Long Live the King

Twenty-Four

As soon as they had all found themselves safely in the shelter and located a light they placed Johanna on one of the bed's and commenced waiting for whatever reaction would come. Whatever it was that she had been given, it was a hell of a drug. Johanna lay on the bed looking comatose for hours while Adrienne repeatedly reassured the little girl. It wasn't until Johanna actually stirred that Adrienne felt confident that she hadn't been wrong in telling the young girl that her mother would be alright.

Johanna snorted, clapping a hand over her face and massaging one of her temples. A beat later she jolted upright and whipped her head from side to side.

"Emerald!" she gasped.

Up to this point the kid had started sitting in the corner, drawing on the wall with chalk. At the sound of her mother's voice she looked up and jumped to her feet. She raised across the short distance, vaulting onto the bed and wrapping her small arms tight around her mother.

"Mom!" she cried out.

"Oh god," Johanna said. She embraced her daughter for a few seconds and then pushed her back a short distance. Holding her a foot away with an iron grip on the shoulder, she looked her all over for any signs of harm. "Emmy, you're okay?"

"I'm fine," Emerald insisted, wriggling out of her mother's grip. "Are you okay?"

Johanna brought her daughter close again, wrapping the young girl in a bone-crushing hug. Adrienne thought that the mother was unlikely to ever let go, but a few minutes later she released her daughter and looked up to see two other people in the shelter with them. A blaze leapt into her eyes. She carefully pushed her daughter to the side and shot to her feet. Before either of the other two could react, Johanna lunged at Adrienne with her hands outstretched in a gesture that suggested she wanted to throttle her.

Marshall took a step forward. Adrienne stepped backward, her arms raised to defend herself if necessary. Inches away, Johanna suddenly stopped and her hands fell. She tipped her head to one side and her eyes became thin slits. She considered Adrienne carefully.

"You aren't the woman who drugged me," she said.

"No."

"You took me out of the house."

"We did." Adrienne nodded. "We weren't about to leave you there."

"Why not? I was clearly a threat to you."

"This is true, but Regina is a bigger one--a threat to both of us. Divided we fall, right? I didn't like the idea of being outnumbered. We have no quarrel as long as you realize that." She glanced at Emerald who was watching the interaction unfold with big eyes. "That aside, leaving a kid's mother to fend for herself didn't sit right with me."

Johanna nodded and touched her daughter's shoulder. The wheels were turning in her head and everyone in the room could hear them.

"Are you really Adrienne?"

"Hm." Adrienne folded her arms. "For someone who claims to have known my brother pretty well I'm surprised the resemblance is lost on you. Everyone else seems to think we look quite a bit alike."

"I don't trust resemblance," she said, unapologetic. "It can be a trick. There are perfect strangers in the world who could be twins and close relatives who look like they barely share a drop of the same blood. He never told me what his sister looked like, not even that she might look like him. How am I supposed to be certain that you're genuine?"

"Why were you so certain that I wasn't?" Adrienne demanded. "Furthermore, how did you know that Regina was lying?"

"Regina... is that the other woman? How do you know her?"