Rescue Me *Completed*

Chapter Fourteen

I was still shocked by his offer as we made our way to his Aunt Ginny's home. At first, I thought he was joking about the offer, I went even far at to thinking he was teasing me; but from the long awkward silence back at the Hospital cafeteria— I just couldn't believe he was being serious.

* * *

He's messing with me, he has to be.

"If you're trying to get me to laugh, I'm not." I frowned. "Besides, my jaw still hurts like a bitch just to fake a laugh."

"I know." He said. "But I am being serious. I think it would be in your best interest to move in until we can figure out a way to keep you out of harms way."

And give him more to deal with that he already has to? Not a chance.

"Listen Professor, you've already done a lot for me these past days while I was... incapacitated, but I can't just accept an offer like that."

"Why not?" He crossed his arms defensively. "You don't want to go back to your family and the one person who could possibly help you is your Uncle; who may I remind you is not present."

"My life doesn't revolve around you!"

How could he possibly forget that he said those words to me? He's so high-strung about keeping my feelings distant for his sake, why would he want to risk it now when I can't control them at all?

"I can always just stay at my Uncle's house while he's away." I lied. "I'm sure if I can just get on the Naval base and ask for his information, then maybe he'll have an extra key in his desk or something."

"Or something." He scoffs. "You do realize walking onto a Navy base isn't easy right? You'll have to be escorted in by a military member, talk to... whoever you need to talk to— do you even know who to talk to?"

"No." I frowned.

"There's that and even if you did find the person to talk to, do you know your Uncle's rank and pay?"

"Not really... but, do you think you could help me with that?" I asked.

"If you don't know his rank, then I can't really help you even if tried. Hell, I don't even know who to talk to about that. Chances are if you don't know anything about your Uncle besides his name and ship, they won't help much. Besides, who's to say his items are with him?"

He's got a point. I cursed under my breath. Of course he's got a point, he's always one step ahead of me. It's making me frustrated.

"If that's not enough to think about, who's to also say that Blake won't look up where your other relatives live to find you? Has he met your Uncle while you were both in that relationship? Does he know where your Uncle lives?"

Do I really have no where else to go? My hands trembled. I don't even have enough money to get the hell out of here yet.

"As much as I don't like to make you upset, he knows everything about you Darlin'. The last place he would try to look is my apartment—"

"Why are you so insistent on helping me?" I cracked, letting the anger seep through. "You told me yourself on the phone that my life doesn't revolve yours. Did you think I would forget about that?"

He looks away at me in guilt, his lips pressed together as he struggled to find the right words.

"In truth, yes. I hoped you would."

"Asshole." I spat and continued to eat my potatoes. My face started to feel the sting from the urge to cry again when his soft hand eases onto mine.

"I know what I said and I have no words in my defense to take it back. I could've been gentler with you at the time, but I wasn't. I was woken up at such a bad time, thrown into a tornado of emotions— I couldn't help but feel angry. At you, at Blake, at myself; and I couldn't do anything about it besides call the police myself. Believe me Winter, In that moment, I didn't know what else to do."