New start

Chapter ten

Jameel smirked. His latte might be a tease, but she was a good motivator. He had gotten most of his work done and was just finishing up for the day, when he was called to the evidence room for an emergency. He sighed and grabbed his kit, and ran downstairs. He entered the evidence room and almost dropped his kit, as he saw Aaliyah sitting there bruised.

He watched her as the police questioned her. He wanted to yell at them, tell them to stop, couldn't they see how upset she was? Finally, the police stopped and left. It was his turn to question her. He pulled up a chair.

"Why were you working so late?"

"Well, with this awful weather, I'm doing lots of overtime, so I can help the old and vulnerable."

"How you feeling?"

"Ok, I guess."

"Come on latte, talk to me."

"What do you want me to say? That I'm terrified. I thought he was going to kill me."

Jameel held Aaliyah as she wept. He could feel her body, racking with sobs. After she had calmed down, he quickly collected evidence from her nails, where Aaliyah had scratched her attacker and asked her to change from her nurses uniform as it might have evidence. Jameel gave Aaliyah some old clothes to change into. 

"How'd you get to be so brave latte?"

"I took some self defence classes in my old job. Guess they came in handy."

Jameel offered to take Aaliyah home. When she refused, he told her he was done for the day and took her home. He ran her a hot bath, to calm her down and got them a pizza. Jameel didn't want to leave Aaliyah alone at such a vulnerable time, so he took the sofa, after she went to bed.

At night, he heard Aaliyah screaming. He ran upstairs and into her room, trying to calm her down. Aaliyah hugged him as she wept. After calming her down, and getting her back to sleep, he decided he didn't want to leave her alone, so slept on the floor.