Come Break Me Down
Happy Rainy Saturday :)
Title: Into The Mystic
Rating: pg-13
Word Count: 1,927 (8/?)
Summary: There is a moment, a split-second, an exact pinpoint in time that splits the child with the person he will be forever...
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Author's Note: This veers from GH canon in May of 2011. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. ^_^
Previous
It’s unreal, like she’s not even there, with the gun just above her head. Ethan is looking at the man holding her, out of her line of vision, and she just stares straight ahead at the center of Ethan’s chest, biting her lip to keep from screaming out. The man’s grip tightens around her. She’s going to have bruises on her arms where his fingers are - she knows all too well what this feels like. But then she’s pitched forward and Ethan catches her with one arm, still with the gun trained on the man. “Are you all right?” he whispers. She doesn’t answer. “Go tie the rest of them up.”
“With what?”
“Anything!” Ethan snaps, not taking his eyes off the man. “The phone chord on the wall. Get their cell phones too.” Feeling disembodied, Kristina obeys, tying the three remaining men together, who are all remarkably cooperative. She goes back to Ethan, who hasn’t left the biggest men with the gun. “Take the money off the table too.”
Kristina carelessly stuffs as much of the cash she can grab into her bag. “Come on please, let’s just go,” her voice comes out in shaky sobs and she’s surprised she can even breathe at all right now. Ethan doesn’t move for a second and then shuffles the big man into the back office, locking him in from the outside.
“You made a big mistake, you son of a bitch,” one of the goons snarls at them as they slide past the writhing mass of bodies on the floor. Ethan responds by kicking him in the face , and though the other two are silent, he knocks them out too, and Kristina clamps her hand over her mouth.
“Let’s go,” he says to her. He hasn’t looked her in the eye since they were sitting at the table and when he finally does, she has to look away. He holds out his hand for her and she hesitates a second before she takes it.
***
Kristina had been in the interrogation room at the PCPD a handful of times before. Mac allowed her in to see her father once or twice and a few times she had to chase Molly out when they were visiting their mom’s office, when she was still with the D.A. But she had definitely never been in there by herself. It felt like a box. She couldn’t imagine a cell. Ethan had begged to be allowed to wait with her, and Lucky had to pull him aside to get him to cool it.
She still had blood caked up and down her sleeves and she stubbornly kept her arms down by her sides so she wouldn’t have to look at them. She couldn’t imagine ever feeling clean again.
She jumped a mile in the air when the door finally opened. It was her mother. Kristina crumpled immediately.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s all...it’s going to be okay,” Alexis had her in her arms and her voice was steady. Everything would be fine now that her mother was here.
“How did this happen?” Kristina jumped again at her father’s dark voice. She turned to look at Sonny, gulping hard at the look in his eyes. She’d seen that look before. It did not make her feel safe.
“Sonny, let’s just get her home,” Alexis was firm, her arms strong around her daughter. “We can worry about the rest-”
But they were interrupted by a commotion on the main floor and a woman burst into the interrogation room. Kristina clung to her mother instinctually.
The woman was well dressed but her eyes were wild with fury. “Ma’am, you can’t be in there,” a young officer following the woman tried to lead her back out of the room, but the woman jerked away from him and stuck her finger in Kristina’s face.
“You,” she spat, the word an accusation. “You’re the little bitch who murdered my daughter...And oh, you are going to pay, my dear.”
***
They’ve been driving along for some time- she’s not sure how long- when the floodgates open and Kristina lets it all out in gasping, strangled sobs. She cries so hard she can’t see straight, cries so hard she can barely breathe. Through the fog, she hears Ethan calling out her name.
He’s crying too.
It’s never occurred to her that he might be scared.
“Ethan, stop the car,” she manages to get out, swiping grimy tear tracks down her cheeks.
“What? Krissy, we can’t-”
“Stop the damn car!”
Her outburst seems to shock him into obedience, and he pulls over under the shelter of a thick bunch of gnarled old trees. The Mississippi river roars along next to them, and Kristina realizes that she still doesn’t know where they are. She gets out of the car, slamming the door behind her and takes in deep gulps of air, feeling her tears cool on her face.
He’s by her side a second later. “Krissy, this isn’t the best time to stop for a breath and rest.”
She turns to him. “You’ve had a gun this whole time?” It’s not really the kind of question that needs to be answered.
Ethan shoves his hair back from his face. It’s so long now. He looks wilder than ever. “I didn’t want you to be scared.”
Kristina throws her head back in hysterical laughter. Of all the things he could have said. “Ethan...you need to get rid of it.”
Anger flares quick and hot in his eyes. “You’re crazy. I’m not-”
“You’re not killing anyone for me!” She realizes that she’s nearly screaming at the top of her lungs, which maybe isn’t the best idea. She moves closer to him, but he backs away. “Ethan, if we kill someone...then all of...this will have been for nothing.”
He’s silent for a moment, and then takes a deep shaking breath. “Do you have any idea what would have happened tonight? He could have raped you...killed you, killed both of us.”
Kristina sucks air into her gut, trying to keep the panic at bay, but the fear is still too fresh. “Look...I can’t have you waving a gun around. I’ve been afraid of them all my life-”
“What?” His mouth twists in a mocking half-grin. “With your father, Sonny Corinthos-”
“Why do you think I’ve always been so afraid of them?” she snaps.
His face sobers in contrition. He pulls the gun out of his back pocket, turning it over in his hands and Kristina winces. He notices, and carefully sets it on the hood of the car. When he speaks again, his voice is calm. “I can’t let anything happen to you, you know that right?”
She carefully lays her hand on his arm. “I can’t believe I did this to you. You’ve ruined your life over me.”
“Is that what you think?” There’s something like anguish in his eyes and he places both hands on her shoulder. “Kristina, the night I found you...beaten on your living room floor...no, look at me.” Kristina hadn’t even realized she looked away, but that’s all it takes for images of that night to come flooding back to her. He turned her chin up to him. “That was the worst night of my life.”
“I know,” Kristina whimpers, tears blurring her vision again. “I will never, ever forgive myself for what I did, for accusing you like that-”
“That’s not what I meant!” Ethan’s hands tighten on her, and he immediately lets go. “Finding you on that floor, after what he did to you...It was the scariest, ugliest thing I’d ever seen, it still gives me nightmares, and...and I know I shouldn’t be saying this, whatever it did to me doesn’t begin to compare to what happened to you, but Kristina...I would die before I saw you hurt like that again, I would-”
She can’t listen to this any more though, not with this gutwrenching guilt in his eyes, guilt she can hardly believe he places on himself. She never knew. The only thing she can do is launch herself at him. The only thing he can do is catch her in mid-air.
The kiss is messy. It’s not the one she’s dreamed of for so long. It’s dark and desperate, and with her first taste of him, she is addicted. And he gives back as good as he gets, groaning into her mouth and crushing her against him, while she clings to his shoulders. He is hers.
Finally he pulls back, gasping, and lays his forehead against hers, still holding her tight around the waist, her feet several inches off the ground. “Do you think you can just kiss me any time you’re trying to get what you want?” But it’s him who returns to her mouth, shaping her lips with his own, softly, reverently. “Oh, angel...you can, can’t you?”
Setting her on her feet, he takes the gun in his hand and hurls it into the river. They both watch it disappear under the current.
***
Ethan woke up on Johnny’s couch with a pounding head. At some point after midnight last night, rather than listening to him ramble like an idiot, Johnny shoved a bottle of whiskey at him and told him to tell his problems to that.
Johnny was already awake, with a steaming mug of coffee. “Oh, I need one of those the size of my head,” Ethan groaned, attempting to sit up.
“Good intentions, huh?” Johnny grinned, handing him a cup.
Ethan took a small sip. “What’s going to happen to her?”
Johnny shrugged. “She’s going to be fine, her mother will hire an army of lawyers.”
Ethan rubbed his hand over his face. Everything hurt.
Johnny had been the one to call the cops when they found Kristina in a pool of Lisa Niles’s blood. Ethan was convinced it was the first - probably the last - time he would ever have such a response, but it did seem like the best idea at the time. It was Lucky who came in the squad car, took one look at the three of them and started reading her rights.
“Lucky, do you really need the cuffs?” Ethan had pleaded with his brother.
“There’s a dead body, if you didn’t notice,” Lucky answered, but he was gentle with Kristina. “It’s going to be all right, honey, just listen to me.”
Everyone- including himself- kept telling Kristina that it was going to be all right, and now she was sitting in county lock-up, accused of murder.
Johnny eyed him warily. “Do you think she did it?”
“Come on, man,” Ethan couldn’t be bothered to dignify that with more of a response. “How can you even say that?”
Johnny held up a hand. “Hey, I’m not saying Lisa didn’t have it coming...but...Ethan, what she said...”
When they found her, standing over Lisa, covered in blood and clutching the gun like a lifeline, she was muttering what did I do, what did I do to herself, over and over. Ethan shook his head. “Johnny, you’re my friend...Let’s be honest. Do you know what it takes to kill a person?” Johnny didn’t answer or allow any emotion to pass through his eyes but gave the slightest of nods. “Do you really think Kristina has that in her?”
Johnny gave him a small smile. “You’d be surprised what people have in them.”
Next
<<<333
Title: Into The Mystic
Rating: pg-13
Word Count: 1,927 (8/?)
Summary: There is a moment, a split-second, an exact pinpoint in time that splits the child with the person he will be forever...
Disclaimer: All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Author's Note: This veers from GH canon in May of 2011. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. ^_^
Previous
It’s unreal, like she’s not even there, with the gun just above her head. Ethan is looking at the man holding her, out of her line of vision, and she just stares straight ahead at the center of Ethan’s chest, biting her lip to keep from screaming out. The man’s grip tightens around her. She’s going to have bruises on her arms where his fingers are - she knows all too well what this feels like. But then she’s pitched forward and Ethan catches her with one arm, still with the gun trained on the man. “Are you all right?” he whispers. She doesn’t answer. “Go tie the rest of them up.”
“With what?”
“Anything!” Ethan snaps, not taking his eyes off the man. “The phone chord on the wall. Get their cell phones too.” Feeling disembodied, Kristina obeys, tying the three remaining men together, who are all remarkably cooperative. She goes back to Ethan, who hasn’t left the biggest men with the gun. “Take the money off the table too.”
Kristina carelessly stuffs as much of the cash she can grab into her bag. “Come on please, let’s just go,” her voice comes out in shaky sobs and she’s surprised she can even breathe at all right now. Ethan doesn’t move for a second and then shuffles the big man into the back office, locking him in from the outside.
“You made a big mistake, you son of a bitch,” one of the goons snarls at them as they slide past the writhing mass of bodies on the floor. Ethan responds by kicking him in the face , and though the other two are silent, he knocks them out too, and Kristina clamps her hand over her mouth.
“Let’s go,” he says to her. He hasn’t looked her in the eye since they were sitting at the table and when he finally does, she has to look away. He holds out his hand for her and she hesitates a second before she takes it.
***
Kristina had been in the interrogation room at the PCPD a handful of times before. Mac allowed her in to see her father once or twice and a few times she had to chase Molly out when they were visiting their mom’s office, when she was still with the D.A. But she had definitely never been in there by herself. It felt like a box. She couldn’t imagine a cell. Ethan had begged to be allowed to wait with her, and Lucky had to pull him aside to get him to cool it.
She still had blood caked up and down her sleeves and she stubbornly kept her arms down by her sides so she wouldn’t have to look at them. She couldn’t imagine ever feeling clean again.
She jumped a mile in the air when the door finally opened. It was her mother. Kristina crumpled immediately.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s all...it’s going to be okay,” Alexis had her in her arms and her voice was steady. Everything would be fine now that her mother was here.
“How did this happen?” Kristina jumped again at her father’s dark voice. She turned to look at Sonny, gulping hard at the look in his eyes. She’d seen that look before. It did not make her feel safe.
“Sonny, let’s just get her home,” Alexis was firm, her arms strong around her daughter. “We can worry about the rest-”
But they were interrupted by a commotion on the main floor and a woman burst into the interrogation room. Kristina clung to her mother instinctually.
The woman was well dressed but her eyes were wild with fury. “Ma’am, you can’t be in there,” a young officer following the woman tried to lead her back out of the room, but the woman jerked away from him and stuck her finger in Kristina’s face.
“You,” she spat, the word an accusation. “You’re the little bitch who murdered my daughter...And oh, you are going to pay, my dear.”
***
They’ve been driving along for some time- she’s not sure how long- when the floodgates open and Kristina lets it all out in gasping, strangled sobs. She cries so hard she can’t see straight, cries so hard she can barely breathe. Through the fog, she hears Ethan calling out her name.
He’s crying too.
It’s never occurred to her that he might be scared.
“Ethan, stop the car,” she manages to get out, swiping grimy tear tracks down her cheeks.
“What? Krissy, we can’t-”
“Stop the damn car!”
Her outburst seems to shock him into obedience, and he pulls over under the shelter of a thick bunch of gnarled old trees. The Mississippi river roars along next to them, and Kristina realizes that she still doesn’t know where they are. She gets out of the car, slamming the door behind her and takes in deep gulps of air, feeling her tears cool on her face.
He’s by her side a second later. “Krissy, this isn’t the best time to stop for a breath and rest.”
She turns to him. “You’ve had a gun this whole time?” It’s not really the kind of question that needs to be answered.
Ethan shoves his hair back from his face. It’s so long now. He looks wilder than ever. “I didn’t want you to be scared.”
Kristina throws her head back in hysterical laughter. Of all the things he could have said. “Ethan...you need to get rid of it.”
Anger flares quick and hot in his eyes. “You’re crazy. I’m not-”
“You’re not killing anyone for me!” She realizes that she’s nearly screaming at the top of her lungs, which maybe isn’t the best idea. She moves closer to him, but he backs away. “Ethan, if we kill someone...then all of...this will have been for nothing.”
He’s silent for a moment, and then takes a deep shaking breath. “Do you have any idea what would have happened tonight? He could have raped you...killed you, killed both of us.”
Kristina sucks air into her gut, trying to keep the panic at bay, but the fear is still too fresh. “Look...I can’t have you waving a gun around. I’ve been afraid of them all my life-”
“What?” His mouth twists in a mocking half-grin. “With your father, Sonny Corinthos-”
“Why do you think I’ve always been so afraid of them?” she snaps.
His face sobers in contrition. He pulls the gun out of his back pocket, turning it over in his hands and Kristina winces. He notices, and carefully sets it on the hood of the car. When he speaks again, his voice is calm. “I can’t let anything happen to you, you know that right?”
She carefully lays her hand on his arm. “I can’t believe I did this to you. You’ve ruined your life over me.”
“Is that what you think?” There’s something like anguish in his eyes and he places both hands on her shoulder. “Kristina, the night I found you...beaten on your living room floor...no, look at me.” Kristina hadn’t even realized she looked away, but that’s all it takes for images of that night to come flooding back to her. He turned her chin up to him. “That was the worst night of my life.”
“I know,” Kristina whimpers, tears blurring her vision again. “I will never, ever forgive myself for what I did, for accusing you like that-”
“That’s not what I meant!” Ethan’s hands tighten on her, and he immediately lets go. “Finding you on that floor, after what he did to you...It was the scariest, ugliest thing I’d ever seen, it still gives me nightmares, and...and I know I shouldn’t be saying this, whatever it did to me doesn’t begin to compare to what happened to you, but Kristina...I would die before I saw you hurt like that again, I would-”
She can’t listen to this any more though, not with this gutwrenching guilt in his eyes, guilt she can hardly believe he places on himself. She never knew. The only thing she can do is launch herself at him. The only thing he can do is catch her in mid-air.
The kiss is messy. It’s not the one she’s dreamed of for so long. It’s dark and desperate, and with her first taste of him, she is addicted. And he gives back as good as he gets, groaning into her mouth and crushing her against him, while she clings to his shoulders. He is hers.
Finally he pulls back, gasping, and lays his forehead against hers, still holding her tight around the waist, her feet several inches off the ground. “Do you think you can just kiss me any time you’re trying to get what you want?” But it’s him who returns to her mouth, shaping her lips with his own, softly, reverently. “Oh, angel...you can, can’t you?”
Setting her on her feet, he takes the gun in his hand and hurls it into the river. They both watch it disappear under the current.
***
Ethan woke up on Johnny’s couch with a pounding head. At some point after midnight last night, rather than listening to him ramble like an idiot, Johnny shoved a bottle of whiskey at him and told him to tell his problems to that.
Johnny was already awake, with a steaming mug of coffee. “Oh, I need one of those the size of my head,” Ethan groaned, attempting to sit up.
“Good intentions, huh?” Johnny grinned, handing him a cup.
Ethan took a small sip. “What’s going to happen to her?”
Johnny shrugged. “She’s going to be fine, her mother will hire an army of lawyers.”
Ethan rubbed his hand over his face. Everything hurt.
Johnny had been the one to call the cops when they found Kristina in a pool of Lisa Niles’s blood. Ethan was convinced it was the first - probably the last - time he would ever have such a response, but it did seem like the best idea at the time. It was Lucky who came in the squad car, took one look at the three of them and started reading her rights.
“Lucky, do you really need the cuffs?” Ethan had pleaded with his brother.
“There’s a dead body, if you didn’t notice,” Lucky answered, but he was gentle with Kristina. “It’s going to be all right, honey, just listen to me.”
Everyone- including himself- kept telling Kristina that it was going to be all right, and now she was sitting in county lock-up, accused of murder.
Johnny eyed him warily. “Do you think she did it?”
“Come on, man,” Ethan couldn’t be bothered to dignify that with more of a response. “How can you even say that?”
Johnny held up a hand. “Hey, I’m not saying Lisa didn’t have it coming...but...Ethan, what she said...”
When they found her, standing over Lisa, covered in blood and clutching the gun like a lifeline, she was muttering what did I do, what did I do to herself, over and over. Ethan shook his head. “Johnny, you’re my friend...Let’s be honest. Do you know what it takes to kill a person?” Johnny didn’t answer or allow any emotion to pass through his eyes but gave the slightest of nods. “Do you really think Kristina has that in her?”
Johnny gave him a small smile. “You’d be surprised what people have in them.”
Next
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