His Prisoner

Strangers That Care [9]

Meredith

"What happened to you?" I breathe as I slowly stand up.

Jack grunts and glares over at Chase. I follow his gaze to see Chase cuddled up with Emily smiling lazily. He doesn't seem intimidated at all by Jack's fierce gaze.

"Nothing." He hisses before turning and leaving the room as quickly as he came.

I turn to Chase with a demanding glare. At least I hope it's demanding. Chase seems like a hard man to intimidate.

"Don't worry about it. You don't need the stress." Eliot tells me.

I spin around to face him instead.

"If you don't tell me what happened, I'll scream the damn place down until your ears bleed." I threaten.

Eliot actually winces and after a second of thought gently pushes me to sit down and sits down himself.

"Chase hit him. Twice." He explains briefly.

"Why?" 

I hear Chase growl next to me causing me to jump a little. What's with everyone making these weird dog noises lately? Emily hits him and gives him a pointed stare while motioning towards me. He sighs and nods in understanding. What was that about?

"I saw the way he was treating you when you nearly tripped on the stairs." Chase grimaces as if just the thought of it repulsed him.

"I don't understand." I look at them all as they gaze back with sorrow filled eyes.

"He treats you like shit. Sure, he's not exactly abusive but he's still disrespectful and handles you roughly as if you're his possession he can control. I didn't like the way he spoke to you or how he acted so irrationally and I got pissed off."

"You haven't even known me for a day and you're already defending me?" Chase smiles, his eyes flickering over to Eliot. 

"We all know the real Jack Morgan. He's not a nice person and he keeps you locked up in this house. We didn't even know you lived here with him until a few months ago."

"But Jack just works for a shipping company and he's been around my whole life. How much trouble could he get into that I missed?"

All three of them exchange glances before Emily jumps from her seat and grabs my hand to pull me up as well.

"Don't worry about it, it's all done now. Let's go and put your clothes and stuff away." I reluctantly let the subject drop and take my bags upstairs with Emily.

She helps me put all the clothes away in silence and I'm grateful for the chance to think things through. Lately, everything has been so strange. I keep noticing changes in Jack that haven't been there before. It's either that or I just never paid enough attention. Suddenly I have these people in my life that have barely known me for ten seconds and they're protecting me and offering their help. Then there was that weird thing that happened with Eliot when I came in the house. I'm confused with everything, I'm feeling all these new emotions and I don't know what to do with it all. 

"You OK?" I shake away all the confusing thoughts and force a smile.

"Yeah, I'm just a little tired. It's been a long day." I close my wardrobe doors and move to sit on my bed. Emily takes a seat beside me.

"I know it seems weird that we all care so much when we've only just met you but soon it'll make sense. Try not to stress over it. Just know that we care and if you need anything, we'll do as much as we can to help."

"Thank you."

She pats my leg and stands up.

"Why don't you get some rest? We'll probably leave now. But I'll leave you my number so you can call whenever you want."