Chapter 28: ...Happily Ever After?

Charlie sat in front of the mirror in her bedroom room, combing a part into her freshly cut hair. Well, she had combed a part into it a full half hour ago. At this point she was just needlessly fiddling with it out of anxiety.

The speakers in her room chimed, letting her know somebody was ringing for her. She told the room to answer it.

"Charlie?" The voice of her driver, Shawn, filled the room.

"Yes." Charlie said, still fiddling with her hair in the mirror.

"Its 11:30. You scheduled your pick up for 11:00. I was worried since you haven't come down yet."

Charlie sighed and put the comb down.

"Yeah, sorry, I just got distracted. I'll be down in just a second."

"Okay. Good to hear."

The intercom system clicked off and Charlie looked over herself in the mirror once more before heading out of her room.

Charlie opened the passenger side door, and saw a bundle of a dozen dark red roses sitting in the passenger seat. She picked them up, and slid into the seat.

As soon as she was buckled, shawn took off.

The ride was quiet for a while. Charlie simply looked out of the tinted windows, at the shadowed silhouette of the city and fiddled with the black ribbon wrapped around the bundle of flowers.

With the media circus that had been going on the past two days, Charlie thought it was a miracle that they weren't being tailed the paparazzi yet.

"I heard your father is upset about that you're going to see her." Shawn said eventually.

Charlie bit her lip, and touched the petal of a rose.

"I'm old enough to make my own decisions." She said.

"I'm sure he's just concerned." Shawn said. "There's a lot of tension right now. A lot of danger."

"Sure." Charlie said. "I'm aware."

While nobody had followed them, it didn't really seem to matter. There was already a crowd of reporters outside of the hospital, no doubt waiting to be the first to update on Shadow Witch's condition.

Thankfully, Shawn was able to get Charlie in through the back.

As soon as she was in front of Beatrice's hospital room, Linton stepped out.

"Oh, hey." He said.

Charlie gave him a small wave of her fingers.

"Hey." She said. "Is she awake yet?"

"Not yet." He said. "But she should be soon. The doctors lowered her medication earlier this morning."

Charlie nodded and moved to walk past him, into the room, but Linton grabbed her by the arm to stop her.

"Hey, don't tell her about her mom yet. I'll wait until they discharge her to break the news to her."

Charlie bit her lip. She doesn't really want to keep anything from B, but she also understood that telling her something as upsetting as the fact that her mother had escaped custody in the confusion after the bomb would only upset her.

Hell, it upset Charlie. But she thought Beatrice was dealing with enough at the moment.

"Don't worry. I don't want to scare her." Charlie said with a nod.

Linton nodded back and stepped aside, patting her on the shoulder.

Charlie walked into the room, and shut the door behind herself. She wrinkled her nose. She had always hated the sterile, medicated scent of hospitals. It smelled like waiting around, and sickness, and worry, and cafeteria food.

Disgusting.

Beatrice was laying in the hospital bed, looking more or less peaceful, despite the distinct lack of color to her skin.

She was bruised in a few places, and there was a cast on one arm and an IV poking out of the other. Around her neck was the same kind of collar they'd had on her in prison.

But she was here, and she was alive.

The last time Charlie had seen her, she was bleeding out in her arms, and, although Linton had said she would be fine, it had been felt like she would be gone forever until this moment.

Charlie grimaced at the sight of her, and walked over to her side. Gently, she brushed back a few strands of her pale blonde hair. Beatrice's eyebrows twitched part way into a frown, but she didn't wake up.

It seemed she'd be out for a little while more, so there wasn't much to do but wait.

Charlie sighed and walked over to the couch. She sat the bouquet of flowers in her lap and laid back, closing her eyes.

-------

"What are you wearing?"

Charlie jerked awake, knocking the flowers on the floor in the process.

"What?"

"I asked what you're wearing. You look like you're going to try and sell me a timeshare."

Charlie looked up to see Beatrice sitting upright in the bed, smiling softly at her. Charlie looked down at the black suit she was wearing before walking over to Beatrice and squeezing her gently.

"I'm so glad you're okay, B." She said.

Beatrice squeezed her back lightly with her good arm.

"I'm okay." Beatrice said back softly. "I always am."

Charlie pulled away so she could look at her.

"How are you? Do you feel okay?"

"No." Beatrice said bluntly. "I just had surgery and my arm's broken. I feel like shit."

Charlie reached over and squeezed her hand. Beatrice broke into a small smile.

"...But I guess it's not so bad since you're here. By the way, did you bring those flowers just to throw them on the floor?"

"Oh shit!" Charlie rushed over and picked them up. "No, they're for you!"

Beatrice took them from her with her good hand and admired them.

"Thank you." She said quietly. "They're very pretty."

"I was going to get you black roses, because I thought you might like something like that, but it turns out the don't make those so I got the darkest shade of red instead." Charlie said. "The woman on the phone thought I was going to a funeral or something."

Charlie glanced over at Beatrice, who was still looking at the flowers and swallowed.

"But I actually got them because I wanted to ask you on a date."

Beatrice turned her attention back towards Charlie.

"A date?" Beatrice asked, looking around the room.

"...Well, not right now, obviously." Charlie said sheepishly. "I mean when you get discharged from this place and you feel up to it."

Beatrice frowned, and sat the roses to the side.

"Won't I be in jail once the hospital discharges me? Are you just going to sit around and wait ten years to take me on a date or something?"

"Oh, don't worry." Charlie said. "You won't be going to jail."

Beatrice gave her a wary look and fidgeted with the collar around her neck.

"What, did you pay off a judge or something?"

"Wh-no!" Charlie said. "B, you saved like two dozen people, and almost died in the process! You're a hero!"

"Hero? I wouldn't go that far..." Beatrice grumbled. "Besides, I still broke out of jail and kidnapped you. I'm sure they'll still want to charge me with that."

"The most you're going to get is community service or group therapy."

Beatrice wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Gross. Uhg. Just send me to jail instead."

Charlie shot her a playful look.

"Fine." She said. "I guess we can just schedule our date around me walking old ladies across the street and talking to other sad sacks about my feelings."

Charlie shrugged.

"Whatever. As long as I get a girlfriend! Woo!"

Beatrice rolled her eyes.

"Please. You have like a billion dollars. You could have any girlfriend."

"But I don't want any girl." Charlie said. "I want you. I know you like me because of who I am, not because I 'have like a billion dollars'."

Beatrice's face flushed and she turned away and muttered something like 'stop being so cheesy.'

Charlie responded by kissing her softly.

It was the most romantic setting, surrounded by beeping monitors and the sterile smell, but for Charlie, it would do.

It didn't matter that Night Thief was still on the loose.

It didn't matter that her relationship with her dad was worse than ever.

All that mattered was this moment, and the fact that, somehow, Charlie felt like she knew everything would be okay.