His Hope

Part 12: Eloise

12

They spent most of their afternoon curled up together on the couch. They watched a movie and Louisa showed him a few of her favorite stories she had written. He sensed a lot of pain in them and held her closer than before as he read each one, and then read it again, but mostly they just talked. They talked about his parents and their relationship and she could see the respect he had for his father. They decided to just warm up their forgotten breakfast and have their pancakes for lunch. By 3 o'clock Louisa decided she needed to get dressed and left him to freshen up and get ready for the day.

Xavier sighed, running his hand through his hair once more when she was out of the room. He had been wondering all day what would be the best course of action to take, now that he had gotten Louisa involved. He picked up his phone, dialing Sebastian's number, before holding it up to his ear.

"Hey man, how's everything going?" Sebastian's voice rang through the speaker.

"I decided not to tell her what's going on, I don't want to worry her unless it's absolutely necessary," Xavier said quietly.

"That's probably best for now, "Sebastian trailed off and Xavier sighed.

"I was thinking, if he hasn't run yet there has to be a reason. After he got off before he had to of felt untouchable, and then what happened after I returned home? That can't be a coincidence." Xavier said as he remembered what had kept him from returning the day after he met Louisa.

"But, why drag Louisa into it? Why make it personal, it can't just be to piss you off?" Sebastian said.

Xavier rubbed his tired eyes fighting with that thought. "Are we sure though? I mean everything we've done so far has been just short of pissing in his cornflakes. Maybe I made it personal and he's just returning the favor." He glared at the clock the hung on the wall across from him, they hadn't had enough evidence to put him away for good and Xavier had purposely pushed him. Doing everything he could to trip him up, make one mistake and the sick son of a bitch was behind bars for the rest of his life.

"Xavier, I know where your mind is going and you can't think like that. You haven't done anything a good cop wouldn't do. You know what he did, so do I, hell Santa Claus even knows it, and you were only searching for a way to prove that. Louisa was an accident, a good accident clearly, but you didn't purposefully set her in his sights. So, don't waste time worrying about what you should have done, and let's figure out what the fuck we're going to do now." Sebastian said, his voice increasing the more he talked.

Xavier nodded in agreement, "you're right." They were going to figure this out, for her sake. She was the most important thing now and he would be damned if he let that man lay a single slimy finger on his girl. "I'm going to ask her to come back with us," he decided.

"Are you sure? I agree she needs to be kept safe, but if you're not willing to tell her what's going on, how do you plan on getting her to agree to that? You guys just met." Sebastian reminded his friend.

"I'll figure it out," Xavier said, determined. He wouldn't be able to do anything if he was worried about her being here, alone. There was no way he was letting her out of his sight.

"Alright man, call me soon, good luck," Sebastian said, before hanging up the phone.

Xavier shoved his phone back in his pocket and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. Now he only had to convince her to come home with him, easy enough right?

***

"How you would feel about possibly coming home with me?" He said quietly, observing her carefully, awaiting her reaction. She choked on the ice cream that she just took a large bite off of, and he grimaced patting her back.