Abigails Sin

The Many Faces Start to Show

I watched him curiously. Twirling his thumbs in his lap while I ate some soup that Faith had made for me. She was in the spare room across the hall now, exhaustion finally taking her into a very deep slumber. John had said she was watching over me and after everything I had seen, or made up in my mind with her it was oddly comforting knowing she had been watching over me. Maybe it was even my consciousness reacting to her presence when she was with me. I wasn't really sure.

I numbly sipped at the vegetable soup. Small pieces of carrot and broccoli swirled around the bowl as I chased them with the spoon. Faith was actually a wonderful cook or at least great at making soup, better than me anyway. The steam was rising up into the towel that was holding my wet hair back away from my face. Being bathed and clean had made me more comfortable than I had thought it would when John first suggested it. I was unsure I could hold myself up so instead he had run a bath for me, helping me to the bathroom joined to his room. Marble countertops and a crystal white bathtub with golden accents. I had never even stayed in a hotel that fancy. The scolding water relaxing my muscles and clearing the fogginess in my head. My body ached like I had been running triathlon after triathlon. Exhaustion set deep inside my weary bones. Now I was sitting in one of his oversized shirts. The sleeves kept falling around my wrists even when I rolled them up. John had stared at me in an odd way when I came out wearing his clothes, leaning agains't the wall for support. A look I had never seen before but one I'd like to see again. I

"You're staring" he said

"haven't you been staring at me for days?" I mocked him

"I think those are different circumstances" he narrowed his eyes. His face had fatigue written all over it. Sleepless nights finally catching up with him now that I was in a more stable condition. He might have even more tired than me.

"You haven't been sleeping have you?" I asked him. John looked over at me shrugging it off like nothing, like something he did all the time

"I haven't seemed to notice" he lied. Raking his fingers through his brown locks absent minded. He was lost in thought somewhere while he sat on the edge of his large bed.

"I have to go back to the Veterans hospital" I said to him. Watching his expression change from thoughtful to annoyed in the time it would take me to snap my fingers. His emotions were like lightening, so quick with where and when they would strike, never fully knowing how to prepare for what could happen.

"what? no you're not Abigail" John shook his head as if I had just said something so preposterous he couldn't even fathom it. I sent a small glare his way.

"Jacob has my cougar Peaches, I don't even know if she's alive but I need to find out" I sighed "the last time I saw her she was in pretty rough shape John I can't just leave her"

"let me do it" he rested his hand hesitantly on my ankle. "Jacob might hand her over to me if I ask"

"or he might move her so I can't find her" I pointed out

"somehow I think he already has moved her, probably taken her to one of the outposts where the judges train" John said. I kept sipping my soup, thinking of how to word my next sentence.

"I'm done being weak and counting on other people John, I'm a police officer!" I was frustrated "I haven't been doing anything I should have been doing. I need to get back up on my feet."

He watched me. John reached up, I almost thought he was reaching for me before his fingers grabbed the small brass handle beside me, pulling it open. My tool belt sat inside the drawer. Pistol neatly placed inside its holster. He must have found it after the helicopter crash. He grabbed it and placed it beside me on the bed. It was odd looking at the weapon at first, like I didn't know how to hold it anymore. I grabbed the pistol in my palm, checking the ammo and state of the weapon after it had fallen to the ground. It looked the same as it always had except for a small chip in the barrel where it must have hit a rock on the ground when it fell.