Scars

One

The soft material of her long sleeved dress was wrapping her body perfectly. She looked at herself in the mirror, it had been too long since she wore an elegant dress. Since she got back from captivity she had always tried to hide her body the best she could, not letting anyone see the scars on her skin and how thin she had got in the past years. It took her days to find the perfect dress to hide her wounded skin and show her healthy one. They had some undercover work to do and she had to look like a rich woman, she couldn't wear a hoodie.

She felt her breath getting stuck in her lungs as her hand reached for the zipper and realizing she couldn't close it alone. She swallowed hard as she heard a knock on the door, her feet moving slowly in its direction, but then she remembered it was opened.

"Come in" she said, running a hand through her hair.

He opened the door looking at her, she looked gorgeous, he wasn't used to see her in those clothes so he took a second to admire her.

She looked back at him, lowering her eyes and spinning, her hand touching the zipper again. For some reason she has always felt insecure about them, but she had no problem in showing them to Nick and Tommy, maybe because deep down inside she knew that things would have never worked between them and they knew what happened to her. Cal was different, they never really talked about what happened to her when she was taken and he had only seen her go through a small panic attack for now, but he had been there for her so she trusted him.

His hands headed in the direction of the zipper, but his eyes never left her back. She felt his eyes on her skin, he could feel him thinking. His hands stopped, getting upwards, getting closer to her wounded skin, feeling her body heat as his fingertips lightly traced her scars.

She got away immediately, spinning and looking at him in the eyes horrified and scared.

"What are you doing?" her eyes went wide in fear

"I'm sorry, I- I shouldn't have done it Emily. I'm sorry let me just-" she stepped away, still looking at him. What did he think he was doing? He trusted him seeing her scars but touching them? It was too intimate.

"I'm sorry Em, I'm an idiot, let me fix it and pull the zipper up" he took a small step toward her but she looked at him with scared eyes, her breath becoming quicker.

"I- I can do this alone I- I just need a moment" she looked around her a bit lost, heading for the bed.

"What if we- we meet again in a few minutes? I just need some time I- I don't want you to see me like this" she managed to say with trembling voice as she fisted the bed sheets.

"I'm not leaving you alone. I'm sorry, I'm an idiot I shouldn't have done this. Please forgive me Em" he took a few small steps towards her as her gaze got lost on the floor.

Her heart speeded up, leaving her even more breathless as her memories came back. She didn't want him to see her like this, he had witnessed just a small panic attack, nothing she couldn't take. But she got to know her mind and her body and she could tell this was worse. She didn't want to screw things up again like she did with tommy. She had almost killed him, of course he wouldn't want to see her ever again.

She let out a sharp breath as her lungs started to run off of air. She saw him slowly kneeling on the floor in front of her. She tried to look at him, failing. She couldn't let him see her completely true self, he would have left.

"It's ok Emily breathe. We're in your hotel room, we're both fine, nothing is gonna happen to us. Can you hear my voice?" he asked, he needed to know if she was at least a bit aware of her surroundings.

She nodded quickly, trying to catch a breath. His hands found hers as he hold them softly. A shiver ran up her spine, what the hell was that?

"Can you feel my hands? They're real, you're safe. I'm here and I'm not leaving you alone" he said softly wile stroking his thumbs on her hands.