Nicotine [Brendon Urie AU]

Chapter Five ✔

Chapter Five | "Lullaby" 

Ryan asked one more time before heading out of the room. "Do you understand the plan?" The plan, again, was simple. Get Ms. Ross doing something negative, send it to Ryan, and stock-pile the evidence against her. Simple, short, and enough to get Ms. Ross behind bars - at least charges on her. It was risky, but it was worth it. The two of them knew that they needed to end the conversation or the woman downstairs would get suspicious. So, after about an hour of getting to know each other, they cut their conversation off. 

"I do," Brooke said shortly, not really much else to be said. She understood the plan crystal clearly. 

Ryan smiled at her. "I will text you every night before midnight, and if you don't reply, I might be worried something happened." He put on a fatherly tone, even though he wasn't one. That's not that hard to understand, Ryan has every right to be worried if there was no word from Brooke. She reminded herself to check the phone before bed but made it unnoticeable. Brooke felt a sense of protection and trust for some odd reason, knowing that Ryan wasn't leaving for good and never returning. Brooke nodded, taking in every word Ryan was saying. "If she does anything, record it, send it to me, but make sure she doesn't know about the phone. And if she attacks you or gets too violent, call me and I will be right there." 

"What if you're not able to get here?" Brooke hated being the naysayer at the moment, but she needed to make sure her worries were met. 

Ryan knew she was a little worried about the plan. To ease her worries, he stated, "That won't be a problem. I'll text you tonight." Again, Brooke was scared he was making false promises. He wasn't Superman, and he couldn't teleport from place to place. But he said these things to calm Brooke's nerves. "I better leave before Ms. Witch gets too suspicious." He insulted, which received a slight giggle from Brooke. 

Ryan placed his hand on the handle of the door and was ready to open it. Brooke stopped him before he could turn it. "Wait!" She said loud enough for him to hear. He turned around once again, looking at her blushing face. Brooke was a little embarrassed to say this but felt it was necessary. Shifting with a scarlet on her cheeks, she thanked him. "Thanks for... everything, really." 

"No problem Brooke, I'm glad to have helped." Ryan returned her smile. 

They walked out of the room and down the stairs. Brooke decided to walk Ryan out in a courteous manner. Some of the kids were now in the living room, slash, front desk area, playing with some loosely made toys, mumbling together contently. Brooke recognized them to be the youngest, in the age group of Daisy. She thinks their names are Lisa, Ellie, and Gwen. It was their little group, always playing with old dolls. Ms. Ross was angrily sitting behind the desk in the main room. Her eyes darkened when she noticed the two walking in.  "Ah, are you finally leaving, Ryan?" She was blunt and didn't care about her brother feelings at all. 

Ryan faked a smile, pretending not to notice her rudeness. "Sadly, I have to go." He frowned, mostly at leaving Brooke, instead of his sister. 

"I hope you are content with your damn findings." Ms. Ross was smiling, but it was clear all she wanted to do was jump over the counter and strangle Ryan right then and there. But, she remained behind her desk, with an angry glare. Brooke stood in a crossfire between the siblings.

Brooke continued anyway, "You know, based on what Brooke has said," Brooke felt a cold sweat drip down her face. Was he really about to throw the whole plan out the window? Her hands felt clammy, as she tried to regulate her breathing. He wasn't going to do it, was he?  Ryan recovered though, "This place is better than I first thought. Congratulations, Barbara, I'm impressed." Ryan did a complete one-eighty and complemented his sister, surprisingly. He looked that he wanted to nothing of the sort, yet did anyway.