The Stains of the Crown

Chapter Three

Trigger warning: aftermath of wounds. Mentions of abuse.

I wake up still in the chair in Delilah's room. I glance at a clock next to her bed. It reads 6:08 AM. I briefly wonder how I slept so long before I see Delilah's shoulders shaking softly.

"Delilah, what's wrong?" She flinches.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." I stand and walk over to the bed. She's staring at her arm with a look that nearly breaks my heart.

"Hey, talk to me." She rubs her eyes before sitting up and facing me.

"How do you deal with it?"

"What?"

"The scars? The stitches? The cuts? The... flesh that's not where it should be?" she asks, her voice breaking towards the end. I sit on the side of her bed, pulling her into a hug, being careful not to touch her arm.

"Hey, look at me," I say, pulling back and staring her in the eyes. "You are no less amazing than you were before. You're no less beautiful than you were before. You're going to be okay." She looks down at her arm again, sniffling.

"This shouldn't have happened. I knew to watch out for the reins."

"Delilah, you know that you can't account for everything. This isn't your fault." She wipes her eyes again.

"I'm being ridiculous. I should just be grateful I didn't lose my arm."

"That's not how it works. You did lose something. And yeah, you could've lost more, but that doesn't change the fact that you lost something. And you have to grieve that in your own time. Let yourself feel whatever you're feeling. And I'll be here in the meantime to remind you that you're more than what's happened to you." She pulls me in for another hug. I feel her tears collecting on my shirt, but I pay it no mind. She needed this.

After a while, she pulls away.

"How are you? Is your shoulder okay?" I sigh. Truthfully, I was pretty sure that the thing that woke me up was the pain radiating through my shoulder, not nearly as bad as it had been when I dislocated it, but more than it had since it was put back in place.

"It's hurting more than it should, but I'm fine."

"You should really go get it checked by the doctor."

"Delilah, I'm fine." Someone knocks on the door.

"What?" Delilah shouts. The door opens, revealing the princess.

"Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Echo on the other hand..." she trails off. I roll my eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, just some pain in my shoulder."

"Did you get checked by the doctor?" I groan.

"Dude, I'm fine."

"If you're still in pain, no you're not."

"Echo, please just go get checked out?" I huff.

"Fine, but it's probably nothing." I walk past the princess into the exam room.

"Echodis, did you sleep here last night?" the doctor asks, shuffling some papers.

"I did. So um... Delilah and the princess both want me to get checked out again. I woke up to my shoulder hurting more than it should." He motions to the examination table, so I sit and take my shirt off. He pulls a stool over to the table. He starts prodding my shoulder.

"Lift your arm?" I do as he asks. "Does that hurt?"

"No more than when it's down." He hums, writing something on his clipboard.