She wondered how Cooper would react once she was out of prison. He hadn't talked to her about it. He had been pained and angry on her behalf when he saw her in her cell, but would he really not care that she had nearly killed someone? The shot hadn't been off by much, if her aim hadn't gone lax in her surprise when the woman goaded her instead of backing down in the face of a gun, she would have been dead.
Clara shuddered just imagining it.
It didn’t happen, though.
Right. No one would be calling her a murderer. Because it was an accident, Cooper would sweep the whole thing under the rug, because he would trust whatever she said on the matter.
The next morning another officer came to collect Clara. She hadn't slept at all and her head felt cottony because of it, her head throbbed and her eyes ached. She was exhausted, but she was wide awake as they let her out of the cell. Hope and anxiety warred in her chest. If they were done with the deliberations, then she would find out what they planned to do to her. She couldn’t help thinking of the worst case scenario, even though it only made her more anxious.
She was taken back to the courtroom, this time without that woman present. There were two other officers in the room, one of them, thankfully, a woman. It didn’t automatically mean she could trust her, but it did make her relax just slightly, that she wasn’t in a room full of men she didn’t know. She still would have preferred Cooper was there, or even Felicia, as she moved to sit down where she was directed and waited for the rest of them to settle, then begin.
"We've come to a decision," one of the officers told her as soon as they were all seated. "You won't serve jail time. Even if we could lock you up, it would have to be here at the station, since we don’t have the resources to get you to a prison, but that would be too inconvenient for everyone involved. I apologize for the mistreatment you faced while locked up, I assure you that the officer was punished accordingly."
She nodded. She was calm now that she knew they weren’t going to keep her locked up. She was also satisfied the cop that belittled her got some punishment. She was tempted to ask for details, but it wasn’t her place. And there were much more important things she was still waiting to hear.
The other officer spoke up.
"We've talked to some other officers and learned that you've been helping out, volunteering services for the town, and that does lend some weight to keeping you out of prison. You won't be locked up, but rather you'll have to do some community service as punishment because we can't completely let you off. As much as you felt you were doing your part as a volunteer, harming people isn’t something we can just let go. It is more or less what you've been doing so it shouldn’t be too difficult for you."
Clara nodded along, slumping back in her chair in relief. They were going to let her go, finally. She was more than ready to get out of there and go home. Then the first officer spoke.
"You will need to turn in your weapon, especially since you're not registered to use the gun, and you will do this the soonest possible. It's just too dangerous to have civilians walking around with firearms. You will be required to give a full report on how you came to receive it when you give it up."
The gun that the crazy woman gave her. When, after the crash, she and Cooper had been going to look for survivors that they could help, and the woman that she hadn't seen coming that was behind them with a gun and talking about the apocalypse. She remembered that day and shuddered, wondering what had happened to that woman.
She didn’t agree with the cop wholeheartedly, though, about the civilians with firearms thing. Even the cops couldn’t be trusted, especially if they had men within their ranks like that bastard that hit her. The world was going to go to hell soon, and Clara wanted to have the protection.
But after nearly killing someone, she feared to have the gun with her. Hell, she had put it away without meaning to ever pick it up again after that night. Though part of her didn’t like to have their only line of defense gone, another part was relieved that they wouldn’t have it on hand. When they seemed to be waiting for her answer before they continued, she nodded.
The last cop spoke. "Take this as a warning, ma'am. I understand the position you were in, we all do. We understand that you only intended to do the right thing, but keep in mind that any repeat offenses like what we saw here will lead to much more serious punishments. We're in a bad situation—the whole town is in a bad situation—and that is the only reason you are getting off so lightly this time."
She nodded again, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. But she just sniffled and held them back. She was just glad to finally be able to leave, she was a little anxious to get on her way already. She tapped her fingers on her thigh, feeling restless, but she tried not to let it show.
"Thank you," she murmured, grateful for their kindness, squeezing her fingers on her thighs. "I will do anything to redeem myself. And I will bring the gun here as soon as possible."
"Part of your punishment will also be a ban on leaving the town for several weeks," an officer told her, almost gently, "despite your usefulness in the past few weeks, we thought it would be best that you stay within the town limits. In any case, you need to have your injury looked at, do your community service and get sufficient rest, so you won't have time to be going anywhere."
That made her freeze in her seat, but she clamped down on the automatic protest. Clara wondered if they were worried that she would run away if given the chance. She could have tried to convince them she wouldn’t, but she doubted it would be enough to lift the ban. It was meant to be a punishment, so she didn’t think anything she would say would make the situation any better. It still rankled.
She was upset about it, but she knew she couldn’t have expected a better outcome from the trial. Technically, even though the other woman had lied, Clara had still hurt her. in the normal course of events—though if things had been normal, she never would have ended up in such a situation in the first place—the outcome would have been so much worse. She should consider herself lucky, even. Because the gun wasn’t even hers, she didn't have a license for it. That would have been enough to have her kept behind bars for a few months, at least.
The female officer stood up with her hand held out, and Clara followed suite.
"You're free to go now, and you should be ready to commence your community service tomorrow."
She just nodded again, shook the police officer's hand firmly, and left the room.
Clara wanted to run all the way out, revel in her freedom, but the rest of the station was still filled with people. It was a bit of a surprise, seeing how many people were there when she had been kept in isolation the past few days and nights. She would have thought that the place was deserted. So instead of outwardly displaying her excitement, she moved through the room almost meekly.
She felt almost self-conscious when a lot of the people in the room turned to look at her. Now that she was leaving and would be around people again, she wondered what she looked like. Her hair was a mess, she hadn't showered or had a change of clothes in seven days, not to mention the swelling on her face. She felt utterly disgusting and uncomfortable in her own skin. But instead of paying them too much mind, she rushed forward, head ducked down and her eyes on the exit.
Cooper was outside waiting for her, and she let a full-blown smile cross her face, dropping only slightly when it pulled on her cheek. Cooper just stepped forward to give her a long hug, careful of her injury, and she hugged him back fiercely, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes again. Not that she would let them fall, now that she was out of her cell.
He pulled back to cup her uninjured cheek, and she could see the light sheen of tears in his eyes that told her he wanted to cry, too, that he was as happy as she was now that she was let out. It had only been three says, but it had felt like way too long.
"I was so worried, you have no idea. And I wasn’t the only one. I wanted to leave Dante and follow after you, but they told me you'd follow right behind me afte
r you rested a bit. I can't believe I just took their word for it. I waited for you, but I must have fallen asleep, and I woke up and you weren’t there…"
"Hey," she murmured, patting his chest, stopping his fast flow of words. She could barely keep up, but she didn’t need any kind of explanation from Cooper. She knew he had a good reason—hell, she had been with them, up until she rushed to the station by herself, so she had some idea. "It's okay. It wasn’t ideal, but I'm fine now. I guess it helped that the woman was clearly lying and she couldn’t control her temper." If she had kept up her act instead of showing her true colors, Clara was pretty sure she would still be back in her cell. "And Felicia, the woman I met at the hospital. I owe her for speaking up for me."
"I talked to her after we left; after your trial. She told me she was impressed by you, she didn’t even blame you for not going back. She's a good friend to have."
Clara chuckled, low, at the note of appreciation in his voice. She knew Cooper appreciated strength more than anything, and Felicia might not have looked like much compared to his size, but she had to have a lot of strength to still keep doing what she was doing without losing herself, or her mind, in it. Clara was going to have to look for the older woman at some point and thank her personally.
"Thank you."
His eyebrows shot up. "For what?"
"For getting me out."
He smiled crookedly, looking sheepish. "I can't take full credit for that. All I did was worry about you and make noise for some of the officers. I got myself kicked out of here the other day when I came to visit you."
Her eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
Though she hadn't known Cooper to be the aggressive type, well, the past few weeks since the world went dark had definitely shown her a new side of him that said he was certainly capable of it. Still, she couldn’t imagine Cooper, of all people, starting a fight with the police to the point he would get himself thrown out.
"Yeah. At least they listened to me about that guy hurting you. I'm not sure what they did about it, but they told me that they did do something."
His expression darkened as he remembered, and Clara felt her own happiness dim slightly. She shuddered and pushed the thought away. She was leaving, and hopefully, she would never have to see the man again.
"Forget about that. Even if you feel you didn’t do enough, I believe that you did. The process could have just as easily taken longer if you hadn't done anything, which I know you must have done. Don’t try to play modest with me."
He smiled, soft. His hand dropped from her cheek, sliding down her arm until he took her hand in his and gave a light squeeze.
"Then no problem."
He turned, pulling her behind him, and they walked home together with their hands entwined.
Chapter Fourteen
They walked home in silence, holding hands all the way there. Clara felt serene, even though she felt the aches all over her body the longer they walked. Home wasn’t far, but her body protested every step of the way with the poor conditions she'd been left in for the past several days.
Still, she was happy. She felt like she was walking on air, she was that excited that she got to go home with Cooper. She'd have to return the next day to leave the gun and get news on whatever job she was supposed to be doing now, but she could think of that when tomorrow came. It was still early in the morning, but she planned to go to sleep in her bed as soon as she felt tired, and she wouldn’t leave for a long time.
She daydreamed as she walked, of getting home, filling a tub with hot water and sliding in it for an hour or longer to wash off the muck on her body. It was a luxury she had never allowed herself before and wished she could have now. She knew better, though. They were still worried about water, she was pretty sure it was going to have to be cut off at some point. There was no power so they would need to find a way to get clean, filtered water after the generators went out. They already had some stored in tanks, but it wouldn’t last long once the water supply was cut off, so it was another worry to look forward to.
The few luxuries they did have might not last all that long. Still, she dreamed of it and let that be enough for the moment.
When she arrived home, Viola was waiting at the door for them. It reminded Clara of the day of the crash; when she left the crash site at the end of the day to find her grandmother waiting for her just like this when she eventually made it home. She released Cooper's hand, rushing ahead, and just like that day, Viola greeted her with a long hug. Though thankfully, this time there were no tears.
"Oh Clara, you have no idea how badly we wanted you to get home," she whispered. Then she pulled away, and Clara noticed just how drawn she looked, even if she wasn’t crying.
"Grandma, what is it?"
She threw a look at Cooper, before turning back to Viola. She had forgotten again to ask what was going on at home. She felt a little ashamed of herself of forgetting her family like that. She hadn't thought much about them at all since the day she left town, not as much as she should have anyway. And to come home after being away for so long to see her grandmother this distraught…
"Everything had fallen apart here ever since you left. The neighbor you had come to look after us, I didn’t want to let her stay here after the first day, and it was so bad, Clara. I don’t think it's ever been that bad before."
She frowned, growing more worried at her grandmother's unintentionally cryptic words. "What happened? Please just tell me."
Her grandmother leaned close and whispered, "Tessa is more of a mess than ever. I don’t know what's wrong, even Alice didn’t know what to do. She came part of the other days you were gone, but your sister wouldn’t behave so I kept sending her back early. Tessa no longer listens to anyone and her actions the past days were just so unlike her, I don’t know what happened. You really should go and calm her down, please?"
Clara sighed, shooting a glance at Cooper as she led her grandmother inside the house with an arm around her shoulders, murmuring soothing words to the distraught woman. Just what had happened with her sister to have Viola so unsettled? From what her grandmother was saying, Tessa was acting crazier, more unstable than before. Did that mean her condition was getting worse? Clara felt her heart clench. If that happened, what could she possibly do about it?
She got her grandmother to sit down in the living room and got her a glass of water to drink. She had Cooper stay with Viola to calm her down, and then reluctantly headed upstairs to speak to Tessa.
Cooper had been home while she was locked up. He might not have had enough time to, but she would have been grateful if he had warned her how bad things were at home. Her daydream seemed years away now, even though she'd had it just a few moments before. If he had told her even when he came to pick her up at the station, not even an hour ago, she could have braced herself for this. As it was, the last thing she wanted to do after what she'd just been through was to have to deal with Tessa.
You wanted to come back to this, she reminded herself with a grimace. She felt the weight of responsibility settle back on her shoulders. Tessa was part of her responsibility. But, even though she wouldn’t admit it to herself, there was an edge of relief to have back the life she was used to. Coming back to her sister's condition growing worse almost negated it, though.
Why would her condition have deteriorated so rapidly? It couldn’t possibly just be because Clara was gone. Tessa acted like she couldn’t stand her plenty of the time. She had hoped she was missed, but this was out of hand if it had Viola in that state.
Or was it something else? Was Tessa's mental health really that unstable? Had Clara been gone for too long made it worse, or did it have nothing to do with her anyway, and this would have happened even if she'd just stayed closer to home? There was no way to know. As great as it was to have Alice around, clearly, she wasn’t meant to look after patients with psychological issues. It only made things more complicated for Clara, because where would she possibly find someone else to help her now?
She stopped at the door before she knocked. Clara could hear Tessa muttering to herself in her room, and she took another moment to sigh, closing her eyes to center herself. Then she rapped her knuckles three times on the door and opened it.
When she entered the room, she found Tessa sitting cross-legged on her bed. The room wasn’t as organized as it had been last time, with clothes and things strewn all over the floor like a tornado had blown through and Tessa hadn't bothered to pick things up. Though she didn’t always value cleanliness, Tessa usually took better care of her things without waiting to be told. That she had left the room in the state it was in was a bad sign, and Clara felt dread grow in her chest.
Her sister turned to her, and Clara firmed her lips when she noticed Tessa's eyes looked wild and excited. She looked untamed, with wild hair, even worse than her usual, and dirt smeared on her face. She didn’t look like she had showered for about as long as Clara. If anything, Tessa probably looked worse than she did, and she had been the one living in less than stellar conditions the past several days. Clara could notice the paleness beneath the dirt, though; the dark bruises under her eyes…
She looked worse than Clara remembered from before. Even in the weeks after the accident that took their parents, where Tessa was inconsolable, she had never looked this bad, and not in the time since. Just what had gone on in her absence?
When she thought about it, Clara realized she hadn't been away from home for longer than a day in years. Definitely not in the past few weeks of the growing crisis. Had this been possible, and she just hadn't noticed, hadn't paid attention? She remembered meeting Tessa outside for the first time in a decade and wondered if it was a sign she had missed. Or one she should have paid closer attention to and stuck around before Tessa got worse.
Zero Power (Book 2): Trying To Survive Page 11
