Love, Mom

Chapter Eleven

Lily parked in front of the garden of the house.

She turned off the headlights, silently observed the front of the house with Elena.

"I always forget how huge your house is," Elena commented with a sniffle.

She seemed to have calmed down. She turned to Lily, brushed her stomach with her fingertips.

"Are you okay? Are you feeling any pain?"

"Lena, it's okay. I told you, she didn't touch the baby."

Elena sniffed a second time, a dark glint in her eyes.

"Come on. Let's get out of here," Lily decided as she opened her door.

She walked around the car, joining Elena to take her hand. They crossed the garden, Lily opened the wide front door and led Elena into the hall.

"Holy shit!"

Elena's gaze drifted from the shiny carellage to the immense chandelier hanging from the ceiling and the two staircases facing each other to reach the first floor.

"You guys are rich!" She exclaimed.

"You bet your ass we are," Destiny replied, entering the lobby.

Lily felt tears rise to her eyes a second time as her little sister approached her to pull her into a hug. Lily hugged her back, sniffing despite herself. Destiny then walked over to Elena and put her arms around her too, resulting in a confused Elena who awkwardly hugged her back.

"What happened?" Destiny asked.

"Destiny. We don't wanna talk about it. I just wanna go to bed," Lily sighed.

"Yeah, of course. Hazel is already asleep. Go ahead, I'll take care of locking up the house."

Lily pulled Elena by the hand to take her up the stairs to the first floor, led her down the hallway, which she crossed to open the door to her bedroom. The room was large, a double bed sat enthroned between two windows and a huge bookcase lined the left wall. Lily walked over to the bathroom door, Elena following her in stunned silence.

"Holy shit," she repeated when she saw the bathroom. "You guys are rich rich."

"Yeah," Lily replied. "Take your clothes off."

Elena gave her a confused look.

"Honey, you know sex is not a good way to cope, especially since you're pregnant-"

"I wanna see if you have injuries, silly," Lily replied with a slight smile.

"Oh. Oh, okay."

As Elena undressed, Lily bent down to search the cabinet under her sink, pulled out her treatment tub, taking out bandages, disinfectant and bruising ointment.

"I don't think I have any bleeding," Elena indicated, removing her pants.

Lily pulled up a stool and sat on it, the bin at her feet.

"Come here."

Elena approached shyly, as she always was when she discovered her body. She still found flaws in it, but Lily found her beautiful. She thought she was absolutely magnificent.

Elena's stomach and ribs were starting to bruise, her arms were bruised. Lily stood up to reach the wounds, pulling out pain cream to apply to her fingers and massage Elena's injured skin.

"You know I can do this by myself, right?"

"Are you uncomfortable with me touching you?" Lily asked, freezing her hand inches from her skin.

"No, it's okay. I'm just ... Nevermind."

Lily began to apply the cream with concentration.

"I understand that you can take care of yourself, but right now, I need to take care of you."

"You shouldn't have to do that. I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you," Elena said as she watched her apply the cream to her ribs.

"Later."

Lily massaged Elena's skin as best she could to get the cream in, scanned her whole body to make sure she didn't forget one injury.

"Okay, I'm done."

"Your turn," Elena decided.

Lily dropped the tube of cream to the floor, still. She couldn't do it. She couldn't take her clothes off, terrified to find bruises on her stomach, or worse, blood in her panties. Frozen in place, she did not move.

Elena picked up the cream, placed it on the stool before turning to Lily.

"Can I do it?"

The girl nodded, silent. Elena took her chin and slowly lifted her head, resting her mouth on hers. Lily let herself be kissed, pretending not to feel Elena's fingers undoing the zipper of her dress. She dropped it to the floor, around Lily's ankles, who found herself, shaking, in her underwear.

"It's okay," Elena whispered, gently extending her arms, which she held tight to her chest. "Your boobs really are huge," she joked.

At these words, Lily stopped holding back and let her tears fall. Elena bit her lip remorsefully and proceeded to check Lily's body for any injuries. She massaged her arms for a long time with cream, soothing the bruises that were starting to appear.

Lily finally calmed down and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

"I have to check for blood," she whispered.

"Okay," chuchota Elena. "You want me to do it?"

Lily hesitated a moment before shaking her head.

"I can do it."

She pulled away, took a deep breath before pulling down her panties.

No blood.

Lily sighed in relief.

"I'm okay. For now."

"Come back here, I need to treat the bruises on your stomach."

Lily came up to her, seated herself on the stool. Elena, tears streaming down her cheeks, knelt down to massage her wounds, one by one, sniffing every now and then. Lily ran her hand gently through her hair.

Finally, when she was done, Elena dropped the tube to the floor and looked up at her girlfriend.

"Lily, I ... I'm so sorry ... I'm so sorry ..."

Lily just continued to stroke her hair, and Elena rested her head on her lap and started to cry.