Ave Maria

Fifteen

Chapter 15

"Sir, you have to stay still. I need to treat you."

Thor completely ignored the fretting nurse that scampered after him as he marched up and down the ward, staring at face after face in each bed that he passed. None were the face he was looking for.

"You may treat my wounds after I find Maria." he growled, tearing back the curtains surrounding one bed, only to be disappointed by the elderly man inside. He didn't miss the patch on the gentleman's arm though, the small circular blot of red staining the bandages. He'd been shot, Thor realized as he moved on. He recognized the wound, the same one's stinging the muscle of his left shoulder and the bicep of his right arm, bared for all the world to see after the nurse had made him don his shirt. When she'd tried to treat him though, he'd lost patience and went in search of Maria, knowing that she too was injured.

Thor tried to grit his teeth against the memory of her cries but it was useless, the echoing sound from long ago still fresh in his mind. He'd felt the way her body had shuddered from the impact behind him, feeling her crumple...

Thor half wished he'd killed her vermin of a brother but he'd held back, leaving the pathetic excuse for life to the law enforcers. Killing him would have been too easy, he'd decided. Too quick. Too merciful. At least this way, alive and captive, he'd have the rest of his life to suffer for what he'd done.

His eyes scoured up the last of the beds up along the ward, growing more and more frustrated and angry. Where were they keeping her? He was her protector - it was his right to check on her welfare, to be able to see her! He stormed up to the last of the beds, shielded with a pale blue curtain and tore it open, his face still thunderous.

It softened instantly as he found her.

"Maria..." he strode inside, casting back the curtain against the pestering nurse. Maria was curled up at the very head of the bed, one knee drawn up to her chest, hugged their tightly, while the other leg was splayed out bent down the bed. Not broken, Thor decided as he scoured his eyes over her thigh and calf, fully exposed to him as her trousers were folded at the foot of the bed. It wasn't hard to see why: a white patch, with slight red marks was pressed to the side of her body, somewhere between where her hip met her thigh. He longed to lean in and inspect it himself, but judging by the way Maria trembled, her head buried in her folded arms, he didn't think he'd be doing her any favours.

He perched on the bedside and tentatively reached out his arm to her. His fingers brushed another bandage on her upper arm and she flinched. Finally, Thor dropped his hand back to his side.

His eyes gleamed over her fragile form, his heart tugging at his helplessness. "What can I do?" he asked softly. He guessed by the way her head lightly bobbed that she was crying.

Slowly, Maria's head lifted and he drank in the tears streaming thick and fast down her cheeks. Her hand covered her mouth as her eyes met his, gleaming with a despair that broke Thor's heart with a sharp crack. He couldn't help himself: ignoring his body's protests he reached forward and scooped Maria in his arms, careful not to touch or jostle her injured hip or arm. He held her close to him, hand gently at the back of her head as she cried into his bare chest. Her small body rocked with sobs, and Thor felt the moisture of her tears on his skin. He had to remind himself not to hold her too tightly.

Instead, he peeled her back slightly and cupped her face in his hands, kissing her cheeks, her forehead, her closed eyelids, her mouth - desperate for her to know how relieved he was that she was safe, that she was alive! He didn't stop until he'd kissed every pearly tear from her face, and new ones stopped taking their place.