Ronnie Masters | the MENTALIST (COMPLETE)

gallows humor

Note: I told you ;)

"Are you alright?"

The question came after Arlov had called it a night, leaving them alone in the stall with only a single guard for company.

Ronnie's gaze panned to her partner. He slumped in his chair, pinched eyes closed against the throbbing of his bruises. He looked horrible, like he'd fallen into one of those trash compactors from Monsters, Inc. The sight of him brought furious tears to her eyes, and yet he was the one asking her.

It was their first moment of relative privacy.

Arlov never would have left them to scheme without having a way to listen in, but at least it could feel like they were alone for a second.

"Tell me you're alright. Tell me he didn't —"

"Don't talk, Cho. I heard your jaw crack when he hit you." She murmured carefully, wishing she had some way to cover her exposed body as the air turned colder.

"It's fine." The dark haired detective shook his head slowly, and spat out a mouthful of blood. So, yeah, obviously, he was fine. "Ronnie, I'm so sorry."

She saw his head lift, his eyelashes fluttering like he was going to open his eyes, and her stomach twisted. "Please, Cho, don't look at me. Please don't see me like this."

He dropped his chin to his chest again and made no attempt to take in the sight of her. The glimpses he'd seen before his brain had caught up enough to remind him to preserve her dignity had been enough to sear into his mind forever. He'd never not see her the way he'd found her.

"I'm okay, Cho." Her voice came to him through the swarm of self hatred that boiled beneath his skin. "I swear I'm okay."

He heaved a great, tortured sigh, and clenched his fists behind his back. "I never should have left you."

"Don't give me that crap, Cho, you were doing your job. This isn't your fault." She snapped. She hadn't intended to face their reunion with anger, but if he was going to be blaming himself for her abduction and abuse, she was going to lose her mind. It was literally her fault that he was the one sitting there covered in bruises.

"He touched you." Cho surmised abruptly.

Ronnie's gut clenched. "Don't go there." Her brain flashed back to invented images of burying herself in Cho's shirt, feeling his arms wrapped around her body, trying to mute out that feeling, and she hated herself.

How dare she create that association between her best friend and that act?

"He did, didn't he?" He wanted to be discreet and respectful of the topic. He wanted to be careful with the trauma she'd experienced and never push any boundaries she wasn't comfortable with, but the image of her laid out naked on a table and knowing exactly what had happened filled him with unreasonable types of rage.

She gave him a few moments to breathe before answering. He had to know that Arlov was listening. He had to know that she wouldn't break because of a weak man's old tricks. "It wasn't a new experience for me, Cho. You don't need to treat this like some great violation."

But it was.

Oh god it was, and he knew it.

She would kill that Russian son of a bitch for what he'd done to her.

"I'm going to make sure you get out of here." Ronnie said firmly. "Being his mole isn't the worst thing in the world. I'll be protected by his people and I'll have powerful connections if I ever find myself in a bind." The former was entirely untrue and the latter was true on technicality but there was no way she would ever be afforded those resources.