"It's Not Love If It Hurts" //5sos

/77/

  "We were supposed to leave to go to the airport at 6 this morning. Don't worry, I got us another flight back." Johanna said.

  Calum nodded. It was maybe eight in the morning, but it still felt far too early.

  Johanna sat on the chair, deep eye bags showing a restless sleep. Calum had laid on the couch for a few hours, until maybe midnight, just watching Annie sleep peacefully in his chest. He didn't bother to take the blindfold off her. If she woke up, and for whatever reason began to panic again, then it'd be much easier to subdue her if she couldn't see.

  Ashton had come into the living room around midnight, and offered to take Annie so Calum could sleep. At that point, he was too tired to argue, and let Annie be picked up off of his chest, and carried to the chair where Ashton sat, Calum's girlfriend curled up in his lap.

  Now it was morning, and Annie was back with Calum. He was mostly sat up, leaning against the side of the couch heavily, with Annie stretched out over the rest of the couch, her head rested in his lap.

  "I feel like I don't know what I'm doing whenever she has an attack like that," Calum admitted. "I'm afraid I'll make it worse. Isn't restraining her the last thing I should be doing?"

  Johanna sighed. "I thought about that a lot last night. Do you understand what is happening when Annie has an attack like that?"

  Calum shook his head, but slowly stopped, realizing something. "She's always screaming for Mikey to stop, to stop touching her, and to not-" he stopped his sentence abruptly, leaving it to hang in the air.

  Johanna agreed. "Whenever that happens, Annie is reliving the times when she was raped. And not just remembering them."

  "She actually thinks it's happening again." Calum realized. He looked down, at his lap, where Annie lay breathing slowly, relaxed. He adjusted the blindfold slightly, stroking his hair affectionately.

  "That's what I realized too," she said mournfully. "And so I thought, well, how do rape victims react when it's happening the first time?"

  "They scream, protest, fight. That's just what Annie was doing." Calum said, lost.

  Johanna nodded, trying to be careful with the topic. "But they don't do that the entire time."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Calum... When people are raped, at first, yes, they go through those stages. But eventually, they get to a different, more subdued stage. Eventually.... They give up."

  The gears were shifting into place for Calum. "You mean..."

  "Yes. When Annie was initially raped, first she fought, then she gave up. That's just how it happens. So, when she's reliving it in her mind, we need to try to make her give in as quickly as possible, so it's over with as quickly as possible."

  Calum hated the idea. But, before he could express just how much he hated it, Mikey strolled out of his room. He looked like he had gotten even less sleep than Johanna.

  He looked hesitant, but strolled over to Annie and Calum anyways. Calum froze as Michael reached down, and stroked Annie's dyed hair softly. Luckily, Annie remained asleep.

  "What the hell do you think you are doing." Calum said through gritted teeth.

  Michael shrugged. "It looked soft. Better to pet her now than when she's conscious."