Good for Nothing

Heath was met with the scene of Ivan lying in a pool of blood with me sat in front of him, knees pulled up to my chest and sobbing like a baby. The visual attack did nothing to stop him from running over to me and encasing me in his arms.

“Sshhh honey,” Heath said calmingly, “it’s all over angel; you did it!”

I shook my head in disgust.

“I know I did it Heath,” I said between chest racking sobs, “I killed him Heath; I can’t believe I did that to another human being. I’m going to be in so much trouble.”

“No sugar, you’re not,” Heath consoled me and then I heard what sounded like boots tramping through the house, “look Leia; look up.”

I gingerly raised my head from Heath’s chest and looked towards where I thought the noise had come from. There, lined up in front of the open front door, was a line of policemen and women and then came a familiar voice.

“Hey Leia,” said DS Henry Atkins.

I couldn’t stop the smile quickly forming on my face.

“Henry!” I shouted, “I can explain everything. You don’t need to cuff me; I’ll come straight to the station.”

“Leia, Leia; slow down,” Atkins replied, laughing, “You don’t have to explain anything and you certainly don’t need to come to the station. After Heath spoke to us and we located you, we managed to hack into Ivan’s internal audio and visual recording devices; don’t ask me how my team did it, but they did. Good huh? Anyway, Leia, he’s been recording and watching your every move since you’ve been held captive here. There’s a camera in every room. The long and short of it is Leia, is that we’ve seen everything; we were outside watching from the moment Heath walked in. We know you didn’t murder Ivan; we know all you were doing is what anyone else would do – you were just defending yourself.”

I broke down again and felt a massive metaphorical weight lift from my shoulders.

“So, that’s it; I’m free?” I asked, more to myself than anyone else in the room.

“Exactly!” Atkins replied as the police filed outside. Heath hauled me up from the floor and helped me to walk.

“Jesus, Heath – I’m not an invalid!”

Heath laughed.

“Now, that’s the Leia I know and love.” Heath replied, “Go on then sugar; there’s someone outside that seriously needs to see you.”

I attempted a casual walk to the door but it quickly morphed into an all-out, mad dash. I flew down the porch steps to see Sarah’s angelic, tear stained and slightly manic face staring back at me as she steadied herself against the squad car next to her. I lost all composure and ran at her. She did the same.

“Leia!” Sarah hollered as she pulled me into the deepest, roughest hug I’d ever had, “Oh. My. God. Don’t you ever, ever get kidnapped again, you hear me?”

I laughed between hysterical sobs; I couldn’t work out when one stopped and the other started.

“Yes Miss, I promise.” I replied.

Heath descended the steps towards two best friends who thought they’d never see eachother again so he really should have been prepared for the group hug we dragged him into. We let go of eachother and I looked to my boyfriend and my best friend; amazed and elated to be back in their company.

“You know,” I said, wondering where my voice had come from, “Ivan always said I was good for nothing. What do you think?”

“Hell no!” Heath and Sarah replied in perfect unison.

“That’s good then,” I replied, “because forever starts today!”