Anxious Jeopardies

Chapter Seven

After she had showered, she put on the black T-shirt he had provided. It was big; it landed on her lower thigh. She always wore spandex under her suit, so she put those back on under. They were short; shorter than the stab which was on her mid to lower thigh, and luckily they weren't very bloody. She slowly walked out of the bedroom, stepping carefully to avoid angering the tender wounds. She didn't want Sophie to see how badly she was hurt, so she stayed out of sight, waiting awkwardly and anxiously for Jake.

Eventually she called his name when it didn't seem like a big chance he'd be coming in on his own. Honestly, that was probably for the better. He walked in after a moment with a roll of cloth bandages and a cup of tea. She saw it and smiled. "That's sweet. Thank you."

"It's not for you," he joked, holding it to his chest. She grinned, holding her breath. The blond set it down on the table by his bed and sat next to her. "It might hurt a little..." She rolled her eyes.

"Really? I never would have guessed." But he was right. He instructed her to lie down on her back, and she did, but she involuntarily winced. "Great. If it hurts already, I'm screwed, right?" She laughed. Jake rolled his eyes and shook his head with a smile.

He sat next to her and carefully lifted her leg onto his lap. He took out the bandages and wrapped her thigh. He was being so gentle, more so than she would have guessed, but it still hurt a lot. She didn't cry out, for which she was momentously proud of. When he had finished, he moved her leg off his lap and found that she had fallen asleep.

"Ana? Hey, come on, wake up." Her eyes flickered open.

"What?" She tried to sit up. He noticed the worried look on her face as he gently pushed her back onto the mattress.

"I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable when you woke up and I had your shirt up. I need to see your torso." She pulled the shirt up partially, hesitantly, but without doubting him or saying a word. He told her to roll over and she did, although slowly. There was a gigantic bruise on her back.

"Why is that there?" He muttered.

She overheard him and said, "Oh. It happened a couple of days ago."

"Before Sophie?"

"Yeah."

"And he still made you go? Does he have no respect?"

"He... I don't know. He's really not that bad. You caught him on a bad day. Week. But he does try to take good care of me. I'm just not easy to agree with."

She expected him to make some remark about how she definitely was not easy to agree with, but instead he maintained his concerned look and said, "Right. He still shouldn't be pushing you." Ana just shrugged and looked up at him.

Jake went back to the task at hand and cleaned and wrapped her ribs and torso carefully and tightly. She gasped once, but he apologized immediately, and she wished for a moment he wasn't so nice. When he was finally done, he left the room without a word. Ana was asleep again and he didn't want to wake her up. He went outside his bedroom and made dinner. She was still asleep, so he ate the mean quietly with Sophie and watched T.V.

"Is she gonna be okay, Jake?"

"I hope so." The girl looked hopeful and he felt the need to amend his words. "But she can't stay here forever, Soph. She has to do things that don't involve us."

"I don't want her to leave. I want her to be mom. She's nice."

"I... I know. It would be nice if she would stay with us, but I don't think she will." He looked at his watch. It was already eight thirty. "It's time for bed." He pulled out the couch after cleaning up dinner and she surprisingly fell asleep after only a few minutes of complaining. He wandered around the house for a while, unsure of what to do exactly (there was a stranger in his bed and he didn't exactly want to move her or kick her out, so...), until the doorbell rang. He opened it and stepped outside after seeing who it was, closing the door behind him.

"What do you want?"

"Is Ana in there?"

"No. She left this morning with you. I haven't seen her since."

"Oh. Well, either she's here, or she left her phone here. I have it on a tracker," he explained. Jake narrowed his eyes. "She hasn't been answering my phone calls or texts like she usually does."

"I don't know. Let me look for her phone." Jake stepped inside the house and tried to close the door, but Derek stuck his foot in the way before it was closed all the way.

"If she's not here, you won't mind me looking around." Derek noticed him grimace and smirked with his eyebrows raised. "Why, may I ask, is she here, and not at her apartment?"

"She was walking home because somebody  left her stranded with nowhere to turn. I saw her and offered to pick her up and take her home... Well, here. I thought I could take better care of her than she would take care of herself, so I took her here." The blond saw Derek's look and narrowed his eyes. "She always puts others first, you do know that, right? Why are you pushing so much on her?"

"How much has she told you?"

"Nothing she wasn't supposed to. She's been keeping whatever the hell your secret is, don't worry. Although I have to admit, it's kind of stupid. I don't understand it. Based on the way you treat her, I don't know why she listens to you at all. You're abusing her. Just because you're paying her and she doesn't seem to realize doesn't make it suddenly okay."

Ana had appeared in the doorway of his bedroom, using the doorframe as support. "Jake? What's going on?" She asked, rubbing her eyes. She had just woken up.

"Derek stopped by."

"Shit," she whispered. "Shoot."