The Adventure Continues

[abrightboy]

For thatsfascinating.



The villa Malcolm rented was in the Languedoc, not far from Marseilles, south of Avignon. It was a very historic region, though Malcolm was particularly not interested in visiting Marseilles again. There was a charming village nearby the villa and if they were going to go to an historic city for a day, he'd rather make the trip over to Montpellier, where he'd never been at all, much less with Dr Whitly.

The villa had six bedrooms. As the driver brought their luggage inside the bright and spacious main room, Malcolm handed him some folded Euros and thanked him and shut the door behind him.

"First choice of a room is yours," he told Edrisa with a smile. "But you might want to explore first."

Comments

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa giggled a little as Malcolm scooped her up, holding on tight. She returned the kiss and beamed at him.

"Thank you! It's so good to be home."

She turned around to look at the apartment, taking it all in, a place that was of course deeply familiar but at the same time strangely new.

"It's ours," she sighed happily. Sure, they had been living together for awhile, but it had still in some ways always been Malcolm's place. Now it was theirs.

She reached for his hand, threading her fingers through his.

[abrightboy]

"It's been ours for a while," he told her. Maybe not on paper but... he hadn't seen it any other way in a long time. He used her hand to tug her into his arms to give her a kiss. "But it's nice to be home," he conceded.

[thatsfascinating]

She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back warmly, taking her time. When the kiss finally broke she pulled back, took his hands in hers, and tugged him toward the bed with a playful smile.

[abrightboy]

He was guided easily, pulling her into his arms as they stepped up on the riser, about to tug her down onto the bed with him.... when he heard keys in the lock.

He sighed heavily, letting go of her with one arm to run a hand through his hair, but keeping the other around her waist.

"We've been home for five minutes, Mother," he said wearily as she walked through the door with a click click of her stilettos.

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa turned at the sound, leaving her arm around his waist as well and squeezing him, giving him an encouraging smile. Maybe it was good she was here so soon! They had so much to tell her.

"Hey, it's good to see you!" she said, smiling at Mrs. Whitly.

Then Ainsley walked in behind her mother, and Edrisa blinked.

"Wow, both of you! Quite a welcome home!"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm was watching their faces, though.

"This isn't a welcome home," he said grimly. "This is a family meeting." He sighed. "What is it?"

[thatsfascinating]

Jessica and Ainsley barely even looked at Edrisa as they approached, focusing on Malcolm.

"It's about Eve," Ainsley said. "The human rights attorney mom's been working with."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm had met her a few times at Jessica's house and his mother had made no secret that was the sort of woman she thought he should be dating, but she hadn't said anything since Christmas dinner.

He shrugged expansively. "What about her?"

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa frowned. She remembered Malcolm mentioning the woman, as well as his mother's pressure for Malcolm to date her.

Ainsley glanced at her mother, then back at Malcolm. "There was something about her that just wasn't right, so I've been doing some digging. And...her name is Eve Blanchard, and she is a human rights attorney, but..." Another glance at her mother. "We have reason to believe she's been trying to infiltrate the family to get information on the Surgeon and his victims."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looked at Edrisa and then at Jessica and Ainsley.

"...For what reason? The Surgeon's victims are a matter of public record. Easy for an attorney to find anything she wants. What could we possibly offer her?"

[thatsfascinating]

"There is one victim," Ainsley said, her eyes on Malcolm's, "that the world only found out about recently."

"And only one person in the world who knows anything about her," Mrs. Whitly sighed.

Edrisa frowned, thinking about that...then her eyes widened. "The girl in the box. You're talking about the girl in the box."

[abrightboy]

"But the only person who really knows anything about her is dad," Malcolm pointed out. "What does she want with us?"

He was trying not to give his mother too pointed a look, considering how hard she pushed for him to date her.

He didn't consider that a person who had information about the girl in the box that nobody else did was him. He saw her face. He could identify her.

[thatsfascinating]

"You know about her," Edrisa said softly.

Mrs. Whitly gave Edrisa a bare nod, then looked at Malcolm again, her expression stricken. "I should never have suggested you date her. I should have known something was wrong."

[abrightboy]

"So... wait." He looked from Edrisa to Jessica to Edrisa to Jessica. "Was she expressing some sort of interest in me?"

He'd thought it was all his mother playing matchmaker with the nearest convenient 'suitable' woman.

"We've barely spoken."

[thatsfascinating]

Jessica sighed. "When you met I noticed a spark between you, so when she started asking about you, I wound up telling her a lot of things. More than I should have." She rolled her eyes. "Me and my famous taste in cohorts..."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm frowned faintly.

"....Wh-what did you tell her about me?" he asked.

[thatsfascinating]

"She already knew so much," she said. "And we had spoken at length about the girl in the box after I went on television with that necklace."

"So what does she want?" Edrisa asked with a small shake of her head. "Why didn't she just tell you what she wanted?"

[abrightboy]

"She already knew about me? Nobody knows about me. Not by my current name. That didn't seem.... I don't know, like a red flag?" Malcolm said, letting his hand slip out of Edrisa's as he approached Jessica.

[thatsfascinating]

He let go of her hand, and Edrisa reched for him for a moment, then drew back her hand and swallowed. She went to sit on the bed, to let the Whitlys handle this without getting in the way.

"Malcolm," she said with a sigh. "Obviously she knew I had a son. And knew that my son was responsible for the Surgeon's capture. Then she met you. You may have changed your name, but she was smart enough to put two and two together."

"We also think she's been making visits to Claremont," Ainsley said.

[abrightboy]

"Can we confirm that? That she's spoken to dad?" Malcolm asked Ainsley.

[thatsfascinating]

Ainsley shook her head. "She hasn't spoken to dad. That would be on record. But we think she's been trying to."

"Why she thought ingratiating herself to me would get her in to see Martin," Mrs. Whitly sighed.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm pushed a hand through his hair, and shook his head. "She thought it would get her to me. And I could get her to Dr Whitly. If I didn't know enough on my own."

He turned and looked at Edrisa.

"If I couldn't give her what she wanted."

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa rose and came to him, reaching out to take and squeeze his hand.

"Doing this to your family was way inappropriate...but if she's looking for answers from you, then she must know at least some things too, right? She might know who the girl is."

Behind Malcolm, Ainsley's eyes were caught by a glint of gold on Malcolm's hand. "Ummm," she said. "Malcolm? Why are you wearing a wedding ring?"

"A what???" Mrs. Whitly gasped.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm was paying attention to Edrisa, considering what she was saying, weighing the idea of talking to Eve about it, when Ainsley asked her question.

"Hmm?" he said distractedly, half turning to look at her before his brain processed what she said and he looked at his hand. "Oh yeah. We were going to call you about that..."

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa was focused on Malcolm as well, on the problem at hand, one she knew they could face together.

Then Ainsley said something about wedding rings, and Edrisa blinked at her for a moment, until the words hit her as well.

Oh.

This wasn't exactly how she envisioned Mrs. Whitly and Ainsley finding out they eloped, but oh well.

"Going to call us about what?" Mrs. Whitly demanded.

"Oh my god you got married?" Ainsley gasped.

Edrisa tightened her hold on Malcolm's hand and gave him a small smile of encouragement.