Love In Colour

CHAPTER FIVE: HEALING SILENCES & FAMILIAL BONDS

The next few days are horrible for me. I'm exhausted because I haven't been getting enough sleep. The nightmarish memories keep haunting me in my sleep.

I wake up sweaty and scared. Then I have to remind myself that I am no longer trapped. I wish it was just one memory that is coming back but it's mostly all of the bad ones. All of that hurt that I have experienced as a child. A young teenage girl who got so violated she lost all hope in God.

Trauma and tragedy do that to you. Unanswered prayers mumbled from quivering lips.

I haven't been to church since I was 11 and I refuse to affiliate myself with anything religious because of all the trauma. Some of the people who hurt me were 'God-fearing Christians'...

Yeah right.

I know the devil and it isn't some horned beast in a roaring inferno. The devil is a man who wears a suit and preaches the goodness of God on a Sunday. The devil is a woman who turns a blind eye to all the hurt that the man she is married to is inflicting on the young girls that they foster.

It's always the ones with the serene, holy smiles on their faces that are the demons from hell.

I do my rounds at the hospital and try to let the smell of disinfectant and medication pull me away from my thoughts. My sour mood doesn't go unnoticed by people but they choose not to comment on it. Maybe they fear my wrath.

By sheer luck, my last round before lunch is Grayson King. I haven't seen him in a couple of days. I took some time off after the nightmares started plaguing me. Not that I'm back to being myself.

The moment I open the door to this hospital room, our eyes find each other, "Hey." I greet him, a smile pulls at my lips.

He smiles back, showing his white, straight teeth. God, he's such a beautiful man.

"Hi, Thandi."

I walk further into the room, my hands already reaching for his file, "Grayson, you look well."

His head tilts slightly as he grins, "Well, I did promise you that I'd recover."

"And that makes me happy."

I move closer to him and check on his vitals and his injuries. I take notes for Dr. Johnson on his file, detailing the progress of his healing.

"Everything is looking well." I comment while standing next to his bed. I'm closer to him this way and his eyes just make it hard to look away. Damn him and his sexy heterochromia.

His hand on my arm nudges me back to reality. The warmth radiates right through the long-sleeved shirt that I wore under my scrubs. "Hey, are you okay?" he asks, genuine concern etched on his face.

"You're the one on a hospital bed and you're asking me if I'm okay." I laugh at the irony.

A shadow of a smile appears on his handsome face, "I know but, we're friends remember? And friends care about each other's well-being."

I sigh. "Grayson, you're a pat-"

"Don't." he cuts me off. "Don't give me that patient-nurse relationship thing. Please."

I look at the time on my watch and see that my break starts in five minutes. I might as well start it early. So I take a sit on the chair next to his bed.

"Talk to me, please."

I gnaw on my bottom lip for a few seconds. The only audible sounds being the monitors he's attached to and the soft sound of the television show he was watching before I arrived. Upon further inspection when I take a glance at the screen I see it's a rerun of an old Mr. Bean episode.