Andrea was floating and in the tender embrace of someone gentle, someone loving. There was calmness, a surrender of sorts. A peacefulness that one only knows when you've surrendered after a good fight. And then she woke up.
It took Andrea a minute or so to gather her senses. She was in bed. There was no noise, no movement. As her consciousness became more acute so did her senses and the first sense was taste. It was a metallic taste in her mouth. She recognized it. She had a tooth pulled years ago and she remembered the taste of blood. She turned her head and pain shot through her face and neck. She moved slower now, painfully but manageable. She turned to see Mike lying in bed, naked and facing away from her. The image helped her to remember... remember him on top of her, remember the pain, remember her pleading for him to stop. She lay there for a minute fearing he would be awake and turn on her again but he didn't move.
Andrea started to turn to get up but her body was wracked with pain. She moved slowly and got into a seated position with her legs hanging off the side of the bed. She saw she still had one leg in her shorts and she bent to pull them on but it felt like a knife stabbing her side. She decided not to bother. She raised herself up and steadied herself and took a few steps over to her dresser, which she leaned on for support. She slowly turned and looked back at the bed.
The first thing she noticed was blood on the pillow case. She knew it was hers but didn't know why she was bleeding. She lifted her hand to her face and felt the caked blood around her mouth and the swelling of the side of her face. She guessed that someone had hit her pretty hard and that someone had to be Mike. She glanced further down on the bed and suddenly her legs buckled. Where she had been sitting the sheets were stained with blood and ejaculate... blood and ejaculate coming from her. She slid down the wall to a seated position, grimacing in pain. It was coming back now.
She reached down, put her leg through her shorts, pulled them up and puller herself to her feet. She had to go, to get out of there before something else happened. She walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs, using the wall for balance. Each step shot pain inside every opening of her body. She gasped for breath but could only inhale a small amount of air before pain shot through her side. At the bottom of the stairs she grabbed her purse and keys, opened the door quietly and walked out of the house. Seconds later she was driving away.
Twenty minutes later she was standing outside Stix's front door. She didn't remember driving there, didn't know why she drove there and didn't know what to expect. She had nowhere else to go. She stood there for a few minutes thinking whether or not this was a good idea. She had hurt Stix and now wanted her, needed her. She lifted her finger to the doorbell and hesitated knowing if she rang the bell she was probably committing herself to a tongue lashing. She smirked to herself. At least she hadn't lost her sense of humor. No, the tongue lashing would be because she treated Stix terribly and now was hoping Stix would provide the comfort and refuge she desperately needed. She rang the bell.
As she stood there she glanced to the side and froze. There was a truck in the driveway parked behind Stix's car. It had a few military-related stickers on it along with one that said "Combat Medic". Her heart sank. Stix had a guy with her and Andrea felt horrible about having come over. She turned to leave but before she got to the first step the porch light flicked on and the door opened.
"What the fuck do you want?" Stix asked.
Andrea slowly turned around and Stix's face dropped.
"What the fuck happened to you?" she said as she grabbed Andrea as she almost collapsed. Andrea started crying and sobbed into Stix's robe.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," she cried.
Stix pulled her inside and guided her to the couch.
"DOC! GET OUT HERE" she yelled.
Andrea tried to get up.
"I'm sorry. I should go. I didn't mean to bother you," she said but Stix pushed her back on the couch.
"Sit down. DOC! GET OUT HERE!"
Andrea looked up and saw who Doc was. It was the tough, "don't fuck with her" girl from Anna's Place. Doc took one look at Andrea and took over.
"Go get my crash box out of my truck," she said to Stix and gently laid Andrea down on the couch. "NOW!" she shouted.
Doc started a preliminary examination of Andrea. It was obvious she had been hit in the face. There were indications of choking around her neck. Her arm guarded her side indicating possible rib injuries.
"I'm so sorry," she said to Doc. "I shouldn't be here. I didn't think... I didn't know about you two."
"What's there to know?" Doc asked. "We used to have a thing going, I was lonely, Stix was lonely. I'm going back to Afghanistan this week. We just wanted to hook up before I left. Besides, she hasn't shut up about you since I got here. How much she missed you. What a nice woman you are. It almost felt you were in bed with us."
Andrea had mixed emotions about all this. She was sad that Stix had turned to someone else but completely understood why. She had treated Stix badly. Yet Stix still had feelings for her.
Doc poked around just as Stix walked in with her crash box. Doc put an ice pack on Andrea's face and another on her side but noticed Andre was pale.
"How do you feel Andrea?" Doc asked.
"I'm having a hard time breathing," Andrea replied. Doc turned to Stix.
"Get dressed. We're going to the hospital."
"I don't need to go to the hospital," Andrea protested.
"Yeah, you do. I think you're getting a collapsed lung."
