Hope’s Savior ( John Seed x OC ) | Part 24, Finale
Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!
Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later
Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!
Word Counter: 4124
Notes: I have no excuses for myself for not writing the last chapter sooner.
Parts Masterpost | Season Two - Through the Gates
“And I saw as the lamb opened the sixth seal…” Joseph starts, but Hope’s deep sigh interrupts him.
“Please, let’s skip the preaching this time, Joseph...” She says, rolling her eyes and for her surprise, Joseph complies. He cocks his head a bit higher, his eyes narrowing. He’s clearly judging her and her incapability of listening to his words.
Then he closes his eyes with a sigh, like he wants to blow out the anger from his system, and opens them up again.
“Clearly, if you didn’t come for my... ‘preaching’, then you must have a reason for being here.” Joseph says, though it’s not a question, because he knows exactly why they’re there, at his compound.
Hope looks him in the eyes, trying to figure out what to say or what to do. She should have planned ahead, but heck! How is one supposed to plan a meeting like this right after having a vision of the end of the world?
She can see Earl looking at her from the corner of her eyes, waiting for her to speak and ready to step in in any moment if needed.
She thinks for a second to what to say and comes to the conclusion that it doesn’t even matter anymore. Fuck it!
“I’m here for John... We’re not looking for a fight. So as long as you don’t try anything stupid, we won’t either.” Not the cleverest thing she ever said, that’s for sure.
John flinches at her words, looking at Joseph, waiting for a reaction from him and seemingly even more nervous then he was before. What the hell did Joseph do to him, that he fears him this much?
Meanwhile on the Father’s face a smile starts to grow. It doesn’t reach his eyes and he scoffs, anger and disappointment clear on his face.
“Yes, I heard about your...” He starts speaking before he stops, trying to find the right word to describe the two of them. “...bond. John told me all about it... well, mostly all of it.”
He looks her in the eyes with a smile, before glancing at her stomach and for a second panic starts to build up in her. He can’t possibly know, can he?! Not even John knows!
Then Joseph looks back at her eyes, clearly satisfied with her reaction, which she tries really hard to hide.
“But still... It’s ironic, don’t you think? You’re telling ME, to not do anything ‘stupid’, as you said. Meanwhile you were the one, that caused mayhem and chaos across the whole county, while I did nothing, but give you an option to stop fighting.”
She shakes her hand in anger, clenching her hand into a fist as she says.
“Listen to me, asshole! I’m not going to start this conversation with you, so how about you shut the fuck up, and just let us leave in peace, huh?! I’m sure, you’re... ‘children’ are all excited to see us get the hell out of here.”
She just proves even more how much of Wrath she is with her words, but honestly she’s done with Joseph’s bullshit of a talk and just wants to get to safety with John, Earl and Sharky before the end of the world comes.
But Joseph doesn’t let her have it, of course. Her own sin starts to build up in him as well as he points an angry finger in her way, speaking through his teeth, his words filled with venom:
“YOU... Deputy, are an insufferable person!” She scoffs at that and smiles, like yeah, is she supposed to give a fuck what he thinks about her?
“You came here, with your people. You started this whole thing, and now? NOW?! You’re trying to tell me you want to leave in peace? Is that it? Tell that to the hundreds if not thousands of people you murdered, including Faith and Jacob! You are a brat! You deny God’s plans, you cross me and my Family whenever you can. Just so you can what?! Leave in the end with my Brother? He doesn’t want to leave! He doesn’t want you plaguing his soul, you’ve done enough by making him get off the Path! You made him relive his sins, you denied him what God planned for him. So no. You are not going to leave in peace with him by your side!”
Hope blinks at him, trying to process all that he just said. She wanted to interrupt him by saying: ‘How about you let him speak for himself?’ But as Joseph continued, she felt dread in her heart. She blinks at him before muttering to him:
“Jacob’s alive.”
It’s a simple sentence and she feels a shiver crawl up on her skin as she watches Joseph’s reaction. His face looks shocked, then angry. Angry, like she never saw him before and it makes her sick in the stomach and step back a bit.
“Why did you think he was dead?” She asks, but she already knows the answer. He thought that Jacob died, because that was his plan. That was his... seal, to the prophecy he spoke about all the time, and only now does it hit her. Memories storm her as she watches Joseph clench his jaw.
“It was always going to happen this way...” Faith said before dying, ascending into the water. “I’m happy with your decision, even if not entirely." Joseph said when they found out John is alive. She thought that he meant: happy that John lived, not entirely, because she kept it a secret. But really he meant he was happy for John to live, but not entirely because she was supposed to kill him, because that's what God told him, that losing his family was the sacrifice he had to make for the Collapse to come... She didn't realize it at the time, didn't make sense of all that. But now she does and it's already too late.
"You wanted them dead." She whispers to Joseph, who doesn't deny it, just looks her in the eyes, his eyes flaming red behind the yellow tinted glasses. “You wanted them to die.”
He speaks up in return: “It was supposed to be God’s wish. But you denied their destiny.”
Hope feels disgust towards the Seed, more than she ever felt before and she pities the other siblings. She wishes she didn’t kill Faith, she wishes that she could just get rid of Joseph somehow. She wants to give him a piece of her mind, but John speaks up before her. His voice is sore, scartchy for not using it much. He walks from behind Joseph to in between the Deputy and his brother.
“Is this true?” His voice is filled with anger and hurt as he looks at his elder brother. Joseph looks from Hope to his little brother as he tilts his head back.
“It was supposed to set you free.”
“I don’t FUCKING care what it was supposed to be!” John shouts as tears gather up in his eyes. “You lied to me!”
Hope can only watch from behind John the scene and the cultists around them seem buffled by the events, no one is speaking or moving as they watch their two leaders get into a verbal fight.
“I didn’t lie to you, John-” Joseph starts, with a much calmer voice than which he used to talking to Hope.
“YES! YES, you did lie to me!” John shouts into his face, pointing a finger at his brother. “You told me we were going to be a family again! You told me we were supposed to enter your FUCKING Eden together! And now it turns out you were just as much of a liar as anyone else before! You are not better then old man Seed!”
Hope flinches as John’s hurt voice and recalls the time she read Joseph’s book about their parents. She fears he stepped a line, but not because she fears for Joseph’s feelings, hell no! But she doesn’t want Joseph’s wrath to hurt John.
“You don’t know what I sacrificed for this, all of this to become true! I sacrificed so much, for us to make God’s wish true!” Joseph answers, but John had enough of his bullshit.
“You’re crazy!” He says shaking his head and that seems to push Joseph over the line.
Events start to happen too fast, for Hope to react at first. Joseph grabs the gun from his holster and points it at her. She doesn’t have any time to move or react before he pulls the trigger. She hears the shot, but doesn’t feel any pain, and it takes her a moment to realize that John grabbed his brother’s arm and aimed the gun at the sky in time. Earl and Sharky move to cover the junior deputy, grabbing their guns and getting ready for a fight with Joseph, but they can’t get a right aim, as John and Joseph fight each other for the gun in the elder’s hand.
After a short struggle Joseph gets pushed away from John, and he almost fells to the ground, but gains his balance back. Hope tries to see everything from behind Earl and Sharky and is ready to step in if Joseph has the gun, but she watches the cult leader empty handed as he looks at his younger brother.
John aims the gun at Joseph’s head as he backs away, right next to Hope and the others. He doesn’t look away from Joseph, not even for a second, but he blindly reaches for Hope’s hand and she grabs onto him, like her life depended on it. She can feel him shaking from anger, fear and sadness. Meanwhile Joseph just stands there in front of them, defeated.
“So.... this is how it’s going to end, huh?” He asks with a sad and fake laugh.
“You did this for yourself, brother...” John almost spits the last word, no love behind the meaning of the word.
Joseph laughs at that, a mad man’s laughter, no happiness or humour behind it. He tears up, looking at John, his hair which got loose in the fight with John falling into his eyes. Then he looks at Hope and she reflexively steps back a bit, half hidden behind John. Joseph smiles at her, a sad smile.
“We were supposed to be together... You were going to be my reward for all my sufferings.” He says, no anger, just disappointment and want behind his words. She even feels like he believes what he’s saying.
“Well, you were wrong.” She responds, not even disgust in her voice, just pity for the pathetic man in front of them.
He laughs again and all of a sudden charges at them. Hope blinks as she hears the gun next to her fire. Joseph stops merely a meter away from them and looks at his brother, shocked, as if he never would have guessed that John would actually shoot him. He looks down at himself, watching blood trickle down from his abdomen, painting his clothes red.
The cultist start shouting at them, readying their weapons, but before anyone could start a fire a hellish sound welcomes them. The wind picks up and in the distance a blinding light comes to life, before taking the shape of a mushroom.
Everyone looks shocked, except for Hope and Joseph. Hope looks at the man, who in the meantime feel to his knees in front of them and they look each other in the eye:
“It is done, child.” He says pain and happiness painting his face.
Way before anyone can even react Hope grabs John’s arm, who looks at the direction of the bomb, like everyone else and she shouts at Earl and Sharky as she makes them make a run for the truck.
“LET’S GO! NOW!”
It all seems like a dream from then. Events only making their way to her mind. She sees themselves getting into the truck, Earl taking the wheele. Her radio crackles to life and she can hear Dutch’s voice telling her, shocked that she was right. She sees John looking out the window, glancing back at Joseph and his people, who all gather around him and make him sit in another car. But the cultists aren’t going for them, they’re going the exact opposite direction.
It takes them record time to get from Joseph’s compound to the Valley, to John’s bunker.
When they exit the car, they can see the whole county in flames, but they don’t stay around for too long as they all enter the bunker. Inside, a whole crowd is gathered. And while Earl starts speaking to people, searching for Jerome, discussing the events and asking how many of them are gathered inside, Sharky sits down next to a wall, trying to process the events. John stays silent, staying right at the closed door of the bunker, looking into the distance. Hope tries to process everything as well, trying to make out how many people must be inside the bunker, looking for familiar faces. Spotting Liza and Adam somewhere. Watching Jerome and Earl around kids, unfamiliar people dressed in cultist clothes. She walks between them, muttering to some people, making sure everyone is alright, before a shout comes from within the crowd.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING HERE?!” It’s Mary May’s voice and Hope doesn’t have to guess who she is referring to.
The crowd gets a bit more silent as they all gather in a circle. She makes her way back to the door, where John stands, looking at Mary May and the others. He looks out of place, he looks lost. He stays silent, which angers the bartender ever more.
“Get him the fuck out of here! He doesn’t deserve to be in here!”
She says, before Earl and Jerome stop her from grabbing and throwing John out.
Hope makes her way to between them as she raises her hands, her voice tired as she says.
“Relax, just... everyone relax, please.”
Mary May looks at her before getting out of Earl’s and Jerome’s hold and she walks towards John with a fist ready.
Hope stands between them, grabbing her by the chest, pushing her away.
“No, Mary May, stop!”
“Stop?! Deputy, this sonuvabitch did more harm than good! Hell, no good! He’s getting out!”
Hope sighs, feeling exhausted with all the events that happened today and feeling fatigue all of a sudden. But she makes out another protest.
“He’s staying!”
The bartender looks at her, feeling hurt and betrayed as she points at John and her.
“I don’t care if you two fucked, he’s leaving!”
She sighs, getting even more dizzier than before as she pushes the woman away a bit. Mary May backs up, but she’s still ready to jump at John in any second. Meanwhile Hope almost loses her balance, but she says.
“I’m pregnant.”
It’s a simple sentence. And she already told it to a couple of people, she got used to it, but it still makes the whole crowd silent, including Mary May. It’s true she told a couple of people about the pregnancy, but she made sure others didn’t know about it, and it shows as the woman looks buffled about her sentence, just as most of the people around them.
“YOU’RE WHAT?!” She asks as he looks at her, completely forgetting about her revenge on the youngest Seed. “How?”
She makes an exhausted laugh.
“I’m sure you’re familiar with the process of getting someone pregnant.” She tries to answer with some humour, because still, in bad situations she deals with stress by making jokes.
“This isn’t funny.” Mary May even says as she looks at her. “Who’s the father?” But she already fears the junior deputy’s answer.
She would have cared more about the announcment, but with all of the events, with Joseph, the bomb, it just doesn’t matter anymore. She turns around, looking at John. She feared his reaction so much about the whole thing, but looking at him now, his fear and shock, she’s just... too... tired.
“John.” She answers, with a smile, before frowning and feeling the ground move under her feet. She panics for a second, thinking that maybe a bomb dropped right at the bunker, but then she hears John’s, Nick’s and Earl’s panicked voice as she falls to the ground. She doesn’t feel the fall and before anything can happen, she’s fast asleep.
Hope wakes up surprisingly comfortable and well rested as she opens her eyes. It takes her a moment to process and realize that she’s no longer in any of the houses of Hope County. And that no longer will she see the sunrise. But it doesn’t make her depressed. The room she’s in is luxurious as she looks around. The bed is a king sized one, with a golden silk blanket which feels like a dream to her skin. There’s a wardrobe, a desk, a couple of bookshelves in the room. There’s two doors, leading... somewhere. And a couple of paintings on the walls, and even a tv in front of the bed.
She sits up, blinking a couple of times making sure she’s awake and she’s not just dreaming about the room. Where the hell am I?
She asks in her head when one of the doors open and Liza comes into the room with a medkit. The young woman looks at her, relieved that Hope’s awake.
“Oh, thank God, you’re awake. We were worried about you, you know.” She says, but smiles as she closes the door behind her and sits in a chair next to the bed. “How are you feeling?”
Hope smiles as she answers. “Well... you know. I’m fine, just the usual. The end of the world, trying to calm down people from killing John, getting unconcious like always.”
Liza shakes her head but smiles as she gets some things ready to check up on Hope. A light to check her pupils and some other medical stuff. “Glad you still got your humour, sweetheart.”
“Can’t get rid of that, ever.” Hope responds laughing slightly, then frowns, worry clear on her face.
Liza looks at her and like she reads her mind she says:
“John’s okay... well, Mary May punched him in the face once. But still, he’s not thrown out of the bunker, so that means he’s okay.... You don’t have to worry.”
Hope smiles, thinking that yeah, John probably deserved that punch, but she’s glad people calmed down a bit.
“I should go and find him, you know we still haven’t had the pregnancy talk, sooo....” Hope says after a quick exam, but Liza gives her a warning look.
“You better stay in bed, Hope. Seriously, you should just rest and-”
But the young woman is already up and out of the bed. She’s not hurrying though, because she’s still unsteady, but she smiles at Liza.
“Nope, I’m going.”
The woman is shaking her head.
“Of course you are...”
It doesn’t take her much time to find John, he’s right out the door, sitting on a bench. When he looks up he’s surprised to see her, he probably waited for Liza to come out. He gets up quickly from the bench and walks up to Hope, grabbing her arm gently, like he’s ready to catch her if she falls down again.
“You should be in bed.” He says, worry in his voice, but a smile spread across his face.
“Yeah, well... you know me. I can’t stay put for too long.”
He chuckles lightly.
“I know... it’s annoying.”
Hope smiles at him as she answers:
“And you love it.”
She feels anxious after saying that, because the ‘i love you’ talk never happened between them either, and she bites her bottom lip, which John watches with a soft smile. The softest she thinks she ever saw him and it makes her heart race in her chest.
“I do.”
Hope smiles at that again and sighs, getting ready for The Speech.
“So...” She starts, and John nods.
“So...” He repeats her words, but both of them stay silent as they’re not sure what to say to each other.
“I was going to tell you, you know.” She says after a minute of silence. “Well... I didn’t plan to tell you like this, but... why would anything happen the way we want, huh?”
She tries joking and John nods looking at her in the eyes before glancing at her stomach. It’s still barely visible, but now that she’s out of her jacket and in a single sweater, the swell of her stomach is more visible as well.
John reaches his hand towards her, but takes his hand back when he’s just an inch close to it. She looks at him, reading his face. He looks unsure and worried. Like he fears he would hurt their child just by touching her stomach.
She holds his hand in hers, her palm over his, and she closes the space between his hand and her stomach. He huffs out the air from his lungs as he smiles, amazed just by the touch. She rests his hand there, then he starts brushing his fingers over her belly. A chuckle leaving him, and she sees tears rolling down his face.
“I’m going to be a father.” He says, as he can’t believe his statement.
“Yupp.” She says with an encouraging smile.
She watches him and feels like she could burst from the affection and love that she sees in his eyes as he watches her belly. She speaks before thinking, but not even for a second she regrets saying it:
“I love you.”
John looks up at her, yet again shocked and he laughs, tears rolling down his face and she caresses his cheeks, rubbing away the wetness on his face with a loving smile.
The moment is ruined as chewing can be heard right next to them. Both of them look to the right to see Sharky eating chips. He looks like a child who has been caught stealing cookies.
“Sorry, go on. I’m just watching here.” He says and both Hope and John starts laughing at that.
Sharky smiles at them.
“So... you told him?” Boshaw asks as he looks at his best friend and points at John with his head.
“Told me what?” John asks with a frown, but his happiness is still showing.
“I’m gonna be the Godfather.” Sharky says proudly with a grin.
John looks at him shocked, then at Hope.
“Like hell he will!”
Sharky pouts, offended:
“Heeey!”
Hope only just laughs at them as she starts walking in the corridor, with the two man behind her, arguing like children.
“Trinity! There’s no way in hell, we’re letting Boshaw be the Godfather!”
“Excuse me? I’m going to be the best godfather in the world!” He says, and his sentence is followed with a loud burp.
“This is unbeliavable!” John says facepalming.
Hope only just chuckles at the two of them before stopping as she reaches the end of the corridor and looks at the bunker with shock.
“What the...” She says amazed by the interior garden and luxurious place.
She turns around looking at John in shock, who finally looks proud of himself and his usual smug grin appears.
“Like what you see?”
Hope huffs out a laugh as she looks back at the place then turns around pointing at John:
“Are you serious??? This whole time the bunker was some luxurious ass place? And you put me in the darkest and most depressing cheap ass room when I was here?” She refers to when he got her at the Confession.
He shrugs.
“Well, I mean-” He starts but Hope punches his shoulder playfully and then smiles, looking at the crowd below, everyone seeming happy, even with the events.
John just chuckles and hugs her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulders. His hands caressing her belly while she smiles and looks at the people down there. Earl is there as he looks up and waves to her with a smile. She waves back, then sighs. It’s a sigh of relieve, one that she didn’t have in a long time. Finally she feels at peace, save and happy. Surrounded by people she loves. And just about in some months, she’ll meet someone new that she can love as well. And ironicly it’s all thanks to one person.
“John Seed...” She starts with his full name which gains her a raise of his eyebrows as he humms in question. “You are my savior.” She says with a light chuckle.
He humms with a smile as he responds.
“And you are the whole county’s, my dear.”
A/N: THE END! hahaha finally, I got to the end, and can follow up with the next season, called Through the Gates! Thanks for everyone that followed my little story and had even just a bit of interest in my ocs. ♥♥♥
Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!
Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later
Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!
Word Counter: 7117
Notes: I have zero excuses for myself that this chapter took me so long.
Parts Masterpost | Part 24 ( coming soon )
Getting another region free from the cultists meant two things: the Resistance gaining power and the mountains getting extremely dangerous thanks to the guard Jacob put on. Although he saved Hope from Joseph’s hands, she didn’t think he would have mercy on her if she attacked his region as well. Or worse: maybe he would use the musicbox on her all over again.
But there were other things she had to worry about than Jacob Seed. For example how Joseph reacted to Faith’s death. Streaming a video on the cult channel about Rachel’s death and also a message for the junior deputy: “You run away from me every time, but in the end. It will be you and me. That is the will of the Father.”
Although it sent chills down her spine to hear from Creepy Joe again, she cared about more things: her pregnancy and John. She searched everywhere, asked for help from the guns for hire, but no news came about either one of the Seed brothers. No one seen them since the explosion of Faith’s Gate.
So now Hope is laying on her truck in front of the Fall’s End church and looks at the night sky. It’s a quiet night, no one called for help and no gunshots can be heard from the distance. Others are having fun inside the bar, the muffled chattering and laughing can be heard from outside. She doesn’t feel like meeting with anyone, but she wanted to give a ride for Sharky to come here. Also it’s nice to be away from the Henbane. Even though it’s been over one month now that they got rid of the Bliss some were still left in the river and the air around the burned down bliss fields.
Hope looks at the moon as her hand is resting on her stomach. Two months. She’s two months pregnant and she started showing as well, like she ate too much or gained some weight, so it’s not much a change, people don’t ask questions about it. It’s still so absurd for her that she’s going to be a mother as she traces her fingers over her belly. Though she can’t feel much through the thick winter coat she’s wearing.
Hope County changed a lot through the seasons. It’s almost Christmas, the hot post summer weather is long gone. The fields are blank, the sky is grey and the air is cold and chilly. The first snow came a week ago and now snow covers the roofs of the houses and the bald trees.
“Wouldn’t you rather come inside?” A voice speaks to her and she sits up, smiling at Pastor Jerome.
The man wears a long black coat, his bulletproof vest under it probably. Though Hope noticed he wears it less often. People started to get less careful, since she freed Faith’s region. She doesn’t know how to feel about that. Be happy for the others for feeling safe again or be more worried that they are letting their guards down.
She sighs with a smile, her breath forming a cloud in the cold air.
“I’m waiting for a call.”
It’s true, though not a specific call from someone. She just wants to get news about John... or any of the Seeds that might indicate where he might be. She looks down at the radio on her belt, like she expects it to come to life and bring her good news, but it doesn’t. Pastor Jerome looks at her and sighs, thinking about rather bringing up the topic or not.
People have been speaking about her and the youngest Seed brother. Speculations that the two of them had a relationship going on. Most people kept shut up about it, only whispering behind her back, exchanging gossips. Making up things like John Seed is spying for the Resistance or the exact opposite, the junior deputy turning sides. But no one ever asked her about it, she talked about it to her closest friends: Sharky, Addie, Kim and Liza. And then there were others who figured things out: Dutch, Grace, Jess and Adam.
Everyone reacted differently, but in the end offered help for her. Most didn’t ask about her new moodswings, change of appetite and her growing belly, they kind of had the feeling she was expecting. But still, it’s been kept a secret in front of everyone else. The pregnancy is also only known by Earl, Addie, Liza and Kim. Hope doesn’t want the word to come out, fearing what might the Resistance say or do to John Seed’s unborn kid.
And now as Hope looks at Jerome she knows he’s thinking about bringing up the topic of the Baptist to her. Averting eye contact, standing from one leg to another, obvious tension in the air.... all the things she recieved when people heard the gossips but didn’t dare to ask.
“You can ask me, you know... I don’t bite.” She offers a small smile, so Jerome looks at her.
The man considers her offer for a second then nods slightly.
“There’s been word going around, Deputy.” He keeps calling her that even after months, even when she offered him her name to use. “I don’t mean to dig in your personal life, but...”
Jerome steps closer looking around like he fears other might eavesdrop on them. He looks anxious as he looks into Hope’s eyes. He opens his mouth, ready to talk but is interrupted as Hope’s radio crackles to life. She almost jumps at it as she grabs the device from her belt.
“Um... this is Kim Rye calling out to Nick and the Deputy. When you get a chance, can you please swing by the house? Please? No emergency or anything...uh....yet.”
Hope jumps off her truck, grinning at Jerome who seems to not understand the situation.
“Holy shit... Holy shit...” She giggles as she hugs the Pastor, then releases him.
“I’m going to be a godmother... oh my god... I need to hurry!”
She gets into the truck as Jerome calls after her.
“A godmother...?” Then he seems to realize the situation as well, and points at Hope as he walks towards the bar. “I’m going to get Liza, so you can go to the clinic! Hurry, Deputy!”
So they leave their previous conversation at that, as Hope starts the truck and drives like crazy towards the Rye’s house. She hopes that Nick is hurrying the hell up as well and is on his way. She can’t stop grinning, happiness bursting through her. For the first time in months she doesn’t think about the resistance, the cult. the Seed family and the Collapse. And she loves it.
On record time she gets to the Rye’s house and runs toward the door. Hope lets herself in and she finds Kim on the couch, grabbing her pregnant belly as she tries to even her breathing. As she looks up at Hope she seems to be relieved and angry at the same time.
“Hey, are you okay?” Hope asks and Kim laughs, which turns into a painful scream.
“No, I’m not.... okay! Where the fuck is Nick?!”
Hope crouches next to her, grabbing her hand.
“I don’t know, I was hoping that he came here earlier. I drove as fast as I could.”
The young woman says and watches as Kim goes through another painful cramp.
“Oh...god...”
Just then the door opens and Hope looks at the entrance, Nick coming through the door.
“Whoa, what the hell is going on, Kim?”
He crouches next to Kim and she says:
“Where the fuck have you been?! Gimme your hand... our little girl has decided it’s time.”
Nick looks panicked as he shakes his head.
“No no no no no no. Nick Junior is not due for another week --- oww, oww. Kim, Kim, you’re hurting my hand, you’re hurting my hand.”
“It’s not a boy.” Hope and Kim say at the same time.
Hope looks at the pregnant woman and her husband and says:
“Okay, c’mon guys we gotta get into the car.”
They help Kim up from the furniture and walk toward the door. Kim’s grip is like iron, but Hope doesn’t complain. Nick on the other hand.
“C’mon, c’mon... ow, ah... You are so strong. OK Ok OK.”
They walk toward the truck that is right in front of the entrance, the car which Nick came with. He looks at Hope and scatters for his car keys which he gives to the young woman.
“Partner, you’re driver.”
This is a baaaaad idea... Hope thinks but rather not say it as Kim talks frustrated at their slow pace.
“LET’S GOOO!”
Nick helps Kim get inside the car then climbs after her as Hope hurries for the driver’s door.
“Oh god..oh god...” Kim breaths heavily and Hope looks back at her. “DRIVE!”
“Okay, alright...” She says, starting up the vehicle. “But I gotta warn you... there’s a reason Adam drives us everywhere.”
“What?!” Kim shouts from the backseat as Hope starts driving.
“Oh, nothing!” The junior deputy says.
After a long drive, which involved pigs on the road, flaming trucks, a plane, haystacks, deers and other obstacles they somehow arrive safely at the Hope County Clinic, where Liza already waits them with open doors.
Hope finds it better to stay outside and wait out the birth giving. She walks all over the place, excited to meet her goddaughter, worried if everything is going to go okay in there.
Hours spend like this, her feet hurts from all the walking outside the clinic building, but she can’t make herself to sit down. Just as she’s waiting her radio crackles to life.
“Hey kid, it’s Dutch speaking.”
Hope looks at the radio on her belt and grabs it with shaking hands. It’s been a while since she talked to the man and their relation is pretty mixed with all what’s been going on in the county.
“Hey, Dutch... Uh... don’t mean to be rude but this is a bad timing. Kim is giving birth just right now.”
It takes more than a minute till the answer arrives and for a moment she thinks Dutch will call her back at a later time, but his voice breaks the silence. He doesn’t sound happy and what he tells her is a serious topic.
“Yeah, I heard. But I think this is a more urgent thing... I’ve been checking the cameras and... that god damn Joseph Seed is at his island.”
Hope gasps and feels the urge to sit down, which ends up with her sitting down in the dirt right in front of the clinic. Her fingers are strong around the radio, making the device crackle under her iron grip.
“Was he alone?” She asks, though she doesn’t say what she really cares about. Was John with him?
A sigh comes from Dutch, meaning he knows exactly what question she wants an answer to.
“No. Couple of his goons were with him. Some members of the milita as well, the guys who’s been missing lately. They were performing the Cleansing on them... With John Seed doing the deed.”
She pushes the button so Dutch can’t hear her. Hope looks up at the sky, closing her eyes as tears gather in them. She exhales heavily and tries to keep herself calm. Part of her feels relieved to know John is alright. Other part of her fears for him, because who knows how Joseph treated him lately. And the part of her, which she tried to bury deep within her mind says: Why did you think he would change?
John, the Baptist cleansing the sinners of Hope County is exactly what she should have expected. She thought he had changed. Was it foolish of her to think that? Yes, yes it was...
“Kid...” Dutch speaks from her radio and she wipes the tears that gathered in her eyes and keeps her voice calm as she pushes down the button.
“Yeah, I heard you...”
Her voice is collected, though she feels herself weak. This whole situation is fucked.
“Umm...” She sighs. “Look, I’m staying with Kim until she gives birth, then I’m going to check out Joseph’s compound.”
She doesn’t have a plan. She doesn’t know what she would do if she had to face Joseph, or John. But for the first time in a month she finally knows where they are.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, kid. I called you because I wanted to let you know about this. But I think it would be a better idea to go the mountains now. Jacob Seed is still there from what I heard. Eli told us he saw the ginger fuck at his Armory. I think this should be the best time to finally get a grip on the north as well. With Joseph and John gone, it’s only Jacob up there. You could give a final hit to the cult. Then it’s only the island that’s left. Kid, this is it.”
She listens to him and he’s right. No matter how much she wants to see John, it seems to be the best to get a hold on the Whitetail Mountains, and they’re finally done. After months of fighting... This is the time they win.
“Okay... You’re right.” She stands up from the ground, then has a whole plan in her head already. “Listen, I need Jess to keep guard at the Armory. Call her and tell her to look if she sees any movements in or out. Tell her that she could bring Peaches with her, stay in the shadows, not get caught. I think she’s the best for that. I need Grace to keep a look at the road from the Armory to the Veteran Center. If not for Jacob, then maybe for Staci. From what I’ve seen he’s his right hand man. Tell her to only look, not attack. Unless her cover is blown.”
She walks toward the truck and lays out her map in the hood of the truck and sets the radio right next to it. She searches for the area and continues to talk.
“Call Eli as well, tell him that it’s time. Get his men in gear and when called he should move out to the Armory or to the Veteran Center. He should listen to Grace’s or Jess’s calls.”
She keeps silent for a moment, waiting for Dutch to give her feedback.
“Okay, kid. I also heard from your colleague, Deputy Hudson. She’s at the Jail with Adelaide and Hurk Jr. Should they do anything?”
Rook nods to herself as she looks at the map. Joey and her hasn’t been talking since she rescued and almost killed her at John’s Gate. But she’s a good fighter and at this point they have to forget about their differences.
“Tell Addie to get the kids to safety. The Jail is still in bad shape, if things go south I want them to be safe. John’s Gate is perfect for that. It’s far away from the Whitetails and it’s not in the open.”
There’s a confused sound coming from the other end of the call.
“I don’t know how good of an idea is that, with your friend, Hudson--”
Hope shakes her head though it can’t be seen by the older man.
“No. She has to gather the cougars with Tracey. Any men and women who can fight. Get them to groups. They should stay at the Whitetail Mountains Rail Bridge. If they see any peggies or signs or fight at Joseph’s compound, then they have to join the fight.”
She looks at the Valley on the map and continues.
“Nick and Kim should join the others at John’s Gate. I want Baby Rye and Kim to be safe. Nick should help Addie to get the kids from the Jail to safety in the bunker. I’ll let him know, you should tell Addie, though.
Pastor Jerome and Mary May should have the other Resistance members with Adam at the Pumpkin Farm, guarding the border to the Henbane. Merle should do the same at the bridge to the Whitetails. We have to keep guard so no peggies cross the borders to any other regions. We have to keep an extra eye out to Joseph’s compound. I guess you can keep a lookout from your island, right Dutch?”
There’s a moment of silence then a chuckle.
“Did you just come up with this plan right now?”
Hope returns the chuckle and shrugs.
“I mean... yeah? Is it bad?”
“No, kid. It’s not perfect, but right now we don’t have time for a better plan. I’ll call everyone, you just get ready... Where will you go?”
Hope looks at the map and closes it, putting it into her backpocket.
“I’ll get ready. I’ll face Jacob at the Armory. If not me, then Jess can put an arrow to his head. We finish this now, Dutch. I’m fucking tired of the cult...”
“Same as everyone, kid... Good luck.”
“To you too. Over and out.”
Just as she turns off her radio and puts it back to her belt is when the clinic’s door opens. Nick leads Kim out in a wheelchair, in her arms a bundle of little thing. Hope looks at them, grinning as she crouches in front of them.
“Hey, wanna meet your goddaughter?”
“Oh my god, hi!” Hope whispers with happy tears in her eyes as she looks at the newborn baby.
“She’s so beautiful. Well, looks like I’m gonna have to change the name of my business after all, huh?”
Hope chuckles with happy tears in her eyes as she looks up at Nick.
“What are you guys gonna call her?”
They look at each other and Kim rolls her eyes with a smile:
“Nichole... Nichole Rye.”
Hope chuckles at that, looking at the baby with amazement in her eyes. Kim smiles at the young woman and holds her hand in hers.
“You probably don’t heart this enough, but... thank you. For everything you’ve done. Whatever you need... we’ll be there for you.”
Hope makes a noise with a chuckle as she wipes her tears.
“Oh, come on guys! Don’t make me cry!”
“You were already crying, though...” Nick says.
Kim and Hope gives him a look. Nick raises his hands.
“Alright, alright... Geez, what am I gonna do with three women? Maybe four, who knows what Deputy Junior will be.” Nick points at Hope and she raises her eyebrows in shock as she looks at Kim.
The woman sighs and gives an apologetic look to her.
“I’m sorry, but he just wanted to know so badly what we talked about the other day.”
Nick scoffs, pretending to be upset.
“I mean you hurt my feelings, partner. After all I thought this is something you would have told me.”
Hope sighs as she chews on her bottom lip anxiously.
“I’m sorry Nick.. I just... didn’t know how you would react after... well, you know... John...”
Nick makes a disgusted face at the mention of the youngest Seed then shrugs.
“Look, I ain’t happy, but let’s be honest, everyone kinda knows about you two. And I mean there has to be a reason you two... ugh, got together? Of course if he ain’t want to be a dad we’ll be here for you--ow!”
Kim grips Nick hand and gives him a look.
“Seriously?”
Hope stands up, feeling bad about what Nick told him, because that thought went through her head at least a dozen times in an hour. What if John doesn’t even want a kid? What will he do then? Kill her?
“What... Oh, c’mon, I didn’t mean nothing by it... Just that we’re here for each other.”
“Thanks guys...” Hope says and gives a hug to Nick and squeezes Kim’s shoulder gently. “I have some... news though.”
After telling the Rye’s about the plan and letting Nick drive them to the bunker. Hope let Liza know about the plan inside the clinic and she offered to help out at the pumpkin farm if needed.
Now Hope is driving in her truck to the Whitetail Mountains and nods to the gathering parties along the land. She listens to the peggie radio, waiting for any words from Joseph, but only Set Those Sinners Free plays. She feels chills covering her body as she listens to the song. There’s a bad feeling in her gut as she looks at the grey sky. There’s a storm coming, she can feel it in her bones. She’s just not sure what kind of.
She crosses the bridge to Joseph’s compound and makes herself not taking the turn to the left, to arrive at the church. She knows John is there, that Joseph is there. But she makes herself stick with the plan as she drives straight ahead on the road to the Whitetails.
It’s the silence that scares her. No signs of peggie trucks, no Chosen in the sky, no choppers either. The streets are empty as she enters Jacob’s region. Only her car and the music coming from her radio is what breaks the silence.
“Jacob’s gonna come and set those sinners free.” The song threatens her and she has a feeling that’s what Jacob is exactly up to. There’s no way the soldier doesn’t know she’s coming for him.
Would he have mercy on her if they got in a fight? She doesn’t know. The man is ready to sacrifice himself for his brothers. But will an unborn child really make a difference for him? Would he have mercy on her because of John’s kid? These thoughts storm her as she drives next to the F.A.N.G. Center.
A month ago she would have met at least a dozen peggies by this time around, but now? Now everything is silent, the roads empty. Still she feels like eyes are watching her from the distance. Maybe between the trees Chosen are hiding with their arrows pointed at her head, ready to take the kill.
Just as she nears Jacob’s Armory, stopping in the road where she can either go left to the bunker or go right to the Veteran Center her radio crackles to life. She turns the volume down a bit on the peggie radio as Set Those Sinners Free ends and grabs the radio from the seat next to her. There’s no voice yet, but a heavy and uneven breathing. She knows exactly who it belongs to, but as he starts to speak she still shivers to the sound of his voice.
“You don’t want to do this, Deputy. Turn around and leave while I let you.”
There’s that thing with Jacob. Even when he wants to be kind or to give her a chance to rethink the actions she wants to do, he still speaks like he’s the one in charge. And he is, even though everything shows he’s the animal being cornered by the hunters. Still, Hope feels like he’s the predator and she’s the prey. Feeling like her trap is not for him, but herself.
“I think you know, that I can’t do that, Jacob...” She says with a serious voice.
A chuckle, ending in a cough comes from the other end.
“Yeah... I figured by now, that you’re stubborn as a mule. Reminds me of my brother.”
She chews on her bottom lip.
“Which one?” She asks.
“Both, I guess.”
She came to end him, but she feels a voice in her head say: Do you really want to kill him? But she shakes her head, fighting down that voice.
“You should give up, Jacob.” She says, but already knows his answer.
“I think you know, that I can’t do that, pup...” He repeats her exact words.
There’s silence between them. She remembers the night at the Jessop Conversatory, when they just sat and drank hot chocolate. An event that is absurd. But at this point Hope thinks everything is absurd that happens in Hope County.
“I promise it’ll be quick, Deputy.”
He says and the radio call ends. Somehow she expect a bullet go through her head at that instant, but what happens next scares her more than death itself. The radio station, which she didn’t notice while speaking to Jacob has been silent and now it starts playing The Song.
“Only you~”
The effect is almost immediate and her sight turns black as she can feel fear and anger burst through her veins.
She’s back in the training, the burning and ruined building, Only You playing and echoing slowly in her head and the building itself. It’s second nature by now. As the clock rings she grabs the gun from the table. Shoot the guy on the left, shoot the guy on the right in the chair. Then go out of the room as Jacob praises her actions. It gives her an adrenaline boost as she moves ahead, knowing exactly the directions by now. She knows what she’s doing and feels herself proud. She almost knows that this is a record time for her.
She moves from corridor to corridor, killing her targets, that vanish to a smoke cloud as a bullet goes through them. She feels herself shout. “Kill, sacrifice!”
But inside it’s like watching a movie, someone else moving her body, making her kill. But she wants to kill, and she does.
She moves through the veteran center’s yard and shoots everyone who dares to come into her sight. When she enters the building she hears Jacob speak. Good, cull the herd.
And her hands move to her mouth as she whistles, a Judge appearing out of nowhere as it takes down a deer. They both dissappear into a smoke cloud, dying. She doesn’t think about it much. How the deer represents the militia.
She just moves along, sliding down as the music intensifies in her ringing ear.
As she enters the underground building and the usual targets come at her she doesn’t pay attention how they don’t dissappear into clouds when she shoots them. All of the bodies just lay down on the ground. Dead. She doesn’t notice, just moves forward inside the building, knowing her final target is close and then it’ll end. Then she did good. Then she’s: Excellent.
She takes the final corner, feeling the winning in her blood and she takes the shot mindlessly. The music slows down, as always. The world slows down around her. She smiles, proud of her work. Until she really looks at the person in front of her. Floating in the air, as slowly blood pours out of the wound from his head.
Eli...
She wants to move, to take back what she just did, but she feels like she’s stuck in time. Jacob’s taunting voice comes through, even though she knows he’s not there. Not really, this is just something he planted in her head. She can almost remember the moment... but he is here now, in her broken mind he appears right next to Eli as he taunts her.
“Only you... can make this world seem right... Only you can make the darkness bright...” He appears in her sight, and with a finger he lowers her hands and the gun that is still raised to Eli. “... only you.”
He points at Hope and chuckles.
“Hey, only you could have gotten this close. Only you could have earned his trust. It was always only ever you.”
She can feel tears gather in her eyes as she looks at Jacob.
“Good work.” It makes her feel sick how much she loves his praise. Even as her friend is right in front of her. Dead, by her hands.
“You did it. You passed your test. You made your sacrifice. But now, you’re alone. And you’re weak. And we know what happens to the weak.”
She shivers as she wants to punch him. Hurt him in any way. But she can’t move. And it wouldn’t even matter, as she knows he’s not really here.
“And we know what happens to the weak. I cull the herd, it’s what I do. I’ll be outside waiting for you.”
The world suddenly starts to get back into place. Eli’s body lands on the ground and Jacob is nowhere to be found. Hope can feel her tears gather in her eyes as she looks at the dead body in front of her. Tammy runs in, crouching next to Eli.
“Eli! No, no!”
She looks up at Hope. The junior deputy opens her mouth, but can’t make herself to say anything. Wheaty grabs her, throwing her into the wall as he points a gun at her head, tear in his eyes.
“What the fuck did you do?! You fucking killed him!”
Hope steps back into the wall as Tammy grabs Wheaty’s hand, getting the gun out of Hope’s face.
“Wheaty, no. Wait!”
“He trusted you! I trusted you!” The boy cries and Hope can’t fight the cry that comes from her as well.
“Wait!” Tammy says, trying to calm down the boy. “It was Jacob! Listen to me, it was Jacob! We’ve seen this before... Ronnie, Parker... this is what he does. And we let him right in...”
Hope feels her voice crack as she tries to say sorry. But would it matter? Would it really matter that she’s sorry that she just killed their friend?
Wheaty lets go of the weapon, his eyes full with tears as he steps back. Tammy turns around and grabs Hope’s coat.
“You find that motherfucker... You find Jacob and you kill him. Or next time I see you so help me God... I’ll kill you myself.”
She throws Hope out of the way. She feels defeated. Just like back when she let John live and the others judged her inside the Spread Eagle.
She takes a final look at Eli’s dead body then back to Tammy. The woman speaks as she looks at her.
“The others started a fight everywhere... I didn’t get a call from Jess nor Grace. Dutch told me everyone’s under attack.. We wanted to go and help... until you came in...”
She looks at Eli’s dead body than points at the door.
“Go!”
The woman hisses and Hope turns around, making her way to the entrance. Just as the bunker closes behind her and she gets out she feels fear inside of her. It’s so similar to her dream. The sky red, the trees burning around her.
“Ah... about time you came out. Thought I’d have to come and get ya... was worried you turned soft on me. But you’re a soldier, you do as you’re told.”
She watches the beacon in front of her, playing that god damn music. Judges come closer and she shoots them, until they turn into clouds of mist. Then she shoots at the beacon, wanting the music to stop. As it blows up Jacob speaks.
“Don’t fight it... Just let go... Trust me, Deputy.”
“I’m not trusting you, you bastard!” She screams through her angry cries. She watches Jacob in the distance as she nears another beacon and shoots at his leg. Not knowing why she can’t make herself aim at his head. But Jacob turns into a cloud of mist. Just like all the targets in her training.
“You’re tougher than I thought. But killing me won’t change a god damn thing. You think I give a shit if I die? That’s my purpose. I give my life for my brother’s. And I do it gladly. I understand my role... I am his sacrifice. Simple as that.”
What the fuck is he even talking about? She thinks as she blows up another beacon. There’s not much left, but the music is still ringing in her ear and her mind.
Her tears are still dropping as she can’t stop crying. She killed her friend, someone who trusted her. Why? Because she let it happen. She was stupid enough to turn on the radio. Stupid enough to stop her car and talk to Jacob rather than sticking to her plan.
“Don’t cry about Eli. He was weak and selfish. I gave him a chance to prove himself. All he had to do was hand over his Whitetails... could have saved us all this trouble.”
“Let’s say you win... than what’s next? You go back running errands for a teenager and a housewife? You think this is over and you can what? Go back and work as a cop? You wouldn’t even be able to leave your house without a weapon on your side.”
She tries to get him out of her head. Only one beacon is left and then maybe the music will finally stop and she’ll be free of him. His condition.
“Deputy just stop and think for a second. I’m trying to help you.”
She snorts at that as she readies a grenade in her hand to blow up the last source of the Platters.
“I don’t need your help.” She says and throws the grenade at the beacon.
The music finally dies down and her vision turns back into normal.The world doesn’t burn anymore and the sky isn’t blood red. She searches for the ginger just as a bullet lands in front of her, in the ground.
It missed her, but she looks up where it came from. The cliff ahead of her. She aims her rifle, looking through the scope. She watches a figure move and it’s Jacob Seed that looks back at her with his own rifle pointed at her figure. But he doesn’t shoot. Hope takes a deep breath, aiming at his head, but an image goes through her. She sees John and she feels her heart clentch as she thinks about how the man would react to know, that she killed his brother.
Hope adjusts her aim and shoots at Jacob’s side. The bullet lands just where she planted it to land. Not a lethal shot, but a painful one.
She lowers her weapon and watches as Jacob slides down from the cliff as he scatters to a rock and sits down. She walks toward him, her pistol ready if he decides to shoot her as she gets close to him. But he doesn’t.
“My brother saw all this coming... I don’t know if he talks to God... that doesn’t matter. He was right. Humanity is once again in crisis.”
Hope stops a couple of meters away from Jacob. He holds the open wound on his side. He bleeds heavily. Shit... He doesn’t seem like he could get up from that rock. Or even if he could he wouldn’t be able to move fast enough to kill her.
Jacob looks at the junior deputy standing in front of him and he gives her a look. Pride? That can’t be right. Would he be really proud of her? That she just shot him and he’s happy about it?
“It doesn’t matter what we build or achieve. We will always find a way to break it down. Babylon. Rome... Empires rise and empires fall... America.”
He gestures for her to come closer. She thinks about it for a second that does as he asks. As she gets closer to him he grabs her collar but he doesn’t hurt her.
“We’re no different... We think we’re indestructible... World War Two, War on ‘Terror’... we survived it... but it only brought us closer to the edge. And this where we are. Right here on schedule, just waiting for someone to push us... and oh boy, have you pushed us...”
Hope frowns. She got used to the Seeds’ criptic talk by now but she really doesn’t know what Jacob means. All that anger that lead her here is gone. She doesn’t want to avenge Eli anymore. She doesn’t want to kill anymore. And for god’s sake she just wants a normal answer, no mysteries.
“What the fuck are you even talking about?” She asks and steps back, Jacob letting go of her clothing.
He looks at her with a pained chuckle.
“You did everything he said you would do. And you didn’t even know...”
She lets out an angry groan and looks at him with a shout:
“Just talk some sense, Jacob!”
He makes a face, letting her know he’s not happy how she speaks to him. But he closes his eyes for a second, his breathing becoming even. His eyes snap open to the sudden sound that the junior deputy makes.
Hope groans out in pain as she falls to the ground. She never felt such a headache before, even though she fell from some high places in her time in Hope County. Her head spins and it feels like her brain is about to explode. She crouches down in the snow, making herself voulnerable in front of Jacob, but he doesn’t want to hurt her. He just looks at her in shock.
Hope grabs her head, letting her pistol fall to the ground as she can’t take the pain anymore. She screams, but she can’t hear anything other than the high pitch in her head. Closing her eyes she tries to fight down the pain, but she can’t as it takes over her whole body.
She can’t feel the blood that starts flowing out of her nose down to the ground. The red liquid mixing with the white snow where she crouches.
Images flash through her, every second making her see thousands of pictures. Places and people all around the county, fighting with each other. Peggie against resistance members. She can see Adam readying his bow and a peggie runs toward him, only for Liza to save him. She can see Jess and Grace fighting against Chosen at Jacob’s Armory. Staci hiding behind a crate, shooting at them.
She can see Nick and Addie leading children inside John’s Gate. She can see Wheaty crying next to Eli’s body.
All these things she sees are going through her mind in a flash, in a mere sencond. Then she watches John, standing in front of Joseph’s church. And Hope is right behind him, with Earl and Sharky. Only for this to turn into a final scene. Bomb dropping on Hope County, only to kill all the people she just saw. Then as suddenly as it started, it stops.
She can feels an invisible weight leaving her, the high pitch stopping and she watches the snow in front of her. The only things she hears is Jacob’s and her own heavy breathing.
“What the fuck...” The man coughs out, looking down at the young woman.
Hope looks up from the ground, disoriented from the world as she stands on unsteady legs. She has to lean against Jacob for a second, who surprisingly helps her out, grabbing her arm to steady her.
She looks down at him and her gaze is like a person’s who just saw a ghost.
“I have to warn them...” She whispers to herself more than to him.
Jacob having absolutely no idea what just happened looks at her.
“You can’t go to Joseph’s. John will kill me if you do.”
Hope blinks at him, confused by his words, but her head is still focused on what just happened to her. Deep down she would fight against it, saying she’s insane. But a huge part of her knows, that she just saw the ‘Collapse’ and she has to warn them. She has to warn everyone.
She steps away from Jacob and looks at the road. She just has to find a truck...
“Deputy, if you go there, Joseph will kill him. He’ll kill you both.”
Jacob sounds desperate, but his words don’t reach her. She walks, knowing exactly what she has to do.
“Go to a bunker, Jacob or you’ll die.”
That’s the only thing she says to him before dissappearing from his view.
She had an angry conversation with Dutch, telling him to tell everyone to get back to John’s Gate or go and find prepper bunkers. He told her that they were finally winning against the peggies, why did she want to retreat. She shouted for almost two minutes, explaining that if she’s wrong than at least they were careful. But if she’s right everyone will be glad to be alive in the bunkers. So after a long conversation she convinced him to move everyone in bunkers.
She told Earl and Sharky especially to stay away from Joseph’s compound but now as she nears the island both of them are waiting for her just at the bridge to Joseph’s compound.
She stops the truck and looks at the two man on the road, frustrated and angry, worried most of all.
“What did I tell you?”
Sharky looked at Earl as they entered her truck.
“You told us to not come.”
Earl continued.
“So of course we came.”
She closes her eyes, feeling angry at herself and at them, but sighs.
“If we do this... and you die... I won’t forgive myself.”
Earl looks at her from the next seat as he smiles.
“Well then... we better not die then.”
They drive to Joseph’s church and the peggies welcome them with open gates. They’re all armed and ready to fight, but they don’t shoot. Hope can feel her stomach grumble in nervousness as she watches Joseph and John stand right in front of the church. Joseph without his shirt, a pistol in his holster. John behind him, his head bowing down as he stands behind Joseph. Hope can see from this distance how he’s shrunken and how new scars scatter along his body. She tries not to concentrate on him as she gets out of the car. Joseph follow her movements, an unreadable expression on his face.
Earl and Sharky follow her, stepping out of the vehicle as well.
They all stand a few feet away from the two Seeds. John only now looks up at them. He looks at Sharky, then Earl. He seems like he thinks for a second, then he looks at Hope as well. The other don’t notice, but Hope looks at him, how he stands from one leg to the other. She always found it adorable, how he does that when he’s nervous.
But now she can’t think about it. She tears her eyes away from him and looks at Joseph, who watched her the entire time.
It seems like he knew they were coming. And she has a feeling that he knows it for the exact same reason she knows. Maybe he saw it too. No... Not maybe. He saw it.
The silence breaks as Joseph starts talking:
“And I saw as the lamb opened the sixth seal...”
A/N: So this is it, the final part is coming soon ♥ Then the next season is coming with the series name: Through the Gates
Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!
Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later
Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!
Word Counter: 9319
Notes: ANGST, the whole chapter is an angsty motherfecker, and I’m not sorry, now let me cry in peace, thank you. I listened to this music while writing the chapter, you guys could give it a listen
Parts Masterpost | Part 23 ( coming soon )
Hope manages to run to Nolan’s Fly Shop, following the river. Her feet hurts, due to not wearing any shoes, she shakes from fear, confusion and the cold. It’s the start of December, the roads and the grass is covered with rime, making her legs wet and cold. She’s still unsure on her feet, but she keeps moving.
Hope notices Chosen in the air, searching the area, probably for her. But she doesn’t care, she moves forward, trying to stay hidden as she nears the Fly Shop. It’s already liberated, she did that a while back and now she’s glad it’s free from the cult. She needs help, she needs to radio the others.
As she stumbles toward the place some resistance members notice her, and for her surprise they start shooting. They’re terrible shots, all missing her, but she doesn’t take her luck as she shouts to them:
“I’m the Deputy!”
Hope realizes the confusion must be because of her clothes. Still wearing the peggie sweater, the cultist symbol making her seem like she’s one of them.
They stop, looking at her carefully from a distance, when a familiar voice shouts toward her, a figure coming her way, waving with a big smile:
“Honey, I can’t believe it’s you!” Addie comes closer to the young woman, embracing her in a big hug, a wince coming from the deputy in return as the older woman touched her wound on her side.
The gun for hire lets go of her, a big smile on her face and she looks at Hope, grabbing her arm and leading her toward the shop.
“You must be freezing like this, come on in.” As they walk toward the building Addie scoffs to the other resistance members. “You ain’t gonna be the employees of the month, trying to shoot your own boss.”
Hope welcomes the warmth of the shop, the sickening smell of fast food and sweat, her stomach grumbling in dislike, but she’s safe and sound and that’s the only thing that matters.
Addie sits her down in a chair and makes her way to a room, looking for clothes for the young woman. Her voice is happy and energetic as she speaks to the junior deputy through the rooms.
“Where were you, honey? We looked for you everywhere. When you took of in my dear Tulip, I thought you and John wanted to get a little, you know. Private time. But then you didn’t return and I found my chopper at that stupid sign in the Valley.”
The elder woman returns with new clothes and shoes to the room, setting them down on the counter where Hope sits, looking at her.
“What happened?”
Hope looks at Addie, still being in shock from all the events that happened during the day. Where should she start? Hope starts dressing in silence at first, Adelaide being patient with her and when the young woman is fully dressed, shoes on her cold feet she raises an eyebrow at the Deputy.
“Will you let me on everything, honey?”
Hope takes a deep breath as she starts talking. At first she wants to skip the part where her and John had sex, but decides what’s the point anymore. Addie is not one to judge. So she tells her about the sex, the fight after, the stranger and the fire, being at the Jessop Conservatory and Joseph.
Adelaide keeps quiet for it all, her face being the only reaction to everything from shocked to amused then sad and pity. After Hope finishes with Joseph thinking she’s his Eve or something she exhales, taking a break. Addie whistles, raising an eyebrow.
“Wow... And here I thought you finally took a vacation.” She chuckles along with Hope.
There’s a moment of silence and the last thing that eats the young woman up burst out from her.
“I’m pregnant.”
It’s a quiet sentence, due to the fact that outside are some resistance members and she doesn’t want to share this information with everyone. Addie hears it though and frowns at her.
“Are you sure honey? It was like what... a week since you two had sex.”
The woman tries to reason than sees the look on Hope’s face and starts laughing:
“I’m sorry...” She makes out a few words between her laughs. “I know this is important and serious...”
She starts crying while laughing and even in this confusing situation Hope can’t help but smile at her reaction.
“What?” The young woman asks, and Addie laughs even more, then speaks, wiping her tears of joy away.
“I should have known. That wasn’t the first time you two were involved, was it?”
Hope shakes her head, earning a smirk from Addie, the woman ready to hear everything she has to offer to her.
“Okay... So when was the first time? Before or after you let him live?”
“After. When I went missing for a month, it happened after that.” She says with a sigh, Addie being the first person - well not including Jacob and the stranger there - to know about them.
The woman whistles, thinking with a smile.
“So about a month ago?”
Hope nods, thinking about the events that happened then. How good it felt to just give herself to John, to give her innocence to the man. Also feeling stupid that they didn’t think about the consequences. All the awkward moments spent with Earl, when she had her first period, having the talk with him, saying that she’s not stupid, she knows that people need to be careful.
And now here she is, pregnant because she was stupid at the moment. She wants to be angry at John, for not being careful enough, but how could she be angry at him, when she didn’t think it through either at that moment.
She still can’t get used to that idea. Pregnant. She’s pregnant. There’s a life, forming inside of her. A life that John and her created. Her heart aches for the man as well. She left him there, and even though he wanted to stay, she feels like it was her that betrayed him.
“Well, honey. Congratulations, I guess.” Addie chuckles and gaines a tired look from Hope, so she stops, giving a comforting squeeze to the young woman’s shoulders. “Look, it’s done, there’s nothing you can do honey.”
Hope nods, shaking her head, trying to pull herself together. She has to, nothing’s changed for the better. The war won’t stop just because she’s carrying one of the Seed’s child. There are plenty of pregnant women out there, one more won’t change anything.
“Yeah... Yeah, you’re right.”
She grabs a radio, claiming it as hers from now on and sets it on Earl’s station, but before she could do anything to start a call Addie asks with a mischievous smile.
“So, was he any good?”
Hope gets flushed in the cheeks as she looks at the woman with wide eyes, a nervous laughter leaving her.
“Wha-why would you ask that?”
Addie shrugs, still smiling at the young woman.
“Well, I was always wondering. And we’re girls, we’re supposed to have a girl talk about guy’s dicks.”
Hope cover her face with her hands, laughing.
“I’m not going to discuss John’s dick.”
But the elder woman doesn’t listen as she talks, more to herself than to Hope, thinking out loud.
“Bet he could do wonders with his fingers and tongue... I mean you slept with him more than once, there has to be a reason for that. And that weird obsession of his with tying people down. Did he use any toys on you?”
Hope gets up, raising her hands to stop her as she goes to exit the building.
“I’m going to call my uncle, so stay here. And don’t mention this topic anymore, please.” She gigles, leaving the building with a smile on her face. It’s nice to be back with the others. Even just to talk about normal things.
Talking about sex is normal, hearing about God and that she was destined to be with a cult leader is not normal.
Hope walks past the resistance members, radio in hand as she approaches the place behind the building. She doesn’t know if she wants to share the big news with her uncle or if she’ll just burst it out, but best be careful to not do it around other people.
The young woman pushes down the button, with a shy smile on her face.
“Hey, old man? You there?”
The sheriff picks up his radio as quickly as he can, an answer coming almost immediately.
“Trinity? Is that you?”
She smiles and giggles softly.
“Yeah. Missed me?”
There’s a scoff sound and a scolding answer, though she can hear the smile in his voice.
“You were gone again, what do you think? Where are you?”
Hope closes her eyes, glad she can hear his voice again. She missed talking to the man. Before the cult they talked every day, but now they’ve been apart for so long it hurts her.
“I’m sorry. I’m at Nolan’s Fly Shop right now. I-- umf!”
Her voice is cut of by pain in her neck. She opens her eyes, her vision blurry and she slowly reaches up for her neck, the Bliss already drugging her mind.
“No, no, no! ADDIE!” She shouts as she turns to the building, clapping her radio on her belt as she tries to move, but her legs give in, falling to the ground with a following thump sound.
Her mind panics as she hears the familiar giggle, but she tries to stay awake, stay clear. The fear of going back to Joseph making her scared. Green smoke covers her sight, Faith’s voice echoing in her head:
“Welcome to the Bliss.”
Hope’s vision starts to come back, but before she can see the Bliss field, the trees and butterflies surrounding her, she hears Faith’s voice. The scenery is a bit different. The background Bliss isn’t white-green and bright. It’s got a darker color to it, something that scares her.
“I don’t understand...” Faith’s mocking, angry even, her voice coming to a higher pitch as she speaks.
Hope watches a butterfly in front of her flying away, but is soon welcomed with Faith. She’s not like before: not tender, gentle and innocent. She seems like a siren, a mermaid finally losing her mask and getting ready to drown her prey. Hope being the prey.
“Did you think you could just continue to do what you wanted without consequences? The Father gave you another chance and you cast it aside, again. And he thinks it’s my fault, that I didn’t keep you safe enough.”
She stands before her, face changing as she speaks fast, too fast for Hope’s drugged mind.
“I’ve been reasonable. I’ve been fair.” Her fave shifts as she shoves Hope back with so much fierce, the junior deputy is surprised by her power and anger. “But you are just so selfish!”
Like in an insane movie, the Faith before her looks at her, while another turns her around, to look at her. She speaks through her teeth, face angry.
“You forced someone to leave, that didn’t want to go!” Hope blinks, not knowing who she means at first. She gets her answer when Faith grabs her and with unnatural speed they fly through the field toward a desk, Virgil and the Marshall sitting at it, playing cards. Both not knowing of the presence of the two women.
Fake Seed’s voice becomes more tender, but mocking, taunting the young woman with her words.
“All so you could be what? A hero?”
Hope blinks at her, trying to speak but only Faith turns to the table as she continues to speak.
“Do you know what hubris is?” She brushes Burke’s back as she walks by, the Marshall reacting by holding to his chest. Like he feels her presence, but he doesn’t look at her or move. Virgil on the other hand has zero reactions, he continues to look at the cards in his hands.
“Arrogance before the gods.” Faith sits on top of the table, Burke turning his head towards her just a bit. Hope slowly approaches the desk, looking at Faith with caution.
“The Greeks saw it as a dangerous form of pride that envoked the goddess Nemesis, who would seek retribution.”
Virgil’s sudden voice Hope winces in her place, looking at the man talking to her coworker, still not acknowledging the presence of the two.
“I win this hand, you have to wear a button.” He picks up a button from the metal box next to him, showing it to Burke. Faith walks back to behind the marshall, looking at the scene as well. “Whaddya say?”
Burke chuckles lightly, his voice still clouded and Hope feels pity for the man. Poor bastard is still under the influence of the Siren bitch. So called bitch is caressing the man’s arm, as he puts down his cards on the desk with an exhale.
“Straight flush.”
He puts both his hands on the table as Faith turns to Hope, her face cold and mocking.
“If violence is the only language you choose to speak, I’ll speak your language.”
She places her hand on top of the Marshall’s guiding it to slide down from the table, the man following her lead like a puppet., placing it on top of his holster. Hope’s eyes widen in fear.
“...and when their blood is on your hands...”
Burke repeating the words, making Virgil look at him confused.
“...and when their blood is on your hands...”
He stands up slowly from the chair, Faith not letting go of him.
“...we’ll see how heroic you feel.”
Burke repeats, pointing his gun at Virgil.
“...we’ll see how heroic you feel.”
Virgil stands from the desk, confused and afraid.
“What are you doing?!”
“NO!” Hope shouts, but can’t stop Burke from shooting Virgil in the chest, the man falling to the dossier cabinets behind him, coating the metal with his blood as he falls to the ground.
The young woman starts to tear up, approaching the man, but there’s nothing she can do as she watches him bleed on the ground. Faith speaks and Hope looks at her, bewildered.
“I’m sorry to have to do this.”
She looks up to meet the marshall pointing a gun at her, repeating the words of Faith.
“I’m sorry to have to do this.”
Her voice is so fake, it makes anger burst through her veins, the Bliss swirling around her mind, trying to keep her sedated, but Hope feels finally coming back to her senses.
“I wanted there to be another way.”
“I wanted there to be another way.”
Faith shoves Burke around, who walks toward the monitoring devices, while the young woman looks at Hope, her face nothing but a mirror of anger, her next words almost a spit.
“But you made your choice.”
“But you made your choice.” Burke repeats again. Hope wants to slap Fake Seed, but looks at the Marshall in fear as he presses buttons on the monitoring desk, fear filling her. She can see on the monitor that the gates to the prison opens, a feared shout from Tracey coming from somewhere.
“Who opened the doors?”
Another shout.
“The fucking gate’s open!” Burke shoots the devices, not letting a chance to close the gate back again.
Another resistance member screams, as
“Oh, shit! They’re inside! Save the kids!”
Burke turns around to face Hope, his voice sad and scared, but also drugged by Faith’s influence.
“I told you I didn’t want to leave.” He raises the gun under his chin and Hope walks toward him, trying to stop him, but he shoots, blood pouring out of the back of his head, dropping dead on the ground.
She wakes up right after that, crickets filling the night sound. She doesn’t even open her eyes yet, when her radio crackles to life, Earl shouting with panic:
“The peggies have the control room! Rook! Anyone! We’re under att-- No! Hold ‘em back!”
Hope opens her eyesa and turns around from the Bliss field. She hears sirens coming from the Jail and watches explosions at the building. She gets from the ground, panicked as she thinks about all the kids and pregnant women in the building. And Earl, her only family being in danger with all the others. She doesn’t have any weapons, but she runs toward the building, her mind still clouded by the Bliss a bit.
Her heart skips a beat, not caring of the fact how Tracey - who have been imprisoned there - can speak through the radio.
“They grabbed the Sheriff! Fuck! Earl’s been taken! Rook! Where the fuck are you?!”
Hope exhales heavily from the running, eyes burning from her upcoming tears. Tears of sadness and anger. Worry for her only living family member. As she nears the building she spots the snipers on the roof in time, covering behind security gate building in front of the Jail.
Now what? She has no weapons, nothing. Bullets fly by the monument she’s behind and she watches Angels run past her on the road, thankfully not recognizing her. She doesn’t think she could pull up a fight with them, not without any weapons. The wound on her side hurts, but she doesn’t care about that right now.
There’s a moment when she thinks she’ll make a run for it, even if it means being shot down at first sight. But when she shuffles to move a gun barrel is against her head from behind, a voice speaking to her:
“Turn around. Slowly.” She does as she’s told, hands raised in the air a bit, when she recognizes the man. Thomas Enderby, the guy from the Conservatory. Father of two children from the Jail if she’s correct. She even met one of them, Eve about two months ago.
“You’re coming with me to the Father.” The man says, but Hope looks at her angrily.
“Your children are in the building you’re attacking right now.” She spits at him, not sure if that will change anything. Maybe he knows already, and just doesn’t give a single fuck about his real family. But his face changes as he blinks at her, lowering his gun.
“How would you know that? Why would they be inside?”
“Because all of the Resistance’s children are there. Pregnant women as well, innocent people you are killing off!” She pokes at the barrel of his gun, showing it away, so she can shove the man in the chest. “Your daughter and son as well.”
There’s a moment where he looks at her, trying to figure out if she’s telling the truth and to her relief he gives his rifle to her. She’s surprised it actually worked, and this easily as well.
“Show the way. If you’re lying, I’m killing you myself.”
Hope doubts that now that she has a weapon, but doesn’t care as she turns around and from the cover she shoots all the snipers down from the roof. Jacob’s annoying praise echoing in her head with every kill. Good. Excellent.
Thomas gets a pistol out from his holster, following the Deputy toward the Jail. Tracey’s voice crackles through her radio again, and for all that Hope cares she forgives for her treason.
“I hope you’re close Rook! Fuckin’ peggies are inside the prison!” Gunshots can be heard through the radio and Hope doesn’t want to think that the cultists are maybe killing of the innocent children inside. “They’ve blocked the entries. There’s a vent on the roof. Find a way up and come through the vent, HURRY!”
She fastens her running while Thomas shoots down the coming Angels. Faith’s voice echoes in her head, still taunting her.
“Look at you rushing to help. Don’t worry... Your friends will be safe with me.”
“Fuck you, you fucking bitch!” Hope says, knocking out an Angel coming her way out of frustration.
After the clearing the yard with the help of the man, who she doesn’t trust in still, especially because it’s his fault as well that the prison has been attacked. But she sets that bitter thing aside until she makes sure everyone is safe and sound inside.
She climbs the ladder up to the roof, when she spots Faith, Thomas following after her, bumping into the woman’s back, not knowing why they stopped. Hope looks at Faith with anger as she keeps mocking her:
“Aww... Still trying to be the hero... It’s too late, you know. You should have listened when you had the chance.”
Hope raises her fist and hits the Fake Seed in the head, only for her to disappear into a green cloud and Hope hitting her fist into the building with a painful cry.
“Fucking... Tinkerbell... bitch!” She spits, holding her hand in the other, fighting down the pain, when a hand touches her shoulder wich she shakes off with anger.
“She’s not here, you know... We have to move.” Thomas says, like he knows who she saw. Of course he knows, he’s VIP he must have seen all people hallucinating or whatever with Faith. Hope’s not sure anymore that the Bliss is a hallucination. How could it be, when it showed her real things? Virgil and the Marshal inside? The collapse, her nightmare... NO! STOP IT!
She shakes the thoughts out of her head, only concentrating of the situation at hand. Hope crawls inside the vent, her side hurting with every move. She’s sure her stitches came loose, but she doesn’t care about that. She has to save the people inside. Then find Earl and end Faith once and for all.
She ends up on the highest level of the Jail, where the Resistance put a couch, where she herself was chilling on after getting Burke back. Now a peggie is standing in front of it, looking down at the others below.
She sneaks behind him, snapping his neck and taking the body behind the cover. Hope looks down. There are peggies on each and every level. And below them at the cafeteria there are people tied up, children and women crying. She also notices the bodies around them, the building from the bombs taking damage, pieces of the jail killing innocent people. She watches a young boy crying next to one of those bodies, a little girl. Probalby dead by the looks of it, though from this distance she can’t tell who it is, she looks young. God, too young. The boy crying next to her body is fighting against one of the peggies who try to pull him away from the girl shouts:
“You fucking bastards, you killed her! You killed everyone!” He cries out and gets a hit from the gun’s hilt in the head so he falls back to the ground groaning.
Before Hope can count every peggie, taking a slow approach to her actions Thomas stands up from next of her, shouting and running back down, killing every peggie on his way. She has no time to stop him, while he cries and shouts:
“GET AWAY FROM MY SON!”
Hope follows behind, clearing the way of the peggies, while Thomas is already down there. There is confusion on the cultist’s face, the one who hit the boy, but shoots his own boss non the less, Thomas killing him with a single shot as well.
The junior deputy doesn’t stay to watch the scene, even though she didn’t like the man, didn’t trust him, she feels pity for him. She goes to cut the ropes on every single one of the captives. So many dead, and just a few alive. She tries to ignore the dead children on the ground. Pregnant women shot in the head as well. She can’t look at them now.
She hears the dying whimpers from Thomas, the boy, his son apparently crouching next to him. She checks on them, only a glimpse is enough to know, there’s nothing she can do to save him. Hope lets them have the moment, just a minute or so to have in peace between the two of them.
Hope notices Tracey through the gate, and Hope ignores the feeling of betrayal from before. That doesn’t matter now.
“Where is my uncle?” Hope asks, trying to open the door but can’t, it’s locked.
“Something happened with Virgil and the Marshal... then everything went nuts. They got the Sheriff, Rook! They got everyone! We’re in trouble, we’re gotta move! The gate’s locked, one of those fuckers out there has the key, hurry!”
Hope is relieved a bit, even if they’re with Faith, not everyone is dead. But that’s still not enough to make her forget this. She will kill Faith or God knows, she will die tonight!
“You’re trying so hard... It’s sad, knowing it’s all for nothing...” Faith mocks her in her head and Hope doesn’t give a single fuck about her words.
Hope searches for the key, looting the bodies around, then rushes back to Tracey, cutting her out of her ropes as well. There’s no time to say sorry, but Hope can see Tracey wants to say it, for her to forgive her.
“It doesn’t matter know. We have to move!”
The deputy says as they enter Virgil’s office, but Hope is sure what they will find. As the door opens Tracey stops, both looking at the dead Virgil.
“Oh no... no, no no!” Tracey cries as she gets to the floor, grabbing Virgil’s body into her lap. “Help me, put pressure on it!”
She says and Hope does so, but she can see he lost too much blood. He’s dead, but Tracey still tries, putting her finger where his pulse is supposed to be.
“Come on Virgil, come on!”
She waits and waits, until Hope puts a hand on her to comfort her.
“He’s gone.” She says, feeling sorry for the man. She liked him, and she knows he meant a lot to Tracey.
The woman looks in her eyes, teary and she starts sobbing, then crying.
“No...” Her body shakes and Hope can’t help but cry herself. For everyone, not just Virgil. Even Burke. She liked the man a lot, and now they are all dead, thanks to that... that bitch.
Tracey gets the bloodied cougar button off of Virgil’s vest and looks at it.
“This is what she does. Takes. Destroys.”
Tracey grabs Hope’s shirt and looks into her eyes.
“Find her. Kill her. Don’t let her get away with this.”
Hope nods slowly, her voice full with venom towards the Seed.
“I will.”
It’s enough of a promise as she stands up and walks out the door, grabbing all the weapons she can get her hands on. Faith is singing in her head, there’s a light coming from the door, and Hope knows if she exits she’ll be welcomed to the Bliss. She’s ready, so she does exits to the light.
“When this is all over, you’ll be all together in the Bliss.”
Hope wakes up in the Bliss field. It’s light there again, no ominous dark clouds. But the young woman knows, feels that this will be it. The changing point. She either dies tonight or she’ll kill the Siren herself.
Her head is filled with the Bliss, but she feels active, awake. Her body fast as normal, nothing is slowing her down.
She’s in front of the gates, the ones that she stopped Burke to go through. It opens as she approaches and Faith talks to her, her voice echoing from all places.
“Now you what we can do. Come to me and I’ll show you a world you never dreamed possible.”
Hope follows the path, not because of her false promises but because she wants to find her uncle, wants to find her and end it all.
There’s a clearing field ahead, a stone in the middle of it. She can hear Faith singing a song. The song, from Joseph.
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.”
Hope follows a butterfly with her eyes, until she notices Faith. Her stomach drops at the sight of Earl, taking Faith’s hand and smiling at her as they approach.
“Earl...” She whispers, not sure what to do. She fears she might shoot Earl in the Bliss, that maybe this is a trick so she waits.
“That saved a wretch a like me.” They crouch down, grabbing a Bliss flower and singing together.
“I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see...” Faith points towards for Earl to go and Hope moves finally, reaching for her uncle to stop him, but Faith comes in front of her, shoving her hand away, standing between the two as Earl sings and walks ahead.
“Your Sheriff kept you from walking the path. But now he understands it’s purpose.” She giggles, back being the fake cheerful girl. “And he’ll join our family in Eden.”
Hope looks past the woman, looking at Earl who is slowly disappearing in the distance. The young woman takes a step but is stopped again by Faith who tries to cover her view.
“And if you try to stop him...” She says, her voice being the ugly and cold one, which she covers with a giggle.
She disappears into a green smoke, so Hope tries to follow Earl but he’s already gone and she’s left alone in the circle clearing, with the stone in the middle. But not for long as Faith stands before her again.
“The Sheriff was a wall.”
She ascends into a ball of light, to appear in a new place again.
“A wall between you and the Father...”
Bullshit. Faith leaps into the air, just above the stone, hovering over it, arms open and invitating.
“Just like John...”
She can’t possibly know, can she? But she doesn’t ask questions, already reaching for her assault rifle. Even if Faith knows, it won’t matter anymore, not for long.
“A wall that kept you from seeing his truth.”
She shoots at the woman, not surprised that she vanishes into a cloud again, while Angel appear to attack her on the ground. She kills them, well shoots at them so they vanish. This is just like the trials. Just with Bliss, not the music box. She thinks, and could hear an echo of Jacob’s voice in her head, following every kill. Excellent. Not bad. Again. Kill, sacrifice.
“So I will knock down that wall...”
Faith says and Hope fears what that means for Earl. The Siren appears, throwing something at her that hurts so Hope tries to not get in the way, while she shoots the young woman.
“Your Sheriff is so close now.. So close to accepting the Word of the Father into his heart. And when he does... there’s no coming back from that.”
“YOU TRY TO HURT HIM, I’LL KILL YOU YOU CUNT!” Hope roars out, spitting her words while Faith only giggles at her.
In the circle Faith appears. More than once or twice. There’s a whole bunch of her, all speaking at once, her voice echoing in Hope’s head, so she shoots at everyone of them, trying to find the real one and kill that.
“The Garden is not for you...”
Hope finds her, shooting at her constantly, reloading again and again.
“The Father must be wrong about you, you’re not special, you’re not the chosen one...”
The junior deputy cries out of frustration as she reloads again. She doesn’t understand how she’s still alive. Hope emptied so many barrels into her, how could she be still alive?
“Feeling confused? Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon.”
Faith says as she throws her bliss things at Hope, the woman crying out from the pain, but still standing on her legs, with new injuries sure. But she won’t stop until either one of them is dead.
“Why do you keep fighting us? You know what’s coming. The Father showed you... He showed you, the Father knows it as well, we know you saw the end... The world is crashing to an end. It is diseased and corrupt. The Father is offering you a chance to let go... to stop worrying... to be free... be his...”
Hope shakes her head, trying to get away from the woman’s voice as a new circle surrounds her and so many Angels she’s sure she’ll die. Hope shoots, kick, hits does everything she can to fight off the brain dead cultists, while Faith giggles at her. Taunting her with words.
“You can’t do that... be good... manipulator... coward...”
Hope starts to hear a choir singing, not sure where the music comes from. A new version of Help me Faith and she feels the urge to sing along and stop fighthing. The other part of her can hear John’s voice: On the way to become an Angel... She remembers him telling her too much Bliss will corrupt her mind.
So she keeps fighting against the Angels, even if it seems impossible to win and now her mind says to stop fighting as well.
She tries a new technique, trying to focus her mind away from the Bliss music. Humming to herself the tunes she thought she would hate so much.
Only you can make this world seem right... She can almost hear the music in her head, imagining the feeling of the music coming to her ears, filling her veins with a rush of adrenalin, her mind coming to focus at last. Only you can make the darkness bright...
Hope raises her gun to Faith again, her vision turning a bit red. She can’t believe it’s actually working in some way. Only you and you alone can thrill me like you do...
“You strike, but you cannot destroy what He created!” Faith cries out as new Angels appear, but Hope doesn’t see any problem with fighting them down anymore. And fill my heart with love for only you.
“You don’t know what he’ll do.”
Don’t know and don’t care. She thinks as she keeps humming the song in her head. Only you can make this change in me.
“Live by the sword and you’ll die by the sword.”
Faith tries to strike her down with her bliss powers, but Hope quickly dodges those attacks, shooting at the woman while she’s distracted. It seems like she starts to bruise, Hope’s not sure as her vision is blurry with Bliss and red, both effects fighting for dominance.
“Don’t you see what you’re doing?”
For it's true, you are my destiny. She shoots, then dodges, then shoots, then dodges.
“You cannot cross the Father!”
Faith disappears as another set of bullets hit her, her cloud becoming red.
“It’s not my fault... None of this was my fault! You think I wanted this? He plied me with drugs... He threatened me... I was seventeen! I was just a child!”
Hope stops humming the song at that, anger fueling her. She laughs, mocks the Siren. What would the ‘Father’ say if he heared this?
“There were children at the Jail as well!” She shouts angrily, wasting a couple of bullets into thin air, being impatient while Faith is in hiding.
A couple of bliss things fly her way which she barely dodges, then she shoots at Faith again, feeling that the fighting is coming to an end now.
“You will never know what I know!” The young woman cries out, but there are no words that will work on Hope, not anymore.
Hope shoots again, and it’s a final shot, a scream coming from the Siren as the scenery changes.
“NO!”
They’re at the riverbend, Fairh standing in front of her. Hope’s vision is still blurred, but it’s her. Just like back at the church or the Conversatory. No trick, no bliss clouds of her vanishing. Her face is bloody and bruised as she looks up at Hope. But the young woman doesn’t feel pity for her.
“You still don’t understand...” She giggles, an exhausted fake laugh. “You don’t know what it is you’re doing do you?”
She steps forward, just as Hope steps backwards, an act that the woman is not used to. She looks taken a back a bit, but speaks:
“Joseph believes he’s our savior. But you’ll be the one who decides what happens.”
She seems like she’s fighting to find the right words, fighting to speak even.
“You were the start. You’ll be the end.”
She holds out her hand, trying to touch Hope but she scatters backwards. The junior deputy isn’t sure what reaction she sees on Faith’s face. A glimpse of realization? Sadness? Surprise that she’s rejected by Hope? Acceptance?
Faith lets her hand down and nods softly. There’s a low and quiet noise she makes, a huff, a scoff? Something Hope would have definitely missed if she wasn’t keeping silent all along.
Faith looks at her, and it’s revelation, while she steps back, a slight step, she’s not going far. She keeps eye contact with Hope and the young woman feels a pit in her stomach and chest at her next words as she fake smiles:
“It was always going to happen this way...”
Hope doesn’t know what she means by that. Doesn’t understand the dots inside her head, not yet, not until it’s already too late. Faith turns around, unsure on her feet as she walks into the river, her voice sad:
“You’ll walk the path.”
Hope follows her, just a few steps forward as she stops at the edge of the river, Faith giggling as she gets deeper into the water.
“You’ll rescue your Sheriff. You’ll be the Hero...” She turns around, a tired mock to the last word, but it’s not as bitter as it was. Hope feels pity for the young woman as she watches her.
“...and then... you’ll choose.”
Green smoke surrounds Faith as she lays back in the water, not moving. Her next words not coming from her, but echoes in Hope’s head.
“And if you don’t listen to Him. He’ll be right...”
The bliss disappears from the surroudning area, gathering in one place above her dead body, then sliding to Hope on the ground, into the single Bliss flower. She crouches down and picks it up, her voice low and sad:
“I’m sorry Rachel...”
Hope stands before Faith’s Gate, it’s being open to her as she enters the green smoke coming out from the place, the Bliss making her eyes burry with white dots, but it doesn’t make her dizzy anymore. It doesn’t feel like being pulled into another place.
She needs to find Earl, needs to shut down the place and get everyone to safety.
Hope runs through the bunker, the grass and plants being a surprise to her. But they are real, she’s sure about that. She thinks how Joseph could want people to live here after the Collapse. John’s bunker was fucked thanks to the torture, but this? Drugging everyone inside? That’s the real torture.
There’s whispers in the air, something she hallucinates thanks to the Bliss, mostly. She comes to some stairs, a moose being on top of it. She stops, not sure if the creature is real or not. She doesn’t want to get killed by a moose after all that she’s been through so she looks at it cautiously from far.
“I did not ask for this...” Joseph’s voice comes from somewhere and Hope shivers to his voice. She remembers the moments she met him in the Bliss, the way he touched her shoulder saying so comforting things to her. “...I was chosen.” She remembers his voice and it makes her shiver as she shakes her head trying to get herself together.
She approaches the moose, that not moving and she simply goes through it as it vanishes to a green smoke, filling her with even more Bliss. She closes her eyes and sees a glimpse of Joseph Seed in her head, facing her, his glasses gone and his face bruised.
“I am your Father, and you are my child...”
He says and it feels like she can feel his breath on her skin. She opens her eyes again, moving forward just to be welcomed with a scene. There’s Burke, raising a gun at Joseph along with Virgil.
“Joseph Seed I have a warrant for your arrest.” She passes them to become smokes, Joseph standing in front of her with a book of his own.
“It’s coming you can feel it--” She pasts him, not wanting to see any more of the man for the time being.
Two Angels appear out of nowhere and she kills both of them with her hands, not wanting to waste any more bullets, than she already did, killing Faith.
She hears his uncle sing as she steps on the stairs leading up.
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound... That saved a wretch like me.”
Hope comes closer to the door, her uncle singing with closed eyes, holding the bars of his door, but not trying to get out. She can feel her eyes getting teary again as she looks at him with worry.
“Used to sing his praise, than first when we’ve begun...”
Hope grabs the bars in front of him, her voice weak as she calls out to him:
“Earl?”
When he opens his eyes she gasps with fear and worry for the man. His eyes glassy and smokey, just like how John described the ones who are near to become Angels.
He looks like he fights for his words as he speaks.
“I don’t have much time, kiddo...” She places her hand on top of his, crying silently as she looks at him. “The Bliss... you have to stop it...”
He stays silent as she nods repeatedly, swallowing her sobs.
“You have to hurry...” He shakes as he fights, but he closes his eyes again and smiles, singing to the side. “Amazing Grace...”
He looks up at the rope in the room which she only know spotted. Her eyes widen at the sight, a chair being there with Earl as well.
“No...” She whispers, grabbing the man’s hand through the bars, trying to hold on as forcefully as she can but he slips away from her just as easily as if she were not even holding him.
“How sweet the sound...” He stops closer to the rope, looking at it while getting the chair under it.
“NO! EARL! Fight it! Fight the Bliss!”
She shouts while shaking the bars of the door, which just won’t open for her. This isn’t fair! She fought Faith, she killed him and now she’ll have to lose her unlce! No!
“That saved a wretch like me... I once was lost but now am found...”
He stands on top of the chair and Hope shakes with her cries:
“Please, Earl! Please don’t leave me, not now! I need you!”
He looks at her for a mere moment like he tries to fight it, but continues to sing.
“Was blind but now I see...”
“EARL DON’T!” She cries, banging the bars, trying to get his attention. “I need you, you can’t leave me, not now, please. I need you, I’m pregnant.”
She cries and notices as he stops, his body shaking as he fights his words out, not moving further:
“You have to hurry! Rook!”
She gets the information and runs, leaving him behind there, hoping he can fight the Bliss while she stops it from leaking anymore.
She runs through room, reaching a metal door, watching Tracey behind it.
“You have to hurry, Rook!” The woman echos Earl’s words and Hope opens the door, just to run through Bliss Tracey, a hallucination. She runs through a corridor to be met with another door, opening that up as well. There are no other ways to go, so she hopes this is the right way to turn off the Bliss.
She’s clear now, no bliss to be around, but there are a lot of ways to go. She watches a valve in the distance and figures that’s where she has to shut down the Bliss. Her body is beyond high adrenaline, her mind almost not even realizing how she kills of the peggies in her way. Her only goal: shut off the valves and help Earl, fast.
She shutdowns one of the valves, gaining a warning siren going off in the bunker. A mechanic man’s voice speaking to her.
“Warning, central valves overloading.” It’s the voice of Eli, she recognizes and remembers that the man used to help building the bunkers. Makes sense.
As she turns the third valve she can hear loud banging, maybe even an explosion going off in the bunker. But she keeps moving, turning off all the valves finally and shooting every cultist down in her way.
“Warning, central valves overloaded --”
But she doesn’t listen as her radio crackles to life, for her relief Earl speaking to her.
“That’s done it, Rook. I’m sorry partner, but I need to get out of here--”
“YES, just go, Earl, I’ll follow you, just get away the bunker.” She says crying and laughing, relief washing over her body that finally for the first time this day she did something good.
“I can’t see straight from this Bliss. It’s all on you. Blow this place into oblivion.”
She runs to the place where she thinks the central pumps must be, the warning sound making her have a huge headache.
“Warning, central valves overloaded, security blocks now offline.”
She rolls her eyes, running through the next corridor.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, Eli, now shut it.”
She says just to entertain herself for the moment, trying to not worry that explosions shake the whole place. The place is filled with peggies and pumps are leaking bliss. She almost goes through one when it starts a fire.
“Fucking hell!” She says as she crouches down the pipe to not get roasted, all while trying to not get a bullet inside of her.
She shoots down the central pumps, after killing the cultists inside the room.
“Overload, evacuate immediately!” SHUT UP ELI!
“That did it, kiddo... The air is clearing up! Feel like I can finally think straight. We gotta get the hell out of here. Whole place sounds like it’s about to blow... I’ll round up any survivors and meet you outside. Please be careful, Trinity! Good luck!”
Earl says from the radio while she runs through a corridor, her body sweating from the fight, the Bliss and the heat that’s coming off from the metal walls from all the fire inside. Every damn pipe is like a welcome to hell! She thinks as she dodges a dozen of pipes that want to roast her alive.
Stupid peggies don’t even try to escape, just want to kill her on sight. What kind of people are these? She thinks as she fights her way, to finally get outside and not get a slow death from fire.
She runs through a room, finding a ladder which she climbs up on. There are no peggies left, only the fire which makes her sweat like she just swam in the ocean with her clothes on. She feels her skin hurt when she gets too close, opening another metal door.
“Fuck.” She stops for a second as the way to the exit is covered with fire. There’s no other way out and she’ll either burn herself through the way of the fire or blow up and die.
She swears as she prepares a run and a jump through the fire. Somehow she manages to not get burned, but as she nears the exit the walls next to her blow up, sending her outside the building with a roar of pain.
She looks at her hand, her jacket being caught on fire and she quickly gets rid of it, also getting out of the way of the exit of the bunker as it blows up. She looks at her arm, cringing at the pain and the burnt skin on her forearm. It looks bad, bad not too bad. It could heal up easily, maybe won’t even show a scar... Maybe.
Hope raises her radio to her mouth to start a call on the open station, so maybe if people didn’t spot the huge explosion in the Henbane she can announce it.
“The Henbane River is now ours. Faith Seed is dead.”
They sit in the truck with Earl, not saying any words to each other until they reach the Jail. The scars are too big on both of them. Hope feels horrible: even though she freed the region from the cult she knows how many died. Children, pregnant women...
Now that she is at that thought suddenly Earl chuckles to himself.
“I must have been really high on the Bliss, I thought you said you were pregnant.”
Hope stops the car and looks at him, whispering.
“I am.”
The man blinks at her, laughing pushing her shoulder a bit.
“Nah, you’re not. This is one of your pranks, innit?”
But the serious look and the tears that start to gather in her eyes make him lose his smile and looks at her surprised and confused, shocked.
“You gotta be kidding me...”
Hope turns from him, wiping her tears with the sleeve of her shirt, not caring about the damaged skin. Earl touches her other hand, turning her to him slightly.
“But how?”
She laughs a nervous laughter wiping her tears.
“I’m sure you know all about the bees and stuff.”
Earl shakes his head, not picking up on her sense of humour at the moment.
“No, I mean with who?”
She blinks a couple looking at his face, biting her lip.
“Don’t do that, that means bad.” Earl says, knowing about her bad habit of chewing on her lips when she’s anxious. She stops and looks at him for a moment, tears sliding down her face.
“You’ll hate me for it.”
Earl grabs both sides of her face, a show of affection he didn’t do in a very long time. Not since she’s become the junior deputy at the station.
“There’s nothing in the world, that could make me hate you.” He says reassuring her and Hope nods, before she gathers enough courage to answer him.
“John.”
Earl lets go of her face, blinking with confusion. He asks her, though he fears the answer.
“John Who?”
“John Seed.” She answers with a whisper, fearing that the resistance members at the prison, trying to rebuild the gate migt hear her.
“I’ll kill him.” Is the only reaction and sentence Earl says, trying to exit the car. And go where? Find him now and kill him?
Hope grabs his hand, pulling him back in the car.
“No, you won’t...” She says with a sigh and looks at Earl. “Look... I would say I’m sorry, but I’ll be honest.”
She says and starts a speech she didn’t know she wanted to give. Not even realizing her own words and the meaning behind them until this point.
“I love him.”
Earl makes a hurtful face, but before he can say anything she raises her hand, stopping his thinking, that maybe ‘it’s just a phase’.
“I mean it and... and I think he loves me too.”
Earl interrupts her, not angry at her, but the man of the topic.
“He tried to kill you!”
She nods, a smile creeping up to her face.
“Yeah, well... I think we’re even with that. He tried to kill me, I tried to kill him... Big deal. I mean look around us, Earl. This whole place is crazy. All these event are insane. Does it hurt that much that somehow, I don’t even know how... I think I’m finally happy with someone.”
She says and her heart aches, knowing she can’t say these words to John himself, the man being too far away from her. They probably left the region when they destroyed Faith’s Gate.
“I mean... I know what people think about him, God, I had so many doubts with myself, thinking I’m crazy to even think he’s capable of love. But... But he is, dad.” She calls Earl that, even though she rarely does it.
The man notices, knowing she means what she speaks, even if he doesn’t like it very much.
“He’s... he changed. I... he...” She doesn’t know what else to say, as she buries her face in her hands, crying. “It’s complicated.”
Hope finishes and Earl embraces her in a hug, being careful of her hurt arm.
“Does he know?” He asks, meaning the baby growing inside of her.
“No.” She sniffs, looking at his face again. “No, I didn’t have the chance to tell him yet. And now he’s with Joseph and Jacob... And God! Last time I saw him he looked horrible, Earl! Like... like they tortured him, and from what I gathered, I think that’s exactly what Joseph did to him. Asked him to Atone and left him in a room, waiting until he carved his own body... I don’t know. But he’s hurt.”
She says, and think how ridiculous this is. A few months ago she would have laughed at herself, crying over a Seed? Yes, that’s exactly what she does now.
“AND NOW?!” She points outside to the Jail, raising her voice. “Look what I’ve done! All these people dead, because of me.”
She points at herself, eyes teary. She keeps silent and wipes her face when Tracey approaches the truck. Earl turning to the woman as well.
“You look like hell.” Tracey welcomes them.
Earl answers, trying to hide everything that they just talked about.
“Yeah? Well I feel like it too.”
Hope leaves a small chuckle at that, looking at her uncle and Tracey, hoping there’s not much trace of her crying.
“Need help getting inside?”
“Hell, no. I’ll manage.” Earl says softly, but a bit annoyed.
Tracey looks at her, an expression telling Hope she does in fact knows she’s been crying. But she’s nice enough not to mention it.
“I didn’t think you could pull this off. You saved a lot of people here today, Rook. Don’t forget that.”
Even this sentence causes her to fight back a sob, her heart warming. Yeah, she definitely forgives for the woman’s betrayal. They both suffered, it’s enough of war already going on. They’re on the same side, they don’t need to fight each other for mistakes.
Tracey leaves as she’s being called to help out.
“I better go.”
They both watch her go, helping an injured fellows, when Earl turns back to her.
“You know, there was a moment, just before you arrived... I’d just lost all hope. I couldn’t see a way out.”
She tears at that, but doesn’t sob or make any sound. He looks at her, meaning his words.
“But you lead the way. And a lot of good people died, but everyone here, all of us, we’re alive because of you... and I’m damn proud of you.”
Hope sobs at that quietly, a smile creeping up on her. She feels relieved, that he’s not angry, not disappointed. She couldn’t wish for more, than that her uncle, her mentor and family is proud of her.
“And your parents would be proud too, if they could see you now.”
He says and she sobs, burying her face in his chest, hugging him. He hugs her back, and after some moments they let go of each other, and he goes back to his fake grumpy sheriff mode.
“Now I want you to find that goddamned John Seed and tell him he’s going to be a father and if he tries to back away I will kill him myself.”
Hope chuckles, wiping away her tears and looks after Earl, who exits the car, looking at her reassuringly.
“Just be safe, kiddo.”
A/N: I’ll plan like 3-4 more chapters, than the story will end. And a ‘season 2′ will come after that! *-*
Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!
Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later
Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!
Word Counter: 9274
Notes: Thanks for the waiting guys! It’s been good to get some rest between chapters. I’m not sure how the Jessop Conservatory really looks inside, so I made changes for it, sorry.
Parts Masterpost | Part 22 ( coming soon )
Three days are spent with falling in and out of consciousness. Hope felt like swimming, floating in the ocean. Body swaying on the water, the waves pulling her from one place to the other. She actually dreams about that. Being in the open, dark clouds of storm above her, but the water is still, dark black. She laying on top of it, and everything is so silent and still. It feels like a void. For some time she thinks it’s death that come to take her and left her in the empty, non-ending place on top of the water. Hert body floating, but not getting wet. Until the storm starts, out of the sudden a lightning strikes and rain falls down, the water going crazy. Her body wet, trying to stay on top, not get drowned.
During the dream she felt like time stopped. But when she falls into consciousness here and there: she can feel time going by like crazy. Once it’s nighttime and lots of people are in the same room as her. A man, a doctor she thinks is the one talking and answering the questions. He lights into her eyes, checking her pupils. That’s the first time she awakes then falls back to the dream about the ocean.
Next time she’s awake again, just for a mere moment it’s daytime. The room empty, no speaking, no movements and no pain. She notices she’s in the same room as before, Joseph Seed’s painting facing her bed. Though the young woman doesn’t have much time to panic, that she’s back in the hand of the Seeds, as darkness falls on her again.
This time she’s not alone in the water and it’s not the ocean. A riverbank, and she’s standing on he legs, water reaching her waist. John is standing next to her, holding her hand with panic in his eyes. It’s slow motion, his mouth opening and closing slowly, yelling at her, but without a sound. Hope realizes he’s not just holding her hand, he’s pulling her away, trying to run to the truck in the distance. It’s Joseph’s compound, she notices. People are running away, panicked from something behind her. It’s all in slow motion. John looks at her, shouting, but no sound can be heard, then he blinks up at something behind her. She turns around, only to see a terrible scenery. The world on fire, a huge yellow-red mushroom in the background. A bomb.
Hope wakes up again, sweaty and scared from her dream. She tangled in two layers of blankets and it adds up to the heat that her nightmare caused. She needs a moment to calm down, steadying her breath and heartbeat. There are no bombs, no ocean, no John... John.
She slowly remembers what happened before her dreams: the stranger, the fire and John. Her bleeding out in his arms, sure that it’s the end. Well, looks like it wasn’t the end. She looks around, searching for the man, though she knows he’s not here. But still, she wants to get sure that he is alright, that he made it out fine.
Although looking around the room she’s in she’s sure he’s just fine. Peggie territory... The same room she was in when she was in a coma for a month. The Jessop Conservatory. The room the same as before aside from one tiny change: the window is barred. She scoffs, thinking they might have put it on after she excaped through the window last time.
Fresh flowers next to her bed on the nightstand, with one of the Book of Joseph. To her left an empty chair is indicating that indeed someone was watching her while she slept. She’s wondering if it was Joseph himself, maybe Faith or just a guard.
Hope tries to sit up, but changes her mind as the pain on her side startles her. She almost forgot the reason while she was dying in that attic. The young woman lifts the blankets, noticing that her hands aren’t cuffed - the people must have thought there is no way of escaping this time.
She’s not in a white dress like before. She’s in a pair of black sweatpants, baggy and comfortable. On top she has a beige long-sleeve sweetshirt, a peggie symbol at the corner bottom of it. Ew...
Hope lifts up the shirt carefully at her side and looks at the patched up wound. It looks like they took great care of it, though if she moves it still hurts. The young woman sighs, letting go of the shirt and blankets to fall back into place. There’s no way in hell she can escape and honestly, right now she doesn’t have the energy for it either. Both on physical and emotional level.
She looks out the melancholic window, the foggy weather ruining her already not great mood. At least the sound of the rain is relaxing... She thinks, then turns her head on the pillow to the side to look at the door, which opens. Her heart starts beating faster, she fears she might meet Joseph Seed again. A meeting she’s not ready for, not since he told her the story of his child’s death.
It’s not him entering the room though, so she breaths out from relief. It’s a man, aroun the age thirty. He wears a shirt just like her, peggie symbol on it and jeans. Though the interesting part about his looks is that around his neck is a stethoscope. Ah, a doctor...
The man looks up at her from his paperfolder. He seems surprised that she’s awake but gives her a warm smile, closing the fold in his hands.
“Ah, you’re awake! How are we feeling, hm?”
He steps more inside the room, stepping closer to her bed. Hope opens her mouth to speak but closes it as she watches Joseph and Jacob following the man inside. Well, fuck... Her entire body tenses up to meet the two of them again. She can’t even decide who she fears more. Joseph, the delusional person who killed his infant child and is sure that God tells him to kill and torture people. Or Jacob, the soldier who keeps fucking up her mind, making her kill people... making her to want to kill people, searching for his praise.
The doctor sits down the single chair, looking at her in question patiently. While Joseph and Jacob stand at the end of her bed. Joseph leaning against the footboard of the bed, his knuckles turning white as he holds the wood in his hands. Jacob stands next to him, his arms crossed in front of his chest as always. Both looking down at her, both with different expressions on their faces.
This time Joseph is the one that’s angry, though he looks calm, his jaw moving and tensing up tells her otherwise. Jacob on the other hand looks curious, his head tilting a bit to the side.
“Miss?”
The doctor asks again, his voice calm. Hope makes herself to look at him, away from the two brothers. She blinks, trying to remember what his question was. He looks nice, he doesn’t look like the usual peggies. He’s shaved, well clothed, he’s not covered in dirt and blood like the rest of them. But mostly he doesn’t have any peggie symbols on his body, no tattoos or carvings or burnings. He looks... normal. He could even be a resistance member, all that she knows.
“M’okay.” She says quietly, her voice feeling raw and she fights back a cough.
The guy nods, a look of sympathy on his face as he looks at the two brothers for a second then back to her.
“Any headaches? Heavy breathing? Shortness of breath?”
The feeling of the siblings intense gaze is irritating, making her tense as well. She bites her lower lip anxiously and stops as she feels the dryness of her lips. God, I’m thirsty... But could she ask for water? Isn’t that a show of weakness? Could she show her weakness in front of Jacob? Nope, not a chance...
Hope shakes her head with a no. Then reconsiders it and opens her mouth, saying:
“I feel nauseous.”
The doctor looks at her raising an eyebrow, thinking about it. It’s true though, she does feel like she’s going to throw up. Not just because the Seeds, she felt it just after waking up as well.
“Might be because of the lack of food. You were out for three days, after all.”
Three days. All these time skips make her feel annoyed. She had time lapses more in Hope County then ever before in her entire life. Hope nods in undersatement, looking down at her hands.
She knows what’s going on. Joseph will ask her about John obviously. And Jacob? He’s either bored or is just here to protect his brother if the deputy is good enough shape to kill someone.
“I’m sure Mr. Seed will make sure to get you back in full health, miss.”
The doctor says and she fights a laugh back. Did he just call Joseph Mr. Seed? Yupp, he’s either made to be in the cult or is just a neutral person, not caring about the cult and just being a doctor and help where he can be.
“Faith will bring you some food later this morning, Deputy.” Joseph speaks, his voice seemingly calm, but there’s an impatient tone in it. “If that would be all doctor, I would like to speak with our guest.”
‘Guest’. That word makes her scoff as she looks up at them. Joseph doesn’t bother to look at her, making eyecontact with the guy. But Jacob looks displeased by her action. A warning look of some kind.
The man nods and leaves the room. The silence is the worst, though she doesn’t want them to speak to her either. If they just left it would be the best. But they don’t, just as she thought.
Joseph releases the bedframe from his hands as he straightens up and sighs, then slowly walks to sit in the chair the doctor was in just moments ago. Jacob stays where he is, at the end of the bed.
“Deputy...” Joseph starts, leaving some silence like he doesn’t know what to say. Though she thinks it’s more for the dramatic mood, she’s sure he knows exactly what to say to her or what to ask of her. He had three days to prepare for his speech.
“I know you walked the Pilgrimage.” Seriously? Dude, your brother is alive and that’s the topic you want to address right now? “But you also destroyed my statue. That is the act of a sin, Deputy. Your wrath...”
He looks at her collarbone, the words on it showing that yes, indeed she is Wrath. The man waits, looking into her eyes, but she doesn’t speak. She’s used to playing the mute when the Seeds talk to her. Well, except John.
“You mocked the Path.”
She rolls her eyes, displeased that he wants to talk about this rather than addressing the elephant in the room. But Joseph seems to want to speak about anything but that.
“You mocked the Path. I gave you a chance. Then another. I give you chance after chance and you keep--”
She huffs out and interrupts him, annoyed:
“Is this seriously what you want to talk about right now?”
Joseph stops, straightening his back in the chair as he looks at her. She can feel Jacob tense in the corner of her eyes as well. Hope makes eye contact with him, then looks back at his brother:
“What would you rather talk about then?”
He asks, but they both know what the topic should be really about. But she can’t make herself to speak out his name. It feels odd, and for some reason wrong. So she shrugs, annoyed:
“I don’t know. Maybe explain to me why I’m still breathing. I mean...” She fake laughs then continues. “You had the chance to finally get rid of me, you didn’t even have to do anything. I was kicking it, as it was... But you decided: ‘Hmm... Fuck that, let’s make her live.’”.
She acts out the whole thing, gesturing with her hands. She feels like a dramatic sass queen and she has a feeling it’s John to blame.
Joseph makes a small smile, shaking his head.
“Are you unfamiliar with the term mercy, Deputy?”
She goes to answer that, but Joseph continues and it shuts her right up.
“I’m sure you’re not. You showed mercy towards my brother, John, after all.”
Well. Now that the elephant is out she wants to tuck it back and never speak about it ever again. Her face is blank, at least she tries really hard for it to be. She didn’t have any doubt that John was here as well, but hearing it made her feel panicked and relieved as well. So he’s okay, at least that’s good.
He stands from his chair, standing right next to her bed, looking down at her. She feels small, not even being able to sit up properly as she looks up at the man.
“But was it really mercy? You kept him alive, but you lied about it. Causing pain and suffering.”
Her sarcastic side is bursting up again, although she knows this is not the right time to be sassy. She raises one hand, pointing a finger, correcting him with a teasing tone:
“Now wait a minute! I never actually said anything about John being dead or not. I just... let the rumors fly through.” She gestures with her hands in the air and Jacob makes an amused scoff.
On the other hand Joseph looks cold. His eyes scaring her to death as he leans down to her level.
“But did you deny it? No...”
She looks away with an annoyed huff. Joseph leans back, his mood changing entirely.
“I’m happy with your decision, even if not entirely. So I give you another chance, Deputy. This is your last chance for salvation, and by all means I won’t get in your way of it. I will hep you to it. Until then you should rest. I’ll come by in a week. Until then Brother Jacob will keep you safe and Faith will tend to you.”
He speaks and turns around, leaving the room. Hope looks after him, disbelief and confusion on her face clear as the sky. Jacob chuckles at that and Hope looks at him. He looks down at her, amusement on his face and she can’t explain why that scares her more then the Jacob with the cold expression.
Though she can’t really say it’s fear that she feels for the man. She has a respect for him. A thing she’s sure is because of the condition. That’s the part that angers her. She fears him when he’s near that damn music box though.
“What’s so funny, old man?” She says without thinking and is cursing herself afterwards. He raises his eyebrow at her boldness, but doesn’t say anything about it.
“Oh, nothing really, nothing at all, pup.” He grins at her and she feels uncomfortable with that expression on his face. “I’m surprised you could keep a straight face up.”
She frowns at the man, not knowing what he means by that.
“What do you mean?”
He looks at her for a second, than back at the door. He walks towards it and she thinks he’ll leave without answering, but rather the man closes the door quietly and walks toward her bed, taking something out of his pocket.
She sits up, not caring about the pain as fear fills her heart that he might use the music box on her again. It makes him chuckle, but he doesn’t say a thing as he throws down a piece of paper in her lap.
She looks at him, confused then down at the piece of paper. It’s edges are ruined and burned, but the whole page is blank. She picks it up from her lap and flips it over, her face getting red at the sight.
It’s the picture. The one the stranger took at the YES sign with her and John in it... Having sex. There’s no way in hell to misunderstand the picture, to try and tell they are just wrestling for their life or something. Nope, that is clearly a picture of two people making love to each other. Fuck... Literally, fuck...
She quickly turns it back over, the blank side facing them on the blankets. Not that he didn’t see it before. She feels her cheeks burn, face red as the man chuckles next to her even more. She looks up at him, angry and embarrassed.
“What?” She asks annoyed that he’s having such a fun from the situation.
He takes the picture from her lap and puts it back into his pocket.
“You know, pup. If you told me John was alive and you just wanted to fuck him, I would have spared you from all the suffering.”
He says amused, but she doubts his words. He’s trying to joke, she considers, surprised that the man could even do that. Even if it’s only funny to him.
She looks down at her hands, a question burning her:
“Does Joseph know?”
Jacob scoffs, the amusement in his voice gone as he turns serious.
“Hell no. And not because of you, if you were starting to wonder. I’m keeping it to myself because of my little brother. I just got him back, I’m not going to throw him to the wolves... As you know, Lust is a sin.”
His voice is mocking and it makes her wonder if he really believes in the bullshit Joseph has been feeding the people with. By his words she doesn’t think so, but knows better than to ask.
She nods, humming in wonder, another question being on her mind.
“Is...” She feels shy about asking this from Jacob, but she wants to know. “Is he okay?”
She feels Jacob tense next to her and she looks up. The man looking cold, fists making his knuckles turns white.
“Why do you ask?” He barks out and she feels her cheeks getting more red.
She looks away, shaking her head slightly, feeling stupid to even show any weakness in front of the soldier. At her reaction he releases his tense, his hands going limp next to his body.
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking with me...”
She looks up at him again, confused and still shy.
“What?” She asks genuinely. No mocking, no annoyement in her voice.
He scuffs, not believing what he sees.
“Don’t tell me you fell for him.”
She feels herself getting even more flushed, shaking her head and laughing nervously.
“Wh-what... No, I never said that.”
“You didn’t have to.” Comes the answer from him and he shakes his head, arms going to his waist as he walks around in the room, thinking. “You two, I swear to God!”
He looks troubled, stressed about this situation. But she feels the same, so it doesn’t really matter. She looks at him, confused, not knowing what he meant by ‘you two’. She waits for him to speak, to leave or to do anything. She doesn”t dare to interrupt his thinking. Jacob finally looks up at her, rolling his eyes:
“Yes, he’s alright. The problem is he cared more about how you were than himself.”
He stands there, looking down at her and he’s voice is low as he asks. Warning in his voice, like she has to be careful with her answer:
“Do you love him?”
It takes her a second to understand the question. She’s taken aback by it. She was thinking about that for a while now, but another person asking her makes her anxious. She can barely admit it to herself, let alone to another person.
And this is Jacob Seed. The person she’s afraid of. How could she answer this man?
“Why do you even care?” She asks and regrets it as she watches Jacob’s face harden, anger showing on him. He scoffs and looks at her in disgust:
“Because he’s my brother. If you think you can play him, do whatever you want... You’re wrong. You hurt him in any way and I will kill you!”
She looks at him, believing in what he said. She bites her lower lip, anxious. Hope has no intention to play John, in truth she thinks he’s the one doing that to her. Jacob is impatient with her keeping quiet as he growls at her.
“Speak when asked, soldier.”
Soldier, pup. He keeps calling me things like I’m his property. She thinks with a huff, but answers, not wanting to anger him more. She mumbles a response under her nose, on which he raises an eyebrow, impatient.
“Speak up!”
She looks at him, arms swaying in annoyement, her voice cracking as she shouts back to him.
“I do, yes!”
He looks at her, searching her eyes and then nods, satisfied with her answer.
“Good.”
He turns around, opens the door and leaves. She blinks after him. Seriously? He just leaves like that? This was it? She sighs, trying not to care about her situation, which is impossible when a person can’t even sit up properly at the enemy’s territory.
Hope wonders what will Jacob do. Will he show the picture to Joseph? Even though he said he won’t, because of John. Then why did he make her admit her feelings? Is he going to tell John? Is he planning out something?
She doesn’t know and her head starts to hurt from the thinking.
Four days are spent with Faith coming into her room, bringing food and water. She changes her flowers and talks to her cheerfully. The young woman hates it, but having the wound on her side she can’t move around alone. So Faith helps her to the bathroom, waits until she finishes and helps her back to the bed.
Hope hates being weak, having to rely on others. But she doesn’t complain. It’s not like there’s any chance for escape, not until she gets her strength back.
During the days she feels difficult to eat. The foods smelling and tasting odd. Hope was never picky with food, especially not since she arrived in Hope County. But during her stay in the bed, not being able to move around she only gets nauseous, feeling like she wants to vomit. She thinks about the time Nick told her about the watery mac and cheese which was made by the Seeds. Maybe that’s why everything tastes so bad.
The boredom makes her think a lot. Think about the Resistance, her ongoing nightmares, the Project. She meets Jacob and Faith almost daily, but not John. She’s not sure if he’s in bed as well or if there’s another reason he won’t come and see her. Although she knows for sure that he’s here, she hears snippets of converstations between the peggies out in the corridor.
After the fourth day - well technically seven if we count the days when she was in-and-out of it - Faith comes to her room, cheerful as ever. A peggie is with her, her back turned to Hope as she waters the flowers. The junior deputy wasn’t paying attention to these cultists. They always come and go, every time another one, never the same person.
So when Faith steps into her room, happy and smiling more than usual she doesn’t focus on the peggie behind her.
“My sweet Rook! I noticed you were feeling down, not being able to move around and do things. So I thought I would bring you someone who could cheer you up.”
Faith steps aside and pokes the shoulder of the peggie. The woman sets down the watering pot. Hope confused looks at her way as she turns around. There is shock in her at first, then anger, burning her insides as she sits up, face angry.
“Fucking... Nancy...” She growls out looking at the elderly woman.
That fucking traitorous bitch! Hope feeling a lot better in four days, not completely though tries to launch herself out of bed, to hurt the woman.
Faith completely shocked by the junior deputy’s reaction pulls Nancy back to the door. That woman just smiles down at her, like nothing in the world happened.
Hope stands from the bed, the first time trying alone. She wants to kill her, make her suffer for her actions. If it wasn’t for her, everything would be alright. She slips to the ground, making a howl of pain like an animal. Tears gather in her eyes, as she tries to stand up, then slips back to the floor in pain.
Faith and Nancy come near her to help her up but she shouts at them with hate and anger.
“Come near me and I’ll bite your throat out, bitch!”
Faith looks hurt, Nancy not really. The old woman has a face of a blank paper, no emotions. Just a creepy smile that she always weared back at the station as well. So fake. Fake Seed and the traitor moves back toward the door, when two people come into the room. A man around his fourties, clothing showing he’s one of Faith’s VIPs, the other person is a young woman. Around her age, face covered with freckles. She looks a lot like Faith.
Tinkerbell looks at them with relief as she leads out Nancy from the room:
“Please help her up back to the bed, Tom. Gently.”
They leave the room while Tom and the unknown girl come to her aid. Hope being stubborn pushes them away at first, fighting the urge to cry out from pain again.
“Please, Sister. Let us help you.” The man speaks in such a voice like she really is his family. Hope scoffs and spits out angrily at him.
“I ain’t your Sister, yo!”
The man tries again to help her but she pushes him away. He straightens back up, looking at her and not knowing what to do. The other peggie crouches down next to her, her voice kind and calm:
“Please, Deputy. I just want to help you.”
Hope stops struggling as she looks up at her. The young woman said ‘I’ in such a meaning like she tries to tell her that Tom isn’t really here to help her. There’s something about her that makes Hope trust her and let her help up. The young woman smiles at the deputy, helping her to the bed.
Hope sits back down to the bed, while the unknown woman covers her with blankets.
“I’m Rhea Jessop.” She introduces herself and Hope blinks at her in shock.
“Jessop? Like... Faith... Rachel Jessop?” She asks, knowing more informations from the Book of Joseph then before. Being bored and left with nothing for entertainment, just a book makes a person read it, even if it’s garbage.
She smiles softly at Hope, nodding.
“Yes, I’m her sister.”
Fucking great... So there you go with trusting a stranger. Perfect... Rhea notices her getting tense and takes a look at Tom, the man watching her every move.
“Brother Jonathan asked about your well being. How are you feeling?”
Hope frowns at that name. Jonathan? Does she mean John? Of course! He’s not even capable to come and see her, he just asks around, not caring how she really is. Though in her heart she feels that’s not true, but she’s angry at him. Every single Seed came to see her at least once. But not him.
“Jonathan? You mean John? Well tell him if he wants to know he has to come and see it for himself.”
She sounds bitter, but also hurt. Hope really misses his stupid smug face, his sarcastic teasing, his scent... God, she could kill to just feel him and not the room’s weird smell. Her stomach grumbles and nausea hits her again.
“I’m afraid he’s... unavailable at the moment.” Rhea speaks, then Tom gives her a warning look, this Hope notices as well. What does that mean? Why is John ‘unavailable’?
The young woman looks like she will stay silent as she finishes covering Hope with the blankets, but speaks again.
“The Father was displeased with him, so he needs to Atone for--”
Tom grabs the womans arm in such a way Hope wants to hit the man. But they are too far, out of her reach, so she only looks at the man, wishing he would burn in hell. Surprisingly Rhea doesn’t yell or make any noise of pain, just looks at Hope apologisingly.
“I think our work is done here, Sister.” Tom pushes her toward the door, the young woman following orders. The door closes behind them and Hope looks at her hands.
This is all too much. Being a prisoner, not being able to do anything, Jacob knowing about her and John... And John. Oh God, her heart feels like it’s going to rip in half. What did Rhea mean by he has to atone? She feels hatred toward Joseph yet again. The man using his little brother makes her hate him.
She can’t quite name the day when she realized her feelings toward the man. Maybe it was building up slowly inside her. And when Jacob asked her about her feeling toward the younger Seed she already knew the answer. Why deny it in her head? She cares for him. She even told it to the stranger that was holding them in that attic a week ago.
Hope starts crying silently. She misses him, she misses being free, misses her friends and family. So she slowly falls asleep like that, tears rolling down her face.
The clock on the wall says it’s 3 am, when she wakes up again. The room is dimly lit with the moon shining in the window. Hope is covered in sweat as she wakes up, her breathing fast and uneven. She had a nightmare again, but not about the burned world or the bomb or the bunker with Joseph. It was about John, him lying dead on the ground, back when she had the chance to shoot him. And in her dream she did it.
Hope sits up, the pain on her side not much of a trouble anymore. Although there’s another feeling that overdrives her. Nausea. I’m going to vomit...
She thinks as she frees herself from the blankets and carefully sats her feet on the floor, then after feeling steady she makes her way toward the bathroom. It’s not as easy as she thought, but when she lands in front of the toilet, it feels like the biggest achievement in her life.
Hope leans over the toilet seat, making all kinds of disgusting sound as she follows with the feeling. She thinks while puking that: maybe this is it! They are poisoning me with their weird ass food so I could die slow...
After minutes staying there on the floor, she feels like it won’t happen further and she flushes the toilet. She wants to get rid of the taste so Hope walks to the sink and washes out her mouth. She uses brushes her teeth as well, just to make sure there’s nothing left in there as she walks back to the room.
The young woman stops, before returning to the bed. I can walk... She realizes, the urge of throwing up didn’t make her notice the way she can easily walk around. Yes, there’s still pain at her side and she can’t go very fast, but if she’s careful, then she can walk around.
Hope moves towards the door of the room and slowly reaches for the knob and pulls it open. She’s more than happy that for some reason her room is open and they didn’t lock her in. Even though she’s still a prisoner it gives her the fake feeling of being free.
Hope peaks out the door, looking at the corridor. No one seems to be out there, the whole building seems empty. What’s her goal? She wants to find John, though she’s not sure about her plan. Would she just walk around and open every door possible? She’s not sure as she makes her way out to the corridor. She’s on the second floor, she knew that already since she had to jump from high from the window last time.
The floor boards are creaking beneath her bare feet as she walks around. Her stomach grumbles, a feeling of hunger taking over her senses. She looks down to the first floor and she decides to go to the kitchen. Get some proper food at least. She walks down the stairs, every step down a torture as her body shakes. She leans on the wooden railing, until she reaches the bottom of the stairs. She watches the fireplace burning, but noone is around to keep the flames alive. She wonders if someone is up, just like her.
She walks toward the door she thinks leads to the kitchen, and when she enters lights blind her for a second. She raises her hand, covering her eyes, then as she adjusts to the light she lowers her arm to look into the eyes of Jacob Seed.
The man looks like shit. Bags under his eyes, his hair a mess. Instead of wearing his usual outfit he’s in a simple shirt and baggy pajama pants. His shirt covered in sweat, just like his forehead. There’s a mug in his hands as he sits at the isle.
She looks at him, then decides to go on like nothing happened. She doesn’t speak as she makes her way next to him towards the fridge. She opens it, a wave of cool air hitting her skin as she looks through the food in it.
“Are you lost, Deputy?” Jacob murmurs behind her and she doesn’t turn around.
“Nope.” She grabs a box which contains already cooked meat. Opening the lid of the box she smells the food, then makes a gagging sound as she grimaces and closes it back, putting back to the shelf of the fridge.
“You should be in bed...” Jacob continues, his voice displeased that she’s in the same room as him, but it’s not hard and cold as usual, more tired.
“Same as you.” She replies, still not turning around as she check another box, fruit salad in it, but she does the same thing just like with the previous box.
“Couldn’t sleep...” He grumbles with a sigh and a sound that means he’s probably sipping from his cup.
She smells the air, a scent only now hitting her nose. She turns around, the fridge door in her hand as she looks at the tired soldier.
“Is that hot chocolate?”
Jacob turns his head to her, nodding. God, it smells wonderful! She closes the frdige door as she grabs the mug from his hands to his surprise and smells it. She closes her eyes, enjoying the scent then opens them up again, looking at a shocked and annoyed Jacob. She feels herself getting red in the face, realizing her act wasn’t the best and she hands him the mug back.
“Sorry...” She murmurs then starts walking toward the cupboards, searching for a mug, in the intent to make herself some hot chocolate as well.
“Don’t tell me Faith is keeping you starved.” Jacob says, his voice a bit teasing. It’s hard to tell when he’s trying to be funny, his voice doesn’t change as much as it probably should when he tells a joke or a tease.
She huffs, grabbing a mug then getting the chocolate on the stove, heating it up what Jacob left behind.
“No. But I’m pretty sure she poisons my food.”
Jacob laughs at that, a voice that is a mix between a growl and a bark. He stops quickly, but a small smile is on his face. She feels weird. It’s weird when the Seeds act like normal people. Sure, she got used to John, well, more then just got used to it, but the others? They were still her enemy. But here he was, the big scary soldier of Hope County, sitting in his pajamas, probably woken by a nightmare, drinking hot chocolate to calm his nerves, laughing at her sassy joke.
“Now why would you say that?” He asks, sipping from his drink.
She shrugs, checking her own drink every second, being impatient to drink from it already.
“It smells odd, everything she brings in. And it also tastes funny...”
She turns off the stove once her drink is heated up and she pours it into her mug.
“Also I felt nauseous since I’ve been here... Aaaand to top all that I just puked my guts out in my room.”
She says, not noticing how the soldier tenses at her words, looking her up and down weirdly. Hope rather closes her eyes, enjoying her drink, the taste of the chocolate feeling like heaven on her tongue. She humms in appreciation, nodding as she drinks. Then she opens her eyes, looking at Jacob’s focused and confused ones. Hope thinks it’s because her too much of enthusiasm towards her drink, so she shrugs.
“It tastes good, alright?” She defends herself, even though he haven’t spoken a word. She takes a seat opposite of him, feeling a bit dizzy since she still has the pain at her side.
It’s silence again and she asks without thinking, the calm mood between them making her a bit bold toward the man.
“You’re having nightmares?”
He doesn’t seem too bothered, like he got used to that question way before her. He shrugs, looking down at his mug.
“I’m a veteran Deputy. What do you think?”
It’s her turn to shrug.
“I used to volunteer at a veteran’s center before all this.” She says, not caring if the man wants to hear her story or not. “There were only old people, though.”
Jacob scoffs, sipping from his mug.
“You think I’m not old?”
Honestly, she has no idea how old Jacob is. He’s the eldest, John being thirty-two but she has no idea how old Joseph might be, let alone Jacob. She huffs, rolling her eyes:
“You don’t look eighty to me, so you don’t count.” The man seems amused, as Hope continues her story, though she doesn’t know what her goal is. She just want to make small talk, honestly. “Anyway, the people there told me they had nightmares too. Most of them still had it, even at such an old age, but some of them told me it was getting easier by the time.”
Jacob scoffs, probably not believing in that theory.
“You sure it was a veteran center and not a nursing home?”
Hope smiles softly, shaking her head.
“Well, it was kind of both.”
She sips from her mug, the warm and good feeling filling her senses. It feels nice after all the discomfort.
“Didn’t know you were a volunteer type of kid.” Jacob says after some time of silence, looking at her.
Hope shrugs:
“Sure, because you all think I’m a monster, my main goal being to make everyone’s life a misery.”
Jacob gets tense, hard even.
“Isn’t it?”
She huffs, offended by the fact that it’s true. They all think she’s just a monster. She doesn’t answer, she doesn’t want this moment to turn into a bickering, her ending up getting angry, him shouting at her in the middle of the night.
He leaves it be as well, silence falling on them again, both finishing their drinks. Jacob stands to put the mug into the sink and she looks at his back as she asks, the question burning her:
“Is John locked up?”
She was wondering this since Rhea told her that he had to atone because of Joseph. Jacob’s muscles tense under his shirt as he turns around to face her.
“Wouldn’t say he’s locked up. But yes, Joseph wants him to stay in his room, thinking about what he had done.”
His voice sound mocking, and she tilts her head. She’s entering dangerous territory, but she wants to know where they both stand.
“And you let him do that?”
Jacob looks at her, his jaw hardening.
“I don’t let him do shit. Why do you think I’m here, Deputy? I’m keeping safe my brother from the other one. Both are stupid little shits if you ask me.”
He seems stressed and annoyed. Hope realizes she shoudn’t poke the bear further and keeps quiet. Jacob calms down a bit, then looks at her.
“Tomorrow I want you to meet the doc again.”
She looks up at the man, confused.
“Why?”
He scoffs, impatient.
“Because I said so.”
She huffs, shrugging.
“I guess I don’t have a choice anyway so alright...”
The man nods, then turns to leave the kitchen, holding the door for her and gesturing she should return to bed as well. She wants to explore the house further, wanting to meet John, but it seems impossible as Jacobs follows her right to her room, and locking the door after her. With a sigh she returns to her bed, falling asleep quickly again.
Next morning there’s a knock on the door and Hope thinks it must be the doctor, but instead when she answers with a ‘come in’, sitting up in her bed Joseph Seed enters the room, Jacob and Faith following him inside.
The Father has a calm smile on his face as he sits down next to her bed, looking at the young woman.
“I came to you to talk about your parents, Deputy.”
She blinks at him. First: she wasn’t expecting Joseph of all people to come and see her, even though he said he would visit after a week. And now he brings up the topic she hates to talk about to strangers.
“What about them?” She asks dryly, building up her walls whenever someone mentions her parents.
Joseph seems to be in the happiest mood ever.
“I heard they died in a car accident, when you were born... Well, while you were born.”
How gentle... She shuffles in her place, uncomfortable with the situation.
“But that’s not the interesting part. At first I thought of it being simple: you thinking of yourself as an evil entity, bringing pain and suffering, while you were born... That being the cause of your sinful ways and decisions. I... admit I did thought about abandoning you for all those, thinking it was an omen from God, showing you were beyond salvation.”
Hope looks away into the direction of Faith and Jacob, the mountain man and the small fairy standing next to each other, looking at her. Both seemingly surprised by their brothers words. She looks back to Joseph, the man still smiling.
“And I presume something changed your mind?” Hope asks dryly.
He grins at her as he leans toward her, his hand taking hers. It’s a grip, that she wants to get rid of, but he’s strong. It’s not enough to seriously hurt, but it’s uncomfortable.
“Your birthday is what changed my mind.” He says and noticing her confusion he smiles apologisingly. “I see you still don’t understand, my love.” My what now?!
He seems like he solved the grand puzzle of the universe as he looks into her eyes, pure joy on his face. And it scares her to hell.
“You were there.” He whispers to her and she still looks confused back at him. “That day, in the hospital. You remember what I told you? That my wife had died in a car accident, right? It turns out... It was the same accident. Your parents and my wife dead, when arriving the hospital. And then you an my child in the same room.”
Hope doesn’t even blink, thinking he’s making the world’s sickest joke on her right now.
“I was there, when you were an infant. And you were there to witness my test for God. The Lord taketh...”
He brushes her hair, his hand resting on her face while the other holding her hand.
“And the Lord giveth...”
The fuck... What... the... actual.... fuck... Hope looks at the man then starts laughing, a reaction Joseph doesn’t understand, but he still smiles at her. Hope looks at Faith, the young woman shocked as she looks back at her, then Jacob, the soldier looking at his brother like he lost his mind. Maybe he did.
The junior deputy looks back at Joseph, stopping her laugh:
“And here I thought Jacob was the bad one with the jokes.”
She says and Joseph smiles at her, sympathetically.
“It’s not a trick, my love. It’s the truth.” She shivers as he calls her that again, not wanting that title from this man.
She loses her smile, understanding the situation, well, trying to.
“How the hell do you think you know this? Did... Did the Voice tell you or something?” She mocking him, but he doesn’t seem hurt as he shakes his head.
“I went to John’s gate and retrieved a document about you. Your birth certificate was there and Nancy helped to fill in the blanks.”
Hope blinks at him. Too much information... Joseph went to John’s bunker. What did that mean? Did the resistance start to crumble? Or did he sneak in? Was he telling the truth?
“I... I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that I was born at the same day of your wife’s death, but that doesn’t mean it happened by the same accident.”
Joseph smiles at her, and she’s terrified now, shaking like a leaf.
“There was a newpaper cut. The car of my wife next to your parents’.”
She blinks at him again, not knowing how to react. This has to be a sick joke. A joke from the universe, from God, or whatever the hell.
“And.... okay...” She speaks, trying to gather her thoughts. “So basically what does it mean? Why are you so happy about this?”
Joseph grins at her, his hand caressing hers, even though she tries to pull away.
“Don’t you understand how much we are connected? We were connected the day I understood His plans, then you came to fulfill His prophecy. God wants you to be saved and he wants us to be together.”
Oh... hell.... no...
“He took away the mother of my child and in return he gave me you. My one true love, you were the reason my wife had to die. So we can be together, freely.”
She snaps her hands out of his, finally him letting go of her, but it’s not enough space. She wants to get as far away from this delusional man as possible.
“I know it’s... it’s a lot to process. But I will help you see that this is how it’s supposed to be. Faith told me you were still untouched.”
Hope feels the panic in her heart. She what know?! The junior deputy looks at the young woman who smiles, joy in her eyes as she nods.
“When you were here, for a month. Our doctors told us you were still untouched.”
Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw... They... they looked down there, while I was in a coma. To check if I was a virgin... Jesus Christ... A guttering feeling fills her stomach, making her shut up about the fact that she wasn’t a virgin anymore.
Hope looks back at Joseph, fear an shock in her eyes. While he just smiles down at her as he stands from his chair.
“When the time comes for us to unite together it will be the purest act in the eyes of God. And together we will march to Eden’s Gate.”
He leans down and kisses her forehead, an act that wants to make her scream and run for her life.
“Rest now, my love. Tonight I want to Cleanse you properly.”
Joseph then leaves the room, Faith giggling following him outside. Jacob stays looking as shocked as she is, if not more. A look of stress in his eyes.
“Get up.” He urges her and she feels like a corpse, her muscles and brain not working properly. Jacob growls, annoyed and... scared? No that can’t be right. He moves toward her bed and help her out of bed, getting her to wear some shoes. He grabs her hand, leading her outside of the room, checking every place for someone. She doesn’t realize he’s actually trying to hide her small form from others to see, while he leads her out through the gardens and to a shed.
He opens the door of it closing the it behind them as they enter. It’s not a shed! It’s an entrance to the basement. They walk down the stairs, Jacob being in a hurry she feels like her legs will give in and she’ll slip and fall to her death.
“Jacob!” She tells her, but he doesn’t seem to listen. “Where are you taking me?”
She’s confused and scared as the ginger man leads her through a door in the corridor. There are lights and it looks like a laboratory of some kind. All kinds of medical supplies and machines around. The Doc, who first checked her when she woke up looking up at them. He was expecting them she realizes as he gestures toward the bed for her to lie down on it.
“What is this?” She asks scared, looking at Jacob, the man being on an another universe. She doesn’t want to lay down. Who knows what they plan to do to her? Although she has a feeling that right now it’s not Jacob who she has to fear from the Seed siblings.
“Deputy, we don’t have much time. If they notice you’re gone...”
The doctor doesn’t finish, he doesn’t have to. She sighs and lays down at the bed, not knowing what will happen to her. The man lifts her shirt up and for a second she thinks he wants to check her wound, but instead he puts a cold liquid on her stomach, then a machine, coating her stomach in the stuff.
She feels confused, her brain still not working properly and she doesn’t understand why is this man doing something to her tommy.
There’s a moment of silence in the room as the doctor looks at a monitor, moving the machine on her body as he stops. Jacob tenses as well as the doctor. The guy turns around, looking at the elder brother in panic.
“She’s pregnant.”
Hope brain gives up at that sentence. She feels like she just died as she looks at the monitor as the other two. She watches the black and white blur of her own insides. There’s not much to see, but a black hole and in it a little grey spot.
She doesn’t feel as the man wipes her body down or when Jacob pulls her from her laying situation. The conversation between the two a blur, but Jacob shakes her shoulders, causing her to get back to reality. He looks down into her eyes as he speaks:
“Listen to me, Deputy, because I won’t tell you twice. You have to be strong right now, you hear me? You are going to get out. In the next ten minutes, so get ready. I will give my men a command to go and check the perimater at the north side of the compound. And you will leave at the south gate, it will be open. You have to take the road, by feet. I can’t promise you anything more than a ten minutes heads up, so you have to run and run fast. If Joseph keeps you here, if he finds out about the baby...” He shakes his head as he look at her dead serious. “He will cut them out of you. And he will do God knows what to John.”
He pushes her towards the corridor, leading her up the stairs, still talking.
“I will send John after you, once you get to safety. I can’t gurantee you Joseph not finding out about this, he has ears and eyes everywhere...”
They near the shed when he unbuckles his radio from his belt, telling his men there is a breaking in at the north side, people taking the deputy with them. They hear people going crazy outside and Jacob exits first, checking the perimeter as he starts running to the north.
Hope only moves because her body is on auto-pilot, knowing what has to be done, but her brains is still echoing that one sentence. She’s pregnant. This is all too much for her and the only thing why she won’t have an instant mental breakdown is because what Jacob said would happen.
Almost the entire garden is empty as people are at the opposite side of the bulding as she nears the gate. Her legs feel funny, but she keeps moving, faster then she thought she could. There’s a stop to her running as a man stands at the gate, gun pointing at her head... John.
“John...” She breathes out and wants to cry and run to him, bury her head in his shoulders and never let go again. But she reminds herself that the exact same man who told her he loved her back in the fire is pointing a gun at her head.
He looks awful, his eyes bags under his eyes, hair messy. A simple blue sweatshirt and a black sweatpants on him. He looks like he just came back from a mental institute.
“Return to the house, Trinity.” He says, his voice weak and hurt, his face telling he doesn’t want to hurt her.
She doesn’t move back though, she takes some steps towards him, only a meter away from the man when he clicks off the safety.
“You know I can’t.”
“Yes, you can... please.” He answers immediately to her, fear and hurt in his eyes. It’s a way of saying: this is Joseph’s doing. He makes him to do this. And she can see the suffering behind his tired blue eyes. She wanst to comfort him, but this isn’t the right time and place for it, she has to escape.
She stops moving and knows she doesn’t have much time. Hope can’t just tell him to step away because she’s pregnant. God, she can barely understand that fact.
The young woman holds out her hand slowly and takes a light step closer, putting the gun above her heart as she looks into his eyes.
“Take it then John...” She says, which could mean the kill, but she doesn’t mean that and he knows as well. “It’s yours anyway... It’ll always be yours.”
Shoutings near them and John looks behind her shoulders as he lowers his pistol, a tear rolling down his cheek as he looks at her.
“Come with me, John.” She whispers as she steps closer but he steps back. Maybe fearing that if he lets her close to him he’ll lose it and do what his heart wants. But his head says otherwise.
“Just run, Trinity. I have to stay. You know that too.”
Hope wants to convince him. She only got to see him again, and now she needs him more then ever. But she doesn’t stay, the voices coming too near and she starts to run, not looking back at the man she leaves behind, the one she loves so much. The one that is the father of their child.
A/N: The events became faster at the end, because Hope just can’t handle all this shit going on with her. ( my poor baby, hehe ) Okay so by far you guys probably noticed that Joseph is very disliked by Hope. On the other hand I really like the man, but it’s fun trying to write about hating him.
Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!
Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later
Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!
Word Counter: 7664
Notes: I played with the time skips a bit, I hope it’s good, I enjoyed writing this chapter. Although the next chapters will stay the same as before, because it was kind of weird, writing in first person, haha.
Also the part list became too long so there’s a masterpost to the parts from now on!
Parts Masterpost | Part 21 ( coming soon )
The silence is unbearable. At first they were fighting against their ropes, screaming words at their captor. Well, mostly tried to scream as they were both silenced with a tape on their mouth. But they stopped after a while, realizing it won’t do any good for them. So now it’s just silence.
John at one side of the room, his hands roped behind his back to a wooden pillar, while Hope opposite to the man, her hands roped behind the other wooden column.
The attic - which could easily be mistaken for a bunker, only it’s made of wood - is dimly lit by red light, hanging from one of the house roof’s pillar. And an oil lamp being against the wall, a flame burning inside of it. It reminds Hope of John’s bunker in some ways.
The man, their captor sits in a metal chair just between the two prisoners. He’s in his late 30s, maybe early 40s. Bald, a creepy grin on his face, his eyes weirdly wide. Just like in a horror movie.
After the man enjoys the silence he walks toward Hope, getting the tape off of her mouth painfully. She huffs, but doesn’t say anything. She’s too pissed at the whole situation. It’s all John fuckin’ Seed’s fault! She thinks, sending angry gazes toward the younger Seed. He looks pissed as well, angry at the woman, thinking it’s her fault they are in this attic with this maniac.
The stranger moves toward John, removing his tape as well, earning a painful groan out of him. Thanks to his beard it might have been uncomfortable, but Hope can’t think of anything else just: You deserve it, you fucker!
The stranger moves towards his desk and starts gathering his tools, turning his back to them. Hope looks around, looking for an escape root. There’s a way down to the house, but being roped to a pillar does not help. But if she could get free somehow that’s the only route she could take. There’s a huge window on the house, but it’s boarded, only letting in some light of the moon. It’s nighttime.
Hope tries to move her wrist in the ropes and winces in pain. The wound on her side bleeding and hurting at her moves. She looks down, her shirt torn apart at the place of the injury. Shirt and skin dirty and bloody.
She stops moving, her world turning blurry from the pain. If I won’t stop the bleeding I will die. She thinks, closing her eyes, trying to calm her breathing. She opens them up, looking into John’s blue eyes. He looks at her wound with remorse, then catches her eyes and looks away at the stranger.
Sure, can’t even look at me, when it’s his fault we’re both going to die in this attic.
Hope looks at the stranger, who’s picking up his tools, inspecting and putting them back on the table. The junior deputy looks past him, watching photos of her and John on the wall. Fucking psychopath... She thinks, shivering how the man could possibly get photos of them: the Confession, the Atonement, the moment Hope spared John’s life, him at the prison, even... What the fuck... even a close up photo of Hope being in a coma at the Jessop Conservatory. She only takes a glimps at the photo where John and Hope are having sex under his YES sign. A photo that the man must have took before the whole ‘incident’ and them getting captured.
She wants to turn away, not wanting a single one of the pictures being in her sight. But remembers not to as the pain in her wound takes over her movements. She silently whimpers, earning a concerned look from John, which she doesn’t notice.
Hope wants silence, better have the end being kept in silence, but the Baptist as usual has other ideas. He clears his throat and asks in such a casual manner Hope looks at him in disbelief. How can he pretend like everything is okay?
“So... who are you?”
The young woman scoffs quietly, not wanting to earn the strangers attention. If John wants to anger their captor, go ahead, she doesn’t care. At least she tries not to.
The stranger stops, grabbing a knife in his hand and turns around, walking back to the chair, sitting down in it. His body is slightly turned to John as he speaks. It’s the first time he’s talking, voice low and husky. Basically creepy from creepy town.
“I ask the questions.”
John raises his eyebrow, chuckling a bit. Hope’s heart beats like hell, fearing what their captor might do. And even though it’s John’s fault they are in this situation and he’s the cause of her wound she fears for his life. You idiot, don’t laugh at a psychopath.
“Well then, do you mind asking yourself who you are?”
Hope closes her eyes a small smile on her lips while shaking her head. This big idiot, I swear to God. She opens her eyes again, John sending her a smile back, but their captor doesn’t seem amused by his joke.
“Don’t be a smartass.”
He points the knife into John’s direction while talking, but true for a man who brings a knife to a gunfight, John doesn’t flinch. He just rolls his eyes, annoyed by the situation.
The stranger looks at Hope, a smirk on his face as he licks his lips, which make her look at him in disgust. Please don’t be a perv, please don’t be a perv...
“You start the talk.” He points the knife at her and Hope raises her eyebrow, not knowing what to say, which she says out loud too.
“I don’t know what to say...” She murmurs, face trying to be blank, but the pain on her side and the irony smell of her own blood makes her grimace a bit.
The stranger tilts his head with a grin:
“Start at the beginning.”
Hope doesn’t take her own advice for John, to not anger the man with the knife. She rolls her eyes as she speaks, annoyed:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...”
John chuckles at that, but shuts up as the man suddenly stands up and places his boot on Hope’s hurt side, putting force on it. Tears gather in her eyes, she can see stars as she screams in pain.
“Leave her alone, you bastard!” John spits angrily, fighting against his ropes.
The stranger doesn’t comply, looking up at John with a smirk and a laugh:
“You stabbed her and you’re asking me to stop? You two really are difficult...”
The strangers looks down at Hope again, the woman crying from the pain. She knew she was going to die in Hope County. But she thought it would be from one of the Seeds. Not in a dusty attic, under the dirty boots of a random person.
When she thinks she can’t take any more of the pain the man lets go of her and she gasps for air, she didn’t realize the pain made her to hold her breath. She coughs, looking angrily at the stranger.
“Next time you try to be sassy with me, you’re going to die, missy.” He says, walking back to his chair, sitting down.
Hope closes her eyes, her body leaning forward, the only thing keeping her in place, not letting her fall to the ground is her ropes. She laughs quietly, a gutting sound coming from her lips as she cries, turning into a heavy breathing.
Once she’s quiet, only whimpering a little the man gestures to her:
“Let’s try again... You two...” He points to John and her, a creepy smile on his face. “I’ve been watching you.”
No shit. Hope thinks, looking at the pictures on the wall again, but doesn’t say a thing, remembering the previous pain. John raises his eyebrow, but knows better to say anything, waiting for his moment to speak. So the stranger continues:
“You two have been trying to kill each other since she...” He points at Hope there. “And her people landed on your brother’s island. And then you...”
He points at John, the man raising his eyebrow, looking angry since the stranger caused pain to the young woman.
“You let her go, when you had the chance to keep her captive.” He laughs, confused and amused, more amused, then he looks back at Hope. “And when you had the chance to kill him, you didn’t... You risked your own reputation to save his life.”
She frowns at him, not seeing the point of this conversation. Hope has been wondering who the man might be. He sure as hell isn’t Resistance, but he doesn’t seem like Project member either. So who is he and why did he watch them? What does he want?
The man claps his hands together, amusement on his face as he looks between them.
“I want to know why.”
Silence follows, only Hope’s heavy breathing can be heard nothing else. The stranger looks from one to the other, then shakes his head, standing up from his chair.
“If you can’t explain, then just tell me what happened. You two seemed to be bonding, but then out of the blue he stabbed you. Why?”
He asks looking at John, who opens his mouth to speak, but Hope is faster, faking a chuckle. Both men turn their head towards her as she sits up, grimace on her face.
“Oh, I can tell you why. Because John Seed doesn’t care about anyone else than himself and he’s a backstabbing asshole.”
She looks at John who scoffs, turning his head from her accusing gaze. The stranger looks at Hope, smirk on his face.
“Details, missy.”
Hope looks at him, thinking if she should play along with the man. Fuck it, we’re gonna die either way. She thinks for a second to where to start than opens her mouth again, starting the story.
“I guess it started when we were planning an ambush against Joseph and his family at the Ranch. We agreed on me being the bait for the man. Doing what he asked of me, walking the Path and then joining him on Sunday for his family dinner... We didn’t know where to go, but John did, so we took him along with us...”
...back in the Henbane, a week ago, on Monday...
We were driving in the truck, Sharky, John and me. It was risky bringing John as well. Just one glance at him by the peggies and it’s over, the Father would have definitely send people after him. So we kept him low. Our destination was the Father statue, knowing the Path starts there. So when we arrived at the place, a couple of shacks at the feet of Angel’s Peak.
The Path is a bullshit thing. I’m just going to say that now. They have like... little stones on the ground, saying a little story about Broseph and him finding God, listening to the Voice. The usual bullcrap he teaches. The whole path is shown with flower petals, if someone gets lost, I don’t know.
So the first stone, The Call, was there at Angel’s Peak, in front of the cabins. For whatever reason I couldn’t kill while walking the Path, so Sharky - and John - went along with me in the truck. It was difficult: there were wooden bridges, so they had to take bypasses and stuff. So I waited for them. I know the whole thing was just an act: for me to please Joseph, but man! He was an asshole. The whole Path near wild animals, Angels and even the fucking Chosen didn’t leave me alone. So Sharky took care of them while I continued the walk.
So there I was at the end of the Path after a long walk - and by long I mean it took me an entire day! So I was at the end of it, last stone, The Garden. At the bottom of Joseph’s eyesore of a statue. And I looked at John and I asked:
“Now what?”
And he just looked at me like I was stupid or something--
...
The stranger holds up his hand and Hope stops at the storytelling.
“What?” She asks, annoyed she was interrupted.
The stranger looks at her, his voice a warning:
“Could you stop swearing and insulting everyone in your story? It’s annoying how you use phrases and words like ‘or something’. If you’re telling a story, tell it right.”
Hope rolls her eyes so much she thinks it will roll out of her head. Is he fucking serious? I’m a bad story teller? John chuckles, earning a furious look from the young woman, who then looks back at the stranger.
“Well I’m sorry, I didn’t ask to be brought here and tell the story of my life. Also I’m bleeding out here, so if I’m a bad story teller, deal with it...”
She huffs out angrily, but their captor just looks at her and says in a warning tone:
“Continue... without the poor vocabulary.”
She wants to groan out, but manages to fight down the urge of it.
“Fine.” She huffs, thinking a second where she was interrupted in her story.
...
I asked John what to do next, was that it and he looked back at me with a smug face, saying:
“You have to climb the statue and jump.”
There was an awkward silence, I sweared some things in my head, then said:
“Nope.”
And I got in the truck, Sharky looked at me in surprise:
“Yo, we took an entire day to walk this Path and now you give up?”
I laughed at the man then looked to the backseat, where John was cuffed.
“I already took the Leap of Faith, I’m not going to do that again, I will die.”
And the... bastard - is that better than asshole? So he looked at me with a smirk and a shrug saying:
“Only Angels, whose resilience is well known to anyone who ever attempted to take down one of them and witnessed how they come back to life, even after getting mortally wounded, could survive the ordeal.”
Well, it started there. Because the whole point of me walking the Path was to do what Joseph wanted, so I could meet him on Sunday and take an ambush on him. But John didn’t mind telling me the fact that the end of ‘walking the Path’ is to kill myself in the process.
I shouted at him, saying this whole Path is just a scam, that his family is a bunch of liars. Which ended in me figuring Joseph never wanted for me to have dinner with him on Sunday, so the whole thing was pointless.
So--
...
“So she blew up the statue of my brother.” John interrupts Hope, looking at the stranger, not amused by that event.
Hope giggles, happy with herself and that she did actually pulled off blowing up Joseph’s monument at Angel’s Peak.
The stranger looks at John now, gesturing to him:
“You continue then.”
Hope scoffs, knowing the story will probably contain lies about her, but keeps quiet. John straightens his back, ready to tell his side of the story. While he does Hope plays with the watch on her wrist, the one she got from John back in the day. She manages to get the pin out of the watch, her eyes lit up at that, but she keeps quiet while working on getting her wrist out of the ropes. If John keeps the man occupied I won’t draw any attention.
And John speaks, the stranger looking at him while he does.
...
I tried to tell the Deputy to stop arguing for one second and start listening already. But she’s a stubborn creature, she didn’t listen. Why would she? Before we knew it, she got a launcher from Boshaw’s bag and started blowing up my brother’s statue, Which if anyone was wondering I payed for. Not only that, but it angered my brother, so he sent his Choosen after her. Which ended up in an even bigger fight. I couldn’t see the end of it, because she commanded Boshaw to bring me back to the Ranch, because still: I’m a dead man and no one can know that I live.
After arriving at the Ranch we listened through the radio. Jokes on you, Deputy. She was captured by my sister, Faith. Again. I don’t know what might have happened during that time, but next thing we know, we get a call from the Sheriff that she’s at the Jail with the Marshall.
...
“Now how did you feel about that?” The man asks and John blinks at him, his mask all the way up, Hope notices.
She doesn’t react, watching John’s eyes change a bit. She’s still having fun in reading him and it makes her heart ache. She looks away back at the stranger, while slowly working on her ropes. It’s difficult, but with enought time she could get lose. Unless she dies from bloodloss first.
John raises his eyebrow:
“What do you mean how I felt about it? I knew she was going to escape.” He scoffs, amused and annoyed. “She always does. As for the Marshall, I don’t really care. Faith failed, but she won’t get a scolding about that from Joseph. She probably suffered more for the Deputy destroying his statue.”
Hope doesn’t ask, but notices how John keeps calling her Deputy again. No Trinity, no ‘my dear’, no ‘Little Miss Wrath’. He really doesn’t care, does he? She blames her tears - which slowly wet her face, not alerting anyone in the room - on her wound and pain, but she can’t ignore how her heart feels broken.
“So you’re saying you were more worried about her being safe...” Their captor points at Hope, while still looking at John. “Rather than being worried about your... ‘sister’.”
There’s a moment of silence and John scoffs, shaking his head.
“No, I said I knew she was going to escape, so why think about it anyway. And with Faith I couldn’t do anything anyway. Being a prisoner that is.”
The stranger nods, probably thinking through the story in his head as he gestures to the Baptist:
“Continue.”
...
When the Deputy arrived at the Ranch with Boshaw’s aunt, that lustful woman they called a bunch of people over. Happy to have another one of their colleges back, I guess. So they partied, drank, danced around the living room.
Basically done anything to be annoying, obnoxious and loud.
...
“Now wait a minute!” Hope interrupts him with a fake laugh, gaining the strangers and his gaze. She stops razoring her ropes in the mean time, not wanting to alert their captor of her movements. “You did it with us! You partied and danced! Hell, you even karaoked with Addie!”
She laughs, shaking her head at John, who scoffs.
“Well better be a part of it, then get cuffed again and do nothing.”
Hope laughs, a bitter taste in her mouth as she thinks about what happened that night. Just the night before this, the events that lead them to be captured by the unknown man.
“So then tell me what happened.” The stranger speaks, still curious about the events that went down.
She looks at John who seems just as curious about her side of the story as the stranger. She sighs, then starts talking.
...
As I said, John and Addie were singing an ABBA song together, drunk, or at least I thought drunk. Later it turned out he wasn’t, but from his acts, I thought he was... Anyway I had enough. Sure, I kept my fake smile and fake happy mood up, but honestly? I don’t know how they do it. How the others can act like everything is normal, while I’m stuck in this depressed mood all the time. How could I party without my conscience saying to me: people are dying out there. People are suffering on both sides...
...
Hope imagines the scene that went out there, telling it to their captor, but leaving some scenes out, not sharing all her thoughts of the event:
How she went outside, stepping out of the house to the quiet night, critters and owls making the sound of nature. The muffled noise of John Denver’s Take Me Home. Actually it’s her favourite song, but at the time she felt like her mind was going to blow up from all the noise.
She sat down at the porch, her legs brought up to her chest, head resting on her knees, arms holding her legs at place. She set there for a while, until the door opened of the Ranch. She didn’t look up, listening how the music and talking became louder.
The young woman was expecting Sharky to come out and piss in the bushes, because for some reason even in a house he didn’t use the bathroom. The door closed again, muffling the noise of the song and the laughter again.
There were a few steps on the porch, when she felt a presence behind her. John... She could tell it was him. Not just by his cologne, which he kept using since he got back to the Ranch apparently, but also there was a weird atmosphere to the man that she couldn’t quite explain.
He sat next to her on the porch and she raised her head, looking at the man, who just stared at the direction of the river below them. The forest, the night sky, but not Hope, he didn’t look at her.
She layed her head on her knees, looking at the man next to her, exploring his features. His hands behind his back, resting on the wooden porch, legs outstretched. She looked down at his hands, his tattoos. She didn’t exactly payed too much attention to them, but now she looked at each carefully. A lot of them related to the cult and sins. But she watched one with careful eyes.
A cupid of some kind reaching toward a dove. A bird of peace. The dove being circled with a flowers. When she didn’t pay too much attention she thought it was a circle of sun of some kind.
Hope smiled to herself, looking at that piece of his tattoos, when she finally looked up to meet John’s gaze. She felt herself get flushed under his eyes, the pair of blue glistening in the moonlight. God, since when did he watch me?
He looked curious, focused on her face, eyebrows frowned a bit. He does that when he’s trying to read her, she noticed.
“What?” She asked turning her head a bit, looking at the near forest, still feeling John’s gaze on her.
“You were looking.” He said simply. Not accusing, just curious why she did it.
She shrugged, lips turned into a smile:
“What? Am I not allowed to look at you?”
She looked into his eyes, but he didn’t catch up on her teasing tone that time, tilting his head a bit, waiting for an answer for his unasked question. She sighed, giving up and smiling lightly at the man’s tattoo again, hands letting go of her knees, pointing at his tattoo, slightly touching his skin on his forearm.
“I like this one...” She said quietly, tracing along the circle of flowers around the dove. “It’s peaceful, not like the others, I like that... it suits you, even with all the cruelty around you, you still kept some peace in your heart as well... people just have to look for it, that’s all.”
She didn’t even know what she was saying until her sentence was finished. Silence followed and she looked up into John’s eyes. God, I feel like my heart is going to rip in half. He looked moved, even though she didn’t say much, but it looked like it meant a lot for him.
Finally someone realized he’s not just a monster. She didn’t think of him as one, anyway. She always searched for the good in every person.
He brought up his hand to her face, caressing her skin lightly. His eyes were soaked in affection and love as he looked down at the young woman, lips parting as he went to say:
“Trinity, I --”
A loud scream and laughter interrupted their moment:
“SO I’M SITTING THERE, BARBECUE SAUCE ON MY TITTIES--”
Hope bursted out laughing, John destroyed that Adelaide dared to interrupt their moment. But chuckled as well, watching the young woman next to him wiping her eyes of tears of joy. He shook his head amusement and confusion on his face:
“How do you even find these people?”
Hope still laughing stood up from the porch, John looking disappointed, then surprised as she took his arm and helped him up to his feet.
“I don’t know. They just seem to find me, where ever I go.”
She giggled, still holding his hand and leading him to Tulip, Addie’s chopper. John didn’t seem to mind as he followed her to the chopper, he looked at her before entering:
“Where are we going?”
She just smirked at him, entering the chopper on the driver side and waited for him to do the same. Then they took off to the air, going to her favourite spot in the Valley, which seemed to amuse the man.
“Seriously? This is your favourite spot?”
He chuckled as they landed at the feet of the YES sign after the fly in the air, stopping near it.
“Yupp.” She said, jumping off the chopper, John following her. She sat at the bottom of the ‘E’ just like last time she was there. Away from the noises and everyone else. John stood there for a second, wathced the young woman sitting under the moonlight, her blue eyes looking into his along with a sweet smile.
“You’re gonna just stand there and watch me like a weirdo?”
She asked teasing, John sitting beside her on the ground, watching the Valley below them. They’ve been silent for about half an hour, just enjoying each other’s company. She felt him tense, though she didn’t know the reason yet why. She thought maybe the silence was what bothered him, so she lay down on her back, looking up at the night sky with a smile, speaking and pointing up:
“That’s the Orion constellation... that’s one of my favourites.” She smiled as the man looked down at her then up to the sky, following her finger. She pointed to some other stars, called them by name, John laying down beside her in the process.
Then a short silence followed. She placed her hand next to his, not daring to hold his hand, but he brushed his fingers against hers slightly.
“You like the night sky this much?” He asked, amused by her enthusiasm towards stars.
She didn’t think much before sharing a part of her she never shared with anyone before. Not in detail, that is.
“My parents loved the stars, both for different reasons. My mother was a christian, she believed deeply in God, Heaven, the angels up in the sky. She was a free spirit, liked the nature, peace, humanity in it’s all glory...” She smiled looking up at the sky, John turning his head toward her while listening to her story.
“My father, on the other hand was a man of science. He was an astronomer, he loved the universe and the stars. Always wished he could travel to the Moon one day.” She giggled, imagining her father, though she never met him, just like she never met her mother. “They were at this festival of hippies. And they were stargazing together, having an argument about God and science. Oh, they hated each other. ”
Hope laughed, in her mind the scene was clear by what she imagined for years from her uncle’s stories.
“So of course they got married, after years of being together. My mom was a writer, her writings were about fantas stories for kids. Fairies and kind witches and stuff like that. My father worked as an astronomer and part time weatherman for the townsfolks. Because he didn’t believe in the weatherman’s on the tv.”
The young woman stopped for a second, John was patient, listening to her every word.
“So when they were pregnant with me they were overjoyed. Least that’s what Earl used to say. They were so excited, they wanted everything to be perfect, although they weren’t rich or anything of the kind. They had fights about money, I know that, even though my uncle kept the dark parts of their lives under silence for long... Anyway when they moved to Missoula to a new house they painted the room, my room’s ceiling exactly like the night sky. My mother was good at art, she painted them all, my father helped her to be precise of every single star...”
Hope turned a bit sad, her next part of the story not so happy anymore. John felt that too, his hand finding hers, fingers connecting.
“When they died, when I was born Earl already had a home. At first he didn’t knew where would I go, who would take care of me. My grandparents, you see, from my mother’s side hated me. Hated my father, for not being a follower of God. So I never met them, for all that I know and care they are dead... My father didn’t have a family. Only my mother and me. So because Earl was my mother’s brother he took me in. He was two years older then you at the moment, he wasn’t paid that well, he didn’t knew how to raise a child, but he did.”
She chuckled lightly, her tears slowly sliding down her face:
“I think I turned out pretty well, though... I’m just...”
She stayed silent, her tears stopped and John looked at her, pushing himself up from the ground to lean over her, eyes locked:
“What?” He asked trying to make her continue, but she didn’t.
The young woman reached up for his face and kissed him passionately. Even though he wanted answers, finally got her to confess to him about a part of her life, but he kissed her back still.
She grabbed the base of his scalp, pulling herself up from the ground to sit next to him. Then she rolled him over to his back, a situation he seemed to be surprised by. Yup, he’s totally used to being on top.
But she didn’t let him speak as she climbed on him, grinding herself in his lap. He moaned into her mouth, hands on her lips as she did circles on him, trying to get some friction.
...
“I don’t care about the sex scene.” The stranger says with a blank expression, looking bored as she explains the scene that went down in the wild, under the YES sign.
John chuckles, raising an eyebrow:
“You sure, that’s the best part...”
Hope looks at him, unamused by his laugh and when he returns her gaze his face turns cold, looking down in front of him, feeling remorse.
“I care what happened after.” The stranger says, so Hope sighs, continuing her story, but still leaving out some scenes, for she doesn’t want a complete stranger to know about that night’s events.
Even though he probably watched them having sex, the fresh picture on the wall making it impossible for him not to.
Hope skipped the part where she told her story with her parents, telling about just some sentences. And now she leaves out the parts too where everything really went wrong.
...
They were breathing heavily, bodies sweaty from the sex. They didn’t remove their clothes eniterly so they didn’t have to do much to take on their clothes again.
They were sitting up, looking anywhere but each other. This whole thing is so complicated with him, but I can’t seem to just let him go, not do or feel anything.
The silence was unbearable, so she started talking again:
“My parents came from different worlds, but they were happy together.”
John frowned at her, not knowing how to react at first. Then he stood up from the ground and dusted off his pants. He turned his back to her, picking his pocket, though she wasn’t paying attention to his actions, just his words:
“Not everyone can be as lucky as them.”
Before she thought about her words she said it out loud, cursing herself afterwards:
“We could try.”
John froze, his body tensed up, she could see it in his shoulders, how he straightened his back. She watched the muscles under his shirt as he did. She couldn’t take her words back, so she might as well continued:
“John, I know you love your brothers, but you can’t seriously follow Joseph, thinking he’s doing the right thing. He used your childhood abuse against you, feeding into it, like it was nothing to him. He’s delusional!”
She regretted her words as she said them, watching his back shaking from anger and she knew she should stop but she didn’t. Her voice raised bit by bit, being angry at Joseph for using John in such a way. She just couldn’t believe his older brother loved him if he kept pushing him around.
“He’s a murderer!”
John turned around and she focused on his face, which was a big mistake later, but she didn’t realize that at the moment. He looked furious, the previous action of making love to each other, affection in his eyes gone. Only fury and anger in it.
“Oh, because you’re such a saint, right?” He said to her with venom in his voice, made her eyes teary.
“I know my flaws, John. I willl have to live with myself, knowing all those lives are ruined out there because of me. Families, torn apart, because of me! But don’t think for a second I’m anywhere near your brother! He’s a fucking psychopath, who murdered his own child!”
She said it, not caring if John knew about it or not, though the confusion in his eyes told her he didn’t.
“You’re lying!”
She cried and laughed, standing up from the ground, looked him in the eyes:
“Why would I lie about something like that?”
He looked at her and it broke her heart, the anger and disgust on his face unbearable.
“Because you’re the snake in our garden. You’re just trying to pull me into sin, away from the right path with my family.”
She scoffed, looking away.
“Wow...” She opens her arms, like giving up, shaking her head, then looking back at him. “Then what? You’re going to try and bring me back to Joseph? Make your big bro happy and proud that you finally managed to do something that’s not fucked up and ruined?”
She hated herself at that moment, she was hurt, he hurt him that was true but she never intended to hurt him that way. Only then she realized he had a pocket knife in his hand, something he might have stolen while everyone was partying at the Ranch. Shit...
He cried out a war cry, tackled her to the ground, the knife landing at her side and he slashed a line along at it. The pain and surprise made her look up at him with teary eyes. He seemed shocked by his own actions, mouth moving like he was about to say something, maybe even say sorry as he held the knife in his hand, tossing it on the ground.
“You...” She wanted to say something hurtful, maybe something obscene, call him names, but didn’t had the chance as he was hit by something hard, he fell to the ground next to her.
She then looked up at the stranger, who hit her in the head, the world turning black.
...
“So here we are.” Hope finishes her story, looking at the unknown person who attacked them at the bottom of John’s sign.
He looks unhappy by the story, like he still misses the essence of the tale.
“Why did you let him live?”
He asks her, and she looks at him confused. The fuck kinda question is that? The man seems annoyed and irritated to wait for an answer and he stands up, putting the knife to her abdomen.
“Why... did you... let him... live?”
She gasps for air, trying to hold her breath to not cause any more wounds on herself, the blade of the knife touching her skin. She stops wriggling her wrists, the rope almost already gone, which she worked on while telling their story.
“Because I needed a joker card against Joseph, so I can use him, bargain him for one of ours even.”
He looks into her eyes, an evil smile on his face.
“You’re lying.”
She frowns, not amused as she gets angry at this unknown person.
“Why the hell do you care so much anyway? Why all the photos? Why bring us here? Why the fuck are you obsessed with us?”
John looks at her in worry and warning, trying to gesture for her to shut up, she has a dagger at her stomach.
“Oh, isn’t it obvious?” The man says, lifting his knife from her gesturing around. “I don’t care about the ‘Resistance’ or the ‘Project’. Too boring, too... casual. I need something more interesting, and by far you two have been really interesting. I got bored when he stabbed you, so I thought I would get my final questions from you, before searching for something else for fun.”
Hope looks at him in disbelief. Now he’s totally a sadistic mental person, that’s for sure.
The man huffs out at her silence, and looks at John for a second, looking like he had the worst and best idea ever.
“Let’s play it in an other way then...”
He steps next to John and without warning he makes a cut on his face. Not too deep, but enough to cause bleeding on his cheek. John doesn’t even say anything, just looks angrily at the stranger.
Hope on the other hand knows him. He can take a punch, after the stroy he told her about his parents abusing him, but she fears for him anyway, worry in her eyes.
The stranger looks at Hope, his knife at John’s shoulder, pointing at the flesh, ready to enter it entirely.
“Why did you let him live?”
She looks at him bewildered, not knowing what answer would satisfy him:
“I... I don’t know.”
She says and feels like it’s the half truth, but it doesn’t seem to please him. He pulls the knife right into John’s shoulder blade and he muffles out a groan from the pain, anger on his face as he chuckles, looking up at the stranger:
“Oh come on, that’s only just a pat...”
Hope looks at John fear in her eyes for him as the man forcefully pulls out the blade from his shoulder.
“Why did you let him live?” He grabs John ear, ready to tear it down with the knife.
She widens her eyes, panic in her voice:
“I don’t know! Please, I really don’t know!”
He starts slowly to cut into the younger Seed’s ear, earning a mix of laughter and painful shout. She fastens her hand with the pin on her ropes, trying to fight herself out of the restraints as she screams:
“STOP! PLEASE! I DON’T KNOW!”
He doesn’t stop though, John’s ear bleeding like hell and she cries for him, cries for his pain and she shouts out:
“BECAUSE I CARE ABOUT HIM!”
The man seems to stop, but doesn’t let go of John’s ear. As for the younger man he looks at her confused, not sure what to make of her sentence. The stranger nods to her, a gesture to continue and she curses him in her head but doesn’t want him to continue his torture on the man that she loves.... wait what?
“I... I cared about him already, I just... He understood me, he tried to understand me. And I knew there was more to him and when it came to it, I just couldn’t pull the trigger. How could I, when deep down I knew he was right.”
There, she said it. The thing she tried to hide from everyone, especially the man himself and his family. That she actually believed in parts of their story. She looks at the stranger, swallowing her pride as she pleads to him silently:
“Just please, don’t hurt him.”
The man lets go of John, a wicked smile on his face, pointing at her with his knife:
“See? That wasn’t so hard! Although I was hoping for something sinister. They call you The Sinner and here you are...” He looks disgusted by her, not amused. “Ugh.. Just a teenager with a crush. Well, it’s right what they say. Every story is great until someone decides to put romance in it.”
He talks to himself, then turns dark as he approaches her with his knife, Hope’s hand already free behind her back now.
“So now you two die.”
John shouts a no at the man, but there’s not time for reactions, Hope gathers all her energy and jumps on the person. She tackles him to the ground, rolling on the wooden floor. While fighting they break the oil lamp which sets the hay on the only way out on fire. The flames quickly spread, destroying the only escape route.
But Hope can’t do anything as the man manages to push his knife to her arm. She punches him with her elbow, a cry of pain leaves her lips thanks to her wounded side and now arm. She punches the man, the knife falling on the ground and she kicks him into the fire. The man screams, when he lands down into the flames. But she doesn’t care, he’s dying and they still have time to live.
She can hardly stand on her legs as she falls to the ground, getting the knife and freeing John from his ropes. He asks the most stupid question at a situation like this:
“Are you alright?”
Once he’s freed he grabs her face gently, his eyes going crazy as he checks up on her. Smoke fills the air and they start to cough thanks to it, the reflex making her side bleed and hurt even more.
“Yeah...” She lies as they look down at the only entrance, but it’s already up in flames, the body of the stranger burning up, dead. The fire spreads up to the attic as well, slowly making it’s way to them.
They scatter to the boarded window, both trying to pull on it, trying the knife even, but it’s impossible to get out. They manage to get one board off, but the knife snaps in half as they do so.
They won’t fit through the exit. Hope coughs and slides down next to the wall, the huge window that is covered. John looks down at her in worry, himself looking in bad shape as it is.
She’s pale, already lost too much blood and the fire and coughing doesn’t help her.
“Someone must be looking for us.” John tries his best to make her feel hope and faith. He takes her small form into his lap, holding his hand on her wound, leaving soft kisses on her forehead. “Drubman. She must be looking for her chopper, they... they may find the cameras in my office. They might figure out where we are.”
She looks up at the man, holding his arm gently which he holds on her wound:
“I’m sorry.” She says, feeling weak, too weak. Her mind feels like turning off, the welcoming feeling of sleep getting the best of her.
John shakes his head, looking at her, a chuckle on his face which is filled with worry:
“No, no... I’m sorry. This is my fault. You’re hurt because of me.”
She feels her eyes closing, but he caresses her cheek, whispering to her to keep her eyes open, to stay awake so she tries, for him. Her eyelids feel heavy as she looks up at him.
“I always wanted ice skating, before I died... guess I misse out on that...”
She says weakly and he looks at her in worry, coughing when he tries to speak, then his words meet her:
“You will. We will together, alright? I’m going to go with you. We can do it.”
The room feels hot, too hot. She doesn’t dare to look at the fire, she can’t even move her head. She slowly blinks, fighting the urge to close her eyes.
“Do you think she’s inside?”
A shout comes from outside, a man’s voice. John perks his head up and looks through the gap through the boards. He shouts out:
“WE’RE INSID! WE’RE IN THE ATTIC!”
Excited voices come from outside, surprised voices:
“That’s Brother John!”
“He’s alive!”
“How could that be?”
Hope doesn’t worry about the voices, peggies as it turns out, she just looks up at the man who looks down at her a smile on his face:
“You hear that? We’re going to get out!”
She doesn’t feel closing her eyes, but she must be as she can’t see him anymore, vision turning black.
“No, No, Trinity! Open your eyes, please, please! My dear, open up, look at me.”
He whispers to her, leaving kisses on the woman’s forehead. She wants to, but she can’t. She wants to comfort him, tell him to not to worry, but she can’t do that either, his voice starting to get distant, though he doesn’t move from her.
“We could try! You hear me, we could try it!” He cries against her cheek, but she can’t feel anything, his voice only a muffled thing now. “Please, Trinity, don’t leave me. I lov--”
A/N: I think the POVS got a little messy at the end, so sorry about that. I just wanted to write some inner thoughts which Hope wouldn’t share with them. I hope it was still enjoyable though. Thanks for reading ♥ Also yeah, I used this gif that I took 2 minutes to make because I’m lazy, haha. But I’m in love with Seamus!John so even if he’s without a beard I love him, haha.
Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!
Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later
Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!
Word Counter: 3931
Notes: I used that gif, because I would like to imagine it’s them and it’s cute *-*
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | MASTERPOST for the others
Hope feels her body stucked on John’s as she slowly wakes up. She doesn’t rush, enjoying the rhythm of his breathing. She smiles to herself, carefully lifting her head from his chest, looking up at the sleeping man. People really do look innocent while they sleep. His features smooth, no showing of fake smiles and angry outbursts. He looks cute while he sleeps... The young woman smirks to herself.
She moves her leg away from him, as it was entangled with his. John doesn’t seem to wake up to her moving around. She sits up, then looks down at the man, placing a kiss on his cheek. Not to wake him up, just to enjoy the moment a bit more. He doesn’t flinch, sleeping deeply, so Hope gets up from the bed, walking toward the bathroom on her toes, trying to be quiet.
She closes the bathroom door slowly, being careful to not wake up the man. The young woman start running the water in the shower, stepping under it. So many thoughts go through her head as she massages her scalp, washing her hair under the hot water.
It feels nice, getting rid of the sweat that gathered on her skin yesterday night. Hope uses the man’s shower gel, feeling dazed in his scent, while rubbing on her skin with it.
She doesn’t her the bathroom door open, or him stepping into the shower until John kisses her neck, making Hope gasp in surprise. He puts lazy kisses on her skin from behind, his hand touching her abdomen, sliding down between her legs.
“Good morning, my dear.” He says in a smooth voice, then he bites on her earlobe slightly, fingers tracing along her slit.
She feels hot, not just from the water as she turns her head, kissing him over her shoulder. Their kiss is sloppy, as she turns her body around, hand grabbing behind his neck, the other sliding down to touch his hardening cock.
God, we really shoudln’t do this... She thinks, but doesn’t act on her thought. Hope traces her thumb over his tip, earning a groan from John. Then everything goes fast. A lot different then yesterday night, his movements rough, not slow and careful.
He picks her up, then slams her against the shower cabinet’s wall, pushing himself into her entrance.
It doesn’t take them long to reach their high, John filling her body after she’s clamping around him. They breath heavily against each other. Her head is against his chest, while he carefully puts her down after they both ride out their orgasm.
Hope thinks how easily they could have tripped on the wet floor, knowing that most of the times shower sex ends up in accidents and injuries.
“I could get used to this.” John amuses with a low chuckle, caressing the young woman’s hair under the running water.
She hugs his chest, her head resting on his chest. Yeah, me too... She wants to say, but doesn’t, knowing better.
“We should finish showering.” Hope says, stepping away from him, averting his gaze and turning around to finish up with the shower.
They doesn’t say anything else to each other, until they go back to the room, both having a towel around themselves.
She looks at her torn apart dress, looking at it, wondering what to wear now. She picks up her underwear and puts it on, while John stands in his closet. He’s in a simple black shirt and jeans, a look she’s not used to by him. Even as a prisoner at the jail he wore his vest and button-up shirt. He looks nice like this, even domestic.
John holds a simple white shirt and a pair of jeans out to Hope, and she thanks him, putting on the clothes. The jeans is surprisingly perfect on her, and she raises an eyebrow at that:
“Are you keeping all kinds of women jeans in your closet, or is this just a coincidence.”
He chuckles looking at her with a shrug:
“Bought it for Faith, but she refused to wear it...”
And with that they end their conversation, not speaking to each other about anything else. They don’t dare bring up the stuff that happened between them yesterday and this morning in the shower.
Hope left John at the Ranch with Sharky and she also made a call Grace, asking her to stay with those two. She trusted her more than Sharky. The man is her best friend, but he’s uncapable of keeping John under a leash.
The young woman also paid a visit to the Ryes, both happy to see her again. Kim even told her Nick cried for days about her ‘death’. Which made Hope feels terrible, but also warm, knowing the Ryes are like a second family to her. Mentioning that they told her why they really called her there: they wanted her to be their child’s godmother. There were tears of joy, mostly from the junior deputy. And after a long chit-chat about all kinds of things she left them at the house.
The junior deputy is now at the whitetail mountains. She radioed Eli about doing some jobs for him. The man was happy to hear from her, glad she’s going to help out in the north.
Hope called Jess as well, to have some company. The woman didn’t say but she seemed happy to rejoin the deputy’s team against the cult.
Hope did some heavy work up there: freeing the F.A.N.G. Center, finding Cheeseburger the bear. Getting the radios back for Tammy and finding a bunch of loot for Wheaty. Eli even joked about her being restless. But of course she feels like she needs to do work against the cult. Not only she missed a whole month, but it also helps her to try and forget about the events with John.
Now Jess and Hope is destroying wolf beacons, making it hard for Jacob to get more judges. They blow up the last one they could find in the mountains, smiling proudly at the crash of the cult beacon.
They walks away smiling, when her radio crackles to life, and the voice speaking to her makes her frowns, even a bit terrified:
“Y’know Deputy... If it were up to me you’d have been dead a long time ago... Especially after you killed my little brother... But Joseph has other ideas... and he wants to talk to you. So that’s what you’re gonna do. Don’t worry, my hunters will bring you to him.”
Hope starts to panic, looking at Jess, then around herself, when her radio crackles to life again, Dutch speaking to her:
“Ah, shit... He’s comin’ for you again, kid. Better be careful, those hunters could be anywhere.”
Run, run, run! Her voice screams at her in her head, and Jess thinks the same, grabbing her arm, running toward their truck.
“Come on, Deputy! We just got ya back, I ain’t gonna let you get taken by that asshole!”
They run through the forest, trying to get to the car, where they parked it, only to find the road empty.
“Oh, you fuckers! I swear, this ‘take it if it’s empty’ thinking with the resistance is fucked!” Jess growls, not knowing what to do.
Hope panics, her senses going wild, trying to dodge if a bliss arrow comes her way. She spots two of Jacob’s man, one aiming his bow at them.
Hope tackles Jess to the ground, getting her out of the way of the arrow as well. A fight starts, Jess readying her bow, killing one of the peggies, while Hope aims her AR-C at the other one, killing him on sight.
They exhale, feeling lucky, but a sharp pain goes through the junior deputy’s leg, her vision turning red and blurry.
“Jess...” She exhales, turning around to see three other peggies and two Judges with them.
She falls to the ground, already falling deep into unconsciousness, while she watches the young woman fighting against a Judge. Hope wants to help her friend, but can’t, her mind already turning off.
The junior deputy wakes up on the ground, in a cage. She was never there before, but she could swear it’s familiar somehow.
It’s nighttime again, meaning she had to be asleep for at least a day. Her head and leg hurts, and her throat and mouth feels so dry it causes her pain as well. This is bullshit...
A guy crouches down next to her, she recognizes him. He was at the wolf’s den and with Eli when they rescued her from Jacob at the first time. The stuttering guy. She feels bad, not remembering his name.
He’s ready to give her a drink from a bowl, but a voice makes both of their head turn. Staci! He stands next to the cage, grabbing on the bars, while speaking:
“They want you to be strong. One of you will be strong...”
Hope notices Jacob approaching Staci, while Mr. Stutter goes up to the bars:
“N-n-n-n-not again...”
When Jacob shoves Staci away Mr. Stutter scatters back to the end of the cage as well.
“Get out of here, Peaches.”
Staci falls back, going behind the man, standing guard. Trying to be a good soldier. Or a good bitch to Jacob... She thinks, feeling pity for Pratt.
Joseph is here as well, touching his forehead to Jacob. It seems to be like a show of respect, a show of concern and love. She shivers, thinking he did the same to her in the Bliss.
Jacob stands aside, looking down at Hope, meeting her eyes, but his facial expression is blank. So she rather focuses on Joseph, the man crouching down next to her, just the metal bars between them.
She moves, trying to stand, but gives up and makes a grimace at the pain of her wounded leg. She doesn’t make a sound though, she can’t show weakness around Jacob.
Hope looks at the Father, hating the man in front of her for putting her in such position.
“I know you’re in pain. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh, huh?”
His voice is the same as usual: smooth, comforting, but she doesn’t need him to be that. She would rather have him shout at her for escaping the Jessop Conservatory. This act of his, or whatever he thinks this is, is just annoying.
She doesn’t answer, playing the mute infront of the man. He shakes his head a bit, then continues:
“But you’re not the only one to be tested...”
She takes a glance at Jacob, but he doesn’t even look at them. The fuck does that mean? Joseph shows her his forearm, a tattoo of a young woman on it.
“Did you know that I had a wife? So beautiful, isn’t she?”
He puts his hand through the bars. She would gladly hit him, but knows better. With Jacob standing there and her behind the bars there’s no chance of fight anyway.
Hope looks back into Joseph’s eyes, continuing her silence, so he goes on.
“We were pregnant with out first child. And we were just babies ourselves really. And I was terrified.” His chuckle scares her. She never seen him laugh or smile before, so this feels unusual.
“Of becoming a Father, mostly about money... She wasn’t worried... She had faith that things were gonna work out. She always had faith...”
Wow, nice. Someone actually married this dude. Either she was crazy, or she was a magician and could fuck some sense into him... She thinks, not amused by his story telling. She would rather have Jacob speak his nonsense about weak and strong, then this man sharing his life event with her.
“And then one day she was going to go visit a friend. There was an accident... and the Lord taketh.”
Fuck... Well, that escaleted quickly. She unconsciously remembers her parent’s death. The car accident she can’t remember, because she was born right there in the middle of it. But from all the reports she searched for and read about she feels like she was there, remembering every picture of her deceased parents.
“And they rushed me to a hospital and put me in a room with this little pink bundle stuffed with tubes and they said that I had to be strong because my little girl was going to live.”
Wow, that’s.. hard... She feels bad for the child. Even though she didn’t knew Joseph had a daughter. It must have been hard to grow up without her mother and live with her delusional father.
Her face softens, listening to his story.
“God was looking out for our daughter. And they left me in a..., alone in a room with her. I just...” He shakes his head, looking into the distance, probably reliving the situation. “... stared... at my daughter... So helpless. So innocent... and all she had in the world was me.” He seems to be angry at himself, his word flying through his teeth. “A nobody, from nowhere with nothing.”
His face softens again, blinking at Hope.
“And in that moment I knew that God was testing me. He was laying out a path before me and all I had to do was choose.”
She frowns, confused. Did he leave the kid? Put her into an orphanage or give her up for adoption? She feels sorry for the kid, but is relieved. Probably for the best to not grow up with this man.
He continues and Hope starts to feel a knot in her stomach, making her head dizzy. A feeling that something bad is going to happen.
“So I put my hand on my little girls head and I leaned in and I could smell her... And we prayed together. Prayed for wisdom. Prayed for strength... then I knew. I heard God’s plan for me.”
Her heart starts beating faster on his next words, her face turning into a horrified shock as he raises his hand, gesturing along with his story:
“And I took my fingers and I put them on that little tube that was taped to her angelic face and I pinched it shut.”
She looks at him, terrified as he closes his eyes with a low humm, just to open them again and look at her horrified expression.
“And after a little while her legs began to kick and kick and kick... and then nothing. Stillness. Release.”
She tries to lean back, afraid of the man’s actions. How could he?
“How could you?” She whispers, her first words to him and he grabs her by the collar of her shirt, leaning against the bars.
“The Lord giveth and the Lord... taketh.”
He pulls her up to her feet:
“Pain. Sacrifice. These are all part of his test. Only have to prove that we can serve God... no matter what He asks... When you’re finished here, I want to think about this,the sacrifices you have to make, if you want to join us in the new Eden... Start walking the Path, Deputy. Then join me and my Family on Sunday for dinner.”
He turns away from Hope, taking Jacob’s shoulder in his hand.
“You’ve done well.”
Then Joseph leaves, the young woman still shocked and mortified by his story. Hope looks at Jacob, his expression blank. Did he knew? Did John knew? She can’t read the other Seeds well, but she has a feeling that Jacob in fact didn’t know about this.
He looks at her, taking out his music box. She realizes it too late, looking down at his hands as he opens the box. Her vision start to go red, her head hurting at the music. She covers her ears, trying to close out the sound, but she can’t, it’s too much.
She closes her eyes and the next moment she stands in the same room as before. A tower clocking, red room with a falling building. The presentation Jacob did, two people sitting in the chairs. And a gun, right before her on the table.
Hope grabs it and shoots both of them down. She doesn’t think about Joseph and his story. She doesn’t think about John. She only thinks about one thing: Kill. Kill. Kill.
“Excellent.” Jacob says as she already knows the route she has to run, grabbing another weapon. The falling apart building containing people: resistance members, innocents, militia members...
But she shoots them. Innocent or not, if she shoots before them that only means they are weak. And she knows what needs to be done with the weak.
“Good, cull the herd.”
She grabs the shotgun from next to the wall, moving forward to the corridor. The music slowly making her mind crazy. The slow version of Only You echoing in the building and in her head. A deer appears in front of her and runs into the wall, turning into smoke, just like the people she shoots at.
She’s near the entrance to the fountain and she grabs an AR-C. The metal gate saying it’s still the veteran center. She shoots down all the man, not having a problem with it. She needs to hear him. She wants to hear him praise her. I’m strong, they’re weak.
“Well done.”
She enters the building, killing everyone in the next room. She’s getting ready to the slide down. She doesn’t wake up this time though. It doesn’t end. She enters a place that is familiar somehow, but her crazed mind can’t recognize the place. There’s no time to think, only to act.
A person runs towards her and she shoots him in the head. She kills every last person in the room, only to earn a praise from Jacob:
“Good.”
She kills the next one:
“Not bad.”
Hope turns around the corner and finds herself at her destination. A blank face, almost a dummy, and she shoots at it, the music stopping at her action.
“Perfect.”
She falls unconscious, a black dream welcoming her, the feeling that she did good.
Hope sits in the kitchen of the Ranch, looking down at her hands, her knuckles bloody from the kills and shaky from her shock. She’s holding a mug, filled with hot chocolate, while Pastor Jerome is talking to her. But his voice is blurry, she can’t focus on it, as the memories of her actions keep coming back to her.
How she woke up in the middle of the forest, surrounded by a pile of corpses... Resistance members that she killed. How she managed to get into a truck and drive back to the Valley, entering the Ranch. How she sat down in the dining room and stayed there. Sharky, Grace, even John asking her what happened. But she couldn’t answer. Her mind blank, the echo of Only You ringing in her ears, making her see red from time to time.
After some time Grace called Fall’s End for help, any kind of guidance. Soon Jerome, Adam and Liza came. Hope didn’t watch their reactions to John, them probably meeting the man for the first time since the Atonement.
Jerome made her a cup of hot chocolate, while Liza checked her pupils, saying something to the others Hope didn’t catch, but the woman seemed to keep her sentences short anyway. Mostly Jerome, Adam and Grace speaking. And of course John, which seemed to annoy the others.
And now they are all gathered around her. Speaking to her and each other, trying to pull a word from her. But the young woman just stares at the mug in her hands. She didn’t even drink from it yet.
Hope doesn’t realize, when someone steps next to her chair, putting their hands on her shoulder and she flinches at the contact, panic creeping up on her.
The blur goes away and she looks up at John who is quickly pushed away from her into the wall by Adam, who readies a punch:
“Don’t you dare touch her!” The gun for hire says, pushing John against the wall, an annoyed look on the others face.
“I wasn’t going to do anything...” He scoffs, as Grace pulls Adam off of John, standing between the two of them, holding her hands out, looking from one to the other.
“Could you guys stop with this male hormone bullshit? I don’t need you two acting like this around the Deputy right now.”
Hope blinks up at them, then turns her gaze to Liza, Jerome and Sharky. Sharky sits at the table, looking worried, but not saying a word, letting the others solve out the situation.
Jerome locks eyes with the young woman with a careful voice as he approaches her:
“...Deputy?”
She looks at the man, her hands shaking around the mug, as she blinks at the Pastor. Adam and John seem to calm down, everyone in the room looking at her, waiting. She opens her lips a bit, trying to form words in her head first, then weakly she whispers:
“I’ve killed them.”
She looks down at her hands, but her mind is back at the place where she woke up. All the blood, all those bodies.
“They were innocent... Our people.” She whispers, tear gathering in her eyes. “I couldn’t stop. I just... I couldn’t... Oh God...”
Jerome comes and gets the mug out of her hand, his other resting on her shoulders as she starts to cry. Jacob’s disapproving voice echoing in her head. You’re weak.
She doesn’t see, but Adam looks at Jerome and Liza saying:
“This is Jacob’s work.”
Jerome tries to comfort the broken young woman:
“Deputy, it’s not your fault... Jacob did this to you, he lead your hands to do it, but it wasn’t your fault.”
She doesn’t believe him, but stops crying, wiping away her tears, then stopping as she looks down at her bloody hands.
“Joseph was there too.” She says, a sentence that makes everyone go stiff and tense.
“Why was he there?” John asks, earning an annoyed look from Adam, but Hope answers anyway.
“He wanted to talk to me... But it wasn’t a conversation... He said...”
She feels a puke coming up as she thinks about his story, but fights down the feeling. She closes her eyes, shaking her head, not wanting to repeat his story. Who knows what that would cause. Maybe John even knows about it. She wishes that he doesn’t. That would make her heart break, knowing the man knew what his brother had done and still look up for him.
So she rather repeats his last words for her:
“He said I have to walk the Path... Then join him for dinner on Sunday.”
She says, shaking her head lightly, gaining a scoff from Grace.
“Sure thing, bring some wine for him, will ya?” Adam jokes, then looks down at Hope, his fake smile fading. “Jesus, don’t tell me you actually thinking about it.”
Hope doesn’t want to. If anything she wants to stay away from Joseph for the rest of her life. But she gatheres her willpower, sighing.
“If this means I get close to him, maybe have a chance for an attack as well... So be it. I’ll be bait.”
They all look at her in disbelief, as she sighs.
“Unless you guys have a better plan... If you do, please tell me, because...” She fakes a laugh. “... I honestly don’t want to do this.”
She looks at all of them frowning:
“Although I have no idea how to ‘walk the Path’...”
Silence follows, then John speaks up, everyone looking at him.
“I do.”
A/N: I know I rushed some game events here, but being not much of an impact on the story I didn’t see a reason to write them all down.
Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!
Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later
Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!
Word Counter: 5998
Notes: ehehehehe *knowing laugh*
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | MASTERPOST for the others
The whole drive is spent with Sharky’s rambling about what Hope missed in a month. Faith Seed apparently made a new Bliss, testing it on wild animals across the county, making ‘mutant bliss animals’ as Sharky put it to words.
People have been kidnapped in the mountains, conditioned by Jacob. The Milita starting to get weaker every day. That’s bad news Hope wants to solve once they dropped off John.
Joseph has been seen in the Henbane a couple of times. She wonderes if he was at the compound they kept her for a whole month. A topic that makes her confused and scared. Not knowing why they kept her alive.
It also makes her angry. Her whole plan was to rile up the Seeds right after John’s ‘death’ but now they had a month to mourn the man and get relaxed again. Fucking great...
As they near the Ranch the young woman notices that a lot of things have changed since the last time they were there.
The peggie crates and symbols have been taken off, making the ranch look a bit more decent than before. Also there is a helicopter parking outside the building.
“Who’s been staying here?”
She asks, confused as they all exit the truck. Sharky follows her gaze to the chopper and grins:
“Ah, my aunt Addie thought she would stay here with my cousin, Hurk... Not like every day. But yeah, like some days... most days... almost every day.”
She nods, still confused, but giggles at Sharky’s ramble. Why didn’t someone like Nick or Jerome move in? Although on second thought after all the things John did to them it’s understandable that they didn’t want to stay in his home.
“Deputy.” John calls for her as they start to walk toward the entrance and she humms, questioning what he wants. “I was wondering if I could shave.”
She snorts at that, laughing, while they enter the ranch. The air is filled with the smell of beer and weed. Something that hurts her nose, but she doesn’t complain. Sharky bombs himself on the couch as he turns on the tv, getting comfortable, while John follows Hope inside the kitchen.
Nobody seems to be in the house at the moment.
“Did I say something funny?”
He asks, raising an eyebrow and folding his arms before his chest. Hope looks at him, giving him an amused look and a smirk as she opens the cabinets, looking for a cup.
“Did you ask for my permission? You? Of all people?”
He raises an eyebrow and scoffs:
“I’m a gentleman.”
Hope looks at him, then starts to laugh like never before, holding her stomach as it even gets painful. Tears come to her eyes and she’s almost wheezing at the man’s sentence.
“And...” He continues annoyed by her, not wanting to be the topic of the joke. “I am your prisoner, I don’t think you would be nice enough to just let me wonder around. Even if this is my home. My room, my bathroom and my razor.”
She stops laughing, wiping away her tears of joy and scoffs, smirking and teasing him as she continues to search for a cup.
“Why is everthing ‘my my my’ with you? Are you sure you don’t have ‘Greed’ on you somewhere?” She says, thinking about the tattoos and carving she saw on his body before. Lust and Sloth being visible to the eye. Although she’s sure there is Wrath on him somewhere as well.
She starts to get annoyed by all the plates and not finding a single cup in the kitchen, the cupboards seem to be endless to her. She doesn’t have to turn around, she can hear the smirk in John’s voice.
“Oh, I do have it on me. Care to come and search where?”
She makes an annoyed scoff, not responding to the man and she shivers as he stands behind her, his breath against her neck. She turns around, hands on the countertop behind her, back arching back as he towers over her. She feels her cheeks getting hot, and God, his stupid smug face is just making things worse. He leans against her body, he stretches his arm up above her head to a cupboard she couldn’t reach thanks to her small form.
The man looks at her, smirk on his face as he slowly, too slowly opens the cupboard and gets out a glass, slowly closing it back again and holding the glass out to her.
She forgets how to breath normally as she takes the glass from his hand and without a word shoves him away as she walks past him to the fridge. Hope hears him chuckle at that, not saying another word. She’s glad he keeps silent for a short while, she doesn’t know how to handle the man.
Maybe it’s been over a month, but it still feels like yesterday to her, when they had that heated moment in his bedroom. And she can’t help but feel the need rise inside of her, trying to hide what the man does to her. God, he’s so frustrating...
“Oh, wow!” Sharky steps into the kitchen and Hope looks up as she pours out a glass of orange juice for herself.
She raises an eyebrow at her friend, his expression like he just smelled the weirdest thing in the world, he holds his hands up.
“What?” Hope looks at him in confusion and Sharky chuckles, looking between John and Hope.
“I can feel the sexual tension, man. It fills the air.” He fans himself with his hands and Hope rolls her eyes, making an annoyed sound as she drinks.
“I’m annoyed by him, that’s not the same.” She says and Sharky wants to retreat but she huffs and walks past him, looking back to John in annoyance. “You can shave. But I have to keep watch. I’m not going to let you have a razor in your hand without being watched, and I’m sorry Sharky but last time you smoked with him, I don’t trust you guarding him.”
Sharky doesn’t seem to be offended, just chuckling at the memory of the night.
“You, Po-Po!” Sharky calls after her, making her turn, a silent question on her face. “Kim called that you should pay a visit to her and Nick tomorrow, if we’re not taking off to the mountains yet.”
Hope nods with a smile, glad that the Ryes want to meet her after everything she had done. After her ‘betrayel’ of them. She says a quiet ‘alright’, then walks the stairs towards John’s room.
Hope feels like a babysitter, watching over a kid. Although this ‘kid’ is a grown up man, shaving his beard, while she’s still just 21 years old, sitting on the closed toilet, arms crossed as she watches John’s movements.
He doesn’t look at her while he’s doing his work. His hands movements make her look amazed at him, smooth movements across his jaw and under his chin, getting rid of the untamed parts of his facial hair. He looks focused, just like when he made the tattoo for her on her chest. Hope wonders if the man is always this focused when he does something with his hands. That sounded dirty...
She half expects him to turn the blade on her, even though it would take quite the effort to make her bleed with the small razor blade. But John doesn’t attack, he doesn’t even pay attention to her. Although he can surely feel her unstopping gaze at him. Hope notices how he doesn’t shave his whole beard, leaving it just like it was when she arrived in the county. Of course, the whole cult is obsessed with beards, why wouldn’t he keep it?
When the razor gets full with shaving cream he puts it under the sink, shaking off the cream from the blade, then returning to his face, head tilted back a bit as he works on his neck and chin.
She doesn’t know why, but her heartbeat gets faster as he works on himself. His movements making her mouth dry and she scolds herself in her head: The heck is wrong with you? Why do you have to be so horny for John Seed, huh? You could be turned on by anyone, but nooo, you choose a sadistic bastard, genius...
She shifts in her seat, not intentionally grinding her thighs together which sends a wave of blood between her thigs. Now she stops wondering if it’s because she’s in that faze of her period. Now that she thinks about it, her period must have been while she was at the Seeds. Jesus, someone had to clean her up, right? She shivers, not wanting to think about that creepy thought anymore, when she’s pulled away from her thoughts by John’s sudden voice:
“Care to explain where you’ve been in a whole month?”
Hope blinks up at him, the man still shaving his face, not giving her a single look. Right, she didn’t tell it to anyone as she was in the Jail. It was too much to deal with Tracey and John’s almost-execution. Now that she’s questioned about her absence, she doesn’t know how to explain it.
“I was... I was at the Jessop Conservatory.”
She says, remembering the place from the map, when she checked it out afterwards.
John stops his movements, finally looking at her, his face hardening. She wonders why is that. Is that an important place to them? It didn’t seem like it. Sure, it was huge, but what else might be important about it?
“You seem taken aback with that. Why?” She asks, the man giving her a look, like he’s surprised she could read his face. Then he chuckles, a fake one as he looks back to the mirror, continuing his work.
“You see right through me, Deputy... That’s not good.” He says, amusement and worry in his voice.
Silence follows and Hope doesn’t let go of the topic, not know that he made her curious of the place.
“You didn’t answer my question.” She says simply, her voice scolding and he chuckles again, not so fake this time.
“Well, now you know how it feels, don’t you?” He smirks, giving her a sideway look as he puts down the razor, finished with his work. Then he leans down, spilling water on his face, then grabs a towel and starts to dry his beard.
“Jacob was there.” She says, trying to find points that might make John talk. Of course she doesn’t let him know yet, that Joseph was probably there too.
John seems a bit surprised, but his words says otherwise:
“Not surprised by that. We used to have family dinners there on Sundays.”
She frowns at that, not sure why they would choose a random place to have dinner there.
“I thought you would do that here, at the Ranch.”
John puts down the towel, looking at her in annoyance and confusion:
“Now how would you know that? You read my mind, Deputy?”
His sass doesn’t make her roll her eyes as he would expect, she just tilts her head a bit, searching his face. She does this every time she tries to solve him, like he was some kind of riddle or puzzle. It makes John lift from one leg to another, insecure under her searching gaze.
“You said you had fammily dinners there. I just thought it would make more sense to have dinners here, if this is your home.”
She says simply, causing him to look into her eyes, his blue gaze searching her own as well. But he seems to be lost, like he can’t find what he’s looking for.
“Faith was there as well. Makes sense, I guess. It’s her region, but why Jacob. There wasn’t any army around or resistance member that he could condition. Hell, the whole place looked abandoned...”
She says, trying to figure out the whole situation.
“Why don’t you just let it go, Deputy?” He asks in such a tone, she makes an offended face, her anger starting to build up in her chest. She sits, but she doesn’t feel intimidated by John, standing just out of reach from her.
“Let it go?! I was there for a whole month, God knows why and how. And you ask me to let it go?!”
John looks at her, confused by her statement. He frowns, curious and a bit annoyed still.
“What do you mean by that? You weren’t held captive?”
She laughs, a fake laugh and a hurting one as well. Her whole mind and body feels like she’s near the end. Having a mental breakdown of some kind.
“No... Not exactly. I was in a fucking coma by the goddamn Bliss. And then I woke up, cuffed to a bed, escaping and running into Jacob who said I was there for a whole month.”
She shouts, confused and angry by the whole situation and she lets her anger out on the one person in front of her. She stands up, pointing a finger at him.
“Last day I remember, we were making out, we went to the Jail, fucking Tracey pulled a backstabbing on me. Put me high on the Bliss. Next thing I remember I’m in the Bliss with Faith and Joseph... And my whole nightmare.” She grabs her head, like trying to forget about it, but she can’t. “I don’t even know if it was real or not. The whole fucking world burned up, like in my nightmares while Joseph did his fucking monologue about... politics and the collapse and the usual bullshit. And I’m out again, sleeping and bamm! I wake up in an unfamiliar room, fucking Tinkerbell dancing in the room, bringing me flowers like I’m a dead person or something, saying he has to tell Joseph to come and see me--” She slams her hand on her mouth, trying to stop the words from coming out but it’s already too late.
Fuck, fuck, fuck... and fuck. John looks at her, mouth sligthly open, trying to process her whole rambling, but he doesn’t get caught up in Joseph’s name, rather he looks at her in wonder and curiosity:
“What nightmares?” He asks in such a smooth and calm voice, it’s nothing like she would expect after her outburst.
She blinks a few times, letting her hand fall from her face, then she shakes her head, looking down at the bathroom tiles, turning away from him and starting to walk out of the bathroom with a quiet:
“Never mind.”
But John grabs her upper arm, stopping her, eyes searching for her gaze. She lets him hold her in place, though she could easily free herself from his grip. Still not looking into the man’s eyes John grabs her chin gently and makes her look up at him. His gaze is weirdly worried, like she just told him she has cancer or something.
“You have nightmares of the Collapse?” His voice is shocked, not knowing what to make out of the situation, just like her.
Although she has been thinking the same, when she didn’t try to forget about her nightmares, living in denial she shakes her head with a no.
“No... I... I’m sure this is just my brain coping with all the bullshit you and your family put me through.. Yup, totally that.” She says, trying to convince herself more, than John.
He looks at her in worry, his face getting dangerously close to hers. She tries to squirm away, but he grabs her neck from the back, not letting her lean back. He’s gentle, not forceful, as he hushes her:
“Turn to the light.”
She frowns, confused and uncomfortable in his grip.
“W..what, why?” She stumbles over her own words as John pulls her under the light of the lamp on the wall. He examines her eyes, one by one with carefullness as he lets her go.
“Your pupils seem to be normal.” He says, voice more calm and relieved, not worried that much anymore.
She looks up at him, confused by this whole thing.
“The hell was that about?”
He looks down at her, looking away for a second, than back into her eyes. He stands from one leg to another, a thing he seems to do when he’s nervous, uncomfortable or insecure around Hope.
“I thought you had too much Bliss. On the right way of becoming one of the Angels... Their pupils are green, smokey...” He explains, voice filled with venom, although his anger and annoyance is not for her, but for the Bliss.
She doesn’t know what to do with the situation, not understanding why would John of all people care if she was on the verge of becoming one of Fake Seed’s braindead followers.
“I didn’t think you would care if that happened...” Hope says, earning John looking into her eyes with intense.
She bites her lips anxiously and John follows the movement with his gaze, he makes a groan noise in his throat as he looks into her eyes, determined like he had a minor conversation with himself in his head: ‘Fuck it, I’m doing this.’
He closes the gape between their bodies and grabs her face with his hands, pulling her into a kiss. Her brain gives up, an unvisible text of ‘hope.exe stopped working’ blinking in her empty head. She gaspes from the surprise and John doesn’t think twice to let his tongue slide between her lips, playing with the tip of her tongue. She feels warm and funny, not knowing how to act normally in a situation like this. John’s kiss is hungry and demanding, but gentle enough to let her get away if she wanted to. Hope doesn’t kiss him back, making the man doubt himself as he lets go of her lips, a disappointed sigh leaving her mouth. He looks down into her eyes, regretting his movement. He lets go of her face, Hope’s skin turning cold with the absence of the man’s hands. He seems to try to turn away from her, but the young woman’s brain turns back and without a second thought she grabs his face, one hand at the base of his scalp, the other on his face and newly trimmed beard. She attack his mouth, teeth colliding together in her hurry and lust. She closes her eyes, body pressed against his, not thinking how fucked the whole situation is. Deleting every responsibility from her brain as she grinds herself into John Seed.
The man is holding her hip in one hand, the other behind her neck, pulling her closer to him. Their kiss is hungry, a fight for dominance, but Hope gladly lets John win, giving him the role of the lead. They stand uncomfortably in the middle of his bathroom, Hope’s legs feeling shaky by all the feelings, when John grabs under her thigh, liftng the woman up from the floor. She hooks her legs over his waist, grinding herself on his jeans, earning a lustful groan from the man while they kiss.
Her dress hikes up to her hips as John smooths the outside of her thighs. She hasn’t changed from the dress she escaped the Jail, thinking she would get clothes somewhere. So her only cloth in the way of them connecting is her underwear. Which by the feeling of it is already soaked, creating a wet spot on John’s jeans as well. But they don’t care about spots or anything of the kind as the man walks with her back into the bedroom, throwing her on the bed.
She bounces off from the mattress, colliding with John’s body as he immediately follows after her. Mouth not letting go of hers. He grinds his hips into hers and she moans out into his lips, head tilting back into his pillows. John takes advantage of the situation and presses his mouth against her neck, leaving soft kisses along her pulse. She knows what’s coming next as he did this before and she wants to chuckle how John likes to leave hickeys on her neck, but the chuckles turns into a loud moan as he sucks on the sensitive spot on her skin.
Hope arches her back into his body, trying to get as much friction from him as possible, when he pushes her back down into he mattress with his hand. The young woman groans out in desperation and John lets go of her neck, looking down at her, pupils blown, a smug expression on his face:
“Tsk... Patience, my dear.” He purposely dips down his hips into hers, earning a moan out of the woman.
She looks up at him frustrated, grabbing his shirt with her hands, pulling him down to her even more:
“Oh, fuck you John!” She spits out, but it doesn’t sound as angry as she planned it to be. He chuckles at her annoyance, then out of the blue he lets one of his hand slide down between their bodies and he traces the outline of her slit, earning a moan out of her.
He looks down at her and she feels like she could finish off just by the look he gives her. Eyes blown with lust, a growl escaping his lips, a smirk of a predator as he continues to slide his hand against her underwear.
“Don’t worry, you’ll get to do that soon.” As he says that he pushes against her clit, sening a wave of pleasure through her body as she bucks her hips into his hand, but he pulls away.
She huffs out, frustrated, wanting to get closer to him, not him getting away from her.
He pulls up his hand from her cunt and looks at the wetness on his fingers, chuckling.
“Hmmm, so wet just for me, huh?” He smirks, his ego up in the sky, but she can’t focus on that as he licks along his fingers, putting his digits into his mouth, cleaning up her mess.
She gasps, looking at him in awe, her head clouded by arousal and his actions just rile her up more. Too much fucking clothes. Hope grabs his shirt, hands shaky as she unbuttons his blue shirt, throwing his vest on the floor once he helps her out, getting out if it. Shirt hanging open above her he attack her mouth again an she can feel herself on his tongue.
Hope holds out her hand, hands exploring his stomach and torso. When she finds the scar, nicely healed of his gunshot wound she smiles into the kiss, knowing there won’t be any problem that could stop them this time. Her hand traces along the scar of his ‘Lust’, then she palms his erection through his jeans, making him inhale sharply. He then lets go of her mouth, hands finding the neckline of her dress and he earns a surprised yelp from her as he tears the dress open. Her breasts free from the dress perk up to him, nipples hard in the cool air of the room.
She feels herself flushed as he looks down at her, stopping for a moment to take her in. He smiles, tracing one of his hands along the tattoo he gave her, then he grabs one of her breasts, his fingers clipping around her nipple. She sighs at the contact.
“John...” She exhales, closing her eyes and enjoying the moment when something wet touches her other breast she open her eyes again, looking down. The man’s beard tickling her skin under her breast, while his mouth is closed around her nipple, licking and sucking on the sensitive spot.
She feels like she’s going to explode, his every touch sending waves of pleasure and want to her cunt. Hope grips the sheet, then grabs his haird, not knowing what to do with her hands as he piches her nipple, rolling his thumb over the swollen bud, while he sucks on the other, biting down slightly.
“John, please...” She begs for more, she needs more.
The man releases her nipple with an obscene popping sound, then he smirks down at her, tossing away his shirt from the way. It’s not fair that she’s only in her underwear while he still has his jeans and boxers on.
He gives a quick peck on each of her nipples, then he kisses down his way to her stomach, his hands caressing the inside of her thighs. He opens her legs for him, not that she needs too much persuasion to do so. John raises one of her legs, smoothing the skin under her knee, the other holding her hips down from bucking up.
He stops his kisses right above her underwear as he hooks his teeth into the edge of the cloth, raising it a bit then let it snap back. He smirks up at her as he hooks his finger into the material, ready to take it off of her, when a thought makes her look at him in panic:
“Wait, stop!” She says and he snaps his head back, stopping his every motion, fear in his eyes that maybe he did something wrong. Hope feels embarrassed, not wanting to look into his eyes as she averts his gaze, biting her lip anxiously.
“I... I’ve never...” He raises himself from between her legs, crawling back up to her. She can feel him tense. This is it, you’re going to scare him away...
She swallows, looking into his blue eyes. So perfect and so lustful...
“I... I’ve never done.. no one did...” She stumbles over her words and John raises his eyebrows in surprise, amusement on his face:
“No one eat you out before?” He asks, and those words coming from him just make her folds get wetter.
She shakes her head, when John smirks at her:
“Well, you’re in for a treat then.” He wants to get back to his work, but Hope pulls him back up, confusion in his eyes.
Her cheeks are red and she says awkwardly:
“I meant I never did anything before. I never slept with a guy, in any way.”
John blinks at her, his voice low as he asks:
“You’re a virgin?”
She bites her lips, nodding and John’s eyes turn dark. Yeah, thought so. He’s gonna leave... She thinks, but his devilish smirk tells her otherwise, making her confused.
He chuckles, raising a hand to caress her cheek, looking down at her in awe. He looks like he just stepped into unknown territory and he’s having the time of his life.
“Do you want me?” He whispers seductively, but there seems to be a small fear in his voice that she will reject him.
Hope bites her lips, looking up into his eyes, hand grabbing his back pulling him down as she kisses him. It’s too intimate even. Not that this whole situation is something else. But the kiss is more intimate on the emotional level.
She leans her forehead against his, her lips turning into a small smile as she whispers the word to him:
“Yes.”
John groans, finally hearing the words from her lips he grinds himself into her through his jeans, needy and wanting some friction from her body, then he looks at her again, eyes dark from lust:
“I’m going to be gentle, I promise.”
He says and descends on her body, hands slowly getting rid of her underwear. She feels a bit embarrassed that she’s not shaven. Not like anyone would have shaved her down there at Faith’s compound. But John doesn’t seem to mind at all as he licks along her slit, her trembling body unable to deal with the pleasure she closes her eyes. His nose touches her clit as he lightly dips his tongue inside her folds, letting it some experimental licks, then he moves up a bit, mouth closing around her aching numb. She screams out of pleasure as he sucks on it hard, his tongue a bit scrapy against her oversensitive spot. She feels like she could cum just by him doing that, but he’s not finished at all.
He toys with one of her nipples with his hand, the other holding her leg over his shoulder, while his tongue is being active against her numb. She makes all kinds of pleasure noises, not caring if the whole world would hear her moan and sigh out his name.
She touches his hair, trying to get more friction from the man by pulling him in more, also afraid of suffocating him she just rests her grip on his hair.
After she feels close to the edge, knowing well the feeling as she’s not unfamiliar with self pleasure she feels herself clenching around empty air, but as she’s ready to go over the top he lets go of her fully.
She makes a desperate moan out, opening her eyes and looking down at John, who’s kneeling between her legs. He breathes heavily, his lips wet from her.
The man grabs his belt and lets it spring open, a scene that makes her hot, then he quickly removes his pants along with his boxer.
His boner springs free and Hope eyes it with a bite on her lips. Not like she saw that many dicks before, but he’s not small, that’s for sure. He doesn’t give her too much time to look at him though as he positions himself to her cunt. He dips the tip a bit, getting her wetness on him. He looks at her, eyes foggy as he’s too deep in his lust, but she has time to back down now if she wants to. Of course she doesn’t want to, as she reaches out for him, pulling him down to her with a quiet, but sure:
“Yes.”
He kisses her, letting her adjucts to every little bit of him. It hurts, it’s true, but the pleasure and his gentleness, how carefully he takes her makes her forget about the pain. Only focusing on him and the pleasure.
He kisses her, affection in every little peck on her mouth as he sighs and moans.
“God, you’re tight.” He exhales with a small chuckle, groaning after he’s deep in her, taken him to the base. He stays there, letting her adjust to him.
John kisses her cheek, head resting at her neck, his breath tickling her ear. She reaches up for his hair, brushing him, then after feeling comfortable enough she bucks up her hip a bit. The pain not gone yet, but an unfamiliar mix of discomfort and pleasure makes her move slowly on his erection.
John breathes heavily, trying his best to not fuck her raw into the mattress, like he planned to before finding out she’s a virgin. Well, not anymore, thanks to him.
She hooks her legs over his hip again like before, grinding on him a bit more faster and John returns her movements. Trying to not go faster, going at her pace.
“You’re perfect.” He whispers into her ear, making Hope moan out his name.
She doesn’t feel any pain any more, urging John to speed up, to go harder. At first he’s still careful, then he slips out of her, leaving the tip in and bucks into right back into her, making her scream out his name:
“John...right there, yes, yes...” She doesn’t know what words to use, so she keeps saying his name along with his favourite word as he takes her, making her all sweaty and oversensitive.
He hits her in the right spot, knowing exactly what he’s doing and he groans into her neck, biting down on her skin a couple of times.
“Trinity...” He breathes out her name and it feels like a small prayer against her soul, her heart melting at it. Nobody ever uses her name like that, sure some people, a few call her that. But not in a way like John. In such loving way, it makes her body go crazy, folds starting to clench around him. He can feel it too, going faster inside of her.
“J...John, I’m close..” She breathes out and he only grunts in return at first, kissing her neck, then hissing into her ear:
“Me too...God, Trinity... Come around me.” He says in such a voice it makes her go over the edge, body shaking beneath him, hip going out of rythm. She’s having the best orgasm in her life and she cries out his name, trying to keep it together. Her nails biting down into the skin of his back, legs hooked around him, not letting him go.
And when her folds are clamping down around him it makes him go over the edge as well, coming inside of her, filling her up with his cum. He rides out his orgasm, leaning against the young woman’s body.
They both breath heavily, bodies sweaty and stuck together. John rolls on his back, taking Hope with him, not sliding out of her yet as she lays on top of him.
She leans her head on his chest, listening to his fast heartbeat, with a small chuckle, feeling high from her orgasm and feeling relaxed in his arms.
He starts to go slack inside of her, both of their juices dripping down her folds and thigh as he slowly exits her. She actually feels bad about that, feeling complete when he was inside her. But he doesn’t let go of the young woman’s body, keeping her on his chest, caressing her back and arms.
As they start to breath normally again Hope starts to get tense slowly. She doesn’t want to, she doesn’t want to think about what happens next, but she can’t help herself. Her tense mood takes on John as well, but he warns her with a soft voice, almost pleading:
“We don’t have to get up yet.”
She closes her eyes, hand placed on his chest, listening to his breathing and heartbeat, trying to go relax again.
“I know...” She whispers quietly.
John smooths down her hair, playing with a few locks, his voice teasing:
“We still have round two.”
That makes her chuckle, laughing together at that, his chest vibrating at the sound. She hugs his chest, her naked breast pressed against his side.
“Or just go to sleep. Pretend there’s not a war between our people.”
He continues, voice genuine. She wants that. God, she wants that more than anything. But the world is not simple as that. Tomorrow they would still have to wake up, him being a prisoner, her being the tool of destruction of his family and people.
Hope sighs, but stays with him.
“I guess we could go to sleep. Then... we’ll figure it out tomorrow.”
She says, but they both know there’s nothing to figure out. They’ll have to forget about this night. Even if they don’t want to.
“Good.” John says, smile in his voice.
They stay like that what almost feels like hours, as Hope humms against his chest, a question burning her:
“John?” She whispers, afraid the man is asleep, but he humms back questioningly.
“Yes?”
She waits, not sure if she’s ready for his answer, but knowing they might never have the chance to have a moment like this again she makes herself ask it from him.
“Did this mean something to you?” She asks quietly, voice sad and afraid of his answer as she keeps her eyes closed on his chest.
She listens to his breathing. Inhale... Exhale... Inhale... Exhale... Inhale... hold...
“Yes.” He says with an exhale, and she can feel her eyes gather some tears at his response, overwhelmed by her emotions. She doesn’t want to let him know she’s crying, but her tears slide down her cheek right onto his chest, making it impossible, to not realize. “More than you think...”
She wants to say something, after her silent crying stopped, but listening to his breathing she falls asleep on his chest.
A/N: Mmmmm my heart can’t take it ;_; sorry, not sorry, haha
Summary: Trinity-Hope Johnson finds herself in the middle of a holy war, leading the Resistance, while having a complicated relationship with one of the cult’s herald. And she thought her first case would be easy. Oh how wrong she was!
Pairings: John Seed/Fem!Deputy, John Seed/OC, Earl Whitehorse & OC ( uncle&niece ), Joseph Seed/Fem!Deputy ( kind of ), might add more later
Warnings: mild language, violence, eventually smut, masturbation, oral sex, you know guys the usual, use of drugs ( bliss and other, thanks to Sharky ), fluff ( does that even need a warning? ), manipulation, angst, mention of mental illness ( insomnia, depression ), mention of child abuse ( from John’s side ), torture, I think that’s it? I swear it’s not so bad!
Word Counter: 4648
Notes: I feel sorry for my poor deputy... but I guess I can’t stop myself from writing her into bad situations. *evil laughter* Also this chapter ended up being something else than I originally planned, and it’s so dramatic and unnecessary. :’) But anyway I kept it in, haha.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | MASTERPOST for the others
Hope blinks a couple of times, looking up at Earl. The man looking back at her, waiting for her response, even though what he just said wasn’t a question.
“I...” She starts, in an attempt to lie and deny it, but sighs, looking down at her feet. “Yeah, it’s true, what about it?”
Earl exhales, full of worry and stress as he whispers to his niece:
“I didn’t tell the folks here, yet. Look... I don’t know what exactly Jacob’s condition means. I just want you to tell me the truth. Because we have all the kids of the Resitance here, and I need to know they’re safe. Can you control it?”
Control it? I don’t even know how it works. I’ve been in his weird trial once. Hope looks up at her uncle.
“I don’t know...” She whispers, feeling ashamed of herself and the whole situation.
Earl shakes his head, not happy with the answer, then he pulls her into a hug. Hope wraps her arms around his waist, head in his chest.
“God, kid. I’m sorry I pulled you into all this...”
Hope releases him, with a sad smile:
“You didn’t pull me into anything. This is our job, right? Protect and serve.”
He chuckles lightly, shaking his head:
“Yeah... Should have gone and become a musician. You would probably be singing somewhere now, rather than stuck here...”
She giggles at that, but they both know Hope always wanted to be a cop. Music being her passion, but only as a hobby. She wanted to become like her uncle, so it was an easy choice for her when she had to figure out what to do after high school.
Earl looks at her, worried, and he sighs:
“I trust you, Rook.”
She smiles up to the man:
“And I trust you, Sheriff.”
They’re having this moment as Tracey walks up to them, the woman wearing an odd smile on her face. Or maybe it’s odd because Hope never saw her smile before.
“I have to talk to you, Deputy. May I, Sheriff?”
Earl nods and walks away, into the direction of John Seed, starting to talk to the man. Hope is curious what he might have to say to the Baptist, but she focuses on Tracey.
“Yup? What can I do for you?”
The woman start walking to the backyard quickly.
“Follow me.”
Hope not questioning further follow the woman outside. They pass the children, Hope smiles to Eve as they do so, then they leave everyone behind. The backyard is usually empty, so when they walk outside nobody’s there. The rain stopped falling, only the wet ground showing that it was raining before.
Tracey stops in the yard, the little gate to the outside open at the wall. Hope thinks the woman wanted to get it to her attention, to fix it up maybe, so peggies can’t come inside. But as Hope walks toward Tracey, the woman turns around, looking around. Maybe searching for someone?
Hope follows her gaze, looking around as well, but she can’t spot anyone.
“What is this abo--” She starts to ask, but her voice cuts.
A sharp sting in her neck as she looks at Tracey, who pulls out a now empty syringe from her neck. Hope looks at her confused as her legs start to become shaky, her vision blurring with white dots. Bliss.
She wants to ask why, but doesn’t get an answer as she meets with whiteness.
Hope doesn’t know where she is, as she can’t feel her body. The white clouds slowly descends from around her. A giggle echoes in the air and Faith Seed comes in her view.
“Welcome to the Bliss.”
She says as she blows some more of the white dust into the junior deputy’s face. She closes her eyes, then opens them again slowly as Fake Seed continues to talk to her:
“You’ve been invited into our home... into our heart. Trust the Path and you’ll find the answers you seek.”
Hope wakes up in the field again. In the Bliss, butterflies and antler bunnies around her. She feels happy and free, after days of sorrow finally feeling without worry.
She pulls herself up from the ground, looking at a beautiful tree in the distance. Everything is so wonderful... She thinks with a childish smile and wonder on her face.
She feels a pulling toward the tree, her body knowing what to do. She starts walking toward the tree, listening to the birds singing and the grass moving around her. In the background she can even hear a choir sing somewhere. Words inaudible.
When she comes closer Faith Seed is there, dancing around in the flowers. Then she disappears into green smoke. But her voice speaks to Hope.
“Even those who fight against us seek salvation. You’re proof of that. We all need guidance in times like these.” The young woman appears in front of her and takes both of her hands, pulling the junior deputy closer to the tree.
Under that tree is a small circle, all sitting on the ground. Except for one person: Joseph Seed. Standing at the center of the circle, body half naked as usual.
“So we must be strong. We must be vigilant.” Joseph preaches to the peggies and Burke, as he is among those peggies.
Faith turns to Hope, whispering to her with a joyful smile.
“Now you’ll see. Now you’ll truly understand.”
Faith leaves her view as they stop not far from the circle, Hope looking at Joseph like he really is a messiah, a prophet and she’s a good lamb of the Lord, listening to his every word.
“Because those on the outside will see what we have built here together, in our New Eden...” Faith stands into the circle, while Hope is left outside. “... the love. And they will come.”
He looks at Hope, walking towards her slowly.
“And they will try to take from us all that we have built.”
She feels hurt and offended by his words. That’s not true, she wants to cry out, but she’s silent. An unknown power making her still and silent as Joseph stand right before her.
“You judge me.” He holds her shoulders as he speaks and for a moment she remembers him holding her face in a bunker, making her suffer. But that’s not true. This is. She knows it, she feels it. And she’s not afraid this time.
“You judge us. The things that we have done...”
He looks down than back at her face, his voice smooth and calming, gaze calm as well, but still intense.
“People say... that I’m crazy, but when you wake up in the morning you look at the same news that I do. Do your eyes not fill with horror?”
He lets go of her and walks, hands raised in the air as he speaks and Hope is terrified at what she sees. A cloud of smoke in the background. Beyond the green Bliss, a mushroom cloud, which grows by every moment, coming closer to them.
“This is the world?! This?” Joseph stops, turning back to Hope as she watches the bomb from afar. “This is the world we built for our children? Communities being torn apart. Walls being erected. Because leaders are too impotent to act. Bullies are too addled to lead righteously.”
He holds out one of his hands and she doesn’t think twice - or once - as she moves closer to the man, body trembling with fear. But not because of him.
He helds her face gently, voice low again and calm.
“I did not ask for this. I was chosen.”
He leans closer, hand at the back of her neck as he touches their forehead together. Just in the same manner he did with John back at the Cleansing. She closes her eyes, but when she opens them again the world changes. It’s her dream! The world burned down, red, up in flames! She feels more afraid than before now.
“See, everything is coming to an end. You can feel that. I know you can.”
But how? She wants to ask, but can’t as he steps away from her, gesturing toward the burned up world.
“See, mankind is weak... and vulnerable. And we are hurtling towards the our destruction and no one is willing to do anything about it. I can see that, you can see.” He points at himself first then to her. “And we are not crazy.”
Hope feels confused. She wants to believe the man, but she can’t. How could she? She was taught not to trust him or the Bliss. Then why was everything so similar, why does she always dream about this burned world?
“So what are we supposed to do? We just sit back and await the inevitable?”
They stand there, surrounded by flames and smoke, ashes. Then Joseph turns to Hope, walking back to her.
“I don’t claim to be a perfect man, but I saw what was coming and I choose to act. To lead.” He stops before her, face unreadable as usually. “Because society is broken and the only way forward... is to go back to the way things once were. Innocent and pure. So safe and protected... in our Garden.”
He whispers halfway through and even a small smile appears on his face.
“I can save you.” He leans down, tearing down a Bliss flower and holding it towards Hope, a smoke of Bliss blinding her again. “But you have to have Faith.”
And with that Hope enters a dreamless sleep.
I feel like shit... Hope wakes up with this thought, her body aching, head throbbing. She feels lousy and weak, sinking into the mattress of the bed. This makes her confused, her eyes still closed. What bed? She tries to think as she feels unable to open her eyes. She was at the Jail... then... Tracey. Fucking Tracey! The traitor put bliss into her system and then. God, and then I met Faith and the Father.
Then she thinks again. Where might I be?
She tries to move, her limbs feeling heavy against the comfort of the bed. As she manages to move her left arm it stucks, a cold feeling against her wrist and a metal sound filling the air.
Her eyes pop open at that, the bright morning sun hurting her eyes, but she looks down at her wrist. It’s cuffed against the bed. The white covers and blankets over her feels strange. But what feels even more strange is her hair. Her black raven locks longer than they were just before she woke up.
“What the...” She asks, voice feeling harsh and cracking, weak, like she haven’t spoken in months.
She looks up from her body, surveying the room for any clues where she might be. She doesn’t have to search for long as a framed picture of the Father meets her eyes on the wall, across from her bed.
“No, no, no, no...” She mutters, knowing she’s in peggie territory. They got her. Fuck, they got her.
Yeah, this was the original plan, but she could bet on her life that Tracey didn’t tell any of the Resistance members to follow her. Fuck!
The room is nice, simple. Flowers all around the place, not Bliss flowers though, that’s a relief. Her sight isn’t filled with the white dots as they usually are, when she wakes up from the Bliss. But she can’t complain, she doesn’t want to get near that shit anytime soon.
She sits up in the bed, muscles feeling tired and she looks at the nightstand next to her bed. There’s a Book of Joseph. Useless. The other one has a nightlamp on it. Still useles...
On the right side of her bed there is a wooden chair, facing her. It’s empty of course, no one is in the room with her. But she has a feeling someone must have spent a long time sitting in that chair, maybe even reading from Joseph’s version of the bible to her while she slept.
That’s a topic that worries her. How long has she been out? She looks down on herself. She’s in a white nightgown, nothing else. She has her underwear on, but no bra. So that means someone had to undress her with her naked chest, great... That’s just fantastic...
She looks down at her chest. Her Wrath tattoo is not red anymore, it doesn’t look like a fresh ink on her skin. Fuck... That’s not good.
But the most thing that worries her is her hair. It’s too long for her liking, she always liked it short. But now it reaches her collarbone.
Hope starts to panic and tries to free her wrist from the bed, helping out with her free one. Other than causing herself pain and minor injuries with the metal around her wrist it doesn’t help much. As she gives up on the cuffs the door opens to the room.
Hope quickly looks towards it, when Faith Seed enters the room, in her hand a newly picked flower bouquet. The woman humms a nice tune, the song of Joseph, Now he’s our father as she steps into the room. Then Faith looks up from the flowers in her hands. She seems surprised to see Hope awake and she immediately grins at her, overjoyed.
“You’re awake! Thank the Lord, we though you would never wake up.”
That sounds horrible... It doesn’t help Hope calm down, panic rising in her even more. She wants to get out, she needs to get out. She wrestles against her cuffs but Faith quickly stops her, stepping next to her and putting the flowers with the vase of water down on the nightstand, her voice too sweet and too worried for Hope’s liking:
“Oh, please don’t do that. We needed it for keeping you safe, but you’re only going to hurt yourself if you keep that up... I have to tell the Father you’re awake.”
Faith turns around and runs out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. Hope grabs the vase that Faith brought in and spills the water on her cuffed wrist. Wetting her skin and the metal she pulls on her restraints again, trying hard, breaking the skin a few places, but her hand finally slips from the cuff.
I need to run, now! She thinks as she frees herself from the blankets, putting her naked feet on the floor. Her legs feel shaky, she almost trips as she tries to stand up, but her adrenalin, the fear of getting caught by Faith, or God, even by Joseph making her muscles go wild and stiff.
She stands up on her legs, then moves toward the door, body banging against the wardrobe, then the bookshelf, even door as she does so. She’s trying her best, but her body and muscles feel like they haven’t been moved in months... God, don’t think about that!
She’s in a mansion of some kind by the looks of it. The place is huge, like a house of an old and rich family. She doesn’t care about that though as she hears voices coming from the corridor. Seeing no other option she gets back to the room, barricading the door knob with the chair. She steps next to the window and opens it, looking out at the roof. It’s risky, but it’s still better, than meeting Faith or Joseph. She climbes out, the tiles of the roof feeling cold and slimy under her bare feet. She walks along the roof to the edge then looks down. No one seems to be in the yard, just empty peggie trucks. Good, great. She thinks. In the greenhouses she can see some silhouettes, but she could stealth so they won’t notice her.
She doesn’t pay much attention to the trees, their leaves yellow and red. Just like in the middle of fall. So she couldn’t sleep too much, right? Sure, the summer seemed to be longer than usual, but it was the end of september when she got John to the Jail.
She doesn’t think too much as she grabs the edges of the roof, then drops down on the ground with a loud thud noise.
She lands on her ass and back, nightgown turning dirty on the ground, but she doesn’t care as she pushes herself up and runs towards the gate, the exit. No one seems to be following her, a burst of joy in her heart as she turns around the corner of the greenhouse, looking back if anyone detected her. But that’s her lose as she collides into a wall. At least for her it feels like a wall. But as she looks ahead she’s met with someone’s chest, dog tags hanging from his neck.
“Oh fuck no...” She mutters, looking up to see Jacob Seed’s face, who seems annoyed and amused by the young woman.
She tries to take a step back, running away from him, trying to get away, but he grabs her upper arm forcefully.
“Been playing Sleeping Beauty for over a month, and you’re already running, pup?”
He sounds amused by her, the woman trying to escape from his grip, but he’s stronger than her. The man towering over her chuckles, which is more like a low growl and he starts pushing her towards back to the house.
“Come on now, Joseph is surely looking for you.”
The fear of meeting the man, or the fear of being held captive again sends a rush of energy through her body. She makes her hand into a fist and gives her best hit to Jacob’s jaw. Maybe from the surprise or the pain - more likely the surprise - he lets go of her for a second and that’s enough for the young woman to run towards one of the trucks. She can’t outrun him to the gate, but she’s swift, she can reach the car. And she does, hopping into the vehicle, locking all the doors from the inside, Jacob banging into the driver door, looking angrily through the window at her:
“You have five second to open this door, or I swear to God I will kill you.”
Hope doesn’t care as she searches for the key, and it’s in place! She laughs from relief as she startes the engine and drives fast toward the gate. The metal fences comes off of it’s place like it’s a piece of paper and she laughs in joy as she exits the compound. She doesn’t slow down, the fear of the peggies or even Jacob himself following her making her drive crazy and fast.
She’s still in the Henbane and she can even see the Jail from afar. She looks behind her every now and then, but no one seems to be following her. She feels her body tense as she nears the Jail. The place looking more inviting then ever before. She rolls up to it and looks at the place. No guards seem to be around. That’s weird.
Another rush of panic goes through her, not knowing what happened in a month. Jacob said it, she’s been away for a month, everything could have happened during that time.
She gets out of the truck, jogging towards the door to get inside, her legs feeling weak, but she keep going.
As she enters the yard she’s welcomed with the oddest scenery. Cougars crowding toward a podium of some kind. It looks like an old execution place. The whole thing looks like they’re ready to execute someone. Earl standing on the podium, facing Tracey and Virgil. All of them circling a man on his knees. He looks like a peggie from afar, long beard and messy hair.
Since when do we execute peggies? She asks herself. No one sees her enter the Jail, everyone facing the podium and the man on his knees. There are murmurs going around, making it hard to hear everything from the back, as Earl is speaking.
“... found guilty... ready to die... asshole.”
Wow, sounds harsh, if her own uncle says things like that. This must be serious. I mean they did a fuckin’ execution place just for this man...
The crows murmurs and shouts in agreement and Hope steps closer, pushing herself into the crowd. No one seems to look at her as some of them just step away or some groan in annoyance. She starts to hear sentences now, Tracey speaking:
“...you’ve killed her in cold blood and burned her body. You think that’s fucking funny?”
Who are they talking about? She thinks as she steps closer and she freezes as she hears a familiar chuckle and voice from the kneeling man:
“I think it’s hilarious.”
That’s John... She pushes away people more out of the way, trying to get closer to her uncle and the traitor Tracey.
“You all think I killed her? I was in the cell and woke up next to a burning body... But of course why would you believe me, huh?”
John laughs. Hope is wondering who they are saying he killed. Must have been a cougar otherwise they wouldn’t care this much...
Earl’s voice sounds hurt and angry as he steps closer to the kneeling Baptist:
“She spared your life and this is your thanks? I’ve hoped it wasn’t true. I kept you alive for a month, because I thought she would show up, but she didn’t... your time is up, Seed. You killed my niece and you’re going to pay for it now!”
Wait, what?! She starts pushing aside more people in a hurry as Earl raises his shotgun, aiming it at John’s head:
“STOP!” She screams, finally being in front of the crowd. Every eye turns on her, Earl lowering his gun, eyes teary as he looks at her in shock. John looks the same, and Hope tries not to laugh that he looks like Jesus with that beard. She doesn’t laugh, the situation seeming too serious and all.
Virgil looks at her, happy and confused as he shouts:
“Deputy?!”
Hope knows she must look like hell. Being in a sleeping dress, all muddy and dirty. But she thinks that for a dead woman they might think she’s in good shape. She doesn’t make eye contact with Tracey. The woman has a gun on her and she doesn’t need her shooting her down, for knowing the truth. Not yet.
She steps onto the podium as she jokes:
“So... I’m gone for a month and y’all play Game of Thrones cosplays? Not cool.” She chuckles as she nears John, looking down at him with slight worry in her eyes. Now he looks like hell. Not just his facial hair, his body seems to be like he shrinked. Did they starve him?
“Trinity...” Earl says as he steps closer to her, arm looking for her, like he fears if he touches her she’ll vanish.
“Yup?” She asks, patting the man’s shoulder.
She looks around the crowd and the others on the podium with a laugh:
“Oh come on, don’t tell me you actually thought you could get rid of me that easily.” She chuckles, but no one seems to be in joking mood.
She sighs, then quickly grabs the shotgun from Earl’s hand and points it at Tracey, shooting her in the leg. That get’s everyone’s attention, some people screaming from horror, some from surprise.
Hope grimaces angrily as she walks toward Tracey, who’s on the ground holding her leg in pain.
“That’s what traitors get... Next time someone tries to put me away. I won’t hesitate to shoot the person in the head.”
She turns her back to Tracey and walks to a shocked Earl, giving him the weapon back.
“Put her out of her misery, put her in a cell. You choice. I’m done with the Henbane for a while... And for God’s sake some one give me a radio already... and some shoes.”
After long explaining of events and chit-chat about what happened in the last month. Getting some clothes and weapons, getting a radio back Hope calls for Sharky to give her a drive back to the Valley. The man sounds overjoyed to hear her voice. Seems like everyone thought she was dead. Except for the Seeds that held her captive of course.
As Earl puts Tracey in a cell and wants to do the same with John Hope stops him:
“Not this one.” She says, not realizing the same words John used on her back at the Cleansing. “I think John had enough fun in the Henbane, don’t you think?”
It seems to surprise John, but he doesn’t say anything. He didn’t say a thing since Hope stopped his execution. Earl looks at the Baptist then nods.
“Gonna bring him to the Valley? Sure you don’t want to stay? I only got you back...”
She nods, not wanting to spen more time in Faith’s region. Fuck the Bliss.
“Yeah, I won’t leave him here. And I can’t bring him to the mountains either. So back to the Valley, I guess.... Did people ease up a bit since they thought I was dead?” She tries to laugh at herself, not knowing how after one month the resistance would feel about her.
“Don’t even joke with that. Nick and Kim were devastated. Everyone was.”
She nods again, a smile on her lips.
“Good, because I’m coming and they have to bear with me.” She chuckles then gestures to John towards the exit.
As they both wait for Sharky to get to the Jail with his jeep John looks at her, not leaving her with his eyes. After a while Hope looks back at him, raising an eyebrow:
“What?”
His blue eyes seem tired since the last time she saw him. She keeps wondering what they might have did to him along the way. He blinks, his voice serious:
“I thought you were dead.”
She frowns at him with a teasing smile:
“You told them you didn’t kill me. So why would you think I was dead?”
He seems weird to her. His act of a salesman gone and she doesn’t like it. God, I actually miss his teasing smile...
“I said I didn’t kill you and I woke up next to a burning body. That’s true. I thought someone framed me and that you were dead. Just a burned corpse nothing else.”
She doesn’t know what to say to that. His voice hurt and cold a bit. She tries to play it cool, rolling her eyes with fake annoyance and with a smirk:
“Well, sorry to disappoint you, Johnny boy.”
He chuckles, turning his head from her, looking at the road as Sharky approaches.
“I missed this.”
She blinks, surprised by his confession and she looks up at him:
“What?”
He smiles down to her and she notices why it’s odd. It’s not a fake smile, but a true one. Something she didn’t get to see before.
“You... calling me Johnny boy.”
She blushes at that. Looking away from his gaze, biting her lips. I was gone for one month, but he keeps making me feel flushed every time he speaks...
“If I knew you liked it, I would have stopped waaay earlier.” She says, trying to keep her cool as Sharky stops before them, huge grin on his face.
She opens the door to the backseat for John to sit inside as the man looks down at her, smug face back at it again. It makes her smile, she reall did miss his stupid face.
“Is that a ‘I missed you too, John’?” He says and she slams the car door on him, smiling to herself as she enters the front seat next to Sharky.
Some things never change, not even in a month. She thinks to herself with a smile.
A/N: I have no idea what to feel about this chapter. I feel weird about the mood, and in the next ones things will... happen.. if you know what I mean *wink wink* But really, I don’t know what to make of this chapter. Hope it’s not too bad though. Thanks for reading! ♥
