Exclusive - "Fooled" - Epilogue (Patreon)

Anne wakes up in a Zurich clinic. Her mouth is dry, her eyes are heavy. 

“There she is.”

Anne looks to her left. There’s Dave, sitting in an armchair. He tilts his head at her. “Thirsty?”

“Read my mind,” she replies. Her voice is hoarse, but her intonation is faultless. 

Dave holds a glass of water and Anne sips from a straw. 

“Thanks,” she says. 

“You’re welcome.” Dave puts the glass back. 

Anne reaches with her hand to rub her neck. Her full-sized hand, her adult neck. She stretches her legs, watches the poke of her toes under the blanket. 

“Mission accomplished,” she says quietly. It’s nice to have her body back, although, maybe, it’s possible, she misses her disguise. She pulls the blanket away from a lump on her right. 

“Hey, you,” she says. “Glad you could make it.” Although if she’s completely honest, the pink stuffie doesn’t have quite the same pull it had before they left Kentucky. 

“Souvenir,” says Dave.

Anne nods. “I remember. Everything. We did some bad stuff.”

“We’re criminals,” Dave replies. “It’s in the job description.”

Anne strokes the pink deer. “What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds?”

“Excuse me?”

Anne looks at her partner. “I’m going to do good things. With the money. Lots of good things.”

Dave smiles. “If you like.”

“If you’d kept me little, I wouldn’t remember any of it. You could’ve had all the money.”

“That wasn’t the plan.” Dave shrugs. “We made a deal.” He grins. “Besides, I’d miss all your complaining.”

She whispers, “If you’d kept me little, I’d be blameless.” She buries her face in the stuffie. “I’d be innocent.” Her voice is muffled, it is pleading. 

Dave sits beside her on the bed. “Yeah,” he says, taking her hand. “But you’re not.” He squeezes her hand. Before Kentucky, he never touched her, knew her well enough. But once you’ve fathered someone, once they’ve been your four-year-old, you get to hold their hand. 

THE END