Page 144 of Petite Fleur

She makes the voices stop.

She makes everything quiet.

I jump in the car and plug Abby’s address into my GPS before handing Maeve my phone. “Let me know when to turn. Can you do that for me, love?” I ask.

She smiles beautifully and nods. “Of course. Is everything okay with the piercer?” She asks.

Everything is perfect; he’s exactly where he belongs.

“Of course, I figured I’d chat for a moment while he locked up for the day.” I lie.

She nods but doesn’t say anything else other than the occasional direction in the GPS, but her hand doesn’t leave mine, and her thumb strokes my hand as much as she can reach.

While I love that Maeve is trying to comfort me, I don't need comfort. I need to find out who the fifth man is. I need to stop my patient from making a horrible mistake. I need to get Abby far enough from the edge that I don’t have to have her committed.

Fuck, I feel like shit that Abby was calling me the entire time, and I didn’t answer.

When she’s more stable, I will ask her how she got my number and why she thought it was acceptable to call my personal cell phone, but not right now.

Maeve barrels past me as soon as we’re parked, not even waiting for me to open her door for her. “Maeve!” I yell after her, but she’s not hearing it.

A small part of me was scared that she was going to run from me, but she’s running toward Abby, not away from me.

I take off after her, running toward Abby’s apartment. She had left the door unlocked; I assume she had planned to call the police on herself and didn’t want them to have to break her door down.

It’s strange and fascinating how statistically women not only choose less graphic ways of suicide, but they worry about the person who will find them.

It’s a sad reality that even at the end of their lives, women are conditioned to think about others before themselves.

I don’t think I’d give a shit about the person finding me if I were that close to the edge; I’d worry about being gone and nothing else.

I should have pried more into her story; I should have done hypnotics or something, anything else to make sure she had a clear head and remembered it all, but being given drugs is tricky.

Sometimes you remember nothing, sometimes you remember it all, and sometimes the memories come back in flashes that almost seem like dreams.

It’s hard to predict how someone will react without knowing exactly what they were given and how much.

When I reach the house, Maeve is already in the bathroom with Abby. I rush in there, seeing Maeve climbing in the tub behind Abby. She takes the bloody razor from Abby, tossing it across the room. “Don’t put your piercings in the water, ma fleur.” I say calmly to her. She nods, but she doesn’t focus on me. She focuses on Abby, and that’s fine by me.

I squat down in front of the tub, making eye contact with Abby. “Is this your wife?” She asks calmly.

I nod, smiling at Maeve for a moment before focusing on Abby. “Tell me what happened.” I insist.

I see that she’s already cut herself once, a long slice up her forearm, but that she didn’t quite get deep enough to hit an artery. Thank God for that, but I can’t ignore this behavior. She's still heavily bleeding, staining the water with her blood until it's all a pale pink, and has stained both her and Maeve's clothes. "She's really pretty." Abby says.

I want to laugh, but this is a serious situation, and she’s trying to distract me from what brought us here. "She is. Now tell me what's going on."

Abby huffs, and her tears start back up, but she doesn’t explain herself. No, she stares over at me with a heartbreaking look and tears down her face. “You risked everything for me.” She mumbles.

What?

I raise an eyebrow and readjust my stance, already feeling a throbbing pain in my leg, but now is not the time for my discomfort. “What are you talking about?” I ask calmly.

I know that statement just terrified Maeve; I can see the look on her face, the one that showcases the genuine fear of going to prison for what we did to Abby’s rapists, but that will never happen.

“The pills.” She mumbles.

Ah.

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