"So, I had a nice conversation with your boyfriend today" Doc declares from the silence.
He sits on his armchair in the darkened corner of the room with my laptop and a glass of scotch. He's not long got home from what I suspect was a full day at work, he's irritated and fatigued.
I sit at the small breakfast table with my colouring book and pencils, I've added a sketch to every page, a self portrait, adding myself in various provocative positions with my new buddy Jason.
I can't deny we look good together.
"You spoke to Aqua Man?" I ask amazed.
"No....." he laughs. "Your actual boyfriend. Myles intruded on my elevator ride today, it was most uncomfortable to say the least"
"Oh" I drop my pencil.
I study the baseball cap he hides under. It's plain black without even a hint at a favourite sporting team.
"I think he suspects something, I don't like it" he tells me making my heart sink into the pit of my stomach.
"Like what?"
"He asked if I'd ever observed side effects to a certain heart medication...... your medication. I told him I'd never prescribed it to a patient, I slipped up" he confesses.
"How so?"
"He opened a folder containing a pharmaceutical log, the same one I studied months ago when I caught on to what he was doing. The same one that had my name as the last prescribing doctor"
Myles is very calculated by nature, his questions are never random.
"What does that mean?"
"One of two things. That he knows I've been investigating the discrepancies at work, or he knows I've been investigating the way he drugs women. More importantly, you"
I push to a stand, my feet feel the need to run, or hide, or both.
"What do we do?" I panic.
"We? Nothing" he scoffs.
I don't want to unpack what weight I place on us as a team so I ignore it the way he has.
"I have to throw him off for a bit, I'm going away for a few days with some workmates" he announces and closes the computer on his lap.
"What about me?!" I step closer to him but my chains stop me before I can reach him.
"I need you to behave like your life depends on it, you'll have food, plenty of water, your medication...... you'll be completely fine here on your own. Just don't make any loud noises or try to escape" he pleads and stands also so he towers over me.
"No..... can't you take me with you?" I blurt out without thinking.
"Lucy, I could run away with you. We couldn't ever come back, your family and friends would be the ones in danger left behind here. No one has found your body, if you're dead, why hasn't anyone reported it? He's suspicious, but he doesn't have reason to know you're here with me. If he sees me out, away from this house, with people he trusts..... I need to do this. Two nights, that's all"
"When?" I start to cry unwanted tears.
"Tomorrow morning, there's a conference up north, about an hour away" he tells me gently.
"No..... please?" I beg.
"You're safe here, I promise" he takes those hands I hold out to him. "Trust me?"
"How do I do that? How do I trust you? I don't even know you!" I panic.
I feel a full blown anxiety attack forming and my hands shake.
"Just breathe, Lucy. Just breathe"
"I can't, you're going to leave and he knows, he knows"
"He doesn't, I'm leaving so we can keep it that way"
I can't move any closer, the chains are stretched as far as they will go. I try to beg him with my eyes, I want him to stay, I want Myles put away, I want my life back.
"Please?!" I beg him.
"Please what?" He sounds as frustrated as I feel.
"I don't know, do something" I cry and pull him closer, he digs his heels in to keep in place.
Distanced from me.
"How can I get you to trust me? What can I do?" He shakes his head.
I think about it, I stop my tears and really think about his question.
Can I trust him?
