What The Cat Dragged In Ch. 25

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*~*~*~*~*~*

She was out of bed and down the hall in a few long strides, the stink of terror surrounding her in a thick miasma, making it hard for him to breathe.

The door to the small bathroom slammed and he heard her wretch. He hesitated with his hand on the knob. He wasn't exactly a comforting presence. What the fuck would he say once he got in there?

He heard her wretch again.

He decided he didn't give a shit. He'd say whatever came out and if she was pissed off at him, the rest would seem less important. He opened the door. She was crouched in front of the light blue toilet, her upper body braced on the seat, her hair falling in a sweaty curtain to hide her face. There was one bright red, raised scratch on her shoulder, and another deeper cut. Blood was starting to trickle down her arm. She started to tremble.

In a way, she looked every bit as vulnerable and broken as she had in the bunker. He got peroxide and several gauze pads out of her make-up bag.

She flinched away from him when he pressed the gauze over the deepest wound on her shoulder.

"It'll heal." Her voice was raspy. She flushed the toilet and sat on the floor, her knees drawn up, her back to him.

"I know. Doesn't mean you gotta bleed all over the damn place." He held the cottony square over the wound again. This time, she didn't move away. "Dream?" Pretty damn obvious that it was, but it didn't look like she was going to say anything on her own. He held his hand over her shoulder, putting pressure on the cut.

She nodded once.

"Same as before?"

Slight shake of her head.

"Gonna make me guess?" He was holding his anger in check. If she heard it in his voice, she'd be certain that it was directed at her somehow. She didn't need that on top of all the other shit she was going through.

Another little head shake. "Can't. Not just now." Her voice sounded flat and strange.

He recognized it as the sound of withdrawal. He kissed the back of her head, her sweat was still heavy with her fear and a newer scent; anger. That almost made him smile. He took the gauze from her shoulder. The wound wasn't gone, but it wasn't bleeding anymore. The other scratches were nearly invisible now.

"Need a shower." The soft, alien voice again.

"Come back to bed after." He got up and headed back to the bedroom. He knew he wouldn't get back to sleep. The scent of her fear alone was enough to keep him awake.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Kelly stood under the weak shower and tried to push away the horrific images and sensations. Maybe eventually she'd be successful in that, but she doubted that she'd ever be able to forget the guilt.

It was all her fault.

If it hadn't been for her, Victor wouldn't have been in the middle of nowhere and he wouldn't have gotten shot. It made her chest hurt every time she thought about it, and it stirred an all-consuming fiery anger that would not be suppressed. Anger at Stan for trading her and Cody to cover up for his own misdeeds. Anger at Cavallo for being the kind of sick bastard who would take such an offer and revel in it. Anger at herself for all of it and for not even taking a moment to grieve when she thought Victor was gone.

If Victor had anything to say about it, Stan and Cavallo would have to answer for what they did. What could she do about the rest? She couldn't turn back the clock. She couldn't make it up to him. She couldn't even figure out how to apologize. Even if she could, that wouldn't fix anything anyway. They might be safe here, but as soon as they stepped outside the gates of the mansion, they were still wearing targets and it was all her fault. There was no resolution and that alone made her even angrier.

The water started to get cold. Kelly stepped out reluctantly and dried herself off. The thought of going back to bed was more than she could manage at that moment. She wrapped one of Victor's flannel shirts around herself and went out into the tiny living room. The sofa was uncomfortable, but at least it was a place to be alone with her thoughts for a few minutes.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Creed listened to the water run in the sink. He heard her brush her teeth. He heard her turn on the shower and get in. How long she stood under the weak spray he couldn't say, but he figured it was probably getting cold by the time she got out. She should have been in the bedroom a few minutes later, instead he heard her pause in the hall and head down toward the living room.

He fucking hated it when she got like this. Sure it was annoying as hell, but more than that he didn't have the first idea of how to bring her out of it. He'd always know what to do. Some of the time it was wrong, but it always produced a change. A result that he could work with in one way or another and to hell with the consequences.

Couldn't do that now. The consequences mattered too much.

Fucking frail, made his life complicated from the time he woke up in the morning until he went to bed at night and beyond. Course the idea of going back to an uncomplicated life was almost enough to make him puke. He pulled on a pair of shorts and went out to find her. He'd almost gotten used to making shit up as he went along.

As soon as he opened the door he could see her sitting on the sofa. Her back was to him, but he could tell that she was hugging her knees. He made sure she could hear him coming. No need to scare the shit out of her. She turned her head, but Creed couldn't be certain whether she saw him or not.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, she'd left him room enough to sit behind her, so he did.

"Thought you were coming back to bed."

"I just...I didn't think I could sleep yet and I didn't want to keep you up." Her voice didn't have that same flat emptiness that had been there in the bathroom, but it still wasn't right in a way he couldn't define. 'Distant' was the best he could come up with, but that didn't quite cover it either.

"I'm up anyway."

She glanced at him, and then looked away again. "I'm sorry." There was more pain in the two words than there should have been.

Nervousness tinged her scent. He moved closer. She moved back, but didn't quite touch him. He ran clawed fingers through her damp hair. She started to relax. "What're you beatin' yourself up for?" He made sure to keep his voice soft.

"I'm not-"

"I can practically smell it on you, frail."

She took a deep breath. "I thought you were dead."

He could tell from the tone of her voice that the statement was supposed to explain everything, but it didn't make a bit of sense to him. "I'm not."

"But I didn't know that. Your blood hit my face, I saw you hit the ground." She started to shiver. He pulled her closer, but didn't force her to face him.

"What could you have done? You were drugged-"

"But I woke up in a cell and they left me alone for awhile." She was leaning against him, but her body was tense.

"So? You sure as hell couldn't have done anything when you were locked up." The more she talked the less sense she made. Seeing the state she was in though, it wasn't just idle conversation.

"But I just..." She took trembling breath and went silent again.

He caught the scent of her tears, and he could feel her fighting them. "Just what?"

She hugged her knees tighter. "I just washed the blood off." She choked on a sob. "I washed the blood off and tried to figure a way to get out of there."

He gripped her wrist and held her tighter. She struggled but he wouldn't let her go. Now at least all the upset made sense in a way. Seeing him shot was bad enough. Seeing him shot and struggling with guilt, he was surprised she hadn't fallen apart before this. Course he knew what that felt like too.

Fucking frail. If he lived with her long enough, he'd end up telling her all of his secrets.

She was giving up the struggle, with him and the tears she was fighting. Finally, she went limp against him. He relaxed his grip on her wrist and she turned slightly to snuggle against his shoulder. He rested his cheek against the top of her head. "Told you about Fort Sumter."

He felt her nod.

"Didn't tell you Jimmy was there too."

She stayed silent, but she was curious. He could smell it.

"Jimmy didn't like the idea, but I convinced him."

"Why?" Her voice was small.

"Jimmy can pass for human. I can't. Back then, if you couldn't pass you ended up in a fucking freak show and that's if you were lucky. Jimmy just wanted to be normal. He'd manage to get work someplace and they'd find out I was his brother and we'd both be on the move again. By the time it was all brewing we were in the States anyway. They were taking mutants and I figured it was a shot at Jimmy's normal and I was fighting all the damn time anyway. Might as well get paid for it."

He felt her relax against him a little more.

Some of the tension in his muscles had eased, like the more he talked, the easier it got. "Didn't turn out the way I figured it would. Sure they took mutants, but we were separated from everyone else. Got paid less, lived closest to the latrines, did all the shit work, got the worst of the food, the worst of the punishment and we were always at the front of the line when the fighting started. Me and Jimmy made the best of it, had some narrow misses, some minor shit." He smirked. "Gave the normals a hell of a show when some major injury healed in a few minutes."

A little smile flickered across her face too.

"Couldn't last though. About three months in, we were right in the middle of it. I don't even know how the fuck it all happened. I heard men screaming and smelled blood and hate and terror and I looked over and Jimmy wasn't next to me anymore." His chest got tight. The sights and smells came back unbidden. His arm tightened around her for just a moment, holding tight to the present. "'F it'd been something minor Jimmy would have found me again after. When he didn't, I went searching through bodies."

The ground had been soggy with blood and the stink of shit and death hung in a heavy cloud over the field. Droning flies had begun to gather, as had the filthy men who made their living from robbing the dead. He remembered how the dead flesh felt in his hands. Remembered the groaning sound one body made as it slid over another. He'd worked so hard to forget the faces and now they loomed before him again with their staring eyes and expressions of shock and pain. He hadn't realized how far away he'd gone until he felt the frail's hand stroking his chest.

"I'm sorry for bringing it all back." Her voice was soft.

He gripped her hand. "Part of that infection I told you about before. Anyway, I found him, all broken to hell. He was healing, but nothing was in the right place. I had to rebreak his leg so they'd heal normal." He didn't tell her that for nearly two days they'd lived in a circle of corpses because their unit couldn't spare a stretcher and Jimmy couldn't be moved any other way at first. "Know what I did after?"

She shook her head. "No."

"Got him back to camp, did all the shit I usually did. 'F you're gonna survive, you got to. Doesn't make you disloyal." He looked down at her.

She was looking away. "I feel like I'm always an inch away from falling apart."

He shrugged. "I'll put you back together if you do." The words sounded more confident about that than he felt.

She looked up at him, a little smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. "I believe you could."

He grinned. "Fucking right I could." His hand slipped between the buttons of the shirt, stroking the side of her stomach. His lips found hers and lingered there for a long moment, until all the residual tension was gone. "Why d'you always wear my clothes when you get upset?"

She laughed. "Because your clothes always seem warmer than mine."

He moved to kiss her again, harder this time, when something hit the outer wall of the house with a loud thump.

She jumped, but managed to bite back a scream.

His muscles were tense. "Get dressed." He got up and headed for the door.

Fear was rolling off of her in waves. "No! You can't go out there. What if-"

"Cavallo's goons ain't got a hope in hell of sneaking onto this property, and even if they did, they wouldn't be stupid enough to make all that noise. Now go!" He made sure she heard the dangerous growl under his words.

She got up and trotted away, he headed for the door.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Kelly's heart was pounding when she locked herself in the tiny bathroom. Her thoughts raced, her stomach turned again, only this time it was empty.

She paced the two steps between door and tub in quick strides, her arms crossed over her stomach.

There was nothing but silence from the exterior of the house.

Victor was probably right, it was probably just an animal or wind or something innocent. In the jumble of her thoughts those perfectly logical ideas almost got lost. She forced herself to hold on to them, to repeat them to herself like a mantra. After what seemed like an eternity, she heard the door open again.

"Frail!" Victor called. "Bring me my phone."

It was alright. It must have been, otherwise he wouldn't have told her to come out. She pulled on a pair of sweats and found his phone on the dresser in the bedroom. He was standing in the kitchen holding a terrified-looking boy by the collar of his coat. Victor was wet. The boy was covered in snow and shivering. Victor pushed the boy into one of the chairs and took the phone from her.

"Who-"

"A nosy fucking brat, that's who." He manipulated the buttons on the phone until he found what he wanted. He glared at the sandy-haired boy who was doing his best to vanish into his clothes. "A fucking brat who's lucky I been practicing my self-control."

Kelly had no idea what to say. She stared at the boy and he stared at her.

He growled and jabbed at buttons again. The nervous silence grew in small room until the phone was answered. "Jimmy, get your ass over here."

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divastar88divastar88almost 13 years ago
Need More

Loving this keep up the good work and the updates!

mssdiamondmssdiamondalmost 13 years ago
:(

oh please update im waiting on they baby

AnonymousAnonymousalmost 13 years ago
:'(

miss you like crazy...

miss your writing like a thirsty man in sahara...

miss the update like the sun in a coal mine deep underground...

JUST MISS U!!!!! UPDATE SOON XD

k.

gw0313gw0313almost 13 years ago
Thank you******

Thank you for the feedback:) I can Wait, especially if you are half-way through with next chapter. This story is really one my favorites. I have your page bookmarked so I can check for a post everyday. I will be waiting with my nose pressed to the computer screen for the next installment...lol

Thanks again, Glenna

gw0313gw0313almost 13 years ago
Waiting

Waiting 5 weeks I am starting think you dont love us any more.....PLEASE

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