A Bump in the Road (COMPLETE)

Chapter Seven (updated)

"Do you have any new information?" I asked Takuto the next afternoon as I met with him at the station.

"Sadly, no," he said, lighting a cigarette in his office, "we've already searched in his apartment for any clues on where he would have taken her, but right now we don't have anything,"

Looking at him, I could see a sliver of the same anger and frustration that I felt. While they may not have been together anymore, it was evident that Takuto still cared a great deal about Lorien.

I felt like such an ass. During this entire ordeal I had blamed him for the stalking when in fact she may have been safer with him than she was with anyone else. How could I have allowed myself to become so narrow minded? It was because I wanted to keep her close and protect her myself that I allowed myself to become blinded.

"I'm sorry,"

"What?" He looked at me.

"I'm sorry that I thought so negatively of you. This whole time I thought you might have been the one stalking her. I'm sorry that I thought that,"

He looked at me for a moment, then nodded with a smile.

"Don't worry, I understand completely,"

"You do?"

"When Lorien and I were together I was the same way. I'm guessing that she told you everything that happened to her when she was younger, correct? Well, then you understand the need to protect her with every bone in your body. She may seem like she's strong, but she does have her weak moments,"

"Believe me, I know,"

"Then you have nothing to be sorry about. You were doing your job as her fiancée and were weary of everyone in her life that you yourself did not know personally,"

"Yea, pretty much. Now I'm just worried that my blindness will cost her greatly,"

"As much as I want to reassure you that he'll treat her like a princess, I don't want to sugarcoat things for you Yamato," he leaned against the table, looking at me seriously, "this guy is a twisted fuck, believe me I remember him from high school, and to be honest I'm not exactly sure what this guy might do to her,"

"Do you think he'll kill her?" I asked with fear in my heart.

"No, I don't think he'd go that far, but I won't say that he won't hurt her in some way. He may beat her, he may take advantage of her, but the reason I'm telling you this is so you're prepared for when we find her,"

"If we find her," I said, sitting back in my chair.

"Don't talk like that," he pointed at me, "we are going to find her,"

He may have been saying the same thing everyone else was saying, but my mind still kept running the tape saying that she was dead. There was no way the universe was going to allow me to stay in the happy state that I had settled down in; it was going to let me taste a bit of happiness and then rip it out of my life in a bloody mess. It had already been a week and there was nothing that we could go on to find her.

From out of the window I could see that the entire station was in an uproar. Takuto stood up and walked out the door, talking to the nearest person. They were talking animatedly  and pointed somewhere. Looking back, he motioned for me to come out and join him. Once out of the room, I could see what everyone was staring at: standing in the entry way to the detective unit was a young woman with tattered clothes covered in blood and tears streaming down her face. Her face had bruises and was swollen on the right side, but I recognized her eyes immediately.

"Lorien," I called to her, running up and taking her in my arms tightly.

She clung to me as if I were dying; as if she couldn't believe that I was actually there. Sobbing into my shoulder it was to the point where she was so distraught that she was almost screaming. Under her screams I could hear someone saying they needed to call an ambulance so they could get her checked out at the hospital, some where saying they needed to call those searching for her to stop, but then I could also hear someone else crying. Looking behind me, I could see Takuto holding a hand over his eyes, tears streaming out from under it.

"Is she going to be ok?" I asked a few hours later, standing outside Lorien's hospital room with Takuto and her doctor.

"Yes," Doctor Fumoka nodded, "she'll need some time to heal emotionally and physically, but she'll be alright,"

"Did he... Did he-"

"No. We ran a rape kit and did not see any evidence that he had taken advantage of her. From the wounds on her body, however, we can see that not only was he attacking but that she was defending as well,"

"So you're saying that there's a possibility that he may have tried?" Takuto asked, his eyes still bloodshot.

"Yes, but we won't know until she wakes up. Right now we have her pretty sedated to keep her calm, but she'll be 'round in a few hours or so,"

"Thank you so much Doctor," I shook his hand vigorously, then turned to take my place back at Lorien's side.

I knew that if she were awake, she would probably be scolding me at that moment. I hadn't shaved in days, nor had I gotten decent sleep so my complexion almost made me look like I had been shipwrecked. Everyone had been so concerned on finding her that caring for ourselves had taken the back burner.

Looking at her, I took in all the details of her face, of the hand I was holding, everything my eyes laid on. Though she was only gone a week I felt as if I were seeing her for the first time. It looked as if her hair had been cut to the length that she had it when she was in high school. This was a bit concerning because this told me that this sick fuck had done everything that he could to like out his fantasy from the past. Reaching out, I brushed the ends of it lightly with my fingertips.  It was jagged and a bit uneven, I had the feeling she was probably trying to stop him from cutter her hair even shorter. Looking up at her face my throat closed when I took in the details of the dark bruise on her cheek. The doctor had said that not only did he slap her but he had punched her as well, bruising the bone beneath the skin as well.

This entire thing made me sick. To think that she had to go through everything that she did just because she was with me and not him... How on earth was she going to move on from this after everything else she had already been through?

I was ripped away from my thoughts when I noticed her eyelids fluttering until I saw her beautiful green eyes again.

"Yamato?" She asked, tears forming in her eyes again as she reached out to touch my face, "I thought it had all been a dream; I thought I was still in that place,"

"No, you're back with me," I placed a hand over hers and smiled, "Takuto is going to make sure that he never hurts you again, alright?"

She was quiet for a moment, then smiled a bit as she shut her eyes.

Hearing the door open behind us, we both turned to see a tearful Kyo and Kuni standing in the doorway with the rest of the LI gang behind them. Kyo flew from the doorway and threw his arms around his sister, crying into her shoulder as they embraced tightly.

"I was so afraid I had lost you," I could hear him say.

Kuni walked up to be and placed a hand on my shoulder, smiling a bit as he wiped away his tears.

"We're so glad you're ok Lorien," Yuta smiled from the doorway.

"Yea, we were all really worried about you," Takao smiled as well and I could see Seaki crying into a handkerchief behind him.

"Thank you all so much," Lorien smiled once Kyo had released her, "I owe you all so much,"

"Just make us another picnic and we'll call it even,"

Everyone laughed and one of her machines beeped, having sat with her so a while I knew that it was her pain pump administering a new round of meds. As they began to take affect, she leaned back against her pillows and her eyes began to flutter shut again, her smile never leaving her face.