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 Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 11:22 am
Her body ached in pain's she didn't even understand. She had never suffered a beating that was so bad that she couldn't crawl upstairs but now...It hurt to take a breath, with her stomach against the cold concrete. She moved her head, that had drying red brown blood on her face over and laid a cheek down on it. Ever so slowly, and ever so grateful for this one small thing, she was able to open her eyes.
It was blurry and tinted red at first, and she moaned. She couldn't move her hand.
She couldn't move at all. Her instinct was to curl up inside herself and she couldn't even do that. Everything was heavy and in pain, and her breathing was so short and clipped, she couldn't even managed a scream for help. She wasn't even sure how long she had been there. It was still dark out, and not many sounds passed by. She couldn't have been out for long.
Her free hand, her good hand, pressed against the cold gravel and then forward, maybe she could find it. Maybe he didn't take it. Maybe this was all a bad dream. But there was nothing but cold and and she dug her hand into the cement.
This is what she got. This is what she deserved. This is what she wanted to never happen. This is everything she had given up. She dug her hand in deeper and tried to pull herself forward.
The pain had her seeing black again, but she pushed her body. She needed to call her Uncle. She needed to call an ambulance. He had almost killed her.
She should just lie here and let the night finish her off.
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 5:48 pm
Something was wrong.
There was a feeling in Chase's gut that told him as much no less than ten minutes after he dropped Regan off. At first, he tried to ignore it - to brush it off but it persisted, refused to dissipate. He needed to trust his instincts, they never let him down.
And they were telling him that something was wrong.
He turned around without hesitation or concern for the other drivers that were out on the mostly deserted, cutting off a few as he flipped a b***h. His mouth ran dry as he turned off Hermes' lights and crept up towards the garage. There was a man leaving and even in the darkness Chase knew exactly who it was. Anger bubbled within him, running above the ever present chaos that lined his bones and traveled through his veins.
It was tempting, so tempting, to power up and watch the light leave the man's eyes when he got his hands on the scum's starseed but --
Regan hadn't asked him to deal with it. It wasn't his business, it wasn't his place. He'd told himself that he would be involved but detached, only intervene if asked and she hadn't --
Wait. If Paul was there then that meant --
He parked and rushed into the building, urging the wild beat of his heart to calm itself. Everything is fine, he told himself, there's no reason to jump to conclusions. Maybe he didn't touch her... The idea was laughable, he knew what parents like hers were like. They beat to teach a lesson, to invoke fear. He couldn't even lie to himself about it not when --
"Regan," her name escaped his lips in a quiet gasp. He was -- he wasn't shocked but his sharp features seemed to pale. "Jesus -- ********." He approached her slowly, coming to crouch beside her tentatively reaching out.
Why did the people he'd come to care about always wind up getting hurt?
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:19 pm
She almost didn't understand or hear Chase's voice. She couldn't tell it was the young man, when her vision was spinning and she was trying to just...recover from the blows. She didn't think she could. But she could hear someone and the idea that someone else was going to touch her made her panic. Her good hand, her free hand came out and slapped Chase's away, as she rolled over and gasped.
"Don...Don't touch me!" She barely made out, her eyes glassy as she could finally make out his figure. "Don't touch me. Don't." She could feel the burn of tears and her head rolled back.
"It's..." she gritted her teeth. "Money. Envelope." She wasn't making sense now. Her words coming sporadic and painful. "Took it. You..." She gasped again, "You...." She just wanted to give in.
"I sh...I should've...never gone."
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:58 pm
"I'm not - I'm not going to touch you." He said quietly, pulling back the hand she slapped away. One of his knees pressed against the cold ground along with the palm of the hand he tried to reach for her with.
"Regan I -- " he stopped, losing the words - what he wanted to say. "He would've done this no matter what." He believed that, didn't want Regan to think that because she'd allow herself a tiny bit of freedom or happiness.
"We can - I can get you out." Away from Paul and everything disgusting about him. "Don't - Don't shut me out." He knew it was coming, he'd done the same thing when he was younger. When he pushed away everyone else in his life because he thought it was better. Because he thought it was easier or safer.
"Regan - "
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:08 pm
"I shouldn't have gone..." She murmured again, "I shouldn't have done it." All of her pain was echoing into more pain and the words sounded so hollow as she said them. She sounded so hollow, so empty. So devoid. She felt cold and prickly.
"No." She didn't want to believe that he would've done this no matter what again, he wouldn't have been here sooner, if she hadn't been given the money. He wouldn't have been here at all, because then he wouldn't have seen her ride off or come back.
Waiting for her.
It was fate's cruel way of reminding her that she was nothing. She would never be anything more then the doormat people walked all over. What had she been thinking? Freedom? The shackles of real life were right here, when they pinned her to the ground and clipped one of her wings.
"Hospital." She looked at Chase, looked at him and then turned her head away. "Am....Ambulance...." She didn't want to think of getting in one of those. Or being taken in one. Oh god, and her Uncle...he was going to find out.
She squeezed her eyes shut and just for once, wished she could disappear in the earth that was doing it's damnest to swallow her up.
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:49 pm
Stop, he wanted to say, swallowing the word back down his throat. Don't say that, Chase thought, though his lips pressed firmly together and he didn't utter a single word. His teeth clenched together and his jaw ticked as he looked at her, idle fury flooding him.
He needed to calm down, before he stormed out of the shop and used every resource he had to find her father.
Paul was lucky he wasn't there or things would have gone very differently. For starters, the blood on the concrete wouldn't be Regan's.
"But -- " an ambulance would cost money she probably didn't have, but he also didn't think that he was in any position to move her. She told him not to touch her so he wouldn't.
"Do you want me to call?" He wanted to offer to take her but he had Hermes, not the Camaro. "Regan you should - you should tell someone about what he does."
Tommy had said something similar to him once and Chase had brushed him off, told him to mind his own business. He couldn't help but wonder if she would do the same.
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:06 pm
She hoarsely laughed.
"T...Tell who?" She just shook her head, "Tell who?" Tell them what? She let her father beat her? Paid him money so he'd leave her alone? They'd laugh at her, worse...
Worse, they'd pity her. They'd turn her into a sob story, they'd take her from her Uncle, and put her in some home for abused women and kids, and have her sit with a stranger, and tell him her feelings and ask why she felt that way, how would he help? She hated the very idea of it. She the hated idea of telling anyone. She was even more shamed that Chase had found her like this. That she hadn't been just strong enough to take the beating and dealt with it.
"J...Just call...." She closed her eyes, "and...go. Then...just go..." That's all she wanted. God, couldn't he see was all she wanted to do was get patched up and go? She didn't want to talk to anyone else. She didn't want to see anyone else. She just...."Figures." she whispered again.
"Or...just leave me....I don't c...care anymore."
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:17 pm
He got the reaction he was expecting and it took most of his self-control to keep from recoiling backwards like her words were a physical slap. His nails scraped against the concrete and his knuckles pressed against the ground as his open hands shifted into tightly clenched fists. "Fine," the word came out as more of a hiss than he expected but -- Chase could only reign himself in for so long.
"Don't tell anyone." He understood, even when it seemed like he didn't, why she didn't want to but he felt helpless.
He didn't know how to deal with being helpless so he turned to the only emotion he recognized and could rely on. "Just - you should - let me help." The things he could do - he could make the man live a nightmare if he wanted.
If she let him.
But he wasn't going to keep arguing, not when she was struggling to breath, so he fished out his phone then stood and dialed 911. "Hello? I need an ambulance - yes - no, she can't move - I don't know," he hissed in response to whatever questions they were asking him. He turned his back on her so that she couldn't see the anger flickering across his face.
He gave them the information they needed and when they were done, he hung up and looked at her, blood dripping from his other hand. "They'll be here in ten." A pause and a swallow before he said, "I can take care of it. Just let me take care of it." His tone more pleading than he thought himself capable of.
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:29 pm
His anger was an emotion she could deal with and she almost smiled, if you called her smile any sort of movement in the face. Anger was something she could relate to, understand, deal with. Not his pity, or his caring or anything that made him nicer then she could ever be allowed to have.
His anger, she thought, was what she needed, more then anything. Angry at her, angry at Paul, it didn't matter.
"Don't." She winced and tried to sit herself up on the wall, but her body was just not having any of it. The pain was making the last of her mind spin, and she could feel the world wanting to tumble away from her again. "Shoul...should, doesn't mean....woul..would." She wetted her lips, and tasted the dried rusty blood. She wanted to ask him to not let her go alone, and to help her. She wanted to ask him to stay because she was scared, even more scared that they would ask her questions, and that they were strangers and she didn't know what to do. She was terrified. But his question made her wince and she rolled her head back to look at him, the blue eyes softening from pain.
She closed her eyes instead and whispered a small. "No."
Then she faded right back into darkness, and into pain free.
When she woke, it was to the beeps of machines, the warmth of blankets and surprisingly, numbed pain. Her head rolled again, alone. Was she alone?
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:49 pm
Don't - no. Those two simple words echoed in his mind the entire time she was out cold. Before, she'd told him to leave but there'd been something, a flicker of fear, in her expression that kept him rooted in place even as the EMTs burst into the room with their medical bags, rushing over to where Regan lay.
It's your fault, the voice in the back of his head told him, sounding suspiciously like his father. If it wasn't for you, this wouldn't have happened, it told him in the low, threatening voice he'd come to associate with the voice that called him monster.
Ignoring it as Chase was harder than ignoring it when he was Labyrinthite. Then again, he knew it'd been quiet for too long. It was no surprise that it was surfacing now, when he'd shown a moment of vulnerability. Whenever he was weak, there it was to taunt him. It was then that he was thankful for the questions the EMTs asked, trying to get as much information as the could out of him.
Luckily for Regan, Chase was a proficient liar and the story he told them was terribly convincing - and had nothing to do with her father.
"You never said sir," one of them began, looking at him before hopping into the back of the ambulance. "What your relation to her is or if you wanted to ride with her to the hospital."
Chase was quiet, blinking slowly at the expectant face as the other loaded up supplies and slid into the driver's seat. "Boyfriend and yes." It was the easiest lies to use, the most convenient. Regan would understand - he hoped.
"Alright, get in," they said, so he did.
It was weird, being in the back of an ambulance. He couldn't recall a time when he needed to be in one, because he'd been at work when his mother had been taken to the hospital. It's a bit surreal, if he's honest, because it felt like time slowed down, passed by at a different rate when all he had to look at were too-white walls, the battered body of his mechanic, and the EMT attempting to make small talk with him.
After several blank stares and clipped answers, they gave up and he rode the rest of the way in silence.
Being at the hospital was easier, felt more natural to Chase because he'd been there plenty of times. For his own health, for his mother, for Zircon when he'd deposited her after he rescued her. He filled out the forms as requested, using what information he'd picked up during his visits to the garage and the small amount of personal recon he'd done on her. If he understood guilt a little better, he might have felt guilty over it, but he didn't because it meant that he could handle most of it without having to call her uncle.
He wanted to find out what Regan wanted to do first.
There was a long stretch where they wouldn't tell him anything about her condition outside of the fact that they were taking care of her. He wanted to shout that it wasn't enough but he bit his tongue and tucked himself into one of the visitor room chairs. It might have been comical to onlookers, the way he fit his long, lanky frame into the space of a relatively small chair but he looked like he was on edge, he was, and many of the others in the waiting room gave him wide brith.
Finally, they allowed him into her room, when he took roost on an equally uncomfortable chair with is knees drawn to his chest and his chin resting on the tops of said knees. Bright amber eyes watched the rise and fall of her chest, counting the seconds between each breath as he mentally categorized her wounds.
Her ribs had been the worst. Breathing probably hurt.
The change in breathing was what alerted him to the fact that she was awake. He didn't rise, just watched her shift before he decided to alert her to his presence.
"Regan."
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Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:39 am
Like all hospital visits, everything seemed to blur together. She didn't know the time, but she knew where she was. She was in the hospital. In a plain room, with machines that beeped and....she tried to move but her ribs pinged the first sign of pain before it all melted away again.
"Al...Alex....." Her words came out slowly and painfully so. "Jesus." She moved the bed up, and knowing it was the worst thing in her life to do, she did it anyways, to a little more then sitting up position. She waited for all the aches and pain to fade before speaking again.
"Painkillers." Her mouth felt cottony, "N...No sorry, water?" She was so thirsty. "Y...you stayed?"
She was enough out of it to appreciate that he did. Give her a few moments and she'd be back to questioning him. "H..how long?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 9:52 am
"I'll call the nurse," he said, stretching out his legs and uncurling himself to stand. He stretched his back, bones cracking into place as he strode to push the softly glowing button on the wall that would alert the medical staff. They'd been checking in every half hour or so, waiting for her to wake, and had told him to let them know when she woke.
Then he moved over to the sink along the wall, plucking a disposable cup to fill it with some water before walking slowly over to her. Whiskey eyes traveled across her wounded frame because he couldn't help it and he sighed.
"It's almost...four in the morning." He answered with a glance to the watch on his wrist. "I wasn't going to leave you Regan." His brow furrowed slightly at the admission, like he hadn't expected the words to leave his mouth. "I - " a pause and another sigh as he extended his arm and offered her the cup. "Your uncle doesn't know. I filled out all the paperwork - " he hesitated, unsure if now was the proper time to tell her that he'd claimed to be her boyfriend so they'd let him stay.
"I wasn't going to leave until I knew what you wanted to do," he said instead, because it was easier. "I should have - " he didn't know where he was going, a common trend lately where the eloquent man was at a loss for words. "I should have done things differently."
Should've met her somewhere away from the shop. Should've made sure no one was lurking before he left. Should've come back sooner. Should've been more careful.
Should have, could have, would have done things different if he'd been more careful, aware.
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Posted: Fri Feb 26, 2016 10:59 pm
"Not yet." She managed to get out and coughed, looking around again. She wasn't ready for the strangers yet. It was fine when she was sleeping and didn't know, but now?
"Thank you." She took the water and sipped it, feeling the cold liquid move down her throat with a sweet sort of relief. "Thanks. I don't know if I could deal with Chase too." She took a deep breath.
"What'd you have to tell them to fill out the paperwork?" She wondered perhaps if he claimed to be her brother or something. That would be fitting. And why he was still allowed in here.
His admission made her quiet, and she sipped her cup more thoughtfully. She was hurting, in pain. She'd like nothing better then push the blame on Alex, call him names, accuse him of bringing this on her, but he hadn't been the one to do it.
Paul had.
It was never her fault or his or anyone that wasn't Paul.
"You didn't know..." she rasped out..."I didn't....know either...I thought I'd be safe for...just a little while longer. I thought it'd be okay." She closed her eyes. "I was wrong."
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Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 10:05 am
He seemed to frown when she told him not to alert the nurses but, as always, he complied. "It's fine," he brushed aside her thanks easily because he understood. It was why he'd learned some basic first aid, learned how to bandage himself up.
That he would have offered to Regan is she would let him touch her or if it hadn't been so severe.
Being in her hospital room, looking at her reminded him of the last time he'd been beaten so bad he ended up in the hospital. At least, from his understanding, her uncle Chase was nothing like Samuel and that was a small grace.
"Boyfriend," he said quietly, looking at her with his blank expression, body tensing as he waited for her reaction. "Told them that you were emancipated and that you have an uncle but I'm the emergency contact." Outside of the information he'd filled out on the paperwork, most of what he'd told them was a lie.
They hadn't been keen on letting him stay because he wasn't blood related but, his name carried more weight around the hospital than he'd realized. He had his mother to thank for that, he supposed.
"But I still knew about him. I should have done things more carefully. I made things worse the last time he was around." He knew he looked like old money and he'd seen how Paul looked at him, could imagine the things he thought. "I'll do things differently next time."
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Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 6:12 am
She very surprised that he remained to compliant to her request, instead of pushing her and forcing her to face the situation. She appreciated not having to deal with the nurse right away.
Instead she shifted and took a sip from the water.
"Oh." She said simply before furrowing her brow. boyfriend made a lot of sense after all. They couldn't really dispute it, and it allowed him access.
She liked to think he was a very cunning man.
"There won't be a next time." She looked down and away. "For both of us, it's probably best you stay away."
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