Time Will Tell (sequel to HMM)

Chapter 26- Coming Clean

Yes, I know, another update. it's because I love you all and I just couldn't wait to post it until tomorrow. So here you go!!

--Alarik--

My eyes are closed and I'm waiting for Allison to tell me what's going on. I pull her closer and feel and hear her large intake of breath followed by a loud exhale. I can feel the tension building up in my muscles as I wait, waiting for something, anything. 

I could feel her locking down, closing off our bond. 

"When I was in there, they did tests on me. That's where the scar and the bullet came from, but those weren't the only ones."

Her words felt like a splash of ice cold water through my veins and my eyes snapped open. 

"No. Close them." Her words are a plea, one that I can't refuse. 

I close them again. "Why?" I ask. 

"Just keep them closed or I'll have to turn around. Please."

I nod stiffly and put my forehead to hers fighting my desire to open my eyes and look at her. 

She went on with her story, giving me every gruesome detail of what had happened to her. With every new revelation I could feel my muscles tensing even tighter, my jaw clenching until it ached, but it was no match for the ache I felt in my heart. 

How could anyone do something like that to another living person. It didn't matter if they were different, if they could do something others couldn't. Nothing justified the torture they had put her through. 

I could feel her body shaking in my arms, her silent sobs that she tried to push back while she flushed out her dark secrets. 

Not being able to look at her was becoming a physical pain, one that ran as deep as my ache for what she had endured. Having her blocking me out right now, even more so. 

"There were days when I thought you would never come. I thought I was going to die in there, die from one of their tests. There were times when I wished I had died. Waking up again after one test just to be dragged in to another. I wished that my body would just give out and let it all be over."

Her voice was shaky with the tears I knew were running down her face. My thumb rubbed gently over her cheek wiping the streaks away. I tried to hide what her words did to me. They felt like a knife deep in my heart. They did more damage to me than the blade and O'Brian's claws had done when I'd gone in there for her. 

I felt the tears coming to my eyes as well, unable to be contained behind my closed eyelids. I don't say anything back, I can't say anything, I don't know what to say. 

I squeezed her tightly in my arms a reassurance for both of us that she is here and safe now. 

Silence falls between us as she finishes her confessions. Her silent sobs still shake her body.

"Can I open my eyes now?" I ask in a whisper. I don't think I could manage anything louder. 

"I'd rather you didn't." I hear her sniffle and feel her move her hand up to her face wiping away the tears, trying to pull them in check. 

"Why not?" I'd wanted to ask the question earlier, why did she want me to close my eyes, but I'd just indulged her. Now I was trying to figure out if I'd done the right thing or not. 

She'd just endured her personal hell all over again. Laid it all out for me, but she wouldn't let me look at her. 

"Because I'm not sure I could handle what I'd see in your eyes," she confesses.