Blue Ocean Floor (A Justin Timberlake Fanfic)

A Different Perspective

I let her into the gate and forced myself to get out of bed.I glanced at the clock. It was late. I started walking downstairs to the front door while my dogs Buckley and Brennan followed. When I swung open the front door she was standing there with her head down and her arms folded across her chest. She was wearing a large sweater and leggings, her curls all over her head, as though she had just gotten out of bed.

"Cassy? What's wrong?" I said, reaching out to her.

She lifted her head to look at me and my mouth fell open. Her eyes were red, mascara running, and her cheeks were stained with tears as new ones fell from her eyes. But the most prominent thing on her face was a huge black eye.

"I um...he knows where my apartment is and I...I didn't know where to go...I just left...I didn't know where to go."

She sounded eerily calm even though there were tears falling. Suddenly earlier made sense. I didn't know what to do. I just stood there looking at her for a minute before I lifted her into my arms and kicked the door closed. She curled into my chest and I carried her up to my bedroom. I laid her down on the bed and climbed into bed next to her. When I pulled her close she moaned in pain. I got up and turned on the lamp next to my bed.

"Cassy, let me take off this sweater and look at you." I said, reaching for the bottom of the sweater. She frowned and moved away from me. We had, sadly, been through this before."Cassy, please." I said, reaching out and touching her cheek. Her body relaxed and she let me slowly pull the sweater over her head. Underneath it was a tank top. She had a large red and purple bruise on her left arm, and another on her chest. I lifted the tank off her stomach and deeply sighed. There was a huge purple bruise covering the left side of her torso. It looked older than the rest of the bruises. She was shaking and her chest was heaving. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes tight. I felt paralyzed. I had flashbacks of the times I used to pick her up off the floor of her bedroom and carry her to her bed where I would tell her stories or sing to her until she fell asleep. I wondered how anyone could do something like this. 

Cassy never let anyone see her show any signs of weakness. I rarely ever saw her cry, except when we were kids and she would cry in my arms at night. Sometimes I think the privacy I learned never being able to share her secret is what made my fame so tolerable. My need for privacy. Everything revolved around my need to protect her. Her presence was always so large to me, I'd forgotten she was small enough to scoop into my arms and carry. That hard exterior she portrays that sometimes even fooled me had completely crumbled. She was a victim to her past demons. I didn't think this would follow us into our adult lives. I didn't think she would allow it. But she was fucked up just like I was, she was just better at pretending.

"In my purse, in the car, there are pills," she said.

She was looking at me. I got up and almost ran downstairs to her car. I opened the door and pulled out her purse, pulling the keys out of the ignition. I walked back into the house and into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water and some bags of frozen vegetables before I went back upstairs to Cassy. She had rolled over to her side and curled into a ball.

I sat her purse down on the nightstand and pulled the only bottle of pills out. It was rather large and I was concerned about how many she was taking, but this seemed like the wrong time. I pulled her up next to me and leaned her against my headboard. She took two pills from me and a sip of water. I sat everything down on the nightstand and looked at her. She was looking back at me.

"I didn't mean to scare you." she said quietly.

"You didn't." I lied.

"You haven't said a word since your opened the door. You have that look I haven't seen in about 20 years."

For a second she became a younger version of herself. A ponytail she would never be caught dead in now, and a giant black hoodie that she'd worn since I gave it to her two years before we turned 16. That same helpless look in her eyes. Those same bruises underneath her sweater. I shook my head and she became her older self again. I regretted never telling anyone, but we both knew she had no family outside of her father. 

"This wasn't supposed to happen anymore."

"I know."

She didn't have a smart remark. She didn't argue with me. She just looked me in the eye like she knew exactly what I meant. 

"I'm gonna call a doctor."

"Justin, please."

"Cassy, just see the doctor. You don't have to go anywhere. He can come here."

"Can we do it tomorrow? I don't want to see anyone else right now."

"We need you to see a doctor. We need you to have a record, or something. Some proof that he did this."

"Yes, because rich powerful men don't beat their wives and get away with it every day. It's not worth the fight, Justin. Just let me leave him and we'll be done with it."

"How long has he been doing this?" I said, feeling myself getting angry the more she spoke. 

"I guess he always kind of has. It's just gotten worse in the last few months."

I got up and walked into my closet, pulling on a sweater and some sweatpants. I pulled on a pair of sneakers and walked out of the closet. My blood was boiling and my adrenaline was rushing. There was no way he was going to get away with this. No fucking way.

"Justin. As much as I appreciate how angry you are, I want you here. With me. Please. You don't even know where he lives."

I looked at her across the room on my bed. All my instincts were telling me to go beat Jeremy's face in with a bat. The longer I stood there watching her the more my anger dissipated. She was right. I didn't know where the house was and leaving her alone was the last thing I wanted to do.  I sighed again for the millionth time and walked into the bathroom to run a washcloth under warm water so she could wipe her face. I walked over to the bed, handing her the washcloth and threw my sweater and shoes off before climbing into bed with her. I took the washcloth, sat it on the dresser, turned off the light, and pulled my blankets over us. I softly pulled her onto my chest, and she cradled into the nook under my arm and closed her eyes.

"I love you. So much." I said to her.

"I love you, too." I heard her say quietly.

I started singing to her softly and caressing her hair. Her fist was gripping my t-shirt until slowly her breathing slowed down and I knew she had fallen asleep. I kissed her on the forehead and kept singing to her until I felt a lump in my throat.