Tough Love

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty

Eli's POV

I tuck Dani against my side as she sleeps. For once she actually looks at peace. She looks like she's actually resting and for that I am thankful. I run my fingers through Dani's hair as I hold her close to me. She's been out for 40 minutes or so. At first I was expecting her to scream and wake up so I've been sitting here as still and as silent as I can be so as not to disturb her. I can feel my dad watching me, so I glance up at him and find him with a small smile on his face. He whispers, “She's not going to wake up any time soon. If she's been out this long, then the drugs have worked and she'll be out for a while. You should probably get her a blanket though. The sedative will make her feel the cold more. Do you want me to get it?”

“No sir, I'll get one in a minute. She'll know if you've been in her room. Don't ask me how, but she'll know.”

He looks like he's debating with something and then he asks, “Are you allowed in her room?”

“Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but only in the last 2 or 3 months. She seems to sleep better with me on the chair in there. Maybe it's a security thing, I don't know.”

“She trusts you. I know it may not look like it, but she does. Just because she doesn't allow you to do certain things, doesn't mean she doesn't trust you. She let you inject her, that must have taken a lot of trust in you. That would have been harder for her than either of us realize. I'm sure seeing that needle brought back many memories and also a lot of fears. For her to let you do that in spite of her fears, that's definitely trust, son.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. I get so caught up in each hurdle, that I don't stop to take a look at the whole picture. When I look at it now, she's come a long way in these last few months. It's just these freaking dreams that are causing her problems. If we can subdue those, I think we can make some real progress.”

“Eli, I have to ask. Those scars, what's that all about?”

“Truthfully, I don't actually know. Not for sure anyways. She's got them on her lower back too. I saw them when she was running on the treadmill before. She doesn't know I saw though, so don't mention it. Obviously it has to do with her past but I'm not quite sure exactly what happened. She's not forthcoming with that information.”

“It's not surprising really. It must have been a pretty bad beating for that kind of scaring to still be so prominent. What happened to set this off, Eli?”

I sigh and just stare at Dani's face, trying to control my emotions. “Someone at work assaulted her.”

My dad hisses, “What?! In the precinct?!”

“Yeah. The scumbag shrink. I think something has been going on for a while, but Dani never talked about it. I did ask her if everything was ok, but she never mentioned it. I just didn't ever imagine it could get this bad. I knew he was asking her questions, but I didn't think he'd do something like this. I want to kill him, dad. I actually want to beat him into a pulp. That's not me; I'm the calm, level headed one...”

“You care about her, of course you're going to get angry. That's only natural. You've never had to worry about something like this before, because you've never really had this kind of relationship with a woman.”

I shoot him a look, this is hardly a normal relationship that Dani and I have going on here.

“I'm talking about aside from her issues. She's more than a distraction or a quick lay...”

I involuntarily flinch at his wording. It seems so callous to speak like that, but that's how I used to be. I'm not going to lie about my past. A lot has changed since Dani. I cringe at the thought of being so crude now. I whisper, “I can't believe I used to think that was acceptable behavior...”