Less than Perfect

21. Shelter {part two}

Chapter Twenty-One

Shelter

Part Two

"Skylar?" someone spoke, waking Skye from her eerie slumber.

For a moment, before she processed the actual owner of the voice, Skye heard the menace of Johnny's deep voice right before an attack. Her eyes sprang open as she gripped the sheets underneath her out of fear. She tried to calm herself when she looked into the rich, brown eyes belonging to Joe, but it wasn't as easy as she wanted it to be. Her heart was hammering in her head, causing her to grimace in pain, as haunting images of Johnny flashed before her eyes. He'd returned to her through nightmares, threatening her as if it was real.

"How are you feeling, Skye?" Joe asked, standing above her beside the bed. "You look quite pale."

She swallowed her sobs and shook her head of the images. "Not so good, Joe," she murmured, sighing. "I can't seem to sleep well and my head kind of kills. What's wrong with me?"

He looked at her with caring eyes as he knelt down beside her on the floor. "You have a pretty bad bump on your head, a minor concussion, and I'm sure the lack of sleep is coming from nightmares, am I right?"

Slowly, she nodded and took a deep breath, letting go of the sheets as her body calmed a bit. Besides the aches that pounded throughout her body—especially her neck, head, stomach, and chest— she'd fallen into a different blanket of tranquility, holding her in peace and security. She wished the pain would go away but decided it wasn't about to and decided she'd deal with it as best she could, pushing the emotional pain in the back of her mind so that she could work on healing.

"Your body took the abuse but not without a price. You'll be tired a lot for the next couple of days, in which you really should sleep, as your body tries to recover. You have quite a bit of bruising and your head suffered much trauma. It's quite amazing you don't have a worse concussion. You got lucky with that one."

She strained to process his words, splintering pain stretching across the back of her head. "I must look pretty awful then," she muttered, rubbing her hand over her face.

He smiled then, the corners of his lips stretching up. "I wouldn't say that," he replied. "You look as great as ever, just a little on the tired side."

She scoffed, glaring at him. "Yeah right, Joe!"

"No really, Skye," he insisted. "You look just as beautiful as ever, even if you have a couple of bruises. And the good thing is you're alright; you're alive."

"Yeah sure," she sighed. "You're right."

He pushed himself back up on his feet and watched her carefully, as if he was inspecting her. "Do you need anything, Skye? Anything at all?"

With a weary smile, she nodded and started to sit up. He quickly assisted her in sitting by carefully pushing her up by the small of her back with one hand while the other took her hand. Once all the way upright, Skye pulled her hand away and placed both hands in her lap, looking at Joe again.

Seeing him again reminded her of how much she wished he'd been her stepfather, not Johnny, but Joe. He was gentle, kind, caring—so much sweeter than Johnny ever was. And Skye knew that he and Leah would've been perfect together; she knew they both had feelings for the other, but Johnny had ruined it. Thinking back a little, she realized Johnny probably had known Leah was falling for Joe and made his move when he did, all because he ultimately wanted Skye.