Shifting Colours Part 9: Confrontation

[celticlonging.livejournal.com]

Title: Shifting Colours, part 9
Author: celticlonging
Fandom: Fifty Shades trilogy
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1267
Inspiration: gehayi and ketmakura’s sporking of Fifty Shades Darker
Summary: Everyone tries to control the situation.
Author’s Note: I don’t own anything from Fifty Shades. I’d like to say a big thank-you to scribal_goddess for the loan of her original character.

Kevin couldn’t move. His heart was racing. All he could see was the mouth of the gun.

“Step away from him,” he heard a woman say.

“OK. OK.” Kevin slowly edged away from Grey, keeping his hands raised with the palms outwards.

The woman kept her gun pointed right ahead of her, at Grey. “I don’t want to hurt you,” she said to Kevin. “I don’t want to hurt anyone here except him.”

Her long brown hair was dirty and tangled. Her dark eyes stood out sharply in her ashen face. The thin wrist poking out of her trench coat had a bandage wrapped around it. She looked scarily similar to Ana. Kevin found himself looking back and forth between the two women. They could be sisters.

“I do look like her, don’t I?” The stranger’s voice was soft. “We all do.”

“What’s going on?” Carrick’s voice demanded. “What on earth - ” His voice disappeared as he caught sight of the gun. Recovering quickly, he called, “Mia, Grace, stay in the kitchen. Shut the door, and don’t leave.”

“It’s all right,” the stranger said. “I won’t hurt them. I’m just here for him.”

“What are you doing here, Leila?” demanded Grey.

The stranger – Leila – smiled bitterly, tightening her grip on the gun. “What do you think I’m doing here?”

“You won’t do it,” Grey said with a smirk. “You won’t shoot me.”

Leila faltered for a moment. Kevin held his breath, thinking she was going to put the gun down. Then Leila clicked the gun’s safety off, making Ana whimper in panic.

“Please,” Carrick began, his voice shaking. “Leila, isn’t it? Please put the gun down. You don’t have to do…”

“I do,” Leila said. She was breathing heavily. “I can’t let him harm anyone else.”

“Harm anyone else? What are you talking about?” Carrick looked at his son, fear and confusion in his face. “Christian, what does she mean?”

“Nothing,” Grey replied coolly. “She doesn’t mean anything by it. She’s a fugitive from a mental institution who’s fixated with me. We used to date briefly but when I broke up with her, she…”

“Liar!” The shriek made everyone in the hallway jump. Leila’s face was contorted and her eyes glittered angrily. “I was in that mental institution because you put me there after I found out about those pictures!”

Kevin glanced up and saw his father and brother standing at the top of the stairs. Robert touched Toby on the shoulder and gave him a little push in the direction of one of the bedrooms. Kevin was fairly sure he saw his dad mouth call the police or something at Toby.

“And you did not break up with me. You threw me away after you were finished raping and beating me.”

“What?” Carrick whipped around to stare at his son. “Christian…”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Grey said glibly, with a smile that was supposed to look reassuring. “Father, you know I wouldn’t do that.” He turned back to Leila and ordered, “Put the gun down, Leila.”

A shudder ran through Leila’s body and she swayed on her feet. For one moment, Kevin thought she was going to collapse but then with what looked like immense self-control she straightened up and pointed the gun at Grey again.

“No,” she breathed. “You’re not going to do that to me again. You’re not my master anymore.”

“Leila?”

Robert was coming down the stairs slowly and carefully. Kevin didn’t know whether to be relieved or petrified.

xxx

“Hi, Leila,” Robert said, taking care to keep his voice calm as he descended. He kept a firm hold on the bloodstone and quartz in his pocket. “My name’s Robert Mendoza.”

Leila’s colours were a mixture of yellow, red and orange; they swirled around her, creating an effect that would have been quite beautiful had Robert not known what it signified. He’d been in a situation like this before, and he knew the best thing to do was to show he wasn’t a threat.

“Bob, what are you doing?” he heard Carrick hiss.

Robert looked quickly at his oldest son. Kevin was afraid, but he was trying to keep his emotions under control.

“What do you want?” Leila cried.

“I just want to talk.” By now Robert was standing on the ground floor.

“Don’t come any closer!”

“It’s OK. I’ll stay right here.”

“Why are you helping him?”

“I’m not helping him, Leila. I want to help you.”

“Do…do you believe me?”

“Yes. Jason Taylor told me everything.”

A faint spark of green appeared in Leila’s colours. “Did he tell you how Nate is?”

“Nate’s fine. Jason said he’s very worried about you.”

“…Bob?” Carrick’s voice was barely audible. Robert looked at his friend, and saw Carrick’s colours deepen to a devastated dark blue.

I’m sorry.

“I’m sorry.”

Robert quickly drew his attention back to Leila, who seemed to have suddenly remembered where she was and why she was there.

 “You seem like a very kind man. But he hurts people. He hurt me, he’s hurt other women, he said he’d hurt Jason’s daughter, and I think he might have hurt your son.”

“He’s not going to hurt you again, Leila. Not you, not anyone else and…what do you mean? Kevin’s over there, and he seems to be…” Robert’s voice dwindled into silence when he saw the look on Kevin’s face.

“Dad, I got a call from Uncle Jay when you were on the phone. He said he found Michael unconscious.”

Robert couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. He hadn’t been this terrified since he received a call saying that his wife and middle son had been involved in an accident, or when he was told that there was every chance his youngest had been abducted and no no please God no…

“You see? This is what he does, and it’s got to stop. He needs to be stopped!”

Robert drew in a quick breath. “He will be stopped. Believe me - he will. But you do not deserve to go down for murder. He isn’t worth that.” Robert slowly drew closer to Leila, trying to ignore the way Kevin’s colours flared with alarm. “He will never hurt you or anyone else again, Leila. Please give me the gun.”

Leila stood still for a moment. Then she said, “I can go home? Back to Nate?”

“You’ll get to see him again. I promise.”

There was silence. Robert clutched the gemstones so tightly, he could almost hear them grind together.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Leila’s shoulders relaxed and she lowered the gun.

And then it happened.

A figure darted forward with a wild screech and the next moment Leila was wrestling with Ana for control of the gun. She lost her hold on the weapon and it fell to the floor, sliding a little way towards Robert’s feet. He quickly bent down to pick it up.

A pain as sharp as a blade pierced his skull. He heard himself cry out as he collapsed to the floor, screwing his eyes tightly shut.

“DAD!” Kevin screamed.

Robert forced his eyes open; gritting his teeth against the pain, he tried to get to his feet. To his horror, he saw Christian Grey had picked up the gun and was pointing it at Leila.

“Don’t move!”

Everybody’s head turned to the figure standing in the doorway. She looked like she was in her late thirties or early forties, and she wore a thick Kevlar vest over a blue police uniform.

“Who are you?” Grey demanded.

“Officer Rayne of the Seattle Police. Christian Grey, you are under arrest. Drop the gun and put your hands above your head, now.”

OK, that was slightly anticlimactic. Sorry about that.

Just the epilogue to go now.