Mirrors |NH|

Chapter Fifty Five

When Niall woke up the next day, he knew she wasn't in bed with him.  He rolled over and was greeted with a sight for a sore mind.  She was standing in front of her closet, jeans already on, but nothing else.  Her hair was loosely hanging down her back, almost reaching down to the waistline of her pants because of the way she was standing.  Her head was tilted pretty far back as she stood on her tiptoes to reach for something.  He propped himself up on his elbow and just watched as she put on a t-shirt.

As he watched her reach for something else, his mind went back to the night before, and their meeting.  He still hadn't totally processed everything she had said.  He was proud of her, immensely proud of her, for opening up.  He wasn't so much upset about how she had felt, he was just stunned that she still feels that way.  But she reassured him when they got home, that he was the main reason.  "You make my body come alive," she whispered as she sat on his lap and kissed him.  And that was all he needed.

"You know, I'm pretty sure that when I closed my eyes last night, I had a very pretty, very sexy, very naked woman next to me.   Any ideas where I might find her?" Niall said, cheekily, still propped up on his elbow.

She stumbled back at the sound of his voice, "Jesus, Niall, you scared me."  She turned around to face him.

"Hey, that's my shirt.  I've been looking all over the place for that thing!"

Edie set down the box she had been reaching for and walked over to him, "Oh, yeah?  This belongs to you?"

"Yes, it does."

"Hmmph, interesting.  It looks better on me."

"No, right now it would look best crumpled up on the floor.  I'm still trying to find that naked woman I was talking about," he said, reaching out for her and pulling her back down on to the bed.

"Hmmm, naked woman, naked woman," she said, placing a finger over her mouth as if she was trying to figure it out, "I know of no naked woman around here."

"Well, not now.  She rolled out of bed and got dressed.  I'm not so sure I like her anymore."

Edie turned to face him with a shocked expression on her face, "Oh, well, in that case," she stated as she started to get back up, "I guess I'll go find some other Niall to spend time with.  Do you think they're all assholes, like you?"

Niall sat up in the bed, "Probably, but none are as hot as me, soooo..."  He gave her a pouty shrug which placed a huge smile on her face.

"You're an idiot."

"But I'm your idiot, now."

She sat back down next to him and brought her face to his, "And I wouldn't have it any other way," she said, kissing him.

He pulled her onto his lap as he deepened their kiss.  He ran his hands up his shirt, which did look better on her, as she attempted to protest, "Niall....we have...things...to do....today."  She didn't protest long as she lifted her arms above her head so he could remove the shirt.

Bringing one of her legs around his waist, he picked her up just enough to get her laying down beneath him.  He lifted himself enough so he could undo the button on her jeans.  He stood up, grabbed the end of her pants and yanked them off.  "I told you that shirt looked better on the floor," he said as he climbed back on top of her.

She wrapped her legs around him and gave him a smirk before using all of her strength to flip them over so that now he was on his back. "And I told you I like being on top," she whispered into his ear before tugging on it a little with her teeth.  Yep, no doubt about it, this was his favorite way of waking up. 

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A couple of hours later, Niall and Edie stood on top of a parking deck in the middle of London.  She held his hand as he stood in the place he had been shot.  Despite his own investigation, he had not actually stepped foot in the spot where it happened.  It looked to him like there were still remnants of his blood stained into the concrete. He rubbed his shoe over one spot to see if it would turn into dust and disappear. 

He sat down, bringing Edie with him.  "Right here.  This is where I died."

He felt a drop of rain hit his face as the sudden sound of sirens filled his ears.  He looked up to see two headlights coming his way.  He heard one voice shouting to call for help.  He saw blue lights, red lights, yellow lights.  He felt hands pressing into his chest, over and over and over again. He felt his throat filling with blood as he sputtered it out of his mouth onto the person who kept pounding his chest.  He felt his body get lifted and placed onto a bed before being shuffled into the back of a bright vehicle.

He stared straight ahead at the bright lights, not noticing all of the people around him who were covered in blood.  Whose blood was that?  He saw a masked face hover over his as a clear mask was placed over his mouth and nose.  He tried to protest but couldn't move.  The masked face above his looked up at some machine before his eyes closed once more.

"Niall?"

Niall snapped out of his head, and he was back where he had started, only this time, he had Edie next to him.  She was looking at him, worried.  He felt, more than watched, as she ran her fingers over his cheeks, removing the tears that had formed. 

"Hey," she whispered, "You're safe.  He can't hurt you anymore."

He nodded his head slowly, before he stood back up.  It was getting late, and they had one more stop to make.

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Edie slowly walked down the alley, carrying the box she had pulled down from her closet that morning.  Niall had asked her what it was, but she didn't have to answer, he already knew.  She stopped and looked behind her.  She saw him standing by his car, leaning against it, watching her. 

She had told him she needed to do this part on her own.  But she knew the further she walked into that alley, the closer he would move while maintaining enough distance, just to be sure.  She turned back around and started walking again.  The closer she got to the dumpster, the tighter her chest got. 

When she reached it, she stepped around to look at where she had been left.  She could see that Niall had, indeed, moved away from the car and into the alley, just far enough away but close enough if she needed him.  She stepped out of his sight before placing the box down on the ground.  She knelt before it, lifting the lid to reveal all she had gathered in the twelve months since her life had changed.

Removing her gloves, she pulled a matchbook out of her pocket.  Tearing off several matches, she lit them one by one and tossed them into the box.  She sat back against the brick wall of the club and stoically watched as the paper she had collected over the past year curled and burned in the flames.  

"It's been a year now.  A year of rebuilding myself.  A year of learning to live with my scars.  A year of finding myself in a strength I didn't know I had.  A year since I was a vegetable.  A whole year of undoing the damage you did to me.  You can stomp on me all you want, but like a flower, not even concrete will stop me from growing.  I am better than you.  And in six years, when my body has recycled all of my cells, there won't be a fiber of my body that you have hurt or touched.  And I shall rejoice in my rebirth and flourish again."

She sat there until it had all incinerated.  She stood back up and placed the lid on top of the smoldering ashes, stomping on it a little until she was sure all the flames were out.  She walked back around the dumpster to see that Niall had moved a little closer.  He pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against when he saw her.  She turned her head away from him and looked down one last time at the spot her body and mind had been so brutally destroyed.  She looked back up at him.  As she started walking towards him, she knew she was walking away from her past, and towards her future.  She slowly broke into a smile as she reached him.  He swung his right arm around her shoulders as she grasped his hand with her right as her left arm wound around his waist.  She looked up into his eyes and into the skies - they were blue, haven't been for a while.