CARMEN, riverdale.

' obsidian '

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   HER DARK eyes glared at the LED lights above her, and her father chuckled as he helped her lean up. Apollo fluffed the pillows placed behind her back and the two men insured she was comfortable enough.

"Who would even think about placing the damn lights to shine into people's eyes? I could have gone blind." Carmen snarked, making Apollo laugh.

"There's the Carmen we know and love,"

Carmen tensed, remembering some words. "Ah, there's the Carmen Murdock we all love to hate and know,"

Robin frowned, sharing a look with Apollo as they noticed the sudden change in her eyes, that seemed to gone obsidian instead of the whiskey-colored hue. "Carmen, what did they say?"

Carmen shook her head, shrugging slightly. The small motion ripped a painful effect along her chest and winced slightly.

"I don't know if me going bonkers is a part of the painkillers, then I don't want it. At least not for a while." Carmen complained, rubbing her throat lightly. Robin chuckled, handing her a glass of cool water.

"Considering you've been out of it since the last 48 hours, I'd expect you to say that," Robin chuckled, remembering how she was as high as a kite.

"How long have I been out?"

"Totally? Almost a week."

Carmen rubbed a hand down her face. "Please tell me no one's going to come and ask questions,"

Robin smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry, doll. It's just protocol, on the brightside, we'll be in the room with you."

It came too soon as Sheriff Keller had knocked on the doorway, before opening the door and poking his head in. "Ms. Murdock, would you mind if we have a word with you? Just a few questions."

Carmen shrugged, as he filed in with his own notepad. Robin cleared from his line of sight, standing beside Apollo on the other side of the room.

"How are you, exactly?" Sheriff Keller asked thoughtfully.

"Like I got a beating." Carmen didn't mean to, really. Her reply earned her a chuckle from her father and the man before her.

Sheriff Keller clears his throat. "Did you recognize anyone, during and after the duration of you being taken?"

"I don't recall remembering faces, but I still do remember a few names. Would those count?"

"Whatever that could be of help to find who did this to you." Sheriff Keller pressed the matter firmly.

"I thought my father would've ought to tell you," Carmen told him, feigning confused.

"He didn't, no. We didn't hear that you went missing for 48 hours until he and his friend brought you here as if you were arranged in a meeting with death." Sheriff Keller interjected.

"Oh. The only names I could remember were Eustace Volkov. And... Warden Tykes," a flash of recognition slivered through the Keller father's eyes, not going unnoticed by the other three occupants of the room.

Testily, Carmen tilted her head to the side. "Did you know them, or one?"

"Tykes was a deputy in the station. I had to let him go due to his...rash decisions and murderous tendencies," Keller frowns. "And I've heard of Volkov. What can you remember?"

Carmen put on her best frustrated thinking face, and let her eyes slide shut and rubbed one eye. "I can't—"

"No, it's okay," Keller told immediately when he took one look at the alarmed expressions of Carmen's father and godfather. "Don't hurt yourself trying to remember."

"I'm sorry, Sheriff, that I couldn't be of help. I think they might've hit me in the head a couple of times," Carmen sighed. This was a partial lie, because Carmen remembered all of it.

She looked down at her hands where she was fiddling with the jacket that her father had thrown over her before she had woken up. "Do you remember anythi—"

"With all due respect, I think that's enough, Sheriff. My daughter is tired, evidently traumatised and still struggling to recover from the bad concussion, as well as the rest of her injuries. She needs to rest, and you are in the way of that," Robin spoke up as he strides with a few steps across the room, and now stood beside Carmen's bed. Like what Carmen's eyes had done earlier, his same whiskey-colored irises turned as obsidian as his well-polished dress shoes.

Keller sighed, standing up. His eyes looked as if he was debating if he should fold under the alpha male in front of him that was consequently, without other words, Robin Murdock. Or continue and ask him to stand out of the room.

But then he remembered that Carmen's godfather was a lawyer overseas who had gone and gotten himself a name and reputation, and if what he heard about this pair being even more terrifying and powerful together was true, then asking both men to step out of Carmen's room to continue the interrogation without their interference would be an issue. So he folded.

Keller reached into his inner jacket pocket, pulling out a card clipped between two of his fingers to extend to Carmen, "Come by the station, or call, should you remember anything else. Good evening, Mr. and Ms. Murdock, Mr. Barnes."

He frowns when Carmen does not take it, but did sympathize with his son when he saw the full extent of what she had gone through. At least the partial of it, unlike Betty and Veronica, who had claimed to have seen everything.

It was Apollo who took it, his expression unmoved and still as blank as a slate, handing it to Robin, who had a cold look in his eyes and a menacing smile gracing his lips.

"You can take your leave now, Sheriff."

Robin couldn't have said it any colder. Carmen looked up at her father, covering the hand on her shoulder with hers. This drew his attention, sighing as he pressed his eyes closed and sat down beside her, clutching her close to him and buried his fingers once more in her hair. He'd be damned if he let one more child of his leave him again.

"Dad?" Robin hummed his response as his eyes followed Apollo, who sat down on the couch to listen. He was always silent, it was why most people find it unnerving when being alone in the room with him and not hear an unnecessary noise or word leave his lips. "Do you think things would have been different if he didn't leave us?"

Robin stiffened, before relaxing promptly and looked down at his daughter, who was playing with hem of his jacket.

"I don't know, baby. But I think things would have been lighter if he was here."

He slipped a hand into his pocket, pulling out his wallet to open it and the father and daughter glanced at the picture displayed.

The first face in the picture was Carmen's mother, wearing a smile full of glee as she held the camera out in front of her, and in the background was a sleeping Robin still clad in his gear, only without weapons. Two kids slept on either side of him, one boy and the other one was young Carmen.

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    CHERYL'S EYES filled with tears as she held Carmen's hand in her own tightly. It took a while for Robin to finally let her speak alone with Carmen, until the brunette had convinced her father to get food for all four of them while Apollo went to get fresh clothes from home.

"I'm really, really sorry, Carmen," Cheryl sniffled.

Carmen frowned at the redhead, "For what, Cheryl?"

"It's my fault that they ever managed to find you," Cheryl whimpers, sitting down on the chair. "I basically led them to you."

"Cheryl?" Carmen asks, confused.

"I got this email, Leo, and kept telling me to tell him where you are so he can help you. I didn't realize he was threatening you because all I wanted to do was help you and I thought I was doing just that. I'm so sorry, Carmen. I didn't know, I'm so sorry," Cheryl was almost to tears now.

"Cheryl," Carmen cleared her throat. "I- Just- Just stop helping me, alright? Before you put yourself in danger."

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