BOND

47.

I know what makes you angry

And what makes you laugh

I know the taste of your lips

Every inch of your skin

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Joey glanced at the clock he hated for no actual reason for the second time that evening.

She had been sleeping for four hours now. Taylor had given him enough details, very begrudgingly, for him to know that it was the longest she had gone on without waking up.

He dropped her head from his shoulder onto the pillow to sneak in a selfish look at her. She looked heavenly, long lashes resting calmly against soft cheeks, lips slightly parted which made him think of how tight he was holding her.

Jeez, let her breath.

Her eyes, closed right then, he knew looked older and more pained than he could have ever imagined.

He brushed off a stray strand away from her face. Her hair, now trimmed short up to her shoulders, which he thought suited her more, did a poor job of hiding the light freckling of bruises along her throat, but that was exactly why they had had to cut them.

He doubted many would agree with his opinion. The media surely didn't. A couple of news channels had run some very blunt reports of how she looked and received lawsuits from five different teams of lawyers.

A small scar ran along her temple, where she had knocked out. A big one along the length of her jaw that he had gotten one look at back at the warehouse and understood was from a knife. There were more along her wrist, he didn't need to see them to know exactly what they looked like.

He was the reason for similar scars on more men than he cared to think about or it would drive him insane.

He had had time enough to imagine how much she had been affected and though he hadn't kept his expectations high, actually seeing and holding her hurt more than he had thought it would. Among the obvious predominant feelings was unadulterated rage.

At himself for not getting to her sooner and letting her get taken in the first place. For trusting Reese for not hurting her till he hadn't found her. At everybody who was at the warehouse that night, only a bare few of which were still alive.

And above all, at Reese. Or his own lack of success in finding him. He wanted to be the one to find him but missing summer school and having to repeat a year was very high in his list of bullshit activities he needed to take part in, so he settled for outings like that day's whenever he got the chance.

There were many people he could entrust with finding him but Reese had made it more personal than Joey was okay with, hence the incessant wish to find him himself.

She stirred and he dragged his mind back from the never ending hell hole of all the places Reese could be at that very moment, where it seemed to drift off to on its own.

As she squirmed around he kept her foot pinned down under his lest she hurt it any more in her semi-conscious state. It took her more than a minute to find a comfortable position, especially since he refused to allow even breathing space in between them.

His pulse quickened as her tired, red rimmed eyes came to a rest on his. The relief of the familiar sensation sending shivers down his spine.

"Hey," she said, her voice clearer than he had been expecting it to be.