Our Bruised Bodies | Bradley Bradshaw

ACT FIVE - PART TWENTY-FOUR

It was hours later as Bradley opened the door to their shared bedroom, only to take a moment, his eyes on Grace, who was sitting on their bed, her legs crossed underneath her, while she was holding a small mirror, glancing at her reflection every now and then while she tried to clean away the dry blood from underneath her nose.

"Go away." She mumbled as she would do as they were still kids. It would happen sometimes, they would argue over something only for Grace to rush upstairs, doors thrown shut and Bradley following her hours later to see how she was doing and for a mutual apology. At first, she would always try to stay angry at him, refuse to even look at the boy leaning in her doorway, his arms crossed while he tried to find the right words to say.

In this moment, it seemed like not much had changed and in the next as light caught on the rose gold wedding ring Grace was still wearing after all these years, Bradley realised that the memory of them fighting as kids was from another lifetime entirely. The Grace from over two decades ago was gone, but sometimes when he looked at this Grace, he still felt this nostalgic sense of familiarity like fog settling over his senses.

"Let me take a look." Bradley, said referring to her nose, his back turned to Grace for a moment to close the door behind himself, before he moved over to their bed to take a seat, which only caused the younger aviator to snort, only to regret it instantly. Her fucking nose was hurting like a bitch, and it was Henry's fault as much as it was Bradley's.

"Why, can you magically heal it?" She wondered, out loud, only to hear Bradley huff. The bed lifted slightly, as he got off it in order to walk around the bed, before coming to kneel right in front of Grace, who was still holding the pack of now not so frozen peas to her nose, when not cleaning away the blood with a handkerchief.

"Let me." Bradley said again, his hands raised slightly, waiting for her to allow him to touch her, but Grace simply glared at him. "Grace."

"Fine." She replied, only to allow Bradley to replace her hand with his own, holding the cooling bag to her nose a moment longer, before removing it slowly, which had his wife hiss at the pain shooting through her forehead.

"It doesn't look broken." He uttered after another moment, which caused Grace to glare at him.

"Really? No shit." The younger aviator replied for Grace guessed that much.

"I'm furious with you." She then told Bradley, because she felt that violent urge she didn't have the energy to breath away right now.

"I didn't hit you, it was your dear friend and he also didn't intend to do it in the first place. You have to give me that." Bradley muttered, only for Grace to glare at him.

"It's not as much about the nose as you might think." She pointed out, even though she didn't want to talk about it, not with Bradley.

"What is it about then? I had good reasons to believe that Springer and you had something going on. Even without catching you in bed together." The taller aviator pointed out to his wife, who shoved his shoulder.

"You should know me better than that." She said, it sounded like a warning. "Fuck, you have no idea what it's like to be me, Bradshaw. To try to hold everything together when it's all falling apart. Not caring what I want. You will never know how difficult it is to put a leash on a dog after giving it freedom and power." You have no idea how exhausted I am, how bone deep tired I am.

"What on earth did you do to keep Springers loyalty?" The taller aviator wanted to know, almost appalled, which would normally have Grace snort, but she does learn from her own mistakes after all, which is why she just gave him a tense look.