Clara (Part 9)

Fortunately for Clara, it didn't seem like it was going to be too hard to avoid Chris in the near future as her family started to arrive about an hour after he had gone, having rushed to her side from their various locations as soon as they were notified of her situation, and Chris did not appear a single time while they were there.  She wondered if maybe he didn't want to try to explain who he was and how he knew Clara, since there would naturally have to be lots of lying involved, but she didn't think about it too much.

For her own part, Clara had no problem lying to her family.  She told them she had been the one attacked and had tried to resist and had been shot, but this guy in a Ninja costume had come to her aid, frightened her attacker away, and gotten her to the hospital before disappearing.  She was perhaps more pleased than she should have been to have been able to naturally weave the Ninja into the story without having to expose herself as at all connected to any of that.  She could at least thank Chris for giving her that.  She also told her family, as she had truthfully told the police, that she didn't get a good look at her attacker.  She wasn't even sure of the person's gender, as they had been wearing a very baggy hoodie and had their face covered.  This wasn't particularly unusual for those who were up to no good, she had found, but it was frustrating when the wrongdoer got away like this.  She tried not to let it get to her.  She just hoped whoever it wasn't wouldn't hurt anyone else any worse than they had hurt her, though she also knew hope wasn't worth much.  That was half the reason she did what she did, after all.

Clara's family was very fussy about her while they crowded around her bed.  Her parents had arrived first, followed closely by her sister.  Her brother didn't get in until the next evening, having booked an early afternoon flight following the middle of the night phone call.  Her brother was also the least fussy.  Though everyone in Clara's family was much more emotional than she, her brother was the closest to being like her.  That ability to distance himself from others, though not quite to the degree Clara did, was, strangely enough, the quality that made her feel closer to being close to him than to anyone else in her family.  Which is to say, still not very close, but there had always been potential there.

That second night she was in the hospital, while the rest of her family was catching up on sleep after having driven to her side through the previous night, her brother sat with her alone, and he surprised her by saying softly, "So are you going to tell any of us what really happened?"

She was completely taken aback by that.  "What happened with what?" she asked.  She only partially feigned ignorance.  She feared he was talking about how she got her injury, but what reason did he have to believe anything she had said was less than honest.

He smiled, just a little.  "Let me ask a different question then," he said.  "Why were you were you were when you got shot?"

"I was going for a walk."  Clara repeated what she had told everyone else.

He shook his head.  "You forget I used to live here, Clara," he said.  "And unlike the cops, I know you at least a little.  There was no reason for you to be where you were."

Clara fell silent at that.  She felt her heart beat a little faster.  She couldn't tell him.  There was no way.  It was already too much that Chris knew.  She couldn't put her family in danger.  If there was anyone she could ever care about, it would be them.  And you don't tell your secrets, not these kinds of secrets anyway, to people you love.

"I had my reasons," she said softly, looking away.

"Do they have anything to do with that guy that came to check on you?" her brother asked.

Clara's head shot up at that.  "What guy?"

"Said his name was Chris.  Just wanted to make sure you were still doing alright.  He stopped by a couple hours ago, but seemed a bit spooked by all of the rest of us being here."

She sighed and rolled her eyes, even though that was exactly the kind of behavior she had guessed at, given that she hadn't seen Chris at all since the previous night.  "He's just... I met... I mean..."  She trailed off and sighed again, having no idea what to say.

Fortunately, her brother saved her.  He placed his hand on her knee and she looked over at him in confusion as he said, "It's okay, Clara.  You're allowed to have a boyfriend who lives in the wrong part of town."

Clara immediately opened her mouth to protest and then just as quickly closed it again.  Huh.  Her brother knew something was up, but he had no idea what.  He was so far off the mark, she would have laughed had she not known that would just make things more complicated.  But huh.  Chris had saved her again, when she thought he was only going to cause trouble.  She didn't have to fake a blush as she considered how embarrassing that was and then leaned into her brother's mistake by just saying, "Yeah, well..."

He smiled and gave her knee a pat.  "I never thought it would happen, but he seems like a nice guy."

She was about to ask for more insight into that loaded statement when her brother chuckled to himself and leaned back.  "Well, I suppose I should get going so you can get some rest.  If Chris comes by, tell him he won't face any trouble, at least from me."  And he gave her a wink and with that, he was gone.

After he left, Clara let out a deep sigh and leaned back in her bed, not even having realized she had leaned forward to begin with.  She had really dodged a bullet there (har har).  Maybe, just maybe, having Chris around, even if just as a fake secret boyfriend to use as an excuse for odd behavior, wasn't the worst thing in the world after all.  As long as he knew there was nothing actually romantic between them, maybe, just maybe, he could be, if possible to even think it, something of a friend.