Nick back stepped only for Holly to lung forwards, her uninjured hand wrapping around him and pulling him into a hug.
"I'm so glad your safe! Why did you run away!" Holly's usually stoic voice was on the edge of tears.
"I uhh... Just wanted some alone time" Nick couldn't tell her about his immense guilt and fear that their lives could be in danger.
Holly's hand was latched on for a solid minute, enough time for Willie to get back to his car and drive away, leaving the two alone in park.
Holly began asking Nick a bunch of questions, seeing if he had any brain damage from losing all that blood. Nick hadn't been checked over by the doctors after the shooting, so it wasn't known if he was facing any serious repercussions.
After ten minutes of serious questioning and determining that Nick only had a limp from the incident, Holly began to cool down.
"I don't know why you've run away or not returning anyone's calls but I just wanted to to thank you in person! If you weren't there Nick, Wendy, no, our entire family probably would've been killed in that gunfire. I just want you to know how sincerely grateful I am to you." The tears began flowing down Holly's cheeks and she pulled Nick into another hug.
Hearing her words and feeling her warm hug, Nicks guilt just kept growing heavier listening to her thank him.
"To think you attending that play inadvertently saved the entire family" When Holly said with a tearful chuckle, Nick's face shifted to confusion.
"What do you mean that me attending saved the family?" Nick said catching that detail.
"During the raid on Edward Kim, we obtained all of their Intel and learned about their plans to kill me." Hearing that Edward was planning on Killing Holly and not him, the confusion on Nick's face grew.
Nick thought the reason his family was attacked was because he stopped Edwards assassination attempt on his star witness, the man who testified and made the crime boss go into hiding.
"I was the one in charge of capturing Edward Kim and when we created this new branch of government for hunting Anomalies, I no longer took on gang cases but I fought hard to continue working on Edward Kim case." The moment the Crime boss tried to Kill her nephew who she raised as a son, Holly made it her life's mission to put him behind bars.
"These past three months I've managed to eradicate a dozen of Edwards drug operations, affectively crippling his underground organization. The rat hiding within the NIA must've told them about me because they had planned to kill me by flooding our house with an orderless nerve gas, they were gonna do that but when they saw you attendeding the play their plans changed!"
"You were also on their hitlist as your the famous Hero in the News for saving a crashing plane and foiling a Major crimes bosses attempt at killing his witness, so with both of us being in the same car together they changed their plans and didn't waste the chance!" The one armed hug around Nick strengthen even more.
"If you hadn't went to the play with us, me, Kevin, Wendy and Rick would've been dead in our sleep from poisoning. Once again Nick, thank you! I am proud to have raised you and I love you dearly boy!"
"...." Nicks mind was going through multiple different emotions at once before ultimately landing on one.
There was a moment of silence after Holly finished talking, she looked up only to see tears silently pouring out of Nick's eyes as he finally hugged her back.
The guilt slowly fades away as the idea that him being with his family was what saved them, Nick being with them turned a sure-fire assassination at Holly's house into a hasty drive by shooting that everyone survived.
"Thank you for raising me!"
****
Time flies and another month passed, Nick had visited the twins and Rick back in the Los Angeles hospital. He was literally tackled hugged by Wendy, tears were in her eyes as she thanked him while Kevin followed suit.
Rick patted Nicks shoulder and thanked him deeply, he said he was proud to have help raise Nick.
The talk he had with Holly had completely changed his way of looking at his 'curse'.
Pulling out a laminated piece of paper, Nick reread the paper that first described the situation he was in this alternate world.
[Hello there, this is the being that sent you here! I guess I don't really need to tell you everything, so long story short, if you look at your right forearm you'll see something new. That is a new power outside of my own domain, and I boasted about how badass it is to my friend group. My friend &1@$#3+_?)#2@ started shit talking my new power, so we created a little bet. The bet was to see how far you could survive with my new power inside of this chaotic world. My power allows you to assimilate the abilities of any living creature in the world! The stronger they are, the more powers that you get from them.
You just need to kill a being, and use its blood to make a thumb print into one of your five squares. You can only change a square once a week though :(
P.S. My friend made the stipulation that it would be unfair if you hid on some remote island to survive, so he cursed you to always attract danger to yourself, good luck buddy and help me win this bet :) ]
Up until now Nick thought his curse would attract danger to him and thus his family, so he refused to stay close to them. He only realized now that his idea was wrong, the wording could be taken that he'd attracted danger away from his family!
After doing heavy research with and without Bobby singers help over the month, Nick thought he finally found the name of his curse or atleast a curse very similar to his. The Tentomushi Curse!
In Japanese folktale, a Tentomushi (ladybug) with Five black spots is said to attract the five Sorrows of the World. While the Tentomushi lived a miserable life, those around them can live in peace and be happy as the Tentomushi drew their misfortune to itself.
Thinking back to every single encounter he had in this alternate world, Nick would always attract danger to himself and save the lives of others.
'If this curse is what I think it is, then it would make a lot of sense from that fuc... God's perspective. If my family dies, then I'd lose a lot incentive to keep going and survive which would lose him his bet. Whereever I am, the danger gets attracted to myself and away from others! This sure would've been nice to have known from the beginning...' Anger and annoyance contorted Nick expression
While Nick didn't know if those two god like being who were watching him were reading his mind, he knew for a fact they could given the power they've already displayed. He hate them for using his life as mere entertainment, but he knew better than to insult the beings who could probably erase him from existence.
"I guess this curse isn't so bad, infact it might be a blessing in a way. Whatever misfortune that befalls others, especially my family, gets attracted to me instead!"