Riley: Yeah! I told him exactly what happened. Nothing more, nothing less.
Me: Thanks, man. I appreciate it.
Riley: I’ll see you first thing in the morning. Go home, try and get some rest.
Me: I’m not fucking leaving. I’ll sleep in this goddamned waiting room if I have to.
Riley: Well in that case, I’ll be at the hospital as soon as I’m off duty. I’ll bring you some clothes and shit.
Me: Thanks!
Riley: No problem, brother!
I laid my head back on the seat, the pain from my hand beginning to take hold as my head filled with a throbbing ache. I didn’t care. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up, the nurse from earlier was standing over me, calling my name while holding an icepack to my hand. The cold compress up against my warm and sensitized skin intensified the sting that came with the touch. I tried to focus as she asked me to please follow her, standing and stretching as the pain from my hand was now filling my body. She led me into a treatment room and asked me to sit on the examination table.
“What am I in here for?” I asked, wondering how I had somehow become the patient.
“Your hand is swollen and it needs to be looked at.”
She took her blood pressure cuff and wrapped it around my arm, then placed a thermometer in my mouth, and watched the time.
“You’re all good,” she said, unstrapping the cuff and taking the thermometer out of my mouth. “The doctor will be in to see you shortly.”
I stopped her, gently grabbing her arm as she turned to walk out of the room. She looked back to me, her eyes wide, almost sympathetic.
“Please just let me know how Pfc. Bennett is doing. I just need to see her. I need to know she’s okay.”
Her look softened. She pressed her lips together, contemplating if she should talk or not. Her compassionate side won out as she blew out a breath and began talking.
“She is going to be okay. She was battered pretty badly, but her scans showed no internal damage. She has a slight concussion, a bruised nose and cheek bone, and sprained wrists. She was lucky. It could have been much worse.”
I closed my eyes as I listened to the nurse read me what felt like a fucking laundry list of things wrong with Cassie. But after thinking about how much worse things could have been, I finally settled down, knowing that she was hurt, but that she was going to be alright.
“Can I please see her? I’m not family, but I need to see her. I’m begging you.”
She thought about it for a minute. “Let the doctor examine you, and get your x-rays because you’re going to need them. Then I’ll take you to see her.”
A smile touched my lips. I finally had a reason to feel some sort of happiness.
The doctor came in, an older gentleman with a head full of grey hair. He took one look at my hands and immediately said I had broken a knuckle, but that he wanted x-rays to confirm and pinpoint it. I didn’t argue, just followed everything they wanted to do so that I could get back to see Cassie. I wouldn’t rest until I could drink in her beautiful face.
The x-rays came back and confirmed the doctor’s suspicions. They wrapped my hand in a splint, sternly instructing me not to use it so that it would heal with time. I nodded, wanting to hurry out of there and get in the room to see Cassie. When the doctor gave me the all clear, the nurse escorted me down to her room. I looked into the door window, finding her asleep.
“Try not to wake her. She’s been through a lot,” the nurse said, finally curving her lips into something that resembled a smile.
I nodded, then pushed open the door and softly strode in, taking a seat in the chair next to her bedside. I stared at her, seeing the wrap around her tiny wrists, the bandages on her face, the IV needle in her arm. All of it stunned me. I had never seen anything short of a beautifully, robust woman whenever I looked at her. She was still all of that, only broken. I held her hand in mine, resting back in the chair and watching her breathe peacefully as she slept. There was nothing better than this at the moment.
She stirred, her eyes blinking furiously as they tried to adjust to the light. I sat up, eager to talk to her…to hear her voice…to apologize to her.
“Hey, Blondie,” I lightly greeted, smiling as she tried to focus on me. Even with her marks, she was still the most beautiful girl that I had ever fucking laid eyes on.
She smiled, then swallowed, the painful wince as she did so surprising me.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better,” she answered, finally curving her lips into a smile.
There was a pink bucket full of ice water so I filled a cup with water and helped her drink from it. She took small sips, easing it down her throat. I couldn’t help but smile at her as I realized that I was so close to losing her, losing the one thing that mattered most to me. I took her hand again, bringing it to my lips, and kissing the top ever so gently.
“I can’t even begin to apologize enough to you, Blondie. I can’t seem to stop fucking up.”
Her eyebrows scrunched. “What do you mean?”
“I was wallowing in my own selfish bullshit, and that’s why you were left alone. I should have sucked it up. I should have had you with me, and that fucking—“ my anger was beginning to flair again, “—that fucking animal would have never gotten to you.” I could feel my body temperature rising, but I tried hard to control it, not wanting to upset her.
“Shhhh…” she said, closing her eyes then reopening them. “I don’t want you blaming yourself for this. Allen is responsible for his own actions.”
“I know, but...fuck! If I’d had you with me—“
She stopped me again.
“Alex, there is no point in that. Allen did what he did, and none of us could have predicted it.”
She wasn’t going to let my guilt swallow me, and the sweet, yet exhausted look plastered on her face made me realize even more why I had fallen in love with her in the first place.
“Do you even realize what he did to you?”
She blew out a breath and closed her eyes. The thought was probably painful for her, but I had to know. It was killing me inside to know if she was fully aware of what that fucking rabid dog had done to her.
“Yes. I’m hurting all over. I’m well aware.”
She adjusted again in the bed, this time shifting her legs with great care. The move brought back the image of Allen, half naked on the ground—his shit hanging out as Cassie sat scrunched on the floor, half naked as well. Sharp knifes jabbed at my mind as I tried hard to erase the painful and traumatizing image from my head, but I couldn’t.
And the more I saw it, the more enraged I became.
“I need you to tell me something, Cassie.” I swallowed hard as I internally debated whether I truly wanted to know the answer to my question. The deep need to know won out, giving me the courage to continue on. “I need to know what the fuck Allen did to you down there because if that motherfucker stuck his filthy fucking dick inside of you I’m going to finish him off, and I won’t have any remorse for it.”
I sat dying a slow death as I awaited her answer, the slow swallows she took acting like nails in my fucking coffin. I was prepared to hear it, but I wasn’t exactly sure what my reaction would be when I did, and that was what scared me most.
“He didn’t stick his cock into me.”
I exhaled loudly, throwing my head back in the chair. Relief had never felt so good.
“But, he was going to, and I was terrified that he was about to, when whoever that guy was came in and pulled him off of me.” She was starting to cry again which was the last thing I wanted. I scooted the chair closer to her, taking her hand to my lips, then resting it up against my cheek. “He fucking rammed his fingers inside of me.
