One and Only

Chapter Five

***Credit to the artist! I adore this picture!***

Some angst but it gets resolved. 

Tom awoke slowly unsure at first where he was, then it all came back in a rush and he smiled broadly as he looked down at the woman sleeping peacefully in his arms, although she would whisper his name every once in a while. He tucked some of her hair behind her ear and as he did he saw the marks on her neck. Then he looked lower.

He gasped.

There were large bruises, his huge handprints, bite marks, and small love bites from her neck down to her knees. And he had put them there, he had put them there! "Oh, God! What have I done?! No!" he cried out. He groaned loudly as he covered his face in his hands. "Oh, my God! Nooo!"

Desai awoke to Tom's groans. Of pain? She moved her head in the direction of his voice. "Thomas? Are you alright?" she asked softly as he turned his head away from her. "Thomas?"

"I'm fine," he said harshly as he quickly moved from the bed not daring to look at Desai. "Why in all that's holy did you allow me to do that?!" he screamed angrily as he motioned to her body.

She felt as if she had been punched in the gut as the air left her lungs. She slowly pulled the covers over her as she watched him gather his clothes quickly and efficiently from the floor then head for the bathroom. He'd had practice gathering his things quickly, she noticed as she turned away grabbing the pillow he had slept on and holding it tight against her as she began to cry. So much for no regrets. "I'm sorry," she cried. "I'm sorry, Thomas. I'm sorry I was ..." she let her voice trail off as her body was wracked with sobs.

He heard her cries. "What in the bloody hell have you done to be sorry about?!" he yelled from the doorway of her bathroom. He hated himself for what he had done to her, because he just couldn't rein in his animalistic side at times. Damn him and Loki!

She cringed at the anger in his voice, curling into a fetal position, "I'm just another regret. I always have been," she sniffled between sobs as she cried and buried her face in his pillow, and it would always be his. Just as she would. No one else would ever touch her. "I asked you if you would regret it, you said you were sure you wouldn't. You said you were sure," she whispered raggedly as she wept.

He froze. Staring at his reflection in the mirror, he thought, you idiot! Of course, she's going to think that! She hasn't seen what you did to her! He finished pulling up his boxers and rushed to her side gathering her gently into his arms, "Shhh, my love. Shhh. You have not done anything wrong. I am the one who should be stoned for what I have done to you."

She looked at him through tears of confusion. "Whaaaat are you talking about?" she sputtered in confusion.

He threw the covers off her and carefully picked her up so that she was standing in front of him facing away and toward her full-length mirror. He pointed to her reflection, "That's what I did! To you! To a sweet wonderful woman who never deserved to be treated like an animal!" He raked agitated fingers through his disheveled hair. "How can you even stand to look at me?! Don't look at me! Look at me!"

She understood his anger then as she quirked a brow at him, moving her eyes from the mirror to herself then back to him, "Well, which is it? To look or not to look? That seems to be the question."

"Desai, this is not funny," he said seriously as he stared at her bruised body. He still couldn't believe he'd done that; he couldn't believe her! She wasn't the least bit worried about how she looked or what he had done!

"I don't remember saying it was, but I'm not worried about me. These shall fade. In a few days' time they'll be gone completely with only a sweet memory left to remind me of what caused them in the first place." She turned to face him, drawing a line along his jaw, she said, "No, it's you I am concerned about. Are you regretting what happened between us?"