Reunited
Evan left at 3 am. He took the bike Barty left him, practically jumped out of the door and didn’t look back. He needed to get to his sister. Make sure she was safe. Even if it meant biking an hour in the middle of the night in dress clothes. Pandora was everything to him.
He knew the palace would most likely be in a state of complete chaos after the assassination, yet he hoped Pandora hadn’t been moved to a different location. When he arrived, he saw immediately that she hadn’t been. Pandora Rosier was taking a walk around the grounds. How she convinced the guards to let her out, he had no idea. All his fears were washed away instantly, but when she noticed him, he knew he had to act fast. He signaled to her they needed to hide. He couldn’t risk anyone else seeing him, because they’d ask what happened, and Barty… why did Evan care what happened to Barty? He had only known him for a few days, and he was a murderer and kidnapper. Despite that, Evan believed he was a good person. Maybe Evan really needed help.
“Evie, where have you been?” whispered Pandora frantically once they were hidden behind a bush.
“Long story, Panda, look I need to get out of here” he didn’t quite know what he was saying.
“You just got here!” she hissed. “I’m not letting you go again”.
“You don’t understand, my kidnapper, I don’t want him to get in trouble-”
“Evan, you need to get inside. We’ll worry about your Stockholm Syndrome later”.
“I do not have Stockholm Syndrome!”
Why did everyone keep saying that? That is a legitimate medical diagnosis and it shouldn’t be thrown about like that. Just because Evan thought Barty was a good person, and that he was pretty, and that he wanted to take his silver chain and… nope, no, no, no. Evan needed to get inside and do what Pandora said.
“Okay. Um, okay, let’s go. Promise me no one else will see me”.
“Fine, please, just come with me”.
He followed her inside. She chatted with the guards to distract them as he snuck through. They went up to Pandora’s room. He sat down on the bed.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I was in the bathroom, and then a guy who murdered the Blacks made me jump out of the window”.
“God, Evan, what?”
“Well, in short. He took me to a hut for a few days, then when he didn’t get instructions from his friend on what to do next, he took me to a proper house and let me go”.
Evan left out the part where he’d smiled at Barty calling him Ev, the part where he’d rather look at Barty than out the window, and every other time he was drawn to him.
“Okay, Ev, you need to tell this to the detectives”.
“No! I can’t, they’ll take him, they’ll-”
“Look, I’m sure they’ll let him go if you can prove he didn’t hurt you. I could pull some strings”.
Evan did not like the sound of that, but he didn’t want to argue with his sister.
“Alright. Let me just shower and sleep, we can go to them in the morning”.
Pandora smiled.
***
Evan hated the detectives office. There were seven people looking at him with emotions ranging from anger to worry to amazement.
“So”, the one with shoulder length black hair said. “What happened”.
“Oh, be a little gentler, maybe, Sirius? He’s been through a lot”. Another said.
“Hi, I’m Mary. Do you want to tell us what happened?” she asked.
“Now how is that any different that what I just said?” argued Sirius.
“I was a lot nicer about it, for starters” she said.
“Wow, that must have been difficult for you” he quipped.
“Do you want me to talk or not?” said Evan, irritated.
“We do”, a red head said. “So please start now before these two get into a fist fight”.
Evan took a deep breath. He told them everything. Even gave them the map and showed where the second house was. He was too embarrassed to mention that he didn’t want them to imprison Barty. Afterwards, he sat down alone with Pandora and let his face fall into his hands.
“They’re going to find him” he said.
“That was the point, Ev”.
“I don’t want them to hurt him”.
“It’ll be okay”, she said, hugging him. “You know, you seem to… care about him a lot”.
“I do” Evan sighed. “He wasn’t supposed to be a murderer, to be honest, he just seemed like… a scared teenager. He didn’t know what he was doing”.
“It’s alright, Evie, it’s going to be okay”.
“Yeah, I—I know. He’s just so…”
Pandora’s brows immediately shot up. “So what?”
“Nothing”.
“Ev, stop running from this”.
“From what?”
“From Barty”.
“What do you mean?”
“Well”, said Pandora, “You obviously like him”.
“What!?”
“Yes, it’s quite obvious”.
“But, Panda, he’s my kidnapper! And a murderer!”
“You have made that point enough times, Evan. From what I heard he seems to be a nice enough man”.
Evan was stuttering and choking on his own words. “No”.
“Is he not?”
“I mean, he is, but…”
“Then when they bring him here you’ll have an opportunity to spend more time with him” said Pandora confidently. “Go rest now. You’ve had a long week. I’ll tell you when they find him”.