Note: This part is shorter than the first. I had trouble figuring out how to end it, so it may be a bit abrupt.

Unexpected Circumstance
Part Two

The sound of glass shattering jerked Belle awake around one am…or so she thought. Her first reaction was to reach for her gun, only it wasn’t in the holster. What the hell? Where was her gun? When had she fallen asleep, anyway? Her second reaction was to check on Maggie, but she was gone from the couch.

“Maggie?” Her voice was oddly hoarse. “Maggie?” She hissed a little louder than before.

Slowly and a bit sluggishly, Belle noted, she stood up from the armchair moved towards the back of the cabin, where the sound of the breaking glass had come from. She had just moved to the stairs leading up into the kitchen, behind the couch, when she noted a flash of silver out of the corner of her left eye. She twisted away and took a step back only to fall back off the step and land against the couch.

“Dammit Mags, I thought you drugged her!” the man who had attacked her, hissed in the direction of the only bedroom.

“I did, you moron, with the pills you gave me!”

He snorted. “I got them from your medicine cabinet so obviously your pills aren’t that good and now things are more complicated than they have to be.”

Belle raised an eyebrow, a bit of amusement in her expression. They were arguing with each other while she just waited in the wings. She rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself to feet. She had hoped to be able to catch the man with the knife off guard, but she had strayed too long. Just as she found her footing the man struck again. She twisted again to the right and as she moved away she deflected the knife away with the palm of her hand against the man’s wrist. Her right leg snapped out in a low roundhouse kick, that hit him in the left knee. As he stumbled back and hit kitchen counter. Before he could fall completely, Belle’s leg slashed out again in a classic crescent kick, this time catching him in the left temple. Once he crashed unconscious to the ground Belle shifted and turned to look directly at Maggie, who was holding Belle’s Smith & Wesson in shaking hands.

“Why?” Belle asked.

“Your fiancé took something from us and we’re going to take something from him.”

“You aren’t very smart,” Maggie’s voice was full of contempt.

Belle shrugged, “Well you know with an IQ over 130, I happen to be considered a genius,” she murmured sarcastically, “and the fact that I graduated college at 18 with two bachelor’s degrees and one masters just helps cement that.” She decided to leave off one other degree that no one really knew she had.

“You don’t act it.”

“I know and trust me, it’s so much more fun pretending you’re an idiot then having people stare at you like you’re an alien.” Time to get things back on track. “So…something?” Belle continued, “or someone?”

Maggie smirked. “My brother. He’s in a wheelchair; paralyzed from the waist down because your precious fiancé let his hand slip during surgery.”

“You’re the ones who sued Derek for malpractice.”

“Yes.”

She pushed her hair out of her face. “Isn’t the case still ongoing? There’s a hearing next week.”

“The other doctors and nurses who participated in the surgery have Derek’s,” Maggie sneered his name, “back. Our lawyer told us it was a lost cause and that we couldn’t even look forward to a settlement. Everyone claims Derek did nothing wrong.”

“Then, there is the chance that your all wrong.”

The gun rose higher as Maggie took a step back and studied her hands. Belle shifted slightly and looked at the knife a few feet from her. If she could get that…then what? A gun against a knife? The odds would be against her, but there was still that chance. Should she chance it? Not just yet.

“Who’s he?” she motioned towards the man.

“My cousin.”

Belle’s focus shifted immediately. Maggie definitely wasn’t as smart as she was trying to appear. Either that, or Belle wasn’t going to live long to tell anyone what she found out. Her cell phone! If only she could get to that, then maybe just maybe there was an even better chance at survival. Where was it?

“You’re not thinking clearly Maggie.”

“What do you mean? This plan is very well thought out.”

Belle snorted. “You think so? Well, let me tell you this now. A few hours ago, a bus from the prison overturned, two convicts escaped. For all the police…for all Derek with know, is that those two convicts came here and killed me. You won’t even register so how much revenge would that be?”

“It’s enough; I don’t care about that.”

“He might,” she was firm as she motioned towards the man again. “Your brother might care.”

Maggie smiled and tilted her head to the left. “My brother doesn’t know about this. He thinks I’m working a shift at the hospital.”

“You’re a nurse?”

“Yes.”

“You know, if you botched this whole thing, you’ve just told me several things that could help my colleagues find you without much trouble.”

“We won’t botch this.”

Amusement took part in Belle’s words. “You sound so sure. I can tell right now that you’ve never used a gun in your life. If you had you would know that the safety is on and that there’s no bullets in that gun. I removed them when I brought you into the cabin.”

“You’re lying.”

“Am I?”

“Yes.”

“Well, if you think I’m lying Maggie, why don’t you check for yourself.”

Maggie’s eyes narrowed slightly and Belle tensed. She was right about the safety…but other than the magazine being empty, she had forgotten to remove the single bullet that was already in the chamber. If Maggie managed to turn off the safety and was a decent shot, Belle would be in trouble. In the split second that it took Maggie to squeeze the trigger, Belle dove forward. She caught Maggie around the waist and practically tackled her to the ground. The gun skittered off in some random direction and Belle hoped it was far away from all of them.

“Bitch!”

“Oh please,” Belle managed to get out as she struggled to keep control of the situation. “I am anything but.”

In the next second, the edge of Belle’s right hand struck at the carotid artery in Maggie’s neck, effectively rendering the woman unconscious. As she rolled off of Maggie and laid on her back on the cool wood Belle thanked her grandfather for his lessons on pressure points. That was definitely one thing she was happy to have learned.

“Now…onto the other idiot.” She pushed herself to her feet and moved over to the kitchen counter where the man was still slumped over, unconscious. “I didn’t kick you that hard.”

She knelt down and picked up the knife with her thumb and forefinger. To make sure he wouldn’t wake up any time soon she pressed against his carotid artery in much the same way that she had with Maggie. A few minutes later both Maggie and her partner were tied to kitchen chairs and Belle was pulling on her leather coat. Her gun was already placed back into the holster, this time with more than one bullet. The knife she had placed under the bed in a box of photos. She shoved her cell phone into her pocket and after throwing sand on the fire she exited the cabin.

--

There was beeping. Why was she hearing that? Where the hell was she? Slowly, she forced her eyes open, the difficulty of that small act surprised her. But when she opened her eyes she saw what she didn’t want to see. The stark white walls of the hospital room. The tip of the breathing tube that was in her throat and mouth. She could feel the needle in her arm from the IV. How did she end up here? Panic took over her thoughts. She struggled to breath against the breathing tube and the monitor it was hooked up too started to beep erratically.

“Belle?” Liam. She struggled to see where he was, but then felt his hand on her shoulder and suddenly he was hovering over her. “Calm down Belle, your okay. Everything is fine. No one is going to hurt you here,” he soothed.

Paper, she motioned, her hands automatically slipped into American sign language as she knew he would understand. But then, as if she remembered what she was doing, she started instead to say that someone had put a paralytic drug into her IV. Liam shushed her and leaned forward, close to her ear.

“We caught the doctor who was doing that,” he murmured softly. “Don’t worry.”

Who was it? She signed.

“A surgeon, one of Derek’s coworkers.”

There was a flash of memory. Maggie and her story of the doctor who had paralyzed her brother. Suddenly, it all clicked into place. The surgeon had blamed it all on Derek. Slowly, she tried to think about what had happened to land her in the hospital. She remembered walking on the road near the cabin trying to reach one of the neighbors, the only one she actually knew. Then a truck came around the corner and went right at her. Then nothing.

What about Maggie and her cousin? She asked next.

“They’re both in jail, they were arraigned last week.” He hesitated slightly then continued, “You’ve been unconscious for fifteen days. A hit and run. You managed to survive without too much damage. The worst of it was a punctured lung, hence why you’re on the ventilator. The rest is just a sprained wrist, a dislocated shoulder, and various cuts and bruises.”

Well that explained the throb of her shoulder and wrist. But her back felt odd as well. What exactly had she fallen on? Her back burned and whenever she shifted, it was hard to not wince.

“Derek, she’s awake,” she heard Liam say though it seemed far away.

“Belle!”

She jerked out of her thoughts and looked up at Derek as he took Liam’s place. He caressed her cheek and kissed her forehead. She concentrated on him. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days and the beard he was growing made him look like rugged, which she didn’t like. Her hand moved up and pressed against his chin and she shook her head.

“You don’t like the beard? The nurses think it makes me look handsome.”

She shook her head again and with her hands she told him exactly what she thought about the beard. Liam’s laughter reminded her that he was in the room and that Derek didn’t know sign language.

“She’s saying it makes you look like a homeless man, especially since you look like you haven’t slept and showered in days. She wants you to get rid of it…and now.”

“Of course she does.” He smiled down at her. “I’ll shave it as soon as you’re out of the hospital. On that note, let’s see if we can get this breathing tube taken out.”

As he turned to leave and fetch her doctor—he wasn’t about to do it himself, not without knowing for certain if it could be taken out—she grabbed his wrist and wouldn’t let him leave. Even with Liam there, she didn’t want to be alone. She wanted Derek to be there. She wouldn’t admit it, but she felt like if he left, something bad would happen. Even, though she knew nothing would.

The End

Note: See, bad ending? This is what happens when you have writers block and have no idea how to finish it. At some point, I’ll probably go back and rewrite it, but I wanted to have it finished for the deadline of the ficathon challenge it’s meant for.

I think I used all the words/phrases and didn’t stray from the challenge, but I can’t be sure. Let me know if I am.