Mishaps and Wolves (OLD VERSION)

Chapter 24 - Asking Tough Questions

Chapter 24 - Asking Tough Questions

Marissa felt her hear hammering in her chest. She felt absolutely awful that she was voicing the horrible thoughts about a traitor being an actual possibility. From what she had seen, they all tended to act like one huge family. Having someone so close betray you like that...well, she knew the pain that caused.

Now, as she followed him down the stairs to the hospital wards in this huge hotel of a house, she knew that she had to take the hit with Roman. He'd looked so devastated before and someone who'd been as devoted to the idea of family for so long and so strong, something like this caused permanent damage. She found that she didn't want to change him, or see him hurt. The idea of it made her hurt even more.

"You know, this isn't the end of the world," she told him softly.

"It might as well be," he grumbled back. Marissa barely heard him, but she got the general idea.

"No, it shouldn't be. You always need to think about why someone would have done something like this. For all you know, their life from before here could have caught up with them and they saw no way out. There is always a logical explanation for everything and you just need to think about that."

He sighed, but his shoulders stayed stiff. She wanted the tension in him to leak out and for him to relax. "It's not your fault Roman," she whispered to him gently. They reached the ward, and he didn't reply to her.

He lead her down a corridor that was full of similar looking blank white doors with no signs indicating where they were going. Roman lead her to a closed door in the midst of one of the corridors and knocked.

"How do you know where we're going? This scene is almost the exact same as the one in The Matrix with all those doors. I'm just hoping you don't have a bunch clones walking about ready to attack us."

His lips twisted in a soft smile, "No clones, but McCarthy triplets are around somewhere. And to answer your question, we look for specific scents."

She furrowed her brow, "Oh. How the hell do you tell the difference if a whole group of people use the same soap?" 

He just shrugged, "It doesn't cover their true scents."

She leaned against the wall, "So what do I smell like then?"

"You smell like-" he was cut off by the door opening.

Laura stood in a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. She looked young and comfortable with her hair pulled back in a messy bun and a smile on her face. "Hello Alpha," she said to Roman, before turning to Marissa, "Luna."

Marissa was confused and was about to ask about what Laura had called her when Roman coughed, forcing Laura's attention back to him and leaving Marissa wondering what all of that was about. "We need to speak to you and Vera about the fire."

Laura's face crumbled slightly, probably remembering the sheer fear of her daughter being in danger and her not being able to do anything. "Come on in," she said, taking a deep breath.

Marissa walked into the room first after Laura. Her daughter, Vera, was almost the spitting image of her when you put them right next to each other. Vera had her mother's eyes which looked up at them in innocent confusion as they came in on her sitting with her colouring book in pink pyjamas and her identical blonde hair plaited behind her. She wore a gas max over her face but Marissa could still see the smile on the child's face as she looked up at her mother. Laura went and sat in front of her daughter whilst Marissa and Roman remained by the door.

As she watched Laura and Vera together, she wondered if she'd ever have her own child, and if she did, what would they look like? Would they have her eyes, or her long dark hair? And what features of their father would they have? For some peculiar reason, she saw an image of a child with her smile and wild green eyes that spoke of wild jungles and untameable emotions.