Not To Scare You, But... (Ginny)

[Chase Campbell]

Chase now understood how James had felt so many months ago, when he’d been here. He didn’t want to call Ginny. He didn’t want to upset her, but what else could he do? James had asked that he call her, and he was going to. It just took him a few moments to work up the nerve to dial. As it rang, he paced the small waiting area, keeping a death grip on the thing.

A part of him hoped she wouldn’t pick up. That he could just leave a message and say that he tried. But that hope was dashed when he heard her pick up. Trying to keep the strain out of his voice, he stopped pacing for a moment. “Hey Gin. It’s Chase. Do you have a second? I need to talk to you.”

That didn’t sound that ominous. ... Right?

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny was sprawled out across the top bunk in the tiny dorm, one hand tapping away at her laptop and the other flipping through a thick textbook titled The Cambridge History of Medieval English Literature. Her dad would love this, but she would have preferred some equations to floundering her way through this mess.

She was, therefore, quite grateful when her phone rang, providing her with an excuse to leave her homework be for a moment. She snatched up her phone, which had been carelessly lying on her pillow, two inches away from falling over her bunk, and read the name scrolling across her screen. Chase. She was still suspicious of him, but she'd yet to find anything pinpointing the blame for last year's incident on him. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe.

She flipped the case open and held the phone to one ear, continuing to type to her various IM buddies with the other hand. "Yo." She greeted her step-father before the full import of his words sunk in. He sounded much more grave than usual. "Uhhh, sure?" She told him, hurriedly informing her online friends she would bbl and closing her laptop, sitting up straighter and crossing her legs. "What's up?"

[Chase Campbell]

He did not want to do this. He did not want to be the one responsible for telling Ginny her father was in the hospital. He brushed his fingers through his hair, trying to figure out the best way to word this. If there was such a thing. God, what had James told Niko? Part of him wished he’d been around to hear that conversation. Now he was flying solo, and flying blind.

“I’m not interrupting anything, right? You’re not in class?” Stupid question, considering what time of day it was, and what day it was, but he was a little out of sorts. He can be forgiven for that little lapse of judgement.

“Look, um, Gin? Jami - ... Your dad. He’s in the hospital right now. There was an... an incident.” He couldn’t really call it an accident. He didn’t know what being kidnapped came under, technically. He pressed his hand to his face, still trying hard to keep his voice steady. “He’s okay, he’s awake. We think he’s got a concussion. He wanted you to know where he is, and that he’s all right.” Or he would be all right.

[Ginny Campbell]

"Uhhh, nope. Not in class." She shoved her laptop to one side, knocking her pillow onto the floor as a result. Oh, well. The floor was clean. Mostly. By anyone's standards who wasn't her dad, anyway.

She pressed her lips together, waiting for her step-dad to hurry up and spit out whatever he was going to say.

And then he confirmed all her worst suspicions.

"WHAT!" She shouted, barely managing to avoid jumping to her feet -- and then only because she was on her bed and couldn't. "What do you mean there was an incident!" She demanded angrily. She wanted to talk to her dad, but no way could she do that while Chase was there. James might not tell her the truth.

Her heart hammered in her chest, fear and concern and anger clouding her mind, making it difficult to think straight. "Why would he have a concussion, what happened!" She repeated, unable to keep the accusing edge out of her voice. "What did you do."

[Chase Campbell]

Well. There went that excuse, to call back later if she was in class. It meant there was no avoiding it.

He just hadn’t expected her reaction. It made his stomach twist uncomfortably, and his grip on the phone tightened just a fraction. “Look, Gin, I know it’s not what you were expecting to hear, but –“ Okay, she was yelling. “Ginny! Chill out.” Like that was going to get him anywhere.

But now he was trapped. The truth was... well... the truth wasn’t such a good idea. Ginny knew nothing about M.S.A.D. and he wanted things to stay that way. But his throat went dry at her final question. “Nothing! I wasn’t even there.” This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. “He and Nikki... some bad people took them. They hurt your dad.”

Then it sank in. “What do you mean what did I do, Gin?”

[Ginny Campbell]

"You weren't there." She repeated flatly. Bad people, huh? So apparently that gang Mia had mentioned was involved, after all. "Right, so your cro...you got Nikki involved? Ohmygod, are you serious!" It was bad enough that he had hurt her dad, multiple times. It was bad enough that he was involved in some stupid anti-human gang. But now he'd gotten Nikki involved, too!

"What did you do." She repeated tersely. "Sorry if you think I'm dumb because I'm not meta, but I know about your gang, Sad asses or whatever the hell you're calling yourselves." She wasn't going to rat Mia out there; she had great faith in her friend's skills, but if a gang were to target her she might not come off so well. "It's not like it wasn't totally suspicious when dad got injured last summer and got all jumpy around you. Maybe you thought I wouldn't notice. I used to think you loved him, but I guess gang members don't go in for that stuff. Or maybe it's because he has a human daughter. That's not really his fault. Hate me, but don't take it out on him. And for God's sake, what did Nikki do?! He's just a kid. And he's meta. And if the police aren't already on your ass I'm calling them after you tell me what you did to my dad."

[Chase Campbell]

“No, I was at my physio appointment.” He hadn’t thought as he’d left that morning that something like this could happen. Oh, he’d known M.S.A.D. would retaliate. He just hadn’t known how, or when. Now he thought back, however, maybe he should have been more careful. Ginny’s accusations weren’t helping. He closed his eyes, wishing there was no truth to it. “Nikki was kidnapped with James,” he confirmed quietly.

If he’d hoped for any sort of comfort from his step-daughter, it wasn’t forthcoming now. Every sentence was another little blow, and making his mood sink lower. He bit his lip and sank into a chair, grateful that the area was empty. It hurt to hear her theories. He would never even think about hurting his husband. Or their son. Or lash out against someone because their daughter was human. God, she thought he was one of them.

“No, Gin,” he finally managed to get out. “You don’t need to call the police.” The kids were not supposed to know the truth. But if it was the only way he could clear himself... even a little. “Gin, there was a psychic meta more powerful than me that hurt your dad last summer. He got into his head and stole some information, then he made James hurt his hands, shattered a picture in his office. He was afraid of me because he didn’t want me to use my power on him, too.” He wouldn’t mention any names, because he wasn’t going to incriminate anyone else. “When we found out who hurt him, I went to find him. All I wanted to do was warn him not to go near our family again. But... I hurt him. And his partners hurt me. That’s how I broke my leg.” He dragged his fingers through his hair, drawing in a shaky breath. “I think they wanted revenge. So they kidnapped James and Nikki. But we got them back, Gin. Nikki’s fine, and your dad’s going to be fine too.” His grip on the phone hadn’t loosened as he leaned back in the chair. Believe me, Gin. Please.

[Ginny Campbell]

Ginny pressed her lips into a thin line as she listened to Chase's explanation. It was ridiculous, absolutely utterly ridiculous, and she was torn. She didn't want to believe that any of that had happened, but she did want to believe that her step-dad wasn't abusive. She wanted to believe it, against the evidence she'd compiled. And as ridiculous as his story was, it made sense and it addressed all her concerns and all her evidence (and neatly explained Chase's injury as well; Mia was right after all, it hadn't been an ordinary mugging) and frankly she didn't think that Chase was creative enough to come up with such an elaborate story on the fly.

She reached out to brush the cover of her laptop, wishing she could ask her online friends for advice. They would probably think she was being a huge drama queen and making this up if she told them.

"Okay. So neither of you bothered to tell me this earlier why?" She was a bit upset about that. But she was also glad that her dad was safe -- assuming Chase was telling her the truth. "So...these....people. They won't ever come near my dad again, right? They're in police custody now, right? and they're going to be locked away forever? Oh, god." A thought occurred to her. "Dad and Nikki are gonna have to relive this with one of those horrible, neverending trials, aren't they!"

If it was true that Chase had hurt the person who had hurt her dad she didn't care; he deserved that. She would have wanted to hurt him, too. She had, when she thought it was Chase. "You'd better be telling the truth." She warned. "Where's dad and Nikki, can I speak with them?"

[Chase Campbell]

Of course it was ridiculous. The whole thing seemed like something out of a bad action movie. Everything seemed completely surreal. But if there was one thing that was etched into reality, it was that Chase was not an abusive bastard of a husband. He didn’t even want to think about where Ginny had gotten that idea. Then again, she’d seen how jumpy James had been all summer. Without the knowledge of why, it would have looked like...

Shit.

“Because, Gin. We didn’t want you guys knowing and panicking. Nikki didn’t know either. No one did. Hammel wanted it kept quiet, or the kids would start panicking.” They’d done it for the kids, honestly. “Well... I don’t actually know what happened with them. We got James and Nikki and got out again.” He didn’t want to admit that their leader was dead, and a few of his followers were as well. “The police were never all that serious about going after them. At least now we have evidence against them.” As for trials, he had no idea. “We’ll see, Gin.” If he had his way, no one would go to trial, because eventually it would come out that he’d killed someone, and he didn’t want the kids to know about that. Ever.

“I am,” he managed to get out, sounding more than a little exhausted. “And I’ll get James to call you later. You know the rules about hospital rooms and cell phones. But I promise, I’ll get them to call you as soon as I can, okay?” He glanced down the hall, hoping James was leaving his IV alone. “I should probably go back. Your dad keeps pulling out his IV.” He paused for a moment before saying something he felt like he hadn’t in a long time. “I love you, Gin.”

[Ginny Campbell]

"That's just great. Lying makes everything better." So she believed him. She was still angry and bewildered and she was going to take it out on someone. Chase was the handiest target. "It wouldn't cause more panic for people to find out later, and to find out you didn't even trust them -- us -- enough to tell us what was going on."

She inhaled deeply. "Wait, wait. ..." It had only just sunk in that he meant they had done this solo, no police. "So no police. And you don't know what happened to them. They could come back. Wow, that sounds so useful." She was glad that her father and Niko were safe and not kidnapped, but she wasn't really sure if she liked hearing that Chase had rescued them and then let the perps get away. If they came after her dad in retaliation in the first place she couldn't think of any reason they wouldn't do it again.

She snorted in affectionate exasperation at the comment about her dad pulling out his IV. "Dad is such a dork. Tell him from me to leave it in or I'm calling hypocrisy for making you keep your neck brace on."

This had been an eyeopening conversation. Not what she wanted to hear, but so much of the last year suddenly made sense where before it had been baffling.

"Sure. Tell him to call me soon."

After months of ill feelings towards her step-father it was near impossible to return the I love you. It wasn't as if those feelings could just be switched back so easily, even after learning she'd been wrong. "Uh. Yeah. Thanks for making sure dad is safe and stuff. Talk to ya soon, I guess."