Vice

46: Cameron

The next morning, Natara walks past Jaquie's office and he calls out to her. 

She was hoping she could make it to her own office without him noticing. She knows what him calling her over likely entails: Something to do with Mr. Vice. Nervously, she inches into the doorway of his office, watching him sip his morning coffee.

"I need you to check in on Mr. Vice for a little while today," he says as he sets his coffee cup back down. Jaquie only halfway looks up at Natara from his stack of papers. 

Her heart stutters. The last thing she wants to do is be face to face with Mr. Vice again. Can't she just hide in her office and do some paperwork? Usually the paperwork felt like a pain but she would happily do it now if he would let her.

After she stands silent in the doorway for a few seconds, Jaquie looks up from his work. The look on his face tells Natara this is non-negotiable. Not like she would have the courage to whine at him and beg him to do something else, anyway, even if she does feel fairly comfortable joking around with Jaquie sometimes. 

Reluctantly, she heads out of the office and drives one of the company cars down to the hospital. 

When she parks the car, her hands tremble from the drive. Driving these fancy work vehicles is too stressful. If the hospital was closer, she would have much rather taken her bike there instead.

She exhales, putting her hands under her thighs to relax them until they stop shaking, and gets out of the vehicle. 

The hospital towers ahead of her as she walks across the parking lot, reminding her of a smaller version of the Vice building. She heads through the automatic entry door, down the halls, and pauses at the door to Mr. Vice's room. 

She steels herself and creeps inside the room, praying Mr. Vice will be asleep. Unfortunately, he is wide awake, sitting up in his hospital bed and staring off at the wall. His gaze flickers toward her immediately, his sharp eyes studying her face more than she feels comfortable with.

"How was your chat with Jace?" He asks and Natara raises her eyebrows. 

It's an entirely inappropriate question. Why does he care, anyway? He doesn't have any right to know or care about that after everything that happened. If he cared, he wouldn't have killed himself or he would have at least told her that he was going to. She glares back at him, truly feeling like Mr. Vice doesn't deserve an answer from her. 

His face tenses and then softens. "Natara, please. I'm sorry. Can you just come here?"

Natara steps back. She's not falling for this again. She's not going to jump right into his arms just because he asks her to. She's not going to run to him just because he's sad. She didn't make a difference even when she tried those things. She didn't mean anything to him, even though some part of her wishes she did.

"Don't leave. I should have said that to you yesterday but I fucked up, okay? I'm a fucking mess and I don't know what to say to you. I needed you to stay. I didn't mean for you to run away from me right into the arms of that bastard. Please, Natara. I need you. You don't know how much I need you," he stammers. 

"Mr. Vice, I-" Natara starts but Mr. Vice interrupts her.

"Cameron. My middle name is Cameron. Don't call me Mr. Vice or Axius. Just call me Cameron," he says. She raises her eyebrows. 

Cameron. 

Natara shakes her head. 

So what? So what if he told me his middle name? He's still Mr. Vice to me. He's still my boss. I shouldn't forget that. I shouldn't have forgotten that in the first place. That's all he is to me.

"Mr. Vice," she repeats. He lets out a rattled sigh from across the room. "Jaquie asked me to come here. I'm not going to have a work inappropriate conversation like this with you. I'm not going to lay by your side anymore. I am your secretary and that's all."

"If you don't lay in this hospital bed with me I will get up and pull you here. I don't care about that bastard boyfriend of yours," he snaps. Natara's lips part. 

He heard the conversation with Jace. But more importantly, what is she supposed to do? Mr. Vice will only hurt himself if he tries to get up and walk around. He's in no shape to be trying to walk. He can't seriously be threatening her like that. He wouldn't really do it, would he?

"Why the hell aren't you coming here? You really want to see me do it, do you?" Mr. Vice threatens, pushing himself off the hospital bed. 

Natara gasps and rushes toward him, putting both hands on his chest to stop him from walking around. His chest. That same chest she'd laid against. She jerks her hands away from him and looks away.

"Just sit down, please," she begs, afraid if she touches him again she might give in. 

When she turns her gaze back toward him she sees he's smiling. Seeing him looking genuinely happy is still something she isn't used to and she can't help noticing the flutter it brings to her heartbeat. Instead of saying anything, Mr. Vice wraps his arms around Natara's back and pulls her into him. Her face presses against his comforting chest.

Natara wants to forget everything that happened after that day she came to his office and found him on the floor. She doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that he's hugging her while laying in a hospital bed. She doesn't want to remember how he looked just a couple of days ago, motionless on the floor with his heart barely beating, and she wants to forget the warm wetness of his blood when it soaked her face and shirt. She just wants to relax into his touch, even if she knows it's a terrible idea...and enjoy it for a moment.

"Ahem! Excuse me," a voice interrupts them. Natara jerks out of Mr. Vice's grip and wheels around. 

A familiar woman stands in the doorway: Laura, from the charity luncheon.