short lasted as the alarm go's off "[Beep] CODE RED [Beep] CODE RED ..." We looked at one another and went to go get ready. Well that went better then I expected. Like I said even though I forgive them, they still need to prove to me that they got my back and that I can trust them. I need loyalty, love, and respect.