CEM Book Five: DARK WATERS

You, Me & Forever

It didn't take long for Lucca to reach him and take him to the doctor. The doctor looked him over, gave him a shot that made feel very funny and more confused, but the pain was gone and he drifted into a dreamless sleep. When he woke up he was in clean clothes in a soft warm bed. His surroundings were familiar to him the feel of the mattress and silken sheet underneath his skin, the color of the floor, the walls and the curtains. He remembered everything from the smell of the room all the way down to the warm body lying next to him. He was lying on his back propped on the pillows his chest bare the covers pulled neatly to cover him up to his waist. She was laying with her head on his naked belly her arm draped over his waist her hand gripping his hip. He wasn't a bit surprised to find her in bed with him.

She moved when he stirred and sat up ticking her tongue as she looked at his face.

"Who broke your face?"

"I don't know. Whoever it was had to have been very mad at me."

"How could anyone ever be mad at you?" She cooed at him. "Look you broke your arm too. What happened to you, Joseph? Where did you go?"

"I don't know where I was or what I did to deserve this." He raised his hand and swirled his finger in front of his face.

"I'm sure you didn't deserve it, Joey. Absolutely. How are you feeling otherwise?" She trailed her hand down his chest only to let her fingers dance over the tender skin just above his belly button. He didn't resist, there was no point. If she hadn't already, it was just a matter of time. Joseph resolved himself to be helpless and complied.

"You're so beautiful." He said without thinking. "So very pretty." Her blues eyes shone back up into his dull gray as she played with the small thin spattering of chest hair on his chest and his fingers danced lightly over her cheek down to her chin. A knock at the door stopped them in their tracks.

"Who's there?"

"Lucca Ma'am. Can I get you anything before I lock up?"

"No. Not now." She paused. "Lucca?"

"Yes, ma'am. Prepare for a long stay. Call whomever you feel you need to help you with security. We will be here until he heals. She lost her smile somewhere between the first knock and the second. Once things were silent on the other side of the door she returned her attention to the boy in the bed beside her. He grabbed her hand and held it gently.

"You won't tell Da will you?"

"No."

"He would be jealous." His voice cracked because he was being gently tickled in all the right places.

***

"Please. Please calm down ma'am." The screaming only continued. "I know. I know. I understand. You are scared and you are hurt. Please. Please calm down." Jess looked around wildly unintelligible incoherent and unsettled screams escaped her in between her sobbing gasps for air. Her blue eyes were the size of saucers, her mouth gaped as she gasped for air, her arms flailed threating to rip her IV out, her shoulders rocked, but her hips and everything below them remained perfectly still. It was the strangest sight that the nurse had ever seen. She had to be in an immense amount of physical pain. She has experienced a significant amount of physical trauma, but it was evident that the brunt of the damage that was done to was done to her mind and not her body.

Her body would heal relatively quickly, she was young and healthy and strong, but her mind seemed fractured her world shattered. He wasn't sure she would recover from the mental damage that had been done. She had no focus, no real drive, no rationale. One moment she was nearly catatonic and the next she was flailing and screaming things that didn't make any sense. They didn't want to restrain her. It seemed to only make matters worse for her to be physically restrained. Judging by the looks of her and the places and types of physical injury that she bore it was a no-brainer.