Shattered

22

Brice in his hurry to check on Savana, forgets that he is covered in blood. Totally forgets that that would likely freak her out, either bringing back memories of what happened to her parents or thinking something had happened to him. At the very least showing her vividly just how much of a bad person he is.

He goes into the panic suite and is stunned by what he sees. Savana, with Jasper on one side and Grayson on the other all tangled up on the floor.

"What the hell is going on here?" He is confused, not angry. That didn't look like a sexual thing in any way. Besides, he got the vibe from all of them that they are like siblings and aren't interested in each other like that.

"Sir, Savana woke up and was a bit upset. She leaned against that wall there and somehow opened the wall that was covering the monitors. They turned on as the wall receded and she watched the fight." Jasper says still waking up.

"Oh, shit," Brice mutters.

"She started to get upset but it was when she saw someone get shot and fall down that she herself screamed and fell down. From that point on, Grayson and I did what we could to calm her down. We managed to get her to stop screaming after a few minutes, but her sobbing, I don't know. It felt like hours to be honest, by the time she stopped so had the fighting. We were all too exhausted to move so just fell asleep here. 

"We didn't do that until we knew for sure that the fighting was done and it would be safe to do so. I swear, Brice." Jasper is quick to say. He doesn't need Brice to be upset with them.

"I'm sure that you did the best you could. I believe the fight just brought back memories of that night and as long as she saw any of the fighting going on outside I doubt that she would have been able to calm down."

"We would have turned it off but there was no visible switch and any time one of us left her side she would start all over again. We didn't dare leave her long enough to look."

"No, you did the best you could. Her therapist said that when the reality of her parents death hit her that she could go full out tantrum or catatonic. I don't know if that is what happened or not, but the fight would definitely have brought up memories of that night. It wouldn't have been easy to calm her down." Brice goes over to her and bends over to touch her when Jasper's words stop him cold.

"You might want to shower before she sees you covered in blood. I'm pretty damn sure that if she sees you like that, that she'll freak out all over again." Jasper says in a matter of fact voice, but makes no other moves to stop Brice.

"You're right." Brice straightens up once more. "Shit, I'm tired. Too tired if I'm making these kind of stupid mistakes. Thank you, Jasper. You should wake your brother and move over to the beds. Try not to wake Savana. I want you to show me where you think she saw the man shot. I want to know just how much she saw as she was having a break down." Brice is sure that after this that she won't want to have anything to do with him. Not after witnessing just how bad of a bad man he is. Now that it's safe for her to leave he won't have any reason to keep her there.

He hides his temper as he leaves the panic room and goes to where he has some clothes stored in the room where the entry is hidden.

He goes back into the panic suite and showers there. He's not sure that he would make it up the stairs at this point. He wouldn't even bother with the shower but he doesn't want nasty dried blood left in his hair. Especially not if Savana might see it.

He comes out once he's finished washing. He hadn't finished getting dressed yet and finds himself going back into the room where Savana is sleeping. He steps into the room and finds her waking up.

"Brice?" Savana whispers.

Brice brightens at hearing her whispered word. "You spoke?" Brice goes over to her and she practically jumps into his arms. He feels her shaking from fear.

"Hey, it's okay, I'm safe. It's over. You are safe. I'm here now. You're safe, that sheriff will never hurt you again, Savana. I just wish I could take your pain away from what he did do." Brice tells her holding her to him tight. He ignores the pain from where the bullets caused him some bruising.

"You're okay? I saw the fight, or some of it any way." Her words are soft, barely heard, but he hears them any way.

"I wish you hadn't seen any of it. It caused you some distress. I'm fine. I was wearing body suit armor and a bullet proof vest. They work really well at stopping the bullets, but they don't stop the impact from causing a nasty bruise. I don't even have any broken bones." Brice doesn't hide anything from her. He doesn't want her to worry about him.

She pulls back and looks at him. "This happened because of bullets?" She traces a red mark on his collar bone. Then looks at the ones over his heart. "They almost killed you." She says in horror. She looks up at him.

"The one on the collar bone, was from the rogue fed and this one," Brice shows one of the heart shots. "These two are from your late boyfriend's loving brother." 

Savana puts her hand over her mouth in dread. "They almost killed you." 

"Hey, it's okay. It takes a lot to kill me. I've had worse than this from other mafias and deals gone wrong. This is very minor and I hardly even notice it. "

Savana starts kissing all his bruises.

Brice groans. "Savana, as much as I would love to continue this, and I really would, believe me, I am just too tired to do more than stand here and I'm not sure how much longer I'll be doing that. Especially if you continue on down."

Savana blushes furiously, "Forgive me, Brice. I'm being terribly selfish once more. I'm sorry."

"No, Savana, you aren't being selfish, you are trying to be very selfless. I am not worthy of your attention, not really, but I thank you for giving it to me." Brice does his best to reassure her but still have her understand and knows he fails, because he doesn't understand himself.

Savana leads him back over to the bed. "You should get some sleep, Brice. Take my bed since the boys are in the other one." The suite is set up very well, but only two beds since it wasn't meant for a lot of people.

"You need more sleep too, Savana."

Savana shrugs, "I'll go out onto the couch or something. You need to lay down and rest."

"Stay by me?"

"Brice last time I did that you didn't sleep. You need to sleep. I'll be fine."

"Just let me hold you. You'll sleep better and so will I knowing you are safe in my arms." Brice could kick himself for being so cheesy, but his words are working, he could tell. "I promise, I'll just hold you. I just need to know you are safe and close. You'll sleep better with me and I think I will as well."

"If you can't sleep, promise me you'll wake me up so I can go into the other room so you will sleep here?" Savana whispers to him, giving in.

"I promise." Brice gives her that promise since there is little that would be able to keep him awake at this point.

Brice and Savana both go over to the bed and Brice enfolds her in his arms. They are both asleep within seconds of laying down. 

Brice lets out a sigh as sleep takes him over. His last conscious thought was, this must be what heaven is like.