What The Cat Dragged In Ch. 09

"At two-thirty in the goddamn morning?" He sounded annoyed and confused.

She shrugged a little and pushed at the sleeves of her sweatshirt, unable to meet his eyes. "I couldn't sleep, so-"

He rolled his eyes. "You're a bad liar, frail."

She felt herself getting flustered. "I was sleeping, but I woke up. I had to do something with the apples-"

He dumped all of them into the trash. "There. I did something with 'em. You wanna try telling me the truth now?"

Kelly trembled a little, her eyes on the empty sink. She rubbed her arms with her hands, trying to hide the goosebumps that were forming there. "It was nothing, just a dream."

"Bullshit. If it was just a dream you would still be in bed and I wouldn't be down here-"

"You want to hear that he won?" She turned to face him, her anger pounding in her ears, her fingernails digging into the palms of her hands. "Fine. Tonight Stan wins! You can go tell the whole damn world or you can go back to bed." She pushed past him and got her boots out of the hall closet.

"Where are you-"

"For a walk." She pulled viciously at the laces.

"Like hell you are!" He picked her up and slammed her back against the wall hard enough to make her head spin. Her feet dangled inches above the floor, his fingers dug painfully into her upper arms. For a few eternal seconds, she was sure that he was going to make good on all of his threats. "Told you before, running away ain't smart."

Kelly looked away. She started to tremble a little.

"What was the longest?" There was an angry growl in his voice, but his grip had loosened a little.

"I don't know what-"

"He kept you in the fuckin' dark. He made sure you got a little bit of shitty food, and a little water. Just enough to keep you alive, nothing more and not on any kind of schedule so you wouldn't have a sense of time. Sleep was an escape, but when you woke up you didn't know whether or not you were alive or dead."

Kelly went limp in his grasp. He lowered her to her feet.

"You gonna tell me or you need me to go on?"

Kelly couldn't look at him; her voice came out in a barely audible whisper. "Three months, one week, four days, ten hours and thirteen minutes."

Silence bloomed between them, lingering for what seemed like ages. She could feel the trembling starting and she crossed her arms over her chest, grabbing the newly-bruised places on her arms. The flash of pain would keep her focused. He bumped his head against hers, Kelly arched into him.

"I hate that I let him make me so...weak." Her voice cracked with emotion.

"Seen men a whole lot bigger than you go batshit crazy after a week of that. Didn't make you weak. Made you a fucking pain in the ass when I gotta go chasing after you in the middle of the goddamn night, but that's all."

Kelly smiled a little, her forehead resting against his chest. She didn't want to know where he had seen it before, but even through the storm of her emotions she knew there was a lot more to it than he was telling her. One large hand cupped the back of her head awkwardly, as if he wasn't sure what to do next.

"I'm sorry." She whispered. "I tried not to wake you."

He growled softly. "You think as soon as I leave he's gonna get to you somehow."

She shrugged. "I'll be alone here. I don't know much, but I know that when you're gone I'll be a sitting duck, no matter how many alarms there are."

"You ain't gonna be alone."

She looked up at him. "What?"

"I said I'm leaving, but you ain't gonna be alone." He sounded annoyed.

"Who-"

"You'll meet him when we go to dinner tonight. Course you'll look like ten miles of bad road because you been running around all goddamn night, but that ain't my problem." His hand tightened in her hair. "C'mon. I'm sick of standing around."

He pulled and she followed, her gait made awkward by the one boot she was still wearing.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Three and half fucking months. She should have been talking to imaginary space aliens and finger-painting with her own shit. Instead she was undressed again and curled up against his chest. From the way she felt against him, she was relaxed again too. Not sleeping. He hadn't really expected her to. At least she could not sleep where she damn well belonged.

His fingertips drifted over the smooth skin of her shoulders. He wanted to know how the fuck she'd done it. He guessed it didn't much matter. Just proved that he was right when he figured there was more to her than what he could see. Made all the other emotional bullshit almost tolerable.

She turned her head and nuzzled against the crook of his neck. He nipped her ear gently, and felt her smile against him. His thumb caressed the back of her shoulder. Something bothered him about the texture of her skin. The wounds had healed without any further infection, but he'd cut her deep enough the second time that she should have had scars there.

His eyebrows drew together and his fingers drifted over the meat of her shoulder. He felt scabs from healing wounds. He felt her flinch when he pressed on a place that was still painfully bruised, but he felt no patches of raised scar tissue. He'd been careful, but he hadn't been that fucking careful in the beginning.

Without thinking about disturbing her, he sat up and turned the light on. She groaned and moved away from him. He twisted his hand in her hair, turning her onto her stomach. Her anxiety spiked.

"What-"

"You don't have any scars." He turned her head away, trying to get a better look at her neck. Pink, healthy skin covered the places where scar tissue should have formed.

"I know, I haven't since I was a little kid." He could hear the confusion in her voice. "Can you let go of my hair? Please?"

He loosened his grip, but kept her face pressed against the bed. She took a deep breath. "Ever?"

She shrugged a little. "When I was seven I had my appendix out. There's a scar from that, but nothing since. I never really thought about it before though."

He let go of her hair and turned the light off again. "You never wondered about it?"

She let him get comfortable, then settled against him again. "No. I just figured I had good genes. Does it bother you?"

He gave a little snort. "Just means I gotta work harder to keep you marked. Now shut up and go to sleep."

If she read his curiosity, she was smart enough not to say anything.