Status Quo_The Last Ones Standing

by Monique Chanae

  "It serves her right." She shrugged and bid the three men good luck as she slid out of the room unnoticed and walked over to Fallon at the nurse's station.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  "Wha-what happened? Where am I?" Chelsea asked in a panic as she slowly came to. She tried moving her hands but her wrists were handcuffed to the bedrails.

  "Look who's finally awake." Jason smiled as if he were happy to see her.

  "You're that guard from the door!" She gasped and squinted her eyes in anger. "What do you want from me?"

  "I don't want anything from you but those guys over there, they want to get to know you a little better." Jason nodded his head behind her where Alexei and Stepan both sat off in a darkened corned eyeing her with hatred.

  "So nice of you to join us Miss." Alexei chuckled as he slowly sauntered over to her holding a platinum plated gun in his hand. Chelsea read the look in his eyes and knew he wanted to kill her. His stare alone had her shook and before she realized it was happening she felt a warm liquid run down her thigh and she knew she had pissed herself. "I didn't quite catch your name but on your I.D. card it says your last name is Romanov - I would call you that but there's just one problem with that; you're not my fucking blood!" Alexei drew his hand back and hit her across the face with it. Her head violently jerked from the impact and she immediately cried out in sheer pain and panic.

  "You came here impersonating my daughter, Alyona and I want to know who put you up to this." Alexei grabbed her face with his hands and violently squeezed until her pale cheeks turned beet red. Chelsea continued to cry and Alexei knew he would get no answers out of her that way. Turning to his brother he told him it was time for plan B. Without taking a pause, Stepan reached into his pocket and pulled out another rag that had been previously soaked and dried in chloroform. Before Chelsea fell back into a state of unconsciousness she remembered seeing a large syringe filled with an unknown liquid and knowing it was meant for her sent her into a panic, moments before she fell faint.

  When Chelsea awoke for the second time, her handcuffs had been replaced with zip ties and her mouth was stuffed with a gag. She tried to wriggle her legs free but they wouldn't budge and it immediately scared her. Her eyes bulged out of her head and she began to let out a muffled scream as Stepan stood over her, hands stuffed into his pants pockets and his face emotionless.

  "What you're experiencing right now is minor paralysis. It may or may not wear off after a while." He replied blandly. "Look, let's cut the bullshit shall we? I know you don't personally know my daughter which means you were sent here by someone else, all I want from you is a name and if possible, a reason why." Chelsea muttered a few words, but they were hidden behind the makeshift gag. Jason snatched the gag out her mouth and replaced it with a gun he positioned not too far from her mouth.

  “I just want to go home.”

  “You can go home – after we’re done here.” Stepan said kneeling over towards her until his nostrils were inches away from her face.

  “Give me a name.”

  “Chelsea Hodges.”

  “Who sent you?” Chelsea sobbed for a moment before she opened her mouth to speak again.

  “If I talk he’ll kill me.”

  “If you don’t, I’ll kill you.” He scowled letting her know he had no problem making good on what she had said.

  “A name, and we don’t have all day either.” Alexei coached from the opposite side of the bed.

  “Marlo Marino.” Stepan glanced up at his brother who was already staring over at him and they both read the fire in the other’s eyes.

  “Why?”

  “They didn’t tell me why. They just said all I had to do was come up here, find out what room she was in and see what kind of state she was in. That was it.” Chelsea’s shaky words were mixed with her tears as they steadily rained down her face.

  “And that’s all you were sent to do?” Stepan asked with a raised brow.

  “Yes, I swear.” Jason noticed something that he thought may have gotten past Stepan and Alexei. Walking over to Stepan he tapped him and nodded for him to follow him over towards the door. Stepan said nothing as he eyed Jason as if to ask him what he wanted.

  “She said ‘they’. When you asked her for a name she only mentioned one person but when she was asked about the why, she switched her story up and added more people.”

  “Yeah, Marlo and his twin brother.” Stepan said matter-of-factly.

  “Yeah that would be the obvious answer but what if there’s somebody else calling the shots?” Stepan mulled Jason’s question over for a second before turning on his heels and walking swiftly back over to the bed. With one swipe, he wrapped his hands around her neck and began applying pressure.

  “Playtime is over. Names.” He loosened his grip only slightly to allow air into her passageway and to allow her to speak.

  “I only know Marlo and his brother’s names.” She gasped violently. “The woman said I had to be discreet or else it wouldn’t work.”

  “What wouldn’t work?”

  “Their plan. The plan was for me to come up to the hospital posing as Cori’s cousin to get information on her condition. After I had seen enough, I was supposed to check back in with Marlo and they said they would take it from there.”

  "When you say check back in does that mean call or go to meet up with him?" Alexei asked.

  "I'm supposed to call him and then he'll tell me where we’re supposed to meet up at for my payment."

  Alexei turned to his brother after the words left her mouth. "Are you thinking the same thing that I am?"

  "Yes." Stepan stepped closer to Chelsea.

  "Call him and tell him that Cori is in a coma and that's it. After he gives you the location on where to meet for your payment, hang up the phone."

  "Once I'm done I can go home, right?" She made eye contact with everyone in the room.

  Stepan looked over at his brother before he placed his attention back on her. "Sure, once it's done and you do exactly what I just told you to do then you are free to go home."

  Chelsea nodded. "Okay."

  "Now make the call."

  Jason walked over and handed her the phone from her purse. She scrolled through her contacts until she found Marlo's number.

  "Put it on speaker." Alexei ordered.

  Chelsea did as she was told and they all listened intensely as the phone rang. "I was starting to get worried that our little plan didn’t work out." Marlo said when he answered the phone.

  She glanced around the room. "No, it worked perfectly just like you said it would. I showed them the fake ID and they went for it with no problems." She said.

  "What did you find out?"

  "She's in a coma and they aren't sure when she will wake up."

  "Did you run into any problems?" He questioned. He was referring to any run-ins she may have had from the Romanov family.

  "No, I got here at the perfect time. There wasn't anyone in the room, but the doctor when I arrived. She had a guard posted at her door, but that wasn't a problem once I flashed him my ID."

  "You did good, baby. You did really fucking good."

  "What's next?" She asked.

  "We'll handle everything from here." He replied, in other words letting her know that her services were no longer needed.

  "What about my money?" Chelsea asked him.

  "Meet me back at the house and I'll give it to you."

  "What's that address again? You know I don't know my way out there."

  Marlo told her the address and then she ended the call. Once she hung up the phone she looked over at Stepan.

  "I did like you asked. Can I go home now?"

  Stepan nodded for Jason to come towards him. He then whispered something in his ear and Jason nodded before he walked out of the room.

  "Here's the plan now. You're going to need to lay low for a while. Since you were such a huge help to us we're going to help you go underground." He said and smirked at her.

&nb
sp; "But if you're going after them why do I need to go underground?" Chelsea asked. Stephan glanced towards his brother who continued to stare at her with an emotionless expression.

  "You mentioned that you only met the brothers Marlo and Brando, correct?" He asked her.

  "Yes, and a lady but I don't know her name. I told you that already." She replied.

  "Well, the Marinos have a father, a very powerful father who I'm pretty sure is a part of this whole scheme somehow. I'm sure they had gone over every detail of their plan with him, even the part that includes you. So, if his boys suddenly disappear and you're still walking around freely, he's going to suspect that you had something to do with it."

  "Oh."

  "Now do you see where we're going with this?"

  "Yes."

  Jason walked back into the room followed closely by Fallon. She walked over to where Chelsea was and shook her head at her and then looked over at Stepan. He nodded his head giving her the go ahead. Fallon then reached into her pocket and pulled out another syringe, this one was filled with a thick dark-colored liquid.

  Chelsea saw the syringe in her hand and started to panic. She feverishly glanced around the room as if she's looking for an escape.

  "Wait, what are you doing? You said that I could go home." She started to cry.

  "I told that we were going to help you go underground." Stepan stated matter-of-factly.

  “What is that?" She nodded over towards the syringe.

  "Oh that? It's just something that's going to help us put you underground." He chuckled.

  Alexei backhanded her across the face. "Did you really think for one second that we were going to help you after you helped someone plot against our family? You are dumber than we thought."

  Jason stepped towards her and placed a towel over her mouth to muffle her screams. Fallen tapped the syringe a few times.

  "This is going to hurt like hell, but it won't last long." She said before she plunged the syringe into Chelsea's neck. Chelsea's eyes widened as the drug traveled through her body. She started to scream but it was useless. Her screams came out as mumbles due to the towel that covered her mouth. She jerked around for a few minutes before her body had gone completely limp. Jason removed the towel from her mouth.

  "What do we do now?" Jason asked. Alexei turned to Fallon. "Do you think you could help get her down to the morgue?"

  "Yes, that shouldn't be a problem." Fallon said.

  "Good, take her down to the morgue and let them think that she's a Jane doe."

  "Okay." Alexei then turned to his brother. "I think it's about time that those Marino twins joined their brother."

  Stepan nodded. "Indeed. I think that you're right, brother." Before making their exit like thieves in the night, Stepan turned to Jason and gave him some more instructions; have the clean-up crew come and do a sweep of the room and once he was sure they did an impeccable job, he was to go with Fallon to make sure Chelsea’s trip to the morgue went off without a hitch.

  Chapter 41

  Will sat beside Cori's hospital bed and watched her closely. Her aunt Sofia, Alyona, Monica, Katara, and Heidi had just left out the room a few minutes ago. He hadn't left her bedside since she arrived at the hospital. Will had Zel bring him a change of clothes and few hygiene products so that he could shower and change. He wanted... no he needed Cori to open her eyes. He needed to see her beautiful brown eyes so that he would know everything was going to be okay. He wasn't used to seeing her like this; stuck in a hospital bed with machines monitoring her heart rate and breathing. Cori was tough and headstrong. She was the type of woman that he admired. One that didn't back down from danger and demanded respect from everyone.

  He sighed as he rubbed his hand down his face. "You know when you left I was so pissed at you. I think I told you that already, but I'm telling you again just in case you forgot. I never had a woman walk out on me before. I tried to act like you walking away from what we were building didn't faze me, but it did. You were the first woman other than my Godmother and sister that I loved. I felt like you said fuck me when you did that. Even though you explained in your letter why you did what you did, I thought it was bullshit. I still do actually. I hope you know when you wake up we're going to revisit that conversation." Will grabbed her hand and rubbed the back of it with his thumb.

  "Cori, you're too damn tough to go out like this. You need to wake your ass up. I know you pretending to be sleep because you know I'm not going to leave you alone." He chuckled at his own words.

  "I love you, Cori. All I wanted was for us to share a life together. I thought you wanted the same thing."

  Will kissed her hand and then stood up. He walked over to the bathroom that was inside of the room. Once he was done taking care of his business he washed his hands and walked back out into the room. His eyes instantly connected with Cori's. She was staring right at him. He walked over towards her and just stood there for a minute without saying anything.

  Cori pointed to a pitcher of water that sat on the table beside the bed. Her throat was as dry as it had ever been and she was thirsty. The pitcher of ice water had begun sweating not too long after Sofia had brought it in the room and right now, all Cori wanted was a sip. Will grabbed a paper cup that sat beside the pitcher and filled it for her.

  Pushing the button to raise the bed up a little, he placed a straw to her lips and the whole time she drank the water her eyes never left his. When she was done he set the cup down.

  "Do you remember the explosion?" He asked her. He wasn’t angry and he wasn’t excited. His tone was even and it threw Cori off a bit.

  "Yes, I remember we were in an office somewhere before everything happened." She replied in a raspy voice. She tried to clear her throat. It felt like something was caught in it.

  "You were in a coma." He told her.

  Cori looked around the room before she placed her attention back on him. "How long have I been here?" She asked in a whisper.

  Will leaned in closer to her and asked her to repeat what she said. When she did he answered her question.

  "You've been here for about two weeks now."

  "How long have you been here?"

  "I've been here for about two weeks now." He stared at her.

  "So, it's true then..."

  "What's true?" he asked her.

  "People in a coma can really hear the other people around them." She responded.

  "Cori, I hope you know that when you get out of here things are going to be different." He told her.

  "What do you mean? I can't walk or something?" She started trying to move her legs. When they moved she released a sigh of instant relief.

  "Your legs are fine. There are some things that the doctor needs to explain to you, but you'll be fine. Things are going to be different between us though. I don't give a damn what you say about it either. You and I are going to have a long talk."

  She frowned her face up at him. "Will..."

  "I'm not letting you get away from me again. No more running Cori. You're mine and it's about time that I remind you of that." He kissed her on the lips and then headed for the door.

  "I'm about to go tell them that you're awake so they can get your doctor." He said over his shoulder while he walked out the door.

  "What the hell happened while I was in a coma?" She mumbled to herself. A few moments later, Will reentered the room with a doctor trailing behind him.

  “I’m glad to see you finally decided to join us, Ms. Romanov.” The doctor said as he began to check her vitals.

  “My throat is so sore.”

  “It’s probably best that you rest it for a while. Continue sipping water and in a few days’ time you should be back to your normal self.”

  “Can I go home?” Cori asked.

  “No, you’re going to stay here until he says otherwise.” Will butted in causing the doctor to chuckle.

  “I’m afraid home isn’t the best option for you now, Ms. Romanov. Its best you stay here a little while long
er until you’re able to get back to normal. Your body has changed while you’ve been in a coma and its going to take some time getting back to normalcy.”

  “Will, what is he talking about?” Cori asked with her brows furrowed in confusion. Will looked at her and could tell shew as scared even though she was too prideful to tell the good doctor that. For the next forty-five minutes, the doctor began to explain to Cori all she had been through while she was in a coma. She still wanted to protest staying at the hospital, but she was honestly too weak to fight. Will saw the doctor out and then turned his attention back to Cori who’s eyes never left his frame.

  "Why'd you stay?"

  "Why what?"

  "With me, Will? Why did you stay here with me?"

  Will looked at Cori's questioning eyes and sighed.

  "Because I let you walk away from me once because you had doubts and I needed you to see that I would never walk away from the woman I love. I have no doubts about us, Cori. You're my forever and dammit, forever doesn't end just because you're scared." Cori immediately scrunched her face up at the insinuation that she was scared of anything.

  "While you were out, I constantly prayed for you to pull through it; not just for me, not just for us but for you and your family as well. The world knows the Romanovs to be a ruthless clan but what I've seen since you've been in here is a family so tight knit that nothing and no one could tear it apart." Before she could stop them, Cori allowed a tear to fall from her eye. She was staring into the eyes of the man she knew for a fact that she loved and she knew he loved her too.

  "Will, I'm sorry."

  “I am too. I should’ve never let you leave like that… Ever since you left, I been burying myself in my work and my family and being back here in Chicago around my sister and nephew made me realize how short life really is.”

  “Tari.” She whispered.

  “Yeah, she’s been up here almost every day to check on you… When I found out that you two knew each other, I realized just how fate works. For the world to be so big, who would’ve thought Nefertari Stevens and Cori Romanov would ever cross paths.” Will chuckled. “But I’m glad you two did… Because that meeting Tari put together brought us back together.”