The Fight For Love

Chapter 7- Cover ups

Sorry for the long delay! I was busy with exams and then I was away at the start of the summer. :) I hope to update more regularly from now on. Thanks for all who have stuck with this story and waited patiently for an update. It means a lot. Sorry this is a shorter chapter, but it's a filler for more to come soon!<3

When the ambulance came around, Ben told them just where to go. He was sitting on the kitchen floor surrounded by broken glass, stale beer, and puddles of his own blood. He wasn't sure which he was more irritated over, the loss of blood, or the loss of beer. 

All he wanted to do that evening was to chill out, have a few beers, and get his head around things and the situation. He hadn't meant to go off at Karen like he did, but "Big R" and his associates were still hassling him and he needed more time, and damn it she just got under his skin sometimes.

He was just thinking about everything, when he heard a loud knock on the door. He contemplated ignoring it, but the persistent banging and thumping did nothing to help his already throbbing head. He staggered onto his feet and made towards the door. The closer he got the louder the knocks became. He heard a voice on the other side, 

"Mr Collins, Mr Collins are you in there? Mr Collins can you hear me? Mr Collins are you alright? If you don't respond we are going to have to break the door down." 

Ben leaned across  the banister of the stairs to support himself. The guy outside was really beginning to anger him, his whiny voice sent an unbearable ringing through his ears. 

"Aright, Alright! Shut your yellin', I'm comin!" Ben roared back, though it took a lot out of him. 

He wiped at his head, stood as straight as he could manage, and opened the door. Sure enough there was a couple of  'concerned paramedics' standing in front of him.

God damn it, that women is always over-reacting.

"And what is it y'all are doin' here then? What makes ya think ya can just go bangin a persons door down?" Ben tried to sound threatening, but even he had to admit he must have looked pretty pathetic.

"Sir, please.  We received a call that there has been an accident and you don't look at all in good shape, you've got a pretty deep wound there"

"No shit, Sherlock." Ben muttered under his breath. 

For a moment he wasn't sure if he should let them in. This had been happening a lot lately, his slack inability to make a decision. If he let them in they'd ask a shit load of questions, and he wasn't prepared to explain how he damn near killed his wife. Yet, on the other hand, his head hurt like hell, and all the thinking he was being forced to do didn't help matters.

"Sir, Sir, did you hear what I said?" the squeeky paramedic piped up again, interrupting Ben's scrambled thoughts. 

"Would ya quit callin' me Sir!" Ben bellowed back. 

The paramedic looked wounded for a second before straightening his posture, as if to assume a more authoritative stance. 

"Look Si- I mean, Mr Collins, we are only here to help. If you want to be stubborn and aggresive, there are plenty of other people in need we could be out tending to."

Jesus, where did this guy get off?

"Well what are ya wastin your precious time for? Go tend to your other patients." Ben hissed.

"Mr Collins it doesn't have to ben this way, look,  you're still bleeding." a female paramedic intervened her voice softer, more gentle.

Ben pressed a hand tentatively to his head. Shit. It was still bleeding, he had thought it had stopped. Maybe letting them in would get rif of them quicker? he pondered. No, he couldn't. They'd see the mess in the kitchen and then they'd be firing questions like there was no tomorrow. He knew what they were like.

"Alright, fine. Ya can fix me up, but none a ya's are comin in. Ya can do it out here", Ben gestured pulling the door out behind him.

The paramedics looked take aback, but they knew better at this stage not to argue. They sat Ben in the back of the ambulance and began cleaning his wound.

"How did this happen anyway Mr Collins? It looks like there's glass fragments in here." The female paramedic asked. Ben knew thar was coming, but he deflected the situation with angered hostitily like he always did lately. 

"That, Lil missy, is none a your damn business." He was surprised at how much his southern accent came to the fore when he was angry. It was like the age old saying, he thought; Ya can take the man outa The South, but ya can't take The South outa the man. He missed Little Rock from time to time. The accent, the people, and of course the home cookin'. 

Aftet that the girl didn't say anything until she was nearly finished cleaning Ben's wound. 

"I'm not sure, but I think you mught ned stitches Mr Collins." She mumbled.  Ben exhaled deeply, visibly irrate.

"Well it either does or it doesn't, which is it?" 

"I'm, I'm, I'm not sure we would have to take you to the hospital to get a doct-

"Aint no way in hell I'm goin' near a hospital, nevermind a doctor. If it needs fixin' you do it right here!" Ben shouted, cutting over the poor girl. At this stage the squeeky guy, who initially knocked on the door, had taken a back seat and was letting the girl take all of the heat.

"I would Mr Collins, but I'm, I'm n-not qualified to that. It has to be done by a doctor." She suttered, brushing her chesnut hair from her eyes.

"Nope, no way Miss. You stick one of them pretty bandages of yours on it and then that's it! Ya'll can get gone after that, you're lucky I even put up with this much"

"Sir I really think you should see a doctor." The girl insisted.

"A minute ago ya weren't sure, now if ya aint gonna bandage it up I'll do it myself!" 

The girl relented, clearly intimidated by Ben. She began dressing his wound silently. When she was finished she told him to take asprin for the pain and if any bleeding or headache persisted he was to go to the doctors straight away, though she knew he wouldn't.

She felt somewhat negligient. Only new on the job, he was the first difficult patient she had come across. She thought about asking for his wife, or leaving instructions, but something in her knew better. The squeeky guy on the other hand, couldn't care less. Longer on the job he dealt with assholes like Ben every day of the week, this was nothing new. 

"Yeah Yeah, Yeah, I'll be fine, survived worse than this so I have. If none a that didn't do away with me a bump on the head sure as hell won't" Jumpimg off the ambulance he stalked back to the house, slammed the door behind him and lef the paramedics be on their way.

He made his way back to the kitchen and decided he better clean up, in case he had anymore unexpected visitors. Shit, he really hoped Karen hadn't gone to the police, because he really hadn't meant for what happened to happen, and that's all he needed was cops questioning him. 

Where was Karen anyway? He wondered. Ah, He thought internally, the boy. Probably off cryin' under a tree somewhere. He'll be alright. Poor kid is too soft.  He finished cleaning up and decided he wasn't going to stop apologizing to Karen until she forgave him. Afterall, she had been there for him for so much lately, that much he knew. In a sense, his violence and hostitlity towards her was his own strange way of protecting her, protecting her from what he knew was a much more dangerous threat.

One that she could never  find out about.  Ever.