When it rains in the desert

Goodnight Love

She looked around in panic, ready to fend off anyone who might attack.  Her eyes quickly met mine and she lowered her body back onto the wall and rested her head back. She sat herself up a little and I could tell there was something wrong with her stomach when she cautiously rested her back again.

"Hey you" She practically breathed the words, smiling but i could tell it  took a lot of strength to hold up the corners of her mouth. She slowly glanced over my eyes, my nose, my mouth and my chin before looking back up at my eyes. I felt suddenly exposed, nervous as she moved her eyes over mine. I couldn't actually comprehend that she was sat in front of me, It took me a minute to realize that I had to reply. 

"Hello sweetheart." She gave me another weak smile in reply and I remembered that we were out in the hall. I fumbled for the keys I'd put back in my pocket when I asked her "can you walk?" I was almost whispering, so afraid that I was going to break her if I spoke too loudly.

She shook her head " I don't think so, the walk to the elevator took almost everything out of me". I nodded at her, opened the door and went back to get her. I couldn't tell, but it looked like she was trying hard to stay conscious, her eyes kept on drifting and as I slowly bent down to pick her up I could tell there was more to what had happened than just the injuries I could see. I lifted her up in my arms slowly, careful not to make the pain worse and walked inside, closing the door behind me.

As I made my way over to the bedroom her shirt had ridden up where my hands were and I could see the bruises that sat low on her stomach. I placed her comfortably on the bed and and went to get the first aid kit from the bathroom. 

She had moved so she was sat up and I could now see something black poking out of the back of her pants. I stilled, realizing what it was. She noticed me staring at it and smiled "I promise I won't use it on you unless you make me" I smiled at the comfort i found in her easy humor, even as she was holding on by a thread. I walked back towards the bed and sat across from her. 

I took out the alcohol wipes and began cleaning the cut from her face. She flinched at the contact "sorry" I said a little too flatly, pulling away the wipe and approaching more gingerly. She sat quietly whilst I cleaned her cut, staring at the bed sheet, then at the bathroom door behind me, then at the bookshelf, basically everywhere apart from my eyes. 

I broke the silence. "Celia, what happened?" She closed her eyes for a second before looking at me. "If I told you-" she grimaced at the movement of her lips, making the cut I just cleaned bleed a little more. "If I told you, you'd think I was bonkers" she said smiling as much as her lips would allow.I smiled at the reference to one of our first encounters. 

I looked back up at her, showing her that her answer wasn't good enough. She took a deep breath "It was Rick" she looked down, clearly ashamed and then looked back at me "I should've seen it coming" She blinked back the tears that were clearly threatening to spill. she wiped her eyes and winced again. 

I looked at her arm, and then took her torn shirt, slowly, slowly lifting it to reveal the sea of purple painted over her abdomen. I felt my eyes widen and heard the gasp leave my mouth before i could stop it. 

"Ceils, you need to go to the hospital" She moved back on to the bed so she was resting on the head board and said "no, no hospitals, i'm just tired, promise." I decided not to push the issue, I could take her in the morning if she really needed to go.

"you should get some sleep, I'll take the couch" she began to get up when I lowered her shoulders back down.

"That's ridiculous Jacob, you can sleep in the bed."

The truth is, I would love nothing more than to get in the bed, to feel her roll over towards me, to feel the weight of her arm across my waist and her head on my chest. I so badly wanted to be locked up in her embrace once again, to feel her hair in my hands, to feel her body next to mine. But I was angry, I was so angry, I hadn't seen her in four months and now she just shows up out of the blue, basically beaten to a pulp and I wasn't about to argue with her about it now. 

"Goodnight love"

Then I turned the light off and shut the door.