Thoroughly embarrassed and humiliated, Fiona and Leon left the Xavier Estate. Fiona was unusually quiet as they drove down the quiet suburban district. All valuable contact with the professor would automatically be terminated. It would bring her a lot of lost deals and she could only imagine what that would do to her company. "I'm sorry that I put your entire network at risk," Leon apologized, he was still leaning on the leather seat of the car as they drove. His bones were still a little fragile and his heart was still racing wildly. Leon had not been appreciated for his healing instead, the messenger, Gideon had embarrassed him and looked down on him, this was not helpful to his deity power. "You don't have to worry about that, it's not your fault that you couldn't heal Professor Xavier at once," Fiona said to him with assurance, she could already see the guilt in his eyes at not only disappointing her but having her banished from the estate for life. "But you mentioned that
" Poisoned?" Fiona asked and he nodded. Her eyes became wide and she asked what he meant by that. "Poisoned by who?" She asked. Leon shook his head, "I'm not a prophet, I'm only a healer, I can't decipher that, all I know is that the substance in his bloodstream is a poison and that is what is killing him, slowly," he replied. Fiona held her hands to her chest, clearly mortified by such information. "What does this mean? That someone is trying to kill him?" She asked. That was not Leon's deduction to make. As much as he would love to say that it was possibly something else, from his diagnosis, there was no way that the master could have been ingesting the poison for so long without knowing that he was slowly killing himself. "Oh my goodness, who would want the professor dead?" Fiona asked out loud and noticed that even the driver who was usually so stoic looked mortified too. "We'll have to find out," Leon replied and Fiona nodded, still looking stricken. "But that's not all,"
The city was just as he'd seen the previous night - quite lifeless. But then maybe it was because he'd woken a little too early that morning. The sun was barely breaking through the sky when he pulled on his running shoes and was out on the sidewalk - he could have been right at the center of the lane for all he cared, there was nothing on the road. Leon jogged down to a quiet place where he stretched a little and continued the run shortly after. With his headphones plugged in, he didn't hear much. His mind began to wander. He thought of Fiona and Tracy and Professor Xavier and the clinic he was about to start. He was running out of time and there was nothing he could show for all his months of trying to get himself a job. A few minutes away, the path he'd taken narrowed to a small track and Leon was about to turn away when he suddenly heard a voice from the thick bushes. It sounded like a whimper and Leon was curious. He stopped in his tracks and turned down his music, pulli
Emelda had the nastiest expression on her face as she glowered at him. "Who was that?" She asked. Leon looked at her like she'd just lost her mind - and she might have for all he cared. Last he checked, he wasn't tangled with any woman who could lay claims to him, much more than Emelda. "Come on, don't play dumb with me, who was that?" She asked again. Leon sneered at her and then looked at Jenna as she sat, staring at them both. "What are you doing in my house? How did you get in?" He asked all at once. He looked back at the door and the lock still seemed intact. "About how we got in, you left the door open, figured we could make ourselves at home while you..." she said as she looked at his outfit and then added, "Went for a run." Leon couldn't remember locking the front door so he assumed he'd left it open. "Open or not, you had no right to come in here and take my couch without my permission," he snapped. "Oh please, we are friends now, I'm sure we ought to get past
Fiona George stood in the parking lot of the fancy boutique, her hands akimbo, her dainty feet clad in a tiny Louboutin, her eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. She was truly beautiful but she didn't look happy. The phone in her hand swung from side to side, like she was contemplating on throwing it in the trashcan to her left or just tossing it into the busy street to get crushed under the tyres of the trucks that raced by. "Just pick up the freaking call!" She snapped to no one in particular and then groaned loudly. She couldn't believe that she'd been calling one person for almost two dozen times. It wasn't her style. Fiona was the CEO of her own company, she was not used to begging anyone, much more after being dismissed the first time. Her pride was badly bruised and she needed to remind herself from time to time that she was doing it for a good cause. Stomping to the roof of the Bentley, she sat there and slammed her fist slightly on the bonnet, making the driver
Leon felt a little caged inside the designer's suit as he stepped out of the hotel. The sun was high and he could feel the heat warning him up from inside the thick material. He noticed that Fiona was still at the same spot he'd left her, still clutching the phone to her ears and wearing a frown on her pretty face. "Is he picking up now?" Leon asked as he got to her. He'd been in the car when she started calling Gideon but he wasn't picking up. "Yes, but he's not moving grounds, he still says we're both banned from the estate," she replied. There was no need to get into details about how he wanted him out of the picture just because he believed that they had a thing. "What do we do now?" Leon asked as he pulled off his sunglasses. Fiona did the same too and smiled at him, "You look handsome," she said. Leon nodded, but he didn't feel at home inside the suit he was wearing. "You didn't have to, I have a few good clothes I could have worn for this meeting," he said, as he had a
Brian hissed under his breath and his face fell as he saw Fiona's expression. He was very embarrassed and he blamed himself for not listening to Leon when he'd asked if he should say it openly. "That's not true," he spat, just to save face, "It's not true at all," he added as he turned to face Fiona who was pretending to be busy with her handbag to avoid the awkward conversation. Leon smirked as he realized the uncomfortable position that he'd just put Brian in because of his stubbornness. "You do know I'm not lying, Brian," Leon replied easily. But he could tell that Brian was too ashamed to admit it, it somehow messed with his manly ego, especially when Fiona who he was attracted to was seated right there. "You are lying through your teeth!" Brian snapped, all the while turning to Fiona to gauge a reaction. Leon looked at him with a brow raised and then asked, "Maybe I should tell you about the__" he began to say but Brian stopped him right there and nodded. "Okay, fine,
The next day came and Fiona spent most of the day looking for the perfect outfit for the cabinet meeting. She was too exhausted to consider shopping - plus she wasn't in the mood. And she had two outfits delivered and ended up not liking any. The afternoon was quickly giving way to night when she heard a knock on the door just as she was tucking Mia in. It was going to be a busy evening and she had to be sure that her baby was safely in bed while she was out there. "You're going to do just as the list says, no late-night food - except warm cocoa drink if she wakes up, make sure she doesn't watch more than one hour of TV for the rest of the night, keep her warm and leave the lights on. Do you understand?" Fiona asked the nanny and she nodded. "I understand, Miss Fiona. You're stressed out already, just leave, I'll take care of Mia like I always have," she replied with a smile. Fiona sighed, the old lady was right. She was just stressed and getting frustrated. The last thing