🔞5EX: SUSTAINED OBLITERATION🔞

I have to tell you

A company driver has arrived to collect Yanni and I from the hospital, and while he begins the huge task of taking our belongings to the car we finish up our discharge paperwork.
We are free to leave.
That's it, turfed out with nowhere to go. I can't go home, to my parents or Laura's, I have to stay in London to assist with the Lola case, and the ease with which Harry took me from a hotel has me scared to stay in another for a while.
I know it's irrational, after all, he's in prison on remand at the moment. I'm technically the safest I've been in years right now, but I just don't feel it!

Yanni kisses my forehead, rousing me from my musings and says he's going to help our driver with our belongings or we will never get out of here.
Between us we have accumulated hundreds of cards, gifts and flowers from friends and family. I didn't realise I knew so many people, or how touched I could be by their care towards me, although the shame I felt was crushing me a little more with every well wish I received.

Smiling into his perfect face I nod and lean forward, pressing a featherlight kiss on his lips, then tell him I need a few minutes alone to get some air and straighten my mind. Promising to bring him his favourite coffee on my way back I turn and start to walk away, telling him not to worry as I'm fine. He reluctantly sends me a small tight smile, nodding almost imperceptibly, then heads back toward the lift to grab another bag of belongings, calling over his shoulder for me to be careful, and also, and I quote.... "Dont make me come looking for you!"

I giggle and head for the exit, smiling at his cheek, but not missing the underlying need to protect me he is exhibiting. I've spent the last three days telling him that I can function perfectly well, washing, dressing and feeding myself..... all things he has tried to do for me. I'm a bit beaten but not disabled in any way. I explained that if I didn't just get right back out into the world and back to my life Harry will have won. I won't give him that satisfaction, so as much as my heart and soul are desperate to give in and allow Yanni to care for me, my mind is fighting back, steadfast in its determination to show Harry that he cannot break me........ even if I secretly believe he may already have!

"Syd?"

I'm pulled from my thoughts by Noah who I notice looks dirty and dishevelled, and frankly smells awful!

"Noah?! What the hell happened to you? You look dreadful, and..... Oh God, you smell way worse! What's going on? Why?" I gesture towards his tall thin frame.
I'm sure he is wearing the same clothes he had on 4 days ago when he first took me to Yanni! He can't be..... can he?

"Oh, erm..... sorry, it's just that I've been staying here at the hospital since you guys were admitted and, well..... the facilities, not really meant for long stays as a visitor!" he replies sheepishly, plucking his T-shirt away from his body and sniffing his armpit. The look on his face telling me in no uncertain terms that he is very aware that he is currently kicking up a stink that would make a mange afflicted skunk with a scat fetish smell like a baby angels skin after bath time in comparison!!

"We're leaving soon Noah, we've just been discharged, although where we are going I don't know!" I shrug my shoulders before resuming my walk towards the exit.

"I told Ferdi to ask you to come and talk to me, but it can wait. You should go and get cleaned up. Have some sleep, eat something...... rest! We can talk tomorrow" I suggest. He really does look horrendous.

"NO!" he barks powerfully across the atrium, the sound reverberating around the stark white vaulted space causing many heads to turn in his direction.
What an idiot!! He has one of the most recognisable faces in the world right now and here he is, looking and smelling like a tramp who has just enjoyed a night of extreme debauchery in a distillery with a herd of fresian cows, creating drama that could lead to him being recognised.