Monroe gripped a handful of her hair and tugged. She felt so defeated and she didn't know what to do. She didn’t have anyone to turn to and ask for guidance.
CHAPTER TEN
MICHAEL
Michael slowly walked back to the kitchen, waiting to see if Monroe would call him back. He knew she wouldn't, but he had told her he was here for her if she needed anything. He had hoped she would call him back, ask him to hold her, and keep her safe.
That's all Michael wanted to do. He wanted to hold her against him and keep her safe. Comfort her in her time of need, but he knew she needed to be alone right now. She was scared and he didn't want to make it worse.
He'd wondered if he’d moved too fast…or too slow. If he had insisted on holding her, would it have made her feel more safe, or frightened her again? That was if he made her feel safe. Michael had no clue if he had that effect on her or not, and she didn't give any indication if she felt safe or not.
Well, she kind of did give an indication when he thought about it. Monroe had tried to leave that morning while he was asleep. Michael had thought last night that she might try to run so he had set the house alarm. Normally he didn't set it because it was a safe neighborhood, but he had hoped the noise of the alarm would cause her to freeze long enough for him to get downstairs.
Michael felt bad for relying on her fear response, but he knew she shouldn't be out on the streets right now in her condition.
She had a concussion, was dehydrated, had to be in a lot of pain, and was underweight. He didn't know how long she had been on the road, but he bet it was a while, and he needed to take care of her. She could have passed out at any time while driving.
What if she had been on the highway and passed out? She could have rammed into another car or a semi and gotten killed—or killed someone. Just the thought of her getting hurt or being killed hurt him. He didn't want anything to happen to her. She was already too precious to him.
Michael took a deep breath in and pulled out eggs and bread. He wanted to get some protein and carbs into her so she could gain some weight. Hopefully she liked milk because he knew that was another great way to get protein into her and fuel her body.
When was the last time she had eaten properly? Michael didn't know if he wanted to know the actual answer to that question. What if it had been years?
Every thought about how she lived before broke his heart. He wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone, but Monroe tugged at his heart strings and his Daddy instincts. He wished he could go back in time and find her before the other person had come into her life, whoever it was.
As he started to make breakfast, he thought back to what had just happened to process everything. The alarm going off had woken him up in a panic and for a second, he had forgotten that Monroe was in the house.
The first thought that ran through his head was that someone was breaking in. He had rushed out of bed, forgetting he only had shorts on and running out of his room and into the living room.
That was when he saw her, on the floor with her hands over her head. She had been rocking back and forth as she covered her head, a clear defense mechanism, and he had no doubt she was reliving events that happened throughout her life.
Michael had made sure he turned off the alarm as quickly as possible before he tried to talk to her. Maybe he should have thought of a better way to keep her in the house. He could have slept on the couch so he would hear her and not make her go through all that. The guilt had been almost overwhelming as he had watched her rock back and forth.
He had tried to be gentle when he talked to her, but even then she had screamed and backed away into the corner. The sight broke his heart and even now, thinking about it, Michael had to take a couple of seconds to regain his composure.
Everything in him wanted to go back in there and make sure she was okay. He wanted to hold her against him, rocking her to calm her down.
Michael didn't know if he could’ve handled that differently. He tried to rack his brain to come up with different scenarios, but he couldn't. His voice hadn't been getting through to her and when he’d touched her, she’d panicked.
Thankfully, he was able to calm her down when he held her. Those glorious couple of minutes he felt her in his arms made him crave more. Oh, so much more, but he needed to be patient and gentle with her. He didn't want to overwhelm her and end up scaring her away. There would be plenty of other times to hold her like that again.
How could he get her to trust him? He had never been around abused survivors long after he checked them over. They normally went on their way after he told them there wasn't anything else but rest they could do for them. Even when they stayed in the shelter, he didn’t interact with them much unless they needed medical advice. He could call one of the nurses that worked at the clinic with the abuse victims and ask her what he could do.
Michael turned off the burner and pulled the eggs off before gently placing them on two plates. It was earlier than he had planned on waking up, but he was going to make the best of it. He needed to plan out his day and come up with a plan on how to get her to trust him.
First, though, he needed to get her fed. He knew just by looking at her that she was underweight. She was tall and the way her arms and legs looked in her clothes left no room for any imagination. Monroe was too skinny.
He bet he could wrap his whole hand around her bicep and overlap his fingers. That was how skinny she looked. He knew it wasn't healthy and he wanted to help her fix that.
Maybe he could get her to drink some protein shakes and go down for a nap. He didn't know how she would feel about taking naps, but it was essential for getting better. Lots of food, liquids, and rest, and he wanted to provide that for her. Her body needed it to heal properly.
He didn’t know if he could get her to do any of it, but he would try. She recognized his Daddy voice and seemed to follow it.
She had seemed to respond to that well, but Michael didn't want to overuse and abuse it. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He would be no better than the person she was trying to run from.
She had clearly been abused, probably by someone who wanted to control her. He wasn’t like that, but would she be able to see the difference? He wanted her to heal, and to help her grow.
Picking up some strawberries, he started to cut some onto their plates. He didn’t know if she liked strawberries, but he hoped she did. If she didn’t, then he would get something else for her.