Chapter 19: Episode 20 — Bang Bang Gotcha!

Damien sat in his office finishing work for the day, he sat back and shrugged, tired. He glanced around the office and saw how it was filled with toys- up on the wall, shelves, floor, drawer top, coffee table… the only toy free place in his office was his working table, and even that was filled with layouts and plans for a new toy their company was working on.

Looking around his eyes fell on the photos in the corner of his table. It was of the boys and him along with Collin, Allana, Gen, Kale, Kyle, Tenshi, and Hera. We were at the hospital that day, Allana and Collin just had their first baby, Antoinette. He smiled at the memory of that day.

Moving to the photo beside it, he frowned. It was a photo of Astrid asleep, he grins remembering the day he took it.

It was the same day that NSA was taken over.

He woke up at the exact time the first ray of sun shot out from the horizon, Astrid snuggled under her comforters, her body pressed upon him with a small smile on her face. She looks so peaceful that it was breathtaking to watch her, and probably heartbreaking when he wakes her up.

She stirs and dug her face deep into the pillow, rubbing her face in it, before going back to deep sleep. Damien chuckles seeing how she looked like a cat, he pushed away a strand of hair that fell over her face.

“Mmm…” she smiles at the light touch. “Damien…”

He smiles like the idea that even in her subconscious mind, he was the only one who she’d let to touch her. He might just be liking it too much that he had to move away before he embarrassed himself. But Astrid frowns and reached for his hand and held on it tight.

“Stay…” she mumbles.

“I’m here angel…” he whispers, kissing her hand making her smile again and fall back to sleep.

He checks the time on the side table and saw that it was already 6 am, she’ll be waking up in an hour and he wanted to do something for her, this was the first time that they had some alone time since we got home after all.

He already knows what he has to do, it’s just, and he was finding it hard to leave her looking like this, his angel.

He reached for his phone and took a photo of her. He smiles staring at the still version of her, making a mental note of painting it later. He gave her a quick kiss and carefully slips out of bed running off to find Albert.

“Yes Master Damien?” he asks when he finally found him in the garden cutting a long-stemmed rose.

“Albert, I need to know what time Astrid wakes up, exactly what time.”

“Oh, well, 7 AM during school days.” He raises a brow, “Why do you ask Young master?”

He grins, “Meet me at the kitchen at 6:50.”

“6:50 master?”

“On the dot.” He added as he ran off to the kitchen and asked help from the cook who was teasing him now, asking me to assist them to cook for the whole week. He agreed without even blinking, he wanted this day to be perfect for Astrid.

On the dot, Albert arrives and ten minutes later they were in front of Astrid’s bedroom. Albert wheeled in the food as Damien sneaked behind him. They both peeked in her room and saw her reading the note he left her, and on cue, Albert steps inside with her breakfast.

She looked at him and the food cart, surprised. She turns to the note again, smiles and blushes. So did Damien, Albert had the rose set in the middle of the table, she ran her finger on the petals before she was told to start eating.

Damien smiles and quietly crept out of the office, happy that he made her smile.

He rushed into his office and grabbed the phone. He wasn’t lying to her that he had something to do this morning it was the most important thing at the moment, even more, important than the breakfast on bed.

He checks the time making sure he would be awake by now Damien looks for the emergency phone they kept at the bottom drawer of his table.

“Ashton Matthews speaking.”

“Good morning Uncle Ashton.” Damien fidgets as if he was right in front of the man.

“Damien,” he answers surprised, “is there something wrong?”

“Oh, no, nothing’s wrong Uncle.”

 “That’s good.” He releases a breath, probably worried that something might have been up again. “So what do I owe the pleasure of your call as early as today, son?”

He smiles, “Well, I have to ask you something.”

“Go on…”

“I wanted to wait until you arrive tonight,” he says, “but I don’t think I can wait that long.”

“What is it Damien?” he asks, now sounding amused.

“Well, I guess I should start by telling you that Astrid and I are together now.”

“Oh…” was all his response was. “Ok… and?”

“Well, we are both of age now, and I was wondering…” he looks down his feet shifting from one to another. He was fidgeting on the spot, nervous and scared. 

What if he says no? What if he doesn’t agree? He’ll have to make him see and understand that it’s how it’s meant to be, and I’ll be damned if I don’t get him to say yes. Was the train of his thoughts.

“You were wondering?” he pushed Damien to continue, breaking the small rant he had going on in his mind.

“I would like to ask for your blessing to ask her hand in marriage.” He blurts out.

“Marriage?” he asks, “So soon?”

“Oh, well, the wedding doesn’t need to be now or the near future.” He sighed, “I just want to keep her near me, know that she’s safe, and never leave again. I need to know that she’s happy and satisfied, that I am the reason for that. I love her uncle, and I can’t bear the thought of being far from her.”

His uncle was quiet for a few seconds until he heard him sigh.

“Well, I really can’t say no to that kind of testament, can I?”

Damien perks up, “So is that a yes?”

He laughs, “I’m not the one you want to hear that from Damien, but yes, you have mine and your aunt’s blessing.”

“Thank you! Thank you so much, uncle.” He says jumping, trying not to shout over the phone.

“No Damien, I should be thanking you.” he says, “I don’t think she would have stayed this time if it wasn’t for you and Ash.”

“You know that isn’t true uncle, leaving us was the hardest decision she made.” Damien says, calmer now, “You were her dream parents and you played the role right down to the dot.”

He chuckles, “Well, at least I know I did something right. Anyway, does your father know of this? I mean, I’m guessing I’m your first call today?”

“I think he has an idea of me doing it right after my birthday,” Damien says, walking around his table and sitting down.

“When are you planning to ask her?” he asks.

“I’m still thinking about it.” Damien shrugs and opening a drawer and pulling out a small box, “Besides I still need to tell Ash.”

“Good luck with that.” Uncle teases, “You may be a best friend, but he’s still is an older brother, I don’t think you’ll be getting out without a scratch.”

“For Astrid?” he opens the box and stared at the ring making him smile, “Anything.”

After that phone call, and much pleading that Uncle Ashton not to tell anyone, I took a shower and prepared for school. I stepped out of my room fifteen minutes earlier than usual and ran towards Ash’s room which was just at the end of the hall, besides my room.

I knocked, but no answer came. I checked my watch it was already 745 and rolled my eyes. You got to be kidding me. I thought. He’d be late.

So I opened the door and stepped inside.

“Ash, man, wake up!” Damien half jogs into one of his best friend’s room.

He steps inside and saw that his bed was still a mess, but the room was empty. There was no sound from the bathroom or the walk-in closet.

He shrugged, still looking around when he found a note beside his bed.

Guys, went to school ahead, grandpa called me for something, I’ll see you there, tell Astrid not to worry.

H.

Damien grins, it was funny how we all know each other so much.

“Where is he?” he turns around and saw Collin standing there with Jared.

“Grandpa called.” 

Walking up to them and handing them the note.

“Hm…” Collin studies the note. “Grandpa never called to tell me about it. He would too after all the attacks we got, he won’t let Ash out of my sight.”

“Well, maybe you’re in princess guarding duty today.” Jared says clapping him on the shoulder, “We all know she’s more of a trouble than all of us put together.”

“Then we should get going, we don’t want the girls starting some riot downstairs,” Damien says.

It was the perfect morning, despite Derek still missing. Well, until that moment in the assembly.

He has seen Astrid kill during their escapade, but never had he seen her fight with such precision and kill without hesitation, her eyes never showed a moment of doubt of what she was doing.

They had them tied down and ranked. Lila girl said it was from the least to greatest. No doubt, when they bring out Ash he will be beside Damien. He doesn’t even understand why they have to bring him along. Was it to torture Astrid? Was Ash ok? It has been hours since they were dragged to who knows where.

Damien felt himself getting angrier thinking of Ash and Astrid in danger.

“If anything goes wrong and she gets me angry,” Lila says, “I’ll do a quick kill among you three, I’d go with prodigy, then the lover then the brother.” She whispered, “Just so you know your cues.”

Dimitri argues with Lila a lot earning him a hit from her a couple of times, but he noticed how the other guards refused to hit him.

“He’s still their heir,” Tenshi said, “They can’t kill their only heir.”

“But they think of him as a traitor-“

“Father Charles, though heartless, has a weak spot for his only son,” Tenshi says. “Astrid had always argued with him whenever he would talk trash to Dimitri and yet put him in such a pedestal when talking to other masters. Dimitri grew up wanting to please his father, but I guess in this situation, love is thicker than blood.”

Love? Damien thought. He had always been jealous of Dimitri since day one, but that was because he thought Dimitri took over his part in Astrid’s life, he may have even thought of Dimitri liking Astrid, but he never thought Dimitri loved her.

“Don’t worry about it Damien,” Tenshi smiles, “Once this is all over, everything will be in place. Dimitri will have to go home and you can stay here with her.”

Damien frowned, “I don’t think she’ll take that news calmly.”

With that a couple of armed men dragging an unconscious Astrid in the middle of the grounds.

“Astrid!” Allana shouts.

“Quiet!” a guard snapped, and we all watched as she was chained on the ground and left there, lifeless.

“Astrid…” Damien whispers, Ash was dragged toward us, struggling to get to Astrid, he was pretty beaten up already, but he was still fighting them off.

They pushed him on the ground beside Damien and tied his ankles like us.

“Are you ok?” Damien asks.

“Yeah, but Astrid…” he looks toward her, “they beat the hell out of her, they beat her up for an hour and now they’re going to fight with her to death.”

“In a chain?!” Jared snaps, “She’ll die no matter how good she is-“

“Well, that’s the goal, isn’t it?” one guard says.

“Why you-“

“Jared, that’s enough.” Damien snaps. “Don’t give them the satisfaction of riling us up. Worse comes to worst, we’ll have to deal with them later, if Astrid needs us to.”

“You think that she’ll get out of this alive, aren’t you?” one of the assassins laughs.

“And you won’t.” Damien sneers at him and looked back at Astrid who was still not moving.

At that moment, Damien wished she wouldn’t, maybe a day or two, until all her bruises are healed. But about half an hour later she did and as if nothing happened, she starts taunting Lila, the fight came. The orders were no one would interfere, they have two primary fighters, Lila and a guy called Christopher. 

Damien never took his eyes off from the fight, seeing every slash, cut, and blood that they draw from each other.

“She’s too weak to fight two fighters.” Dimitri shouts and struggled against his binding, “Stop this now.”

“We’re sorry master Dimitri, but we are just following Father Charles’ orders.”

“Tell him he’ll lose a son and an heir if he keeps this up!”

Damien frowns, he was willing to let go of his only family for Astrid, he didn’t have anything to offer her as big as that.

Suddenly, Lila storms toward us and grabs Tenshi, she was now desperate to see how easily Astrid killed Christopher.

Lila pulled Tenshi up, cut the ropes on her ankles, and used her as a shield from Astrid.

Astrid was breathing hard, and it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain. Damien stared at her, seeing her in pain and there he was not being able to do anything, after everything he said to Uncle Ashton, he failed him.

Soon after Astrid killed Lila, and was fighting Tenshi, then Derek came and bigger hell broke loose. Derek had to explain a couple of times more to make everyone understand what happened.

After we rushed Astrid to the hospital, that is.

She just got wheeled inside the operating room, all the best neurologist was sent inside. It was one of those weird occurrences that a miracle makes things neither good nor bad.

Father Charles shot her on the head, but for some reason, the bullet got stuck in her brain, the doctors said there was a slim chance for her to wake up from a coma even if they succeeded in pulling out the bullet.

Less than five minutes a doctor rushes out and walked up to them.

“Have you started? How is she?” Uncle Ashton asks.

“We started but…” he fidgets, “we already pulled out all the reserve blood bags we have that are the same type as hers, but she’s still losing a lot of blood, and we don’t think we’d have enough.”

“I’m her twin brother, I think you can match us.” Ash offers.

“It’s not like that-“

“Sign me up.” Dimitri says, “I was her donor when she was stabbed.”

“You can test all of us.” Aunt Hannah says.

In the end, there was Ash, Dimitri, Uncle Ashton, and Aunt Hannah. And as soon as they were done, the operation started.

Damien sat on the bench, waiting, playing with the velvet box in his hand. It has been ten hours but he never left the spot.

“Damien?”

He looked up and saw his dad hand him a cup of coffee. “Thanks”

“You ok?” he asks.

“I don’t know.” I shrug.

“What’s wrong?” Damien glanced at him before raising the box for him to see. “Oh…”

Damien stifles a laugh, “You are Uncle Ashton’s best friend.”

“Left him speechless too?” he grins, “I would have loved to see that.”

“I would love to see Astrid,” Damien mumbled.

He sighs and tapped me at the back, “And you would.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

“She’ll get through this, son…”

“I know,” he groans, “that isn’t why I’m having second thoughts.”

“Then why?”

“Look where I am father,” he says frustrated, “I’m worthless. I promised that no one would harm her, and yet she’s in there dying. Even science is against us, Dimitri is in there helping her, while I’m here moping.”

“So this is about a guy…” his dad teased.

“Dad…” I whine.

He chuckles, “Listen to me Damien, Dimitri may be in there helping her now, but who is here outside thinking of her future?” Damien turns to him, “Astrid lives at the moment, right now and even before, her future was nothing to her, but you gave her a reason to think about it. You gave her a reason to wake up every morning to know that someone she loves and cares is right beside her, hoping that she'll open your eyes so she can spend another day together, no matter how hard or crappy it is.”

That’s exactly how I feel about her.” Damien says, “The moment I saw her the day she came back, it was like we were back in the orphanage, where nothing else mattered. I remembered how I use to have nothing yet I felt complete just to have her beside me. That all there was for us was each other and we were contented with that.” He opens the box and pulled out the ring, “Cheesy lines like she’s the very air that I breathe or the earth that I walk in cannot give justice to what I feel. I want to be more than that, more than the reason she wakes up. I want to be the one who makes her heart beat fast, make her blush, make her angry or cry, make her laugh. I want to be the reason for every little detail in her life, or at least be a part of it.”

“That was the most amazing proposal I have heard, and I have heard a lot.” His dad teased making him laugh. “She loves you, Damien, you know that. A bullet in the head may cause a problem with memories, but your heart will always remember.”

Damien smiles and nods, a bit calmer now.

“There you are!”

We turned and saw Uncle Ashton being wheeled by Collin on a wheelchair, while Aunt Hannah was pushed by Allana.

“Right back at you old man.” Dad teases him. “You ok Hannah?”

“Yes, thanks Rham.” She says.

“Hey, husband here.” Uncle Ashton says, making everyone laughed, behind them was Ash and the others were laughing and talking, taking their time.

“Damien?” he turns to Aunt Hannah who was smiling at him, “Your Uncle told me this morning.”

Damien blushes and shrugs, “I was hoping I can tell you both in person, but not like this.”

“Quite frankly, you didn’t need permission. I would have said yes even in my sleep.” Damien stifles a laugh before she reached for his hand; on the other hand, he still held the ring. “There’s nothing more I can ask for Damien, with you we don’t need to worry about her so much. I know you will take care of her.”

“Thank you, Aunt Hannah.”

She had tears in her eyes now before pulling him into a hug, “I’ll be having another son.”

Damien chuckles and hugs her back, “You always made me feel like I was, so I don’t think there’s much of change in that department.”

She laughs before he lets her go, “She’ll be alright, she’ll get out of this.”

Damien nods in agreement. He knew she would, she always did.

Then the OR doors opened and a blood-covered doctor walked up to them pulling off his cap. She stood up and the moment he heard his words the world shifted. Slowly, he opened his hand, dropped the ring as tears overcame everyone.

It has been a decade since that day. He will never forget how they all needed to reach out for each other, holding and comforting everyone. Amidst the hugging and crying, the doctor’s mouth was still moving but he can’t hear anything, Damien stood there watching as if the mute button was hit.

The pain was blinding, the cold engulfed him, the need to see her was driving him crazy.

“Mr. Cayce?” Damien hears his secretary through the intercom.

“Yes, Sheryl?”

“There are-“

The door opened and a little girl ran in, “Daddy! Daddy!”

Damien smiles and picked her up, settling her on his lap.

“Hey princess, how was school?”

“It was good.” She says, “We painted and read books and…”

I watched as she excitedly talked about her day while looking around the table grabbing her pen and about to write on a paper her dad was working on.

“Princess, wait…” he stops her and pulls a note pad with her name on it, like her dad she loved to draw, pretty good for her age.

She giggles as she starts to draw while she continues to tell him about her day.

“You’re driving your daddy crazy princess?” he looks up and saw her in full glory step into his office, followed by her assistant.

Their daughter giggles and turned to her dad, “Am I daddy?”

Damien smiles, “You know I love it, princess.” And kissed her on the cheek, she giggles again. 

This time along with the woman who mended all the wounds and pain in Damien’s life, the love of his life.