Two Steps Behind

Part 30

 Elizabeth laid in the bed, staring at the ceiling, as well as she could with one eye swollen shut. They had just given her another dose of morphine and it was helping to dull the continuous throbbing in her head. Tears that she could not control ran down her cheeks.

David was never going to let her be happy. He had already taken so much from her and he still wasn't satisfied. He was never going to leave her alone, not until he had finally finished her off. She should have known better. Hadn't he told her that he would never let her leave him? Hadn't he told her that he would kill her before he'd ever let her be with another man? She'd been so stupid but why should she be surprised? She'd been stupid from the moment she'd met David.

Why hadn't she just told Eddie how she felt all those years ago? She could have had a life full of joy with a man who truly loved her, a man who would never hurt her. Instead, she had been a coward, too scared to tell him she loved him, and now she was paying for it. She had settled for a sadistic son of a bitch because she didn't think the perfect guy would want her. She hated herself for that.

She just wanted Eddie right now. Elizabeth needed the calm he brought to her. She needed to feel his arms around her, hear his voice, look into those beautiful eyes...she needed it like she needed oxygen. Eddie was better than any pain medication they could pump her with. Eddie was the only thing that made her world feel like it wasn't falling off its axis.

"Baby...oh my god..."

Elizabeth turned her head, and there he was, as if she had conjured him out of thin air just with her desire. There was her entire world standing in the doorway. There was her favorite person to ever walk this planet. There was the man that she loved with every breath from her lungs, every beat of her heart. There was her Eddie.

"Eddie," she cried.

"Jesus Christ," he whispered, moving to sit next to her on the bed. He lifted his hands as if to touch her face, but then set them down in his lap.

He was so desperate to touch her, to prove to himself that she was here and she was okay. But he was so scared of hurting her anymore than she already was. Her face, her beautiful face...that bastard. Every inch of her face looked painful. Her eyes, those gorgeous eyes, were black and blue and one was swollen completely shut. That bandage that wrapped her whole head and nose was monstrous looking.

"Is it bad?" she asked through the tears as she took in the way he was looking at her. "Do I look really bad?"

"No princess, you look breathtakingly beautiful," he assured

her and gently reached out to take her hand in his, rubbing his thumb along the back. "You are always beautiful."

"Liar," she whispered, and it broke his heart to see the tears that were running like a waterfall down her cheeks.

He leaned in close, his eyes gazing into her one that could see him.

"I am not lying," Eddie stated. "You are alive and in this moment, you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. When I came into the alley, I...shit, I thought..."

He broke off, all the grief he had been bottling up pouring out of him in waves. Elizabeth reached out, her fingers winding through his hair to the back of his neck, and pulled him down with her onto the bed. Eddie was careful as he wound his arms around her, avoiding the tubes and wiring and her broken ribs.

"Shit, I thought I lost you," he whispered, gently kissing her lips.

"I thought you did too," she admitted softly, closing her other eye as she took in a shaky breath. "I woke up and you weren't here and he was staring right at me and I thought...I thought maybe us being together had all been a dream. I thought maybe I had never escaped him and just dreamed the last few weeks."