when we were BROKEN

Twenty Nine

She hadn't spoken in hours, curled on her side tucked beneath the bed, the earbuds stuck firmly into her ears. Eyes wide open, features slack, Ginny resembled a wax statue more than a woman of flesh and blood. Ji spent a long while on the floor nearby, smoking, his head resting on the wall behind him. The positive pregnancy tests had given her a heavy shock, despite her previous insistence on her condition, triggering a deep depression.

Although not involved in the creative process, he couldn't help but feel responsible. Who was the father? Her boyfriend? One of his douchebag friends? Or one of the dead Colombians that had kidnapped her.

Not knowing bothered him more than he thought it would, but ultimately, it didn't matter. Keeping her safe, getting her healthy, that's what mattered. When she finally moved, he turned his head to look, watching as she did an army crawl maneuver out from under the bed frame.

Dark circles were beneath her eyes, cropped hair skewed and sticking out in various directions, still too thin to be truly pretty, but Ji couldn't look away. He could spend the rest of his life just watching her breathe. Blowing the last of his smoke toward the ceiling, he crushed the cigarette butt in his fingers before setting it aside.

"Hey," he offered softly as she folded her legs, sitting cross-legged across from him.

"It stopped," slowly tugging the headphones loose, she held the mp3 player out, which he obligingly took, checking the battery before plugging it in to charge. When he looked back, she was taking off her gloves. Shyly tucking her hands on her lap, palms down, her expression was hopeful. "Do you still want to see?"

"Hold on," twisting around, he reached for the nearby lamp twisting the knob as golden light flicked on. Ginny's eyes went to the carved roll of muscle revealed beneath his shirt from the awkward movement. A bit of his tattoo showed through.

"Hey," stern but teasing, his tone snapped her gaze back to his. "Eyes up top, Mouse. Now, show 'em,"

Compliantly putting her hands in his, she waited for his reaction, intently watching his features. Ji stared for long minutes in utter silence, then gently lifted her hands closer, turning them this way and that to see better before looking up.

"Ginny..."

"Don't you like them?"

"Why... I don't understand why you... what made you choose that?"

"I wanted to be like you,"

His laugh was breathless with disbelief but his grip on her hands hadn't let go. The green tips perfectly matched his snake tattoo, elegant black lines generating scales that created depth and movement to the design. Her thumbnails were snakeheads, ruby eyes glittery, black mouth and white curved fangs startlingly realistic. What struck him hardest were the two pink orchids on her ring fingers, the flowers seeming to float above the green scales.

"It's perfect, Ginny. Absolutely perfect."

"Thank you," neither acknowledged the big, fat elephant in the room, deciding to skirt the topic of her pregnancy for now. Rubbing her knuckles with the pad of his thumb, Ji smiled.

"Feel up to doing anything?"

"Isn't it late?"

"Three a.m.," he admitted with a careless shrug. "So?"

"A shower, I guess," rubbing her eyes, Ginny yawned then laughed. "Sorry,"

"Been a long day."

"Yeah," she avoided his gaze, fidgeting as she pushed to her knees. "It was a lot, with everything..."

He waited until she was on her feet, moving toward the bathroom and then stood, fingers clenched into fists.