The Lonely Widow (Completed) (Editing)

Chapter 24

        The following two weeks sped around fast.  Lee and Daisy finally had their night out and by the end of the night, Lee had definitely made it up to her. Beaming from ear to ear, Daisy had had one of the best night’s sleeps she’d had in a long time.

        Luke had been spending more and more time at the hospital with Jade, which Daisy thought was quite surprising. Seemingly quite protective of Jade, he’d control the visitors she was allowed, ordering her to rest between each one. The old Luke was coming out day by day, the cocky one leaving in its wake and Daisy definitely wasn’t going to complain. However, even though he was becoming like the old him, there was something else there; something that Daisy couldn’t quite put her finger on. There were times where he’d retreat into himself and push everyone away, insisting that he was fine and there was nothing wrong. He wasn’t fooling anyone.

          “I’m worried about Luke.” Daisy whispered as she lay with Lee on his bed, her head rested on his chest, shattered from a day cleaning Jade’s house ready for her coming home. Luke had spent the day doing what he did at the hospital, Lindsay had gone to work and Kurt and Darren were off doing God knows what - Daisy still hadn’t a clue what they were hiding.

        Lee turned his head and looked at her as he rubbed circles on her arm, making her shiver. “How so?” He asked curiously. He knew what she was talking about however, as he’d noticed the change himself.

        “He’s changed. He’s not the same Luke that came back six weeks ago. He’s more… reserved. I don’t know what’s happened, but even though he won’t leave, I don’t think he likes being here.”

        Lee hesitated, unsure of what she wanted him to say, wondering if she was going to continue. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, she did so.

        “I mean, it’s like the other week when my mum phoned, he wouldn’t talk to her. Then last week when they turned up here, he wouldn’t see them… I dunno, I’ve just got this strange feeling it’s something to do with them, he’s never been this weird before. Granted, he left before and I don’t know why he did that either. No-one knew he was planning to leave until he actually did.  I don’t know what to think, he’s just different now. He seemed so strong when he first arrived, but week by week, he’s regressed into… well, what we see now. It’s just not Luke.” She took a breathless gasp of air, having ranted all of her little speech without stopping and sighed.

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        Lee placed her feet back down on the floor and steadied her whilst she washed herself and he did the same. When they’d finished, he grabbed them each a towel from the rack and wrapped one around her, then one around himself. With a smile, he picked her up and carried her to the bedroom and placed her on the bed, trailing kisses down her collar bone. Once he’d laid her down, he crawled in beside her and pulled the blanket up to cover her.

        A yawn emitted from Daisy’s lips and she giggled, burying her head in his shoulder.

        “Sleep.” He whispered, coaxing her to close her eyes. Her breathing deepened and it wasn’t long before sleep took over.

        Lee lay awake for a long time, thoughts about what had happened running through his head. He’d wanted it, he knew that and he certainly knew that she’d wanted it, but he couldn’t stop the dirty thoughts running through his mind. He hadn’t touched anyone like that in a long time and he certainly hadn’t touched anyone like that since the cleaning obsession took hold. The mere images he held in his head repulsed him, bile rising in his throat. It wasn’t Daisy’s fault; he thought she was beautiful, amazing and the sex was downright awesome. But, being touched like that was something different. Knowing that neither he nor the bathroom was clean irritated him to no end, irritated him to the point of insanity.

        Not able to resist it any longer, he jumped out the bed, pulling the blanket up to Daisy’s chin, wrapping it around her and left the room, heading back to the bathroom. Turning the shower back on, he stepped in, closed the door behind him and sat on the floor, scrubbing at his skin over and over again. Next was the turn of the shower unit. He pulled out the bleach and some rubber gloves from the cupboard and using the running water from the shower head, he scrubbed the floor, walls and top of the unit until they were gleaming.

        “Got to get it clean, got to get it clean.” He muttered to himself absent-mindedly as he disinfected the bathroom over and over again, determined to scrub away any remnants of the germs that he could see, along with the ones that he couldn’t. By the time he’d finished, it was three AM and he’d been cleaning for four hours. Still naked as the day he was born, he slumped back onto the cold tiled floor exhausted.  After one last shower for luck, he dressed in a pair of boxers and lay back down in the bed wrapping his arm around Daisy’s sleeping form. Satisfied all was clean for the night, he drifted into a restful sleep.

        ***

        As the sun beamed through the curtains the next morning, Daisy woke with a smile on her face. Delighted with the previous night, she jumped out the bed and dressed before she ran for the bathroom to freshen up before Lee awoke.  

        Entering the bathroom, the acrid smell of disinfectant hit her senses full on. The surfaces were gleaming white with not a speck out of place, and not a single drop of water or a handprint lay on the surface of the shower wall from their antics the previous night. Looking around, a traitorous tear escaped Daisy’s eye before she turned and slammed the door closed. Grabbing her toiletries from the cupboard, she washed her face, brushed her teeth and combed her hair angrily.

        She had tried to understand where he was coming from with this obsession of his, but seeing that he’d spent most of the night scrubbing the place clean made her feel disgusting. Opening the door with a bang, she stormed down the hallway towards the bedroom, grabbed her bag and began throwing clothes inside.

        “What’s up?” Lee asked as he blinked in the sunlight. Seeing that she was packing her bag, he jumped up and crawled to the end of the bed. “Wait, why are you packing? Where are you going?”

        Tears ran down her face as she ignored his question, she continued throwing her things in the bag, not caring for neatness. Lee jumped up from the bed and placed his hand on hers effectively stopping her movements. Daisy sniffled and looked at him, her face reddened from the crying.

        “Tell me what’s wrong.” He told her, tugging her hand, coaxing her to sit next to him on the bed, but she refused, pulling her hand away from him, crossing her arms over her chest.

        “Do I repulse you?” she asked, a shiver running through her body. She looked away at the floor, not able to look at him. Lee’s eyes widened and his mouth opened slightly ready to say something, but closed it again without a word. “Am I really that disgusting? This problem of yours is getting out of hand. If you can’t even enjoy yourself without having to scrub yourself and the bathroom clean afterwards, then you need help. I want to be the person to help, but if you’re not going to tell me the reason for it, I can’t help you.” she picked up her bag and zipped it up, slung it over her shoulder and walked towards the door.

        “Wait.” Lee jumped up, and stood behind her. “Why do you think it’s you when it’s really not? This is my problem and I…” he paused to take her bag off her shoulder. “I know I need help.”

        “So tell me what the problem is - the real problem. I know you have OCD, but that’s not the reason for it.” She waited for his response, but was greeted with silence. “There’s something underlying, something you’re not telling me and until you’re willing to tell me, I can’t be here.” She pulled her bag from his grasp and opened the door, leaving him standing there shaking.

        “Daisy, please.” He shouted after her and ran to the top of the stairs, but she was already out the front door and gone.