Page 24 of Bound by Affliction
9
Green
She’s quiet,which isn’t like Leah one bit. She’s so full of life and energy, but this isn’t my girl. Luckily her eyes are physically fine, but the light I’d grown accustomed to in them has dimmed, and I catch her more than once just staring absently at the wall. It’s so intense that even when her father stepped in her line of sight, she didn’t budge. It was as if she checked out and wasn’t in the same room asus.
Not going to lie, she’s scaring the shit out of me. How this woman got under my skin in only a few months, I’ll never know, but she did and hell if seeing her like this doesn’t kill me. She’ll talk, but nothing like she used to. There is no smile in her voice or hell, even a tone—only sounding monotone. There is no life, where before there was so much. When we met up she couldn’t stop smiling and talking. always wanting to know more and so damn interested in what I had to say. This woman in front of me is a shell, and I fucking hateit.
“Well,” the doctor comes in all smiles, which is so different than before. “Are you ready to go home?” he asks Leah. Her eyes widen, igniting a spark and the fire fizzles as she clears herthroat.
“Yeah.” It’s a lie. She doesn’t want to go home to her apartment and she can’t go to her parent’s home because that’s where the attack happened. They are currently living in a hotel and getting ready to sell the house, stating they couldn’t live there any longer. She doesn’t feel safe anywhere and who the hell could blameher.
The doctor looks around then his gaze lands on me. “Are you staying withher?”
“No,” Leah says a little too quickly, and the hell if it doesn’t piss me off. I haven’t spent weeks in this hell hole with her in a coma and now a week with her out of it to not take care of her at home. Fuck that. She may say she doesn’t want me there, but I know her better than I’ve known any other woman in my life. All of it through letters, but I swear I got more out of her through those than I would have being face to face withher.
“Yes, I’ll be withher.”
A noise escapes Leah’s throat. “We need to talk,” she whisperssoftly.
“We’ll do that after I get you home and settled.” Even though this is a terribly difficult time and she’s having a shit time processing it all, it doesn’t matter one damn bit to me. This means I take care of her by any means necessary. When I care about something or someone, it’s fullthrottle.
She gives up easily, another trait that she’s picked up since waking up. Normally, she’d be all over me giving me attitude—that I love, mind you. I’m missing it, badly. This is the exact opposite. I worried for days if she was going to wake up, but didn’t put much thought into her being so damn different from herself. Yes, I knew she’d have a tough time dealing with what happened, but this complete one-eighty is a hard pill toswallow.
“Right. She has pain meds, but most of her cuts are healing very nicely.” He goes through the procedures of taking care of the wounds and the therapy exercises that she has to do at home. She’s doing very well with her movement, getting a lot of her strength back. It’s another reason after a week waking up, she’s about to come home. Which also tells me that there is still fire inside of her and a strive to make her body better. We just need to get her head on board aswell.
“We can go to her apartment with her,” Stella says after the doctor leaves, giving me an out that she knows I won’t take. It’s hard to miss the changes in her daughter when they are smacking you right in yourface.
Leah saysnothing.
“I’ve gother.”
Leaving the hospital is like a damn circus. Someone had to push her in the wheelchair to the patient loading area. Which I went to the wrong one. Hell, it’s not my town, but you’d think for as long as I’ve been here I would’ve known better. Not to mention, her car is little as shit. I barely have room even with the seat all the way back for my long ass legs, not to mention my head against theroof.
After finding the right place to get her, the guy who wheeled her out tried to help her and I about ripped his damn head off for touchingher.
The trip took the energy out of Leah, and she’s currently laying in her bed while I sit on the couch watchingher.
She’s peaceful for quite some time, then she begins to toss and turn, mumbling in her sleep. I kick off my boots and climb into bed with her. Her body jolts when I wrap my arms around her. “You’re okay. I’ve got you,” I whisper as she relaxes into me. This is how we sleep, and it’s the best damn night’s sleep I’ve had in quite sometime.
* * *
“Do you need help?”
Leah freezes, the towel clutched tightly to her body that is still covered in her clothes. She’s only worn long sleeves and pants since she woke up. I’ve already seen the marks, but she’s hiding them, not sure if it’s from me or from herself considering she hasn’t said a word about the attack since the cops came to interview her a day after she wokeup.
“No. I’m good.” She darts into the bathroom, shutting the door and I hear the shower turn on. I wait for any loud thuds, hoping like hell she doesn’t fall and hurt herself anymore. She’s too damn stubborn to let me help her. I’ve given her this play. One because she’s so damn raw, and two because I know she’s embarrassed about the way her body looks now. It’s not the time either for me to pushit.
Grabbing a cup of coffee, I sit at the table and keep listening. Yesterday, she mostly slept and I did too, for that matter. It was so damn nice being in an actual bed instead of a chair, that my body finally relaxed after days of fear putting me in a deep sleep. Luckily, with my arms wrapped around her, she didn’t cry or thrash in her sleep, giving her a peaceful rest aswell.
With the new morning light though, everything is coming back into play. Leah’s barely talking and the life that shined so brightly in her eyes is so damn dim that I’d love to take a turn with those three fuckers, only to take them to the brink of death, revive them, and do it all over again until they are begging todie.
Since that can’t happen, I have to keep all that shit in check and deal with the situation athand.
The door opens and Leah steps out, fully dressed from top to bottom. The only tell that she even took a shower is her wet hair that’s still missing clumps, a vivid reminder of what those assholes did toher.
The yellows around her face are subsiding a bit, but I can still tell exactly where she was hit or slit. Her eyes aren’t swollen anymore, but she does have a small cut above one of them and sees just fine according to the doctors. Keeping my anger tapped down is difficult, but I know it’s not what she needs rightnow.
Lifting the coffee mug to my lips, I take a drink of the burning liquid as it sears going down mythroat.
