46. Diversion

                                    

                                          

♟️








"Thank fucking God I track you."
Vera's words echo in the parking hall. 
Hollie frowns, confused and still very much in shock. "You do what?" But she continues to lay still as Vera hugs her, the tears running down her face. In their hug, Vera makes quick work of untying her hands, as the Doscorian on Elena's and Erland's sides fight violently beside them. Erland's men are highly outnumbered, and they get beaten down to the ground pretty quickly.
Vera finishes untying Hollie's hands, and then shouts some kind of Doscorian command in an Esidian accent. Her men stop immediately, before they can hurt Erland's men too badly. Vera isn't looking at them anymore, though. She focuses her attention solely on Hollie, who leaps out of her chair the moment she is able.
"Are you hurt anywhere?" Vera grabs Hollie's face with a frown and continues to inspect it, as if she hadn't seen all the same things only a few seconds earlier. She is so panicked that she can't think straight, and Hollie feels just the same, so she can't blame her. 
Hollie frowns, too. She doesn't understand. She is safe, but she doesn't understand the relief. She doesn't understand how this is possible. How did Vera manage to get here? How did she know? Yes, she was tracking her, apparently, but-
"I knew something was wrong the moment I saw your messages. I made everyone stop the move at Venus Foundation B to come here, I didn't know they had so little men, but even if-"
"I'm sorry, this is all my fault."
As the fear slowly leaves her body, guilt replaces it. Hollie looks up at Vera with nothing but regret, fearing it might have been all her fault. She trusted Erland when she shouldn't have. He had never given her any reasons not to trust him, but at the same time, he had never given her reasons to trust him either. Trusting Erland was a reckless, wild shot that should've gotten her killed. Vera is probably so disappointed, and Elena-
"You couldn't have known." Vera is staring right into her eyes, without a single hint of hesitance. Hollie is taken back by how serious she is. "You're new to this world. It wouldn't be fair to hold you accountable for becoming a victim, that's something someone like Cyrus or Elena should know how to prevent, not you. Even I still fall into traps like these when I'm tired."
Vera keeps looking into Hollie's eyes, searching for that look that will tell her that Hollie believes what she is saying. When she doesn't find that look, Vera sighs. "And even if it was your fault, I don't care. All I care about is that you're okay." Vera pauses, frowns and looks at her up and down. "Are you okay?"
That makes Hollie smile, even if it's just a little bit. She still feels guilty, and knows that Vera is just trying to cheer her up. But knowing that Vera genuinely wouldn't care even if it was her fault, and genuinely only cares about her safety and wellbeing? Well it's fresh. It's new. It feels good. Hollie still isn't used to that kind of treatment, for someone to feel like that about her. So she shakes her head with a light blush falling over her cheeks.
"Yes. I'm fine. They didn't hurt me."
Vera breathes out. She glances to the side, and probably sees a much clearer picture of what is going on in the abandoned parking hall than Hollie can, in her immensely wobbly state. Everything fades out. All she can hear is Vera's words echo, some kind of command, but by that point her ears are ringing. When Vera isn't looking at her, she can't focus. She can't think. Vera grounds her, and without her gaze she feels too panicked to process anything.
Hollie lets Vera drag her out of the parking hall, down the stairs and eventually out into the beaming sunlight. The entire way down it feels like everything is coming through water, slow, hard to process, foreign and wonky. The adrenaline is leaving her body drop by drop, and suddenly she has nothing left but utter exhaustion and confusion. She is thankful that she can trust Vera, thankful that she finds her safe. Because it means she can just let her drag her off into a car without worrying about getting CENSORED (t*ken) again, without worrying about anything for a single second.