TW Mentions and Discussion of Rape
He didn't cry. He didn't.
He wanted to. And he didn't know how he managed not to.
He told her everything. He told her about the nurse. How she promised to help him escape if he made love to her. How he was part of her perfect fantasy.
He told her how her plan hadn't worked. How how he'd been caught in the corridor. But she already knew that much, everyone knew that much.
Deanna listened to him intently. She didn't say a word.
Had he expected her to?
Not really. Not Deanna.
Or maybe he did.
Maybe he expected to be told that it was his own fault. Not from Deanna. No, not her. But from someone. From somewhere.
Deanna's face almost twisted in upset when the thought crossed his mind.
She whispered softly, he almost couldn't hear it, but he could feel it, "Will, you were taken advantage of and raped. No one would ever blame you for that."
His throat tightened and his chest heaved.
It was all at once real. No longer just a bad dream in his mind.
He was injured and trapped, with no knowledge of where to go. She had taken advantage of his desperation. And he had been raped in that hospital on Malcor III. He was coerced into meaningless sex with that nurse only to be beaten by the hospital guards when he was caught.
"What do you need, Will?" Deanna asked.
What did he need?
To scream. To cry. To stop feeling. To forget.
He needed to cry. Why couldn't he cry?
You. Please. I need you.
"What do you need from me?" She asked again, standing in front of him now, gently stroking his cheek.
Her eyes were cloudy. She was crying.
He closed his eyes and squeezed his hand over hers.
"Just you, Imzadi." He said, "I-I need you to hold me."
"I'm here, Will." She said and she held him.
She held him close and she rubbed his back and she whispered words of comfort and love. He buried his face into her shoulder, clinging to her, hiding from the universe. If he let her go she might just have disappeared.
He felt safe in her arms.
He felt safe.
He was safe.
He let out a deep breath and his body trembled.
"Imzadi, Imzadi, Imzadi." He repeated over and over again.
"Shh. I'm here, Little One." She soothed, "I'm here."
He cried, then.
He was angry and he was scared and he didn't know how to stop crying.
He felt like he was a little boy in Valdez again. Lost and alone in the middle of the night. No one there to help him, to hold him.
But he wasn't alone. Not this time.
He was home. He had Deanna.
Imzadi.
I'm here.
"Does it feel a little better now?" Deanna was stroking his hair, "Did it help to talk about it?"
He nodded and he wiped at his face with his sleeve. He wanted to speak. To tell her yes, but he couldn't.
YOU ARE READING
Little One (Will Riker Agere Story)
FanfictionWill hadn't even really been aware that it was something he did until Deanna mentioned it when they first began seeing each other. He wasn't sure if he would go as far as to say she was his caregiver, and she would never call herself such without hi...
