Battle Scars

Draw Out The Serpent

Sarah was confused as to what had happened as her face was stitched up.  How did this happen?  It all happened so fast and when she had looked in the bubble, she did not see anyone inside.  It was a standard joke that Smith would leave his station at the same time every day to go take a shit.  There was a bathroom inside the bubble but for whatever reason, Smith never wanted to use it.  It was a running theory that his shits were so bad that it would stink up the entire bubble for hours so he would go use one of the other bathrooms.  He was an older guy in his early 60s so he was like clockwork.  He didn't need to really be there as she was coming through because the guys were supposed to be locked down.

Who buzzed open the door?

Her face was on fire and it hurt like hell as they stitched it up.  She had taken pretty severe beatings before, worse than this in truth from Anakin, but it had been so long she had forgotten about how painful it was to have your ass beat that badly.  She had deep scratches on her back from where he had tried to rip her clothes off before he was taken down.  She couldn't shake that this had to be related to her earlier attack.  Being attacked once could be random but to be attacked twice... Someone was trying to kill her.

Her head throbbed when she tried to think about it.  The doctors had told her she had a mild concussion.  The curtain moved to the side and she felt some relief as she saw Kakashi come around the corner.  He stopped for a moment and stared at her, she could see anger cross his gray eyes as he looked at her. 

"You're the husband?" the nurse that was finishing up the stitches asked.

"Yes," Kakashi responded before coming up to her other side and kneeling down to where he could meet her eye level.  "How much pain are you in right now?"

"A 7 out of 10," Sarah responded.  "I've had worse."

Kakashi frowned darkly at that.  His hand clutched hers and he closed his eyes.  "It's killing me to see you like this.  I swear, had I been around when your ex-husband was doing this to you, I'd have killed him, Sarah.  Without a second thought."

Sarah reached out and touched his face, "I'm glad you didn't know me then.  Or you'd be the one behind bars not him.  He's getting what he deserves and one day, when they finally do execute him, justice will be fully served for what he did to Noah."

"For what he did to you too," Kakashi said softly.  "You were just as much a victim as Noah."

Her eyes burned at the words, "I don't feel that way."

The nurse finished up and left them alone, having been silent during their conversation.  Kakashi gave her a long look.  "Why don't you feel that way?"

"Because I made a choice... a bad choice but it was my choice all the same.  My intuition warned me but I ignored it.  Everything that happened after was all on me."

Kakashi grabbed her upper arms and leaned towards her, "No, that's wrong thinking Sarah.  He's still holding power over you with you thinking that way.  You were a victim.  He manipulated you.  He abused you.  He killed your child - YOUR child Sarah and he would have killed you too if that bullet hadn't deflected.  Everyone makes mistakes but you can't hold responsibility for the choices he made.  Anakin made the choice to start abusing you.  Anakin made the choice to shoot you.  Anakin made the choice to kill his own son.  You didn't make those choices, he did."

Sarah's eyes burned and tears went over her cheeks.  He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly.  "Let it go, Sarah.  Let go of your guilt, it is hurting you still.  I should know, I did the same for years with Rin and Obito.  You have no idea how much of a burden it releases when you let it go."