Bound to You

“Baby, what’s going on?” Val asked Matt when he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling him against his chest. He sighed, knowing he couldn’t lie to her. It was bad enough that she was going to feel the most betrayed out of all of them because of what Michelle had done to all of them. He couldn’t lie to her on top of that.

“Michelle is the rat, Val.” He said quietly, knowing that she was going to start freaking out immediately. He was right; she began pulling against his hold, struggling to make him let go of her.

“No, she’s not!” Val yelled loudly, turning her head to glare at him. “Matt, let me go right now! I’ve had it with you guys and treating her like this! I’m letting her in!”

“I can’t let you.” He whispered to her, his heart breaking at how much pain Val already was in because of how her sister had been ostracized for the last several days. “Please, don’t make this har—“

He was cut off when her elbow hit him in the eye. His reflexes relaxed as he let her go to tend to his eye for a moment, and when he realized he’d released her and saw her running towards the door, where the guys were preparing to open it and separate Brian and Michelle, he cursed under his breath.

“Guys, don’t open it yet!” He bellowed over to them while running behind Val. He finally grabbed her again and pinned her against the wall, his eyes meeting hers. Tears were brimming in Val’s green-tinted hazel eyes, and there were so many emotions welling in them that Matt wasn’t quite sure which she was feeling more of—anger or pain. He loosened his grip on her arms just enough so that he wouldn’t bruise her, and kept his gaze on hers.

“I’m sorry, Val, you know I am. Fuck, I trusted her for as long as we’ve been together!” Matt told her, feeling a few tears build up in his own eyes. It was true—for as long as he’d known Val and been with her, he’d known Michelle. She and Val had always been close, and when Matt had began dating Val, Michelle had made it clear that if he ever hurt her he’d lose more than just the best thing that had ever happened to him. And he’d believed her. He didn’t doubt that back then, Michelle would have died for Val if it meant that she could save her sister. But what had happened along the way? Where had Michelle drifted away from them to turn traitor?

“Then why are you doing this?” Val hissed back, anger radiating in her voice. “She’s not the fucking criminal, Matt! She couldn’t betray us like that! You know her!”

“I knew her!” Matt retorted back, fighting to keep the anger out of his own voice as well. It wasn’t anger directed towards Val; no, he’d never really been angry with her as far as he could remember. Sure, they had little arguments about stupid shit here and there, but he’d never been angry at her. No, his anger was instead for Michelle.

“Are we good to open the door?” Zack asked him, looking between the two of them carefully. Matt nodded, not letting Val go.

The next few minutes went by too quickly for Matt to comprehend what was happening. Zack swung the door open, and in an instant Johnny and Jimmy had pulled Michelle up and away from Brian. She seemed to realize immediately what was happening because she had attempted to get away from the two of them and run back out of the Complex, but Jimmy had thrown her against the ground so that she couldn’t move. Brian, seeing what his best friends had done to Michelle, had gone off the deep end, nearly managing to get to Jimmy before Zack, Jacoby, and Benji had pinned him against the wall. Val was struggling against his hold, Joel’s two kids were screaming because of the sudden show of violence, and Eliza was watching the entire scene while she attempted to soothe one of the kids.

“Let me go!” Michelle’s voice screamed out, anger fuelling her words. When she saw Val and Matt, she tried to reach her arm out to her sister. “Val, don’t let them do this to me!”

Val couldn’t say anything as she watched Jimmy and Johnny drag her sister away towards the Solitary room. If Matt hadn’t been holding her up against the wall, she knew her legs would have collapsed from underneath her. Sobs wracked her body as she watched the entire scene.

“What the fuck are you doing? She’s not fucking dangerous!” Brian yelled angrily, still struggling against Zack and the others who had him held against the wall.

“She’s a traitor, Brian.” Zack told him, watching his friend’s dark eyes blacken with his rage. Hearing this, Brian let out a loud growl-like scream and tried again to throw them off of him, but to no avail.

“The fuck she is!” Brian yelled back, glaring at Zack. “This is all because I fucking turned her, isn’t it? You’re pissed because you couldn’t turn your little slut, so you go and take it out on ‘Chelle and me!”

“That’s bullshit and you fucking know it, Gates!” Zack told his friend, fighting back his own emotions. A part of him wanted to punch Brian for calling Eliza a slut, but he knew that would only serve to make things even worse for all of them.

“She’s in.” Jimmy said, walking back towards them. Zack turned to look at his other friend and saw several scratches covering his already bruised face, along with what looked like shallow, attempted bite marks on his neck, where Michelle must have tried to bite him. “Johnny’s in there with her.”

“Is she chained?” Zack asked. When Brian heard those words, he began struggling again, and Zack glared at him while he waited for Jimmy’s response. He waited for a moment before speaking.

“Yeah. She’s not gonna be able to move.” He told Zack before looking at Brian with sadness in his eyes. He knew what he had gone through with losing Leana was nothing like what Brian’s situation was, but the basic feeling was still the same. In a situation that neither of them had any control over, the women they loved had been taken away from them forever.

“Don’t let them do this, Jimmy.” Brian said quietly, tears beginning to prick the corners of his eyes. Zack’s eyes widened; it was the first time he’d ever seen Brian cry.

“I can’t do something I know isn’t right.” Was all Jimmy replied, emotion thick in his voice. “And they’re right, man. She…Michelle…She betrayed us all.”