Who: Neil and Chloe What: Mugging aftermath. Where: Hospital → hotel room. When: Backdated to before things. Warnings/Rating: None.
Unlike most of the time when it came to Chloe, she had truly had no ulterior motives when she called Neil from the hospital's emergency room. It was an act of desperation, the only number she could remember without help of her cell phone, an act born of fear and a sense of vulnerability that she loathed feeling. But the mugger, in all of his violence and lack of consideration for other people, had brought her back to that place she had been after leaving the group. Scared, vulnerable, and more than a little unsteady in her thoughts and stance. It wasn't a comfortable place to be in, by any means.
A prescription for painkillers that she could fill in the morning, a shot that left her tipsy and unsteady, and instructions on how to clean and change the bandage on her left cheek, and Chloe was sitting in the emergency room's waiting room, mussed and thoroughly unlike herself as she sat there. She might have fidgeted if she had had the energy, but as it was, she was a quiet thing as she settled in the hard plastic chair, curled into it with her good cheek resting against the back, half-dozing, half-relaxing in the haze of the painkillers.
Maybe this was a decision that might be looked back upon and deemed a mistake, but Neil was sick and tired of trying to do the right thing and stay on the non-asshole side of the line only to find that, despite best intentions, he fucked up everything he touched anyway. Sam had moved out to the safehouse or whatever, and the driver who’d taken her there had only returned with a message that she was fine. Right, fine. Okay. He’d told her a thousand times that he wanted her with him, that he cared, but it was never enough. Maybe the simple truth was that she deserved someone who was enough, because really, their relationship had more downs than ups and he was the one at the wheel in terms of blame being cast. He was the bad guy; he understood that. And yeah, maybe going to pick up Chloe from the hospital only solidified his status as the villain, but this wasn’t about that. It wasn’t about old feelings, or finding a way to soothe the sting of Sam’s absence.
Whatever others might think, this was simply about the fact that Chloe was a friend, and she’d been mugged, and he wasn’t going to just leave her in the hospital with nothing and tell her sorry, she’d have to figure it all out on her own.
Joey was still crashing at his place, which made bringing Chloe there out of the question, but he’d already made some calls on the way to the hospital and had found a couple of nice hotel rooms (paid by him, of course) for her to stay in for however long she needed. When Neil did something, he didn’t do it half-assed. Instead of asking for Chloe at the main desk, he headed straight for the waiting room. She might not have looked like her usual coiffed self, but he still recognized her immediately; he didn’t like what he saw. It had nothing to do with her appearance, and everything to do with the fact that some asshole had done this to her. Someone had hurt her. Someone had made her cry.
Neil approached quietly, and he dropped into the seat beside her before placing a gentle, almost cautious hand on her shoulder. “Hey.”
It was a large testament to the level of painkillers and anti-anxiety medications running through her system that Chloe didn't stir as Neil approached and dropped into the seat beside her. The world was fuzzy, warm, wrapped up in a blanket that dulled her senses and made everything hard to pick apart. But the moment that hand, as well-meaning as it was, landed on her shoulder, Chloe stirred with a start, her head lifting quickly enough to make her neck twinge, immediately turning towards Neil with a hand pressed out towards him. Dark eyes were wide, pupils constricted to tiny pinpricks of black. The scream of fright died in her throat as she recognized Neil, and almost immediately, all that fright and anxiety died away into something soft and vulnerable, her hand drawn back very slowly, trembling. "Neil," she said quietly in her soft English accent, drawing her hand back towards her chest, fingers curled in a loose fist. "I'm sorry. You surprised me." Her smile was weak, tremulous, and she felt weak as well, ready to shatter into a million pieces at the drop of a hat. She hated feeling this way, broken and vulnerable, every movement made near her making her twitch and shift with anxiety.
If there had been anyone else that she could have called, she probably would have. But Neil was safe, trustworthy, and there weren't many other people in the city that she felt fell into that category any longer.
The way she reacted to his touch made him curse himself internally, because how fucking stupid could he be? She’d just been mugged and here he was, practically sneaking up on her without any preamble. Neil was immediately apologetic, withdrawing his hand despite the fact that she relaxed once she recognized him. “Sorry,” he said, expression pained. “My fault. Should’ve thought first.” He couldn’t remember ever having seen Chloe like this; she was always so confident and self-assured, like nothing was capable of scratching beneath the surface deeply enough to have any real effect. In a way, she reminded him of Sam. Sam, who he’d only made worse, who he couldn’t put back together but could only break further. He didn’t want to, though. He didn’t want to destroy everyone and everything he touched, but it just seemed to happen anyway.
Asking if she was okay seemed monumentally stupid, so he just held out a hand instead, giving her the option of whether or not she wanted to accept it. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
“You don’t have to apologise,” Chloe said quietly, and even her voice was different, subdued in a way that was completely unnatural for the English woman. She didn’t say anything for a long moment, gaze sweeping over his face, slow and lethargic, but when he reached out his hand towards her, she didn’t hesitate to lay her hand in his own. Her fingers were hot to the touch, her entire person warmer than normal. “Best idea that I’ve heard all night,” she responded, getting up to her feet with only the smallest amount of unsteadiness in her stance, eyes closing for a moment as she held his hand tighter, balance and steadiness resting there.
It was infuriating, this world that had started to crumble around her, the unsteadiness she was feeling all because some ass in dark clothes thought he had the right to victimize her. Just thinking about it got her going, but it wasn’t anger that fueled her right then but tears, sadness, a hurt that she was wholly unfamiliar with. She had had her struggles through the years, but nothing like this, nothing that had twisted her up on the inside in a way that she didn’t know how to handle. Not a single step had been taken before the tears started falling, her face reddening, and without saying a single word, she pressed in towards him, holding onto him wherever she could get a grip, her forehead pressed into his shoulder, sobs shaking slender shoulders.
“Yeah, I do,” he said simply, when she told him he didn’t have to apologize. She’d just been through something traumatic and Neil should have known better than to sneak up on her like he had, even if it hadn’t been intentional. The concern in his expression deepened as she looked at him, and he didn’t like how warm she felt when she accepted his hand, but insisting she stay at the hospital overnight probably wouldn’t help and he didn’t want her staying somewhere she didn’t want to stay. Besides, everyone hated hospitals. That was practically a rule of life. He smiled when she agreed, like he wasn’t worried as hell over her, and he had to physically refrain from doing anything other than tightening his hold on her hand to support her when she stood, the unsteadiness in her posture making his concern spike even higher. But she recovered, at least enough to stand upright, which was good. Better than nothing.
His primary objective was to get her somewhere safe and quiet, where she could rest, but they barely made it two steps to the door before the tears started falling. Crying women had always been Neil’s weakness,but it was even worse when the woman in question happened to be someone he cared about. Maybe he wasn’t in love with her anymore, and maybe their relationship had been long ago, but he still cared. He would always care. He wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed against his shoulder, running his hands up and down her back in a soothing motion. “It’s okay,” he told her quietly, as though they were the only two in the waiting room. “I’m here. You’re going to be fine.”
It took her a long while to calm down, for her breaths to come a little easier, for the tears to stop falling, but eventually they did, and Chloe found herself more tired than she was when everything first happened. She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked up towards him, eyes bloodshot, the beginnings of a bruise blossoming beneath the bandage on her cheek. Nothing was said for a long while, but eventually she dropped her gaze away from his eyes and started to pull back, a certain sadness filling her up. "Sorry," she said softly, her voice quiet, uncertain. One hand came up to brush at her face, wiping the tears away, and Chloe turned away from him, winding her arms around herself in a hug. "Where did you end up parking?" she asked quietly, not wanting to show her weakness to him again, not wanting to have what she couldn't.
Comfort wasn’t his strong suit, but Neil didn’t pull away even after the flow of tears had stemmed and her breathing began to even out again. In his mind, he wasn’t doing anything other than attempting to be there for a friend, someone he cared about a great deal, and his own presence was the only thing he had to offer. His hands stilled on her back when she looked up at him, and while he felt like he should say something no words came. There was only silence as their eyes locked, and she was the one to break his gaze and pull away. “Don’t be sorry,” he said, hands dropping back down to his sides as she wrapped her arms around herself. “I parked pretty close. Figured the less of a walk, the better.” He hesitated before rising from his chair, and after a moment, held out a hand.
She appreciated the consideration he offered, and even though there was more that she wanted from him, she wasn't so brash right then as to ask for it. But the hand that was offered, yes, she would take that, and she did, reaching out to curl her fingers in against his own, warm to the touch, and it gave her more than a small measure of security to feel him there. "You've always been thoughtful like that," she said softly as they left the emergency room waiting area and into the warm Vegas night. Chloe tilted her head up towards the sky for a moment, searching for something, anything, to give her some guidance right then, but there was nothing there. There was never anything there. "I don't deserve it, but you've always been thoughtful." She looked back down, gaze on the ground for a moment as she let out a sigh, fingers giving his a squeeze in a manner that was natural and unthought of.
Thoughtful wasn’t a word Neil would use to describe himself even on a good day, and he gave her a sidelong glance as they left the hospital and stepped outside. “You deserve more than you think you do,” he told her, and he meant it. Their time was over, but he still cared about her and wanted her to be happy. He wanted her to find someone who treated her right, who loved her as much as she loved him and could give her everything she needed. He wasn’t that person, but he wanted her to find whoever was, whoever could be. “I’m not that thoughtful,” he added with a chuckle, returning her squeeze with one of his own. It was friendly, reassuring, nothing more. As promised, his car was close, and he already had a hotel room lined up for a couple of nights, more if she should need it. “You’ve got a place to stay for as long as you need it, okay? Just let me know.” He released her hand as they neared the car, but only so he could open the passenger side door for her; it was an unthinking thing, not intentional or planned at all.
Chloe was quiet as she slid into the passenger seat, a hand shooting out to steady herself when the world took a serious dive to the side. A drawn in breath, fingers clenched tight against the seat, her eyes squeezed together tightly, it took a moment for things to even out again, and when they finally did, she turned to look over towards Neil, a faint smile on her lips. "Only a night or two. I just want to get access to my place, but not until they change the locks. Last thing I need is that guy finding where I live and coming after me." And that thought, singular and cold, crept down her spine until she shivered, suddenly realising how bad things could get, how bad things could have gotten.
She looked out over Neil's shoulder towards the parking lot beyond, chewing at her lip for a moment before she reached out towards him, fingers tangling in the sleeve of his shirt. "Can we go? The - sorry. The parking lot. It's freaking me out." She could see shifting shadows, and never before had they felt as ominous as they did right then.
Neil slid into the driver’s seat, and he closed the door, but he didn’t turn the car on right away. Key in the ignition, he waited, offering a reassuring smile in return when she looked over at him. “Yeah, sure,” he said. “However long you need.” At the mention of the mugger finding out where she lived, his expression darkened with a mixture of concern and anger at the man who’d attacked her. “That won’t happen,” he insisted. “He’s not going to come after you. They’ll find him, the cops, and you’ll be fine.” Not that he had a great deal of faith in law enforcement, but it was more for her benefit than his own.
When she asked if they could go, he nodded without hesitation. “Of course,” he told her. Another reassuring smile, and he turned the key, backing carefully out of his parking space and maneuvering out of the lot. The drive to the hotel wasn’t far either, also intentional, and he didn’t say much as he drove, glancing over at her every so often to make sure she was still okay.
Quiet wasn't something that was often used to describe Chloe, and anytime one found her in such a state, there was either something very wrong or she was up to something. But she wasn't up to anything right then, lost in her own thoughts, the drugs making the world slower than she preferred it, but there was nothing to do about it right then. "They're not going to look that hard into this, Neil," Chloe said quietly, pressing her forehead against the cool glass of the passenger side window. "They told me as such. They might find my purse somewhere, but chances are quite good that the person who did it will never be found. It's a comforting thought, knowing things like this can happen without any sort of punishment." Her words trailed away as she wound an arm around her middle, curled in towards the door, away from him, during the short drive.
When the vehicle finally came to a stop, Chloe didn't move from where she had curled up, her eyes closed and her hand curled into a loose fist, seemingly lost the world of sleep in those scant few moments spent on the drive.
Like most people, Neil didn’t have much faith in the cops. Yeah, sometimes they did their jobs and justice prevailed, but life pretty much sucked and a lot of the time the bad guys got away with it and the good guys just couldn’t keep up. Hell, he had a bonafide villain in his head who had and continued to get away with literal murder. “To serve and protect,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Listen, Chloe, even if they don’t find this asshole, he won’t hurt you again. I promise you that.” Maybe his word didn’t mean much, but he meant it, and he glanced over at her again as she curled away from him.
By the time they reached the hotel silence had engulfed the vehicle. He parked, turned off the engine, and then looked over at her sleeping form. Once upon a time, he’d loved this woman, but now all he felt was the sort of fondness he felt for his siblings and the few friends he did have. “Hey,” he said quietly, reaching over to gently nudge her shoulder. “We’re here.”
Chloe knew that Neil meant what he said, but the words were only a small amount of comfort to her at the moment. But she held onto them regardless, as she dozed there in the passenger seat, until the car finally came to a stop, the engine stilling and going quiet. She didn't stir until his fingers nudged at her shoulder, jerking awake with a start, her breath catching for a moment as she turned towards him, one hand grasping at the center console with a white-knuckled grip. It took her a few moments to calm, to realise where she was, and only then did she relax, dark-gaze sweeping up to meeting Neil's gaze. "Sorry," she said softly, managing some sort of smile despite everything, settling back into the seat with a hand pressed to her forehead. "I'm just feeling jumpy. Would-" She paused, dropping her hand to the side as she glanced over towards him once more. "Would it be too much to ask you to stay the night with me, Neil?" Chloe's voice was quiet, hesitant, worried about asking.
This time Neil was better prepared for her reaction, and so he didn’t immediately draw back. Instead he waited, watching her calmly until she realized where she was and managed to relax. “Don’t apologize,” he said, a gentle reminder. It was understandable that she would be jumpy for a long time afterward. Her request made him pause, however, and there was obvious hesitation in his expression as he looked back at her. On the one hand, he realized how this would seem to others. How it would seem to Sam. He should, he knew, say no. But nothing was going to happen, and Chloe seemed so nervous, so unlike herself, that he couldn’t imagine this being some sort of ploy to win him back. She’d sleep in her bedroom, he’d sleep on the couch; no big deal. He couldn’t just leave her alone in some strange hotel room like this, after all.
“No, not at all,” he told her, trying to shove down a spike of guilt that came with the words. He wasn’t agreeing to have sex with her, dammit. “I’ll take the couch. How’s that?”
Chloe knew it was a lot to ask, what with everything that had gone on, their past and whatever it was the future was holding for them, but for once it wasn't about trying to win him back. It was about feeling scared and vulnerable and him being the only person in the city that she really trusted like that. When his answer came, she wasn't disappointed at the offer of taking the couch; it was more than she had expected, honestly, so she nodded her head with a small smile, reaching up to take his hand in her own, giving his fingers a tight squeeze. "Thank you, Neil. I really- it means a lot to me."
She didn't say a lot more as they got out of the car and checked in, fingers curled around a lock of hair, a nervous, uncertain gesture that was wholly unlike her, and she knew it. It wasn't an act, a ploy to get sympathy. It brought her back to after leaving the group, when the threats on her life were very real and acted upon, and it wasn't a place she wanted to visit again. With the door shut behind them, locked, the bolt thrown, she sat down on the edge of the bed, fingers twined together tight enough that her knuckles were white with the pressure. She didn't say anything, but her jaw was tense, the tendons in her neck standing out with the pressure.
Yeah, no, Neil just didn't have it in him to turn her down even if he should have. He smiled again when she squeezed his fingers, solid and reassuring. "You'd do the same for me," he said simply. Maybe she'd schemed and manipulated in the past, but just then he saw not an ounce of that Chloe anywhere in sight. Not that he'd ever been very good at seeing that side of her, but that was beside the point. He took the lead from there, checking into the room and getting her up and settled, but as he moved to leave the room to give her some privacy he saw how tense she looked and paused, torn. "Hey," he said, quietly, sitting down beside her. "It's okay. You're safe now. Just try to get some rest? I'll be right out on the couch if you need anything."
There was just the tiniest glance to the side when Neil sat down on the bed beside her, but his presence wasn't even enough to draw a smile to her lips just then. "I shouldn't ask," she started, looking back down at her clasped hands, her shoulders set in a tense rigidity. "You've done enough already, but..." Chloe paused, her lips pressed together in a tight line before she turned to look back towards him, pale except where the bruising darkened her cheek. "Stay here? Just until I fall asleep?" It wasn't the way she wanted to have him spend the night with her, but right then, it was the only thing she needed. Having him in the other room wasn't quite enough. "Just sit with me until I can fall asleep? It shouldn't be long. The painkillers..." She laughed a little, but it had no warmth to it. "I'm sorry, Neil. I am." It was an apology for a lot of things, and the sorrow in her voice was almost palpable.
Oh, hell. Once again, Neil was pretty sure his answer should be no, but when he looked at her he didn’t see any scheming or ulterior motives. He just saw someone who was scared, vulnerable, and who needed a friend. And that’s all he was; a friend. Maybe, though, he should have realized what was so clear to him wasn’t necessarily as clear to everyone else. “Okay,” he agreed, his voice softening. “Don’t be sorry. I’ll stay until you fall asleep.” He gestured towards the bed. “Lie down, and I won’t leave until you’re asleep, alright?”
His agreement soothed whatever worry had etched itself onto her face, and when he gestured to the bed, she didn't protest at his direction to lay down. Curling up on her side, she tilted her head to look towards him, reaching out to grasp his arm wherever she could, fingers giving him a gentle squeeze. "Thank you, Neil," Chloe said softly, and there were no machinations present in her voice. And then, with her hand still tight against his arm, brown eyes closed, and it was only moments before he breathing evened out as sleep overtook her, safe with one of her best friends at her side.
After a moment’s hesitation, he shifted back onto the bed and leaned against the headboard. Just until she fell asleep, Neil told himself, and then he’d crash on the couch. “You’re welcome,” he said softly, briefly covering her hand with his before letting it fall away. He watched as her eyes closed, as even breathing indicated that she’d begun to slip into sleep, but he didn’t pull away immediately. No, he didn’t want to wake her up, and so he waited until he was certain that she was deeply asleep before gently disentangling himself from her grip and slipping carefully off the bed. He paused to cover her with the blanket before leaving the bedroom, but sleep didn’t come easily for him, and he spent most of the night on the couch wide awake, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for dawn.