Thank you all so very much for your kind reception of chapter two. I'm hoping things get posted a bit more frequently now ;)
Congratulations to the ruggedly handsome Dino, the first one to correctly guess what happened at the end of John's section. He's a pretty stellar editor, and I'm very grateful to have had his help. Another big congrats to NorthernDancer, who also guessed correctly, and is a total gem.
Thanks so very much to Pheobecharmed and anon for their guesses. While not quite right, they were really great to read, and it's lovely seeing people become interested in the stories and the directions their minds take.
Again, anything that deals with medical things may be incorrect, or may not be the experience everyone has. Things are written a certain way for the progression of the story, and are not necessarily correct. If I mess something up, feel free to rant about it in the comments. I apologize in advance for anything that anyone feels in incorrect.
Enjoy Ch 03 of Finally Mine!
~shysubmissivegirl~
*
~John~
I gently closed the door behind me, doing my best to ensure that I didn't wake or disturb Emma. She'd had a god awful day, and Lord knows she needed all the sleep she could get.
Alex was perched right outside, his anxious eyes bright with worry. I nodded at him, "She's okay. She's exhausted, obviously, and I expect she'll be quite a bit embarrassed by how she reacted. Most people are after something like this. Go easy on her the next couple of days, and no matter what you do, no sex unless she asks for it. Understood?"
Alex furrowed his brow and nodded slowly. I could tell he was a bit upset by the news, but nonetheless, he was willing to deal with it because it was what would be best for Emma. I could see the worry settle on him as he now realized that Emma wasn't going to return to her bouncy, cheerful self right away. She needed time to cope with things, and she needed to feel safe most of all.
"Come on, let's go sit down. You need a drink," I told him, guiding him into his living room with a practiced manner. Thank God I had experience in the field of counseling, or otherwise, I'd have never been able to handle it. I was honestly shocked that Alex had done as well as he had until I'd gotten here.
A big part of that, I knew, came from his dominant personality. Alex was very good at controlling himself and remaining calm, even in high-stress situations. Still, this was beyond what most people could handle. When a loved one had a massive anxiety attack, it was always hard to deal with.
I sat Alex down, momentarily breaking free from my thoughts. "What do you want?" I asked him, beginning to rummage through his fridge.
"Just get me a beer," Alex replied, his voice strangely numb.
I hesitated, instead plucking two bottles of water from the fridge. I didn't think Alex really needed any more beer right now. He needed a clear head, so that he could comprehend everything that had happened.
I headed back into the living room, and passed Alex the bottle of water. He took it, a funny look coming over his face, then proceeded to twist off the cap and take a sip. "I thought I said I wanted a beer," he commented, taking another sip.
"I know," I replied, sitting on the couch next to him.
It was so odd watching things, looking at the room and knowing what had just happened in here. My mind raced back, reliving the events.
*
I got the text from Alex, and it had shocked me to the core. It wasn't a message really, just a picture, and I'd had to zoom in on my phone to see it clearly. What it showed had me racing from my office, and to Alex's house.
It was a picture from the news. On it was a face I didn't recognize at all, one I was certain I'd never seen. But the name below it was more than enough to guarantee who it was.
Jordan White.
I'd heard the name from Emma over and over while she and Alex tried to figure out their relationship. She constantly told me of her nightmares regarding him, how thoughts of him coming back to hurt her plagued her on a daily basis. Once Alex and Emma had gotten together, I made her tell him everything she'd told me. Alex wanted to force her to go to a counselor, and only realizing that she pretty much already had, by seeming me, stopped him from dragging her to one himself.
Jordan White was Emma's former "Master." I use the word Master hesitantly, because I don't see what he did as being anything like a Master. Jordan was, to simply put it, a bastard through and through. A Master is not someone who puts others down and destroys them. Killing someone emotionally is not the way to establish dominance. Destroying trust didn't qualify either.
It's people like him that end up killing their submissives. People like him that cause others to misunderstand the level of trust and love expressed in this lifestyle. Only those who live in real relationships centered on dominance and submission understand the whole-hearted depth of emotions and trust needed for it to be successful.
Thinking about it made my stomach roll, and I couldn't even imagine how Emma was doing. As a counselor, I could surely diagnose her with PTSD, although she was easily able to overcome it with the help of myself and Alex. With things being brought back up, I'd bet my hat that she was experiencing severe flashbacks and emotional distress.
I needed to get there fast. While Alex was good with Emma, and while I knew he loved her with all of his heart, I also knew that he wasn't exactly trained to handle situations like this the way I was. And especially with victims of sexual abuse, many people handled things the wrong way. Alex would feel the need to protect her, and hold her, and many times, that could worsen the situation a great deal.