Unscheduled Visit

Quinn watched as they left, his face showing no emotion, but his eyes as hard as agates. As soon as they drove out, he walked to the desk. He pressed the intercom and spoke sharply.

"I want all footage from the Donor wing near room 214 transferred to my computer as soon as possible. Full audio and visual records. No censoring. Understood?"

The voice on the other end seemed startled. "Yes Sir, of course. It will be there in a few minutes."

He looked up to see Arabella and Brianna still standing there, staring at him.

"I will be busy this evening. Something has come up that will require my attention. Arabella, please make sure the house is locked down if you go anywhere. I will be in my office until further notice."

He walked over, resting his hands on Brianna's hips.

"You did an incredible job today, Brianna. I am very proud of how your control has grown. I would like to see you later tonight, but I do not know what time."

Arabella listen to his words, a look of concern on her face.

"I'll take care of it, Jonathan."

She walked to Brianna and leaned in, whispering...

"Something is wrong, please stay close to him while I take care of things."

Without waiting for a response, she left the room, heading for the security room.

Brianna could not help be proud at herself from Quinn's remarks about her self control. But she could not help but feel that something was wrong with Quinn.

"I shall keep myself busy until then" she smirked.

Once she heard Arabella's remark she was even more curious as to what was going on.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked him.

"I just need to deal with some things before they become a problem."

His computer beeped and he walked over, opening the files that had arrived. The audio files were in a separate folder so he began reviewing the video feeds one by one. He scrolled forward to the point where they had sent the donor back into his room and slowed it to normal play speed. He paused it when she touched his chest and began looking for the right audio files. He plugged in an earpiece and began scanning through the room's audio.

What was he hiding?

She stood still as he went about his work and plugged in his earpiece as she could not help but feel curious as he was too engrossed in what was in front of him as she peered over his shoulder and caught sight of him and that woman Roxanne.

Everything inside her broke, she could not hear what was happening between them. But the way that they looked on screen told her everything that she needed to know.

"Oh my god" she whispered.

Not caring about her self control she grabbed the wire from his earpiece and yanked it from his ear and it unplugged itself from the device.

"I have my eyes set on another. Someone who can show a girl a good time. A girl has needs Mr Quinn"

Brianna took a step back from Quinn as he reacted.

"How could you!" she snapped.

Feeling the earpiece rip away, he heard the audio playing in the speakers.
"I have my eyes set on another. Someone who can show a girl a good time. A girl has needs Mr Quinn"


"Brianna?"

He realized what she had seen and heard. He hit pause on the audio before it got worse.

"Brianna, you don't understand. Let me explain it to you. I'll put the feed together so you have more context. Give me a few minutes and I'll have it ready."

He looked to her and was at a loss for what else to say. He stood, facing her.

"If what we feel for each other means as much to you as it does to me, give me a few minutes and I'll play the whole thing for you. No editing. You'll hear some things I would rather you didn't, but it will be the unedited truth. Either that or simply trust me. It is your choice."

Brianna turned away from him, her hands fisting in her locks of hair as she did not want to see him. She couldn't bare it. She had to fight with herself to stop herself from crying right there.

"What we feel for each other? I don't even know what I feel for you. Even right now!" she snapped at him.

She turned him, unable to look into his eyes.

"I don't know what the truth is any more?" she snapped again

He stood, wrapping her in his arms, holding her close.

"You trusted me before. Trust me now and give me the few minutes I need to put the files together. I warn you not all of it will please you but it will be truth. That is all I ask."

He loosened his grip on her, letting her make the choice to stay or not.

If he wanted trust, it worked both ways. She folded her arms across her chest as she waited for him to do whatever he had to do. It couldn't get any worse could it?

"Fine. If you want me trust. Then you have to earn it" she snapped.

Moving away from him as she stood close to the screen as she waited for him to do his thing.

Quinn sighed when she pulled away. He walked over to where she stood, moving to the computer. He brought the files both to the beginning, matching up the time stamps and began merging the files. As they worked to join, he turned to her.

"Brianna, I am going to tell you now. You will hear it on the recording anyway. I told you before that I was contacted by Isabel, Queen of Texas, about doing something for her here. What I did not tell you is that she and I had a history. When I saw Roxanne, I recognized her but could not tell where from. For the right reasons, I took on playing the role I used to live. You will hear things that will be painful, and even some that might scare or anger you. Know this though. I am handing you open truth. Your Maker trusts me with your safety, but I am not going to ask you to do that. I only ask that you trust Arabella to keep you safe. If I meant you harm, do you really think that she would leave you alone with me?"

"I know you had a past when I met you Quinn...I read your file that Bill had on you. I am not stupid" she barked at him.

She remained as far away from him that she could be. She did not want him to touch her, not now. She feared what was on the recordings, but she had to know.

"I think I am pretty good on my judgement Quinn or at least I think I was....Just play the darn thing" she ordered him.

He was about to respond when the computer beeped. He stood up and stepped away from the computer.

"Do you want me to fast forward to after the recital or do you want to watch the whole day?"

Was he playing games of distraction? 

"Just get to the part that where you and Roxanne are getting to "know" each other" she snapped at him.

She just wanted this over with, she wanted to leave. But a part of her had to know.

He moved up and skimmed forward until the screen showed them walking into the donor wing, then stepped back. He moved away so she could get a better view. He knew she would not understand what he was doing, or why he said what he did.

"She revealed herself to be working for Isabel. I will be sending that to Compton, regardless. The only reason she walked out of here is because I had to be sure before I said something."

He fell silent as she watched the footage. He walked away from the computer and over to the picture he had painted of her. He had never shown it to her, just hung it with the rest of his family. He smiled when he thought about that.

He looked up, seeing the pain in her eyes.

"When you have seen enough, I am right here. There is one more thing, a different thing, that I want you to see."

Brianna watched the whole footage. Every single last detail. The things that she said, the things that he said. It made her sick. Was Jessica right about him? She couldn't watch any more. She turned away from him and the screen. She couldn't handle it any more. This is not what how she had expected the evening to play out.

"When you have seen enough, I am right here. There is one more thing, a different thing, that I want you to see."

"Stay. Away. From. Me" she hissed.

"I will. I ask only one thing of you. Talk to Arabella before you go. You know she will not lie to you, not even for me. Talk to her. I will stay away."

He sat down by the pictures, looking out the window.

Brianna was shocked that he was doing what she had asked of him. She turned to face him, her eyes brim red with her tears.

"What? No fighting? Try and defend yourself? How can you act the way that you do with me then like that with her?....I thought we had something?" she whispered.

He stayed where he sat, speaking softly.

"I would explain it but right now your emotions are high. You are not ready to listen to me. I told you before you would not like the role I had to play to get her to admit what she was."

His eyes full of tears, he turned his face toward hers.

"Go to Arabella. Tell her what you saw, what you heard, talk to her and when you are ready, I will be here waiting for you. I would have spared you the pain but I was not willing to deceive you either."

Brianna wanted to leave.

But there was another part of her that wanted to stay, as much as it hurt her to admit it. He warned her that she was not going to like it. But why would he do this to her if he claimed to like the way he claimed to.

She took a last glance at him as she could see tears in his eyes from his own admission as she took his advice and went to seek out Arabella.

Arabella sat in the security room alone, having cleared the room to watch what Jonathan had requested be sent to him. There was so much she did not know, but she could see what he had done..and what it had revealed. She pressed an intercom button and heard the crackle of someone answering.

"I need a secure courier to the Compton Estate. Full protections including the specialty contacts. Full armed escort. The courier will be delivering a sealed letter from myself to King Compton. ONLY TO HIS OWN HANDS. Am I understood?"

When the voice on the other side confirmed, she shut it off, looking at the last frame from the donor wing. That one image told a truth. He did not trust her behind him. He had followed her out and only took her arm to keep up appearances. She sat there, deep in thought, staring at that single frozen image for quite some time...

"Arabella?.....Arabella?" she called out.

She remembered where she had gone and headed straight to the security room to find her. She needed someone who was on her side. Once she had Arabella she let her tears fall freely.

"Arabella...Call Bill. I want to leave. Tonight!" she barked at her as her tears fell.

She looked up, seeing Brianna crying and then Brianna shouted at her,
"Arabella...Call Bill. I want to leave. Tonight!" "

She walked over to Brianna, slapping her across her face once.

"Think with your head, Brianna. How much did you see of it? How much did you really understand?"

She led Brianna over to one of the chairs and pushed her down into it. She pulled out a cloth, dabbing at Brianna's face, trying to clean her up a bit.

"Remember what we taught you about detaching from your emotions and looking at things from a distance? I need you to do that. Calm down and we will talk things through until things are clear. I saw the footage but more-so I saw what was not so obvious. Things you might have missed. Maybe because I have been around him more. Maybe because I have been trained more to look for it..."

She pulled a chair over facing Brianna.

"Think, hon. If you go back home, we will never be aloud around you again, and for nothing. He will keep you in that gilded cage for the next century. Think things through like I taught you, Brianna. Calm down first, then we will figure things out. Firstly tell me why you are so upset."

"Why do you keep hitting me!" she scowled at Arabella.

Holding her palm to her face as she still felt the sting from Arabella's slap as she sunk down into the chair as she listened to what Arabella had to say. Feeling her tears being washed away as Arabella pulled up a seat in front of her.

"That sounds good right about now" she pouted "I really like him Arabella, more than I should. But I can't trust him. He acts with the way he does and when Bill is around which I understand. Appearances and everything...But then he kisses her the way he does to me....I don't trust myself around him....Is he over Jessica? I don't know what to think any more Arabella" she cried into her hands.

Arabella grabbed a bottle of water, dabbing the cloth and continued to clean up Brianna's face.

"OK, to start things off, I am going to ask you a few questions. Once I've done that, I think we can discuss this more calmly. Question 1, Did he know the actions and conversations were being recorded? Question 2, did she know that? Question 3, did you notice that he walked behind her when they left, not letting her behind him? Calm down and think before you answer."

Brianna listened to her questions but right now she did not know what to think. She just wanted to run.

"I don't know...Maybe....I don't know. He looked like he was enjoying it....I really like him Arabella...I want to be with him. But I don't know if I can trust him or myself. There is too much happening too fast that my head won't stop spinning" she admitted as Arabella washed away her tears.