Red

Chapter Twenty

Chandler POV:

I wait in the lobby of the hospital for them to tell me anything they can about Veronica.

Why would I let her come with me? I should've known this would happen. I should've known she wouldn't just wait in the car if something happened. She must have heard banging around, or maybe she heard someone scream. Maybe she saw my mother. Whatever happened, she's hurt, and it's all because of me.

I put my head in my hands, raking fingers through my hair before sitting back up again. I know there are tears on my face, but at least my lip isn't bloody anymore. I'd washed it in the bathroom when I got here, and they gave me some ice to put it so it would stop bleeding. My mother's on her way to jail. Suspected child abuse. Yeah, no kidding.

Still, I must look like hell. I'm nervous. Hell, I'm terrified. What if something awful happens to her? What if she got hit in just the right spot that she-

"Ms. Chandler?" I hear someone say. I look up to see a nurse in blue scrubs standing in the lobby, looking around, clipboard in hand.

"That's me," I reply, standing. The nurse turns to me, smiling.

"Ms. Sawyer has been asking for you," she tells me. "She's going to be just fine. It's a minor concussion, but nothing intense. She was hit in just the right place that it didn't cause severe damage. She's very lucky."

Lucky. Right. "Can I see her?" I ask. 

The nurse nods. "Follow me right this way," she says, and I do.

She leads me into one of the examination rooms, and I see Veronica lying in a bed, tiny butterfly stitches lining a cut on her face, a cut which was most definitely caused by the spade. She looks tired, and she's making a face like she's in pain. I approach her, sitting in the chair next to her. 

"You fucking scared me, you know that?" I say quietly, and she turns to look at me. The look of pain fades to a look of regret.

"I'm... I'm sorry," she replies. "She was hurting you, and I..." She closes her eyes, putting a hand up to her head. 

"I'll leave you two alone," the nurse says, and she closes the door behind her when she leaves. 

I turn back to Veronica, reaching out my hand. She takes it, and I squeeze her hand. "You promised me," I say. "You promised you'd stay in the car. That nurse said you're fucking lucky, Sawyer. Do you know what could have happened? If she had hit you in the right place, you could have gotten hurt so much worse than this. You could've had to have surgery. You could've... You could've died, Sawyer. She was going to hit you again. I saw her raise the spade, and she was going to fucking hit you again." I feel tears burning behind my eyes, but I don't let them fall. The people in this hospital probably saw enough waterworks while I was waiting to see Veronica.

"I'm okay," she assures me. "Look." Using her hand, she gently turns my head so that I'm facing her. "I'm okay, okay?"

"You ran in after me," I say. "You knew it was dangerous."

"I know," she replies. "But, Chandler, she was going to-"

I lean over and kiss her. None of our other kisses have had the intensity of this one. I reach a hand up to caress her cheek as I kiss her, and I feel her fingers running through my red hair. When I pull away again, there are tears in my eyes. "Thank you, Veronica. She... she was going to hit me again. I wouldn't have tried to stop her. When I saw her hurting you, I was so angry and so scared for you. I fought back for once." 

A small smile appears on her face, and she reaches up to brush a tear away from my face with her thumb. "Don't cry," she says. "It's okay."

"You know that I'm still fucking pissed at you for scaring me like that, right?" I ask.

She looks down at her lap and then back up at me again. "I swear I won't do it again. Just as long as you're safe." She hesitates a moment before continuing. "Where is she now? Your mom, I mean."

"Jail, I think," I say, trying not to sound as upset as I feel about it. She may have been shit to me for these past seven or eight years, but the first ten years of my life were amazing. She was a great mom. She just hit a bad spot and didn't move on from it. "They'll probably move her to prison once they have a trial." I know they'll probably ask me to testify. I can't. I'll tell them I can't. Not against my own mother.

"I know that it's hard on you," Veronica tells me. "I... I really am sorry."

"If you weren't okay right now, I'd feel differently, but since you are okay... Look, for all we know, you saved my life, Sawyer," I say. 

"You saved mine, didn't you?" she asks.

I remember watching my mother raise the spade to hit my girlfriend's already lifeless form, and I shudder at the thought. "Yeah, I think I did," I tell her. "No one's ever stuck up for me like that before, though. Obviously Duke wouldn't. Mac's the kind of person who would, but it seems like I'm always sticking up for her because the poor kid still doesn't know how to hold back tears when she needs to. You, Veronica Sawyer... You're something else."

"You're quite 'something else' yourself, Heather Chandler," she replies, a smile playing on her lips.

The nurse barges back into the room, smiling brightly. "Alright, dear, you're free to go," she tells Veronica. "Take some Tylenol for pain when you need it, and no strenuous activity for at least twenty-four hours. Besides that, you should be just fine. If you have any other complications, you need to come back right away, alright?" 

"Got it," Veronica says kindly. "Thank you."

"You're certainly welcome," the nurse replies. "You two have a great day."

In ten minutes or less, we're finally out of that goddamn hospital. As I hold Veronica's hand on the way out of the door, I recognize how lucky I am to still be able to hold her hand. Maybe this is helping me realize something. Maybe I feel something for her that goes past simple 'I love you's and the occasional sex. Maybe I'm in love with her.

No, not maybe.

Really, this isn't a 'maybe' thing anymore.

I am most definitely in love with Veronica Sawyer.

***

A/N:

Hey, guys! Sorry to update so late. Fair warning, updates are going to be extremely sporadic for the next few days simply because I will be on a road trip with my family. Once we reach our destination, it will be far easier for me to update. I hope you liked the chapter, though, and I will try to keep up with the daily updates for the next few days, but we'll have to see how it goes! As always, don't forget to vote and comment should you feel so inclined!

Thanks for reading!

-LittleMissBlitz

P.S. Jessica Keenan Wynn (a.k.a. our queen) liked my comment on her Instagram post for her birthday, and I may have actually genuinely screamed. She knows I exist now. WOW. Okay, that's it. Thanks for reading this. You're cool.