- Benjamin -

I heard something dripping.

Drip.

Drip drip.

Drip drip drip.

It didn't sound far off, somewhere next to me.

I opened my eyes slightly and a bright light blinded my vision for a second. I kept blinking to get used to it.

"Ugh," I groaned, feeling my body ache horribly. My leg still felt cold and numb.

The whirring and buzzing of activity suddenly invaded my ears and I closed my eyes again. Hoping for everything to shut the hell up.

"Benjamin, Mr Benjamin Burnes can you hear me?" 

I wanted to punch whoever was talking, my brain was pounding from all the noise.

"Mmm..." I sighed and whoever it was started pressing on my arms and legs, asking if I could feel or something.

I winced when he or she touched my leg, the cold chilling me to my very bones. 

I've never felt this cold before, the only two people I know who feel this cold is Serena and Shawn.

Serena.

My eyes flew open and I gasped for air, the person next to me, who I can identify as a nurse is trying to get me to calm the fuck down.

"Mr Burnes, do you know where you are?" She asked me like a pathetic child and I stared at her.

"I'm in a-" I coughed and choked like crazy. My throat was so dry and raspy.

She handed me a glass of water and I reached out to take it.

I looked around the room, realising the nurse was perspiring like a mad dog and suddenly felt that the room was at a very comfortable temperature.

How high was the heater on in here?

"Do you know where you are Mr Burnes?" She repeated her question the moment I finished downing the last of my water.

"A ward. A hospital. Where is Serena?" 

The door to my ward opened and a tired-looking Shawn entered, an officer standing just behind him.

He was clean, in a new set of clothes. I remember him being more dishevelled the last time I saw him.

Which was at the fight.

Everything flooded into my mind suddenly and I slapped my hand on my forehead. As if that could save me from the sheer weight of the memories coming back to me.

"Give me some time alone with him," he told the officer and walked in, sitting on the stool next to my bed.

The nurse left and it was just us two in the room.

I didn't know what I was feeling.

Pissed and angry.

Confused and unsure.

Worried and scared.

Scared for Serena.

I pushed myself to sit up and Shawn used his ice to push the remote for my bed to adjust to a sitting position.

I tried to sit comfortably but I felt all edgy and my whole body ached.

"Ah fuck!" I winced and realised my left leg which was frozen was totally numb.

Shawn just sat there, arms folded, watching me trying to untangle myself in this ridiculous mess.

The dripping sound was still there, annoying me to no end. I looked to my side and saw the stupid IV dripping some liquid into a tube that was connected to my wrist.

Shawn breathed out heavily and I could tell the heat was getting to him.

"What's going on?" I asked with whatever sanity I had left. I will run out of here the moment I know where Serena is.

"You're in a hospital, they're keeping you under surveillance," Shawn answered clearly, nonchalantly.

"I can see that. Where is Serena?" 

I saw a flash of hurt behind his eyes before his expression turned hard again.

"I will tell you after we're done talking. Don't think I don't know that you'll bound out of here the moment you know where my sister is."

Damn it.

"Since when did you regard her as your sister Shawn? I thought you were being all high and mighty about trying to kill Tyronne and whatnot," I spit out and he sighed, beads of ice appearing on his forehead.

Then I felt my mind whirl, "Did you? Did you kill him?"

Shawn and I used to be on the same page, we never killed anyone. Thanks to our powers we have enough reason to not have to kill anyone.

Torturing was enough to send our victims screaming and begging to die. 

If Shawn is the same man that I remember, he won't kill Tyronne.

Is he still the same partner that I went through thick and thin with though?

He smiled and shook his head, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, "Come on Benny boy, you know me better than that."

I cringed at the nickname, I told him that was the nickname my mum used on me and he decided to make my life a little worse by using it.

"Are you for real now? Because I remember you almost killing me for going against you," I eyed him but his grin grew wider.

"Yes, almost. Enough to get you out of the gang safely. Well, as safely as I thought possible. And enough for you to not come running back into trouble."

My mind was working double-time to absorb what he was saying, "Wait what?"

He chuckled and leaned back on the uncomfortable hospital chair, "I'm sorry I beat you up and I'm also sorry for framing you. But it's the only way for you to get out of the gang, I don't want you to be charged under the law.

The small crimes you helped with can be cleared easily, you didn't handle much of the big projects, you beat some people up, but that's all there is to it. Because you are not part of the gang."

I blinked at him, I'm not normally that slow in digesting information but the words that Shawn was speaking were taking longer than usual to settle in my skull.

Maybe it's the weird liquid thing that they've attached to my wrist.

I fired the heat in my body towards my wrist and it burned up the tube to the drip, the whole thing burning up in flames.

Shawn continued staring at me and he had to take a deep breath to let the cold in him run through his body.

"You wanted me out of the gang? What for? We're partners, we're supposed to take Tyronne down together, get him arrested. That was our plan remember?"

He nodded like a mature understanding old man, "Yes it was. I'm sorry about that too. I had other agendas to take care of and I didn't want you to be part of it all. Until three nights ago that is."

My eyes widened, "I was out for three whole days?!"

The drip next to me turned into a melted lump on the ground.

I scrambled out of the bed but my frozen leg literally died out on me and I fell face flat on the ground. I groaned and pushed myself up, "Unfreeze me."

Shawn was still sitting there and it didn't seem like he was going to help me anytime soon, "I can't Benny, I can't unfreeze the ice."

I glared at him and projected my heat to melt the leg of his chair. His chair collapsed and he fell backwards to the floor.

"Ow fuck! Ben I can't fucking unfreeze you it's not a matter of choice!" He yelled and I got up, slumping back onto the creaky bed.

"You have ice powers but you can't fucking get me out of it?!"

"Serena froze you not me. I tried getting rid of the ice on you but I can't. Only my sister can, her ice is so freaking sturdy I can't get around it," he got up and brushed himself off as he explained himself. 

He's serious. 

Maybe Serena was really more powerful than we thought.

But that means...

"She hasn't tried unfreezing me?" I croaked out, realisation dawning upon me. 

Something is wrong with her.

Shawn registered the look on my face and immediately froze the chair back up so he could sit, and block me from leaving the room.

"Now calm down before you do anything rash, hear me out. After we're done here I'll take you to see her, man's honour," he put his hand on his heart but I was breathing too deeply.

Anxious and worried about Serena. 

My girl.

I turned to him and I could almost see the gears turning in his head. His body was tense and ready, in case I made a run for it.

One thing I know is that I wouldn't get any answers if I ran out of here, I don't even know where to go to look for Serena.

I sat back properly on the bed, my body aching like crazy. How did Serena freeze my leg this bad?

My memories started clicking back together.

Shawn was fighting with me to get Tasha. I wouldn't let him have her. 

If he wants to kill Tyronne then what more will he do to his wife? Serena was yelling at me for some reason.

I couldn't hear her, I need to get Tasha out of Shawn's grip no matter what. His powers were nearly spent, I can feel it. Just a little bit more.

Then I heard Serena scream my name before a huge wave of cold washed over and through me.

God that hurt like hell. I couldn't breathe, blood was pooling in my mouth and I kept coughing it out. Then I heard her voice.

Serena's voice.

"I'm sorry."

"Ben, Benjamin!" 

I snapped up, seeing Shawn staring at me, "Dude please we need to get some things settled before I can take you to see her."

I leaned back, feeling my heart race, "You tried to kill me Shawn, why should I trust you?"

The edge of his mouth curled up slightly but he managed to maintain his poker face, I guess, "Ben, I didn't mean to kill you. Literally. Think about it, if I really wanted to kill you, would I leave your body right there, near where your other friend was working?

Would I leave you there still breathing? I would have frozen and shattered you if I wanted you dead."

"Then why? Why the hell would you beat me up and leave me there fucking half dead?" I've never been angrier, I couldn't understand why he would do that to me.

"I wanted you out of the gang, it was the only way I could save you."

"Save me from what?!"

"Save you from the law Ben, Tyronne was getting into bigger shit and I don't want you having any part of it. I don't want my buddy to go to jail."

"Oh so you'll go to jail on your own huh? How about that? We're supposed to find the right time to get Tyronne arrested, but now you might get arrested along with him, how fucking clever of you."

He shook his head and fished something out of his pocket, a badge. A police badge.

"What the actual fuck? You're joking, there's no bloody way you are part of the police."

"I'm not, I'm part of the CIA, I'm working undercover."

Woah woah woah. Wait and hold the fuck up.

Shawn? He was part of the CIA as an undercover agent?

"Wait what? You do realise you're not making any sense right? Does Serena know about this?" I eyed him sceptically.

He shook his head, "No one knows Ben, only the team and I know about it."

"Well would you care to share now? Like what the hell is actually going on?"

He sighed loudly and leaned forward in that flimsy hospital chair, "I love Serena, she's my sister though I acted aloof about it. Her appearance shocked me really. I didn't expect her to be with you.

Firstly, that day you found me at the bottom of the mountain, it was a few days after the ski accident."

I nodded, Shawn told me how he got his powers. He went skiing and an avalanche covered him. He crawled out on his own and somehow made his way to the bottom of the mountain where we found him.

"I'm guessing that is where Serena got her powers as well, there's no other possible reason to explain where she got them. Anyway, I was working at the ski resort undercover as well, there were rumours that the gang we were after will be transporting goods through the area.

I was searching and tracking when the gang will arrive, but they found me instead though."

He smirked at that but I held my glare, I was in the gang, I found him.

He continued, "You know what happened after that. I was a little banged up, but when I got back on my own two feet I contacted the agency and they told me to remain where I was.

It was the optimal position to be in really, I could trace each parcel and shipment that went in or out. That's where I started collecting evidence to arrest Tyronne. I know you were blowing up some of the warehouses to start getting his work exposed.

We can charge him with the murder of our previous boss as well."

"So you tried killing me and then threatened your own sister? How smart of you," I remarked drily. I wasn't surprised if Shawn knew I was the one burning down the warehouses, I would be more surprised if he didn't.

"Okay Ben, for the last time, I didn't mean to kill you. That night before I met up with you for a drink, I went back to my old house to look for my family. Serena and my parents were long gone. I had no one else to rely on and I had no other way to look for them.

Even if I could look for them it'll take some time. I don't even know where to start finding them.

That was when I decided that I had to get you out of the gang, because no matter what I did at least my family was safe. Somewhere.

I wanted that for you too. I wanted my buddy to be safe.

Once you're out, you won't have to handle anything dangerous, you know damn well that Tyronne was getting into bigger deals. If you continued working for him you will face bigger charges. 

I didn't want you to do any more of Tyronne's dirty work.

That's why I got you out, I knew you will find some other way to survive. You will open a restaurant or something. I mean, that's all you ever talked about. Why do you think your restaurant back in our town is still alive and running? Wouldn't Tyronne have found out about it?"

Well, he was quite right about that. Tyronne was a man of connections and if I had one damn restaurant operating for that long he would have found out. But Shawn somehow covered it for me.

"I understand what you did for me now, but what about Serena? Why would you treat her like that? She went bonkers when she caught sight of you. She literally ran across a street when she saw a glimpse of her long-lost brother," I was getting edgy again, where and what happened to Serena?

"I made her hate me because under no circumstance would I want her to choose between us," Shawn took a deep breath and sighed, why was this so difficult for him?

"Shawn, you are her brother. Of course she'll choose you over me," my heart died a little at that, even though it shouldn't bother me that much. 

She did fire a wave of frost towards me, causing part of my body to be frozen till now. 

Shawn gave me a weird look, as if there was a huge missing piece of a puzzle that I wasn't aware of.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I eyed him and the heat ran down my arms as if I should get ready for what he was about to say next.

"Ben, my sister loves you."