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ACT ONE chapter seven
There's a beeping in her ear and she's led down with something scratchy tucked over her front when Jo comes back to herself the next day. The pungent smell of bleach hits her nose next and glancing around through a lidded gaze, she notes that she's still in the hospital. Then she remembers why she was in the hospital in the first place.
Susan's dead.
Her hand reaches up to cup her mouth as she lets out a gut-wrenching sob, shaking her head to herself as her eyes well with stinging tears and she sinks back into her pillows. Her whole body trembles in anguish, and she thinks back to the last time she ever told her she loved her. Too long ago.
She wonders what she thought of before she took her final breath, selfishly hoping it was her. If she was in too much pain or could hardly feel a thing with fatigue.
Jo's a mess. Snot runs a line down her cupids bow and tears fall down her cheeks unrelentingly to the point that her skin hurts.
A nurse comes running in, a sedative in hand but Jo holds out her hands. "Please," She chokes, head shaking, hair plastering across her damp flushed skin, "Please don't. Please. Please." She doesn't even know what she's begging for.
The nurse nods hesitantly, both looking over at the door as Shoupe peers in, brows knotted together with purple bags hanging beneath his tired eyes. "Hey." He speaks softly, walking over and hand hesitating before squeezing her covered ankle. The nurse takes her leave, "Just signed you out. You can leave when you want."
Jo nods, sniffling.
"You uh, you're under my care. Now, I don't expect you to live with me or- or see me even remotely like you did Pete but... If you need anything-"
"Thank you." She rasps with a wobbly smile. She forces herself to sit up, "I'm uh. I'm just gunna get some air. I'll uh-"
"Yeah." Shoupe nods with a sad smile of his own, eyes wet, "Listen. I'm gunna catch that son-of-a-bitch, if it's the last thing I do. Okay? He won't hurt you no more."
Jo frowns before it comes back to her. He'd said John B had shot Susan. Killed her.
"Are you sure?" She asks, voice cracking and tears welling once again. "Are you sure it's him?"
"Ward was there. He saw it happen."
Everything feels tight. Her clothes, her chest, the air, the room. She throws her legs over the side of the bed, "I need to go."
"Are you-?"
"I'm okay." She forces another smile, blinking back tears and wiping her nose with the back of her hand. "I promise."
Promises are meant to be broken.
. . .
It feels like she's in a limbo. Stuck between life and death. She feels nothing but pain, in her chest, in her head. In the empty house she returns to. In the cold sheets she slips beneath. In the glare of the sun that streams in through her open window.
