EIGHTEEN

❛ I was expecting all that lovey dovey shite you see in the movies. ❜

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present.

LEMON ROARS as the front of the tangerine delivery van sends the Prince flying along the road while Tangerine rolls his eyes at the amount of pleasure that the man in the driver's seat got from killing her. The two brother's had borrowed the van from a local man a few miles from the small village, and after a long argument, Lemon was allowed behind the wheel while Tangerine constantly shouted at him to quicken up.

Tangerine's throwing his door open before the van has even has chance to come to a complete stop. Leaving the passenger side door swinging, Tangerine breaks off into a sprint, his dress shoes hitting against the concrete road while his hair blows in his blood covered face. He passes houses, the slightly traumatised occupants looking through their windows at him as he races towards the chaos of the train crash.

"VANESSA!" He bellows her name once he finally reaches the crash site, his eyes flying all over the rubble, searching for a limp bleeding body under the bricks. Like usual, he's expecting the worst. He throws lose objects around frantically, his heart nearly beating out of his chest, "Ness!"

Lemon is quickly behind him, rushing around other piles of train while he calls for his sister in law.

"Hurry the fuck up, Lemon," Tangerine breathes, "We have to fucking find her."

"I'm. . . here, you daft cunt," Vanessa's croaky voice carries across the wreck to her husband.

At the familiar sound, Tangerine's body stills for a moment before he's whipping around and his eyes land on his bruised and battered wife. In an instant, he's sprinting towards her. Once he reaches her, his arms circle around her body and bring her to his chest. Slowly, they lower down to the floor, Vanessa sobbing quietly into her husband's shoulder while his hand grips the back of her head and he buries his face in her dark hair.

"Jesus fucking christ," He whispers, "You're okay. You're alive."

She chuckles through her tears, "I am, so are you," She pulls away from him, moving one of her blood stained hands from her wound to cup one of his cheeks.

His relieved eyes roam her body, stopping on her side and the warmth he was just experiencing quickly dissipates and is replaced with dread. Quickly, his hands leave her for a moment before he clamps them over the hole in her abdomen that he had momentarily forgotten about.

"Lemon!" He shouts, eyes flicking back up to his wife's face and he watches as her eyelids start to flicker, "No, love. Stay awake, okay? You need to keep your eyes open for me."

Vanessa tries her hardest, and she lets out a cough, blood passing her lips and rolling down her chin. Tangerine curses lowly, his head whipping over his shoulder in search for his brother.

"Lemon! Help me!" He begs.

Lemon rushes over, dropping to their side and his hands hover over Vanessa's body while he tries to think of what to do. He looks over to his brother's face, noticing as tears stroll down his cheeks, "Tan—"

"Just fucking do something, Lemon," Tangerine's voice cracks, and he swallows thickly when Vanessa's eyes fall closed completely, "No, no, no. Nessa. Come on, Ness. Wake up. Please. Fuck."

Lemon pulls a hand down his face, a single tear falling from his own eye, "We have to get her to a hospital. We have to get her to the van now."

Tangerine nods quickly, "Okay, yeah," He hands move from her side so that he's able to lift her from the floor in bridal style, her head falling back limply and he shuffles her slightly so her temple rests against his chest instead.

Lemon's never seen his brother in pieces like this before. Sure, he's seen him cry once or twice, but usually Tangerine's quite good at masking his sorrows. Though, it seems with his dying wife is his arms, he can't be bothered to mask his terror anymore.

Tangerine's eyes never leave Vanessa's body as he rushes quickly away from the crash site and to the tangerine van. He can feel Ladybug and the Japanese father and son watching as he runs past, but he doesn't bother glancing their way or sparing them a moment. He probably should thank them for not leaving her in the rubble somewhere, but his throat is closed and he can't form any words other than his wife's name.

Lemon slides into the driver's seat, while Tangerine jumps into the back of the van. He slides down the wall and cradles Vanessa in his arm. He rocks them both back and forth while his tears fall down onto her body. He can feel the van moving underneath him, but he's too focussed on Vanessa to care about anything else.

"Ness," He cries, mumbling against her forehead, "Fucking wake up."

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     VANESSA'S EYES fly open, shaking her from the nightmare she'd been stuck in for what felt like an eternity. As a bright light shines down at her, she squints awkwardly before glancing around the white room, recognising it as a hospital. She's laid out on a bed, with an IV drip coming from her bruised arm. She can hear the beats of her heart from a monitor beside  her head.

She slowly turns her neck, feeling slightly stiff as she does so. Her eyes fall upon the closed door of her room before she moves her head to the left side of her body. Suddenly, all the stress of her current situation floats from her body when she sees her husband slouched uncomfortably in an armchair by her bed, his head thrown back as he snores. A suit jacket is thrown over the arm of the chair and the first few buttons of his shirt are undone, revealing his gold necklace and the gentle rise and fall of his chest.

Vanessa smirks at his state, and she looks down at her ring finger, feeling the absence of her wedding ring, but as her gaze moves to the bedside table she sighs with relief, seeing it set up on the wooden surface.

"Oi," She attempts to speak, her voice coming out a small whisper. She swallows before coughing thickly, that noise alone being enough to her husband to shoot up in his seat.

His eyes go wide when they meet his wife's and quickly he's jumping to her side, his hands cupping hers, "You scared the fucking life out of me."

She smiles, shrugging, "Like to keep you on your toes."

He chuckles, "Well, please find different ways to do it next time. Don't get fucking shot again."

"Hm. I think I need to be stabbed again now, to keep the pattern consistent."

"Ah, yeah. The stabbing scars you told me were from your horrible childhood," His head tilts before he pulls away to grab her his glass of water.

"We can catch up on all my lies when I'm not in a fucking hospital bed," She hums, sending him a thanks as she takes the glass of water and shakily raises it to her lips.

"You've been in a fucking hospital bed for two months, Ness," Tangerine grumbles, stressfully running his hands through his curls as he remembers how hard the last few months had been.

Nearly choking on her water, Vanessa stares at her husband in astonishment, "Two months from one gunshot?"

He nods, "Yeah, but one gunshot that you were bleeding out of for quite a long fucking time!"

"Well, that's hardly my fault, is it?" She hisses at him, "You're the idiotic man who decided to jump out of a fucking bullet train!"

"Into water!" He argues.

"That you didn't know was there!"

He rolls his eyes, "You know, I had this image of what it would be like when you eventually woke up. I was expecting all that lovey dovey shite you see in the movies."

She snorts at the idea before shaking her head, "And are we a fucking lovey dovey couple? No."

He frowns, "I like to think we are."

Vanessa laughs, throwing her head back and Tangerine smiles at the familiar sound. He'd missed hearing her voice, even if she was taking the piss out of him.

"Lemon doing okay?" Vanessa questions.

Tangerine shrugs, "Course he bloody is. He's been having a whale of a time doing most missions by himself for the last two months. Well, actually, Ladybug's been trailing along with us occasionally, don't fucking ask me why."

Vanessa brows shoot up, "He's actually quite nice. He's the one who dragged me from the crash."

"Yeah," Tangerine's tongue clicks, "He's also the one who shot you, so. . ."

"You're such a fucking pessimist, Tan," Vanessa groans.

His jaw drops, "He bloody shot you. I have every reason to be a fucking pessimist in this situation."

Vanessa chuckles, not bothering to fuel his pessimism anymore, "You spoken to James at all? I'm sure he's been wanting to know where I've been."

Sighing, Tangerine pulls the chair closer to her bed and slides down into it before pulling his hand over his face, "I spoke to him, yeah. He misses you."

Narrowing her eyes at him, Vanessa asks, "What did you do?"

His eyes grow wide at the accusatory question, "I didn't do owt."

"Tangerine," She scowls, "Please tell me you didn't fucking murder my brother."

"Murder?" He scoffs, waving her off, "No."

She sits up slightly, but not far enough to awaken the pain of her torso, "What did you beat him up for?"

"How did y. . ." He groans at the look behind her eyes, telling him that his face gave it away, "Alright. I beat him up from giving you that fucking job on the train."

Vanessa drops her head back against the pillow before she raises both hands to cover her face, "That so petty, you know that, right? Plus, I took that job 'cause I knew you would be on it! He hadn't nowt to do with it."

"I fucking know that now. James told me that after I. . . Look, at the time, I didn't know!" He snarls.

"You're unbelievable," Vanessa laughs.

"But you still fucking love me," He winks.

. . .

i hate this chapter

i'm not sure if i should make this the last chapter or continue it

i'm fucking injured from football again lmao. my foot's sprained 👍👍

also am i the only one who didn't the alert today at 3pm lol

never proof read