The other woman

A little understanding

"She's staying here with us, she's not to go back her place until she's one hundred percent ready." Gisela stated. Feeling guilty, she wanted to do what she could to help and if Alex felt better staying in their home, then that's where she had to be.

Seb smiled proudly at his wife and then winced with pain as his hurt lip reminded him that smiling was pretty difficult right now. "Thank you, I'm proud of you."

"We've never been through a miscarriage, I can't even begin to imagine how that would feel. To deal with that on top of being with a man like that......" She trailed off and instead pressed her lips to Xiomar's head for comfort.

The door creaked open and Alex quietly tapped on it before walking in. One look at Britta and Gisela's faces said it all, Seb had told them and now they were looking at her in that way she hated, with pity.

Britta was the first to speak, quickly brushing away her tears with her hand and springing up from her chair. "Come and sit here, we'll start your statement."

"It's fine, I don't need to sit down." She replied, giving Seb a curious look as she wondered exactly how much he'd told them.

"It's ok, you can have my chair." Gisela stood up too.

"Guys, I'm not ill or injured, I can stand." Alex found herself fighting the urge to run from the room. This was what she'd feared. She just wanted to be known as Aleksandra, the ball busting PT but right now all they saw was poor Alex - the victim of domestic abuse. And that was all Soren's fault. She'd never be rid of him.

"I've got to put Xiomar down for his afternoon nap so I'm going anyway." Gisela explained as she walked towards Alex. "You might as well have my seat."

"Thank you." Alex gave her a polite smile. This felt weird as well as uncomfortable, she wasn't used to Gisela being so nice.

"Oh and I've told Seb that you're to stay here for as long as you need." Gisela added, briefly stopping at the door.

Alex felt as though she could faint, it was like Gisela had just had a personality transplant. "Thank you, I'm sure I'll be ok back at my own place tonight though. You and Seb need your own space, you don't need me cluttering up the place."

"Well the offers there if you need it." She smiled before leaving them all to it.

"You're staying here for now." Seb pointed to the vacant chair. "Take a seat, let's get this statement done and then get back to normal, huh?"

"Yeah, sure." She smiled, appreciating his mention of getting back to normal, she needed that a lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This view never gets old." Seb panted, a little out of breath as he stopped his mountain bike at the height of the trail.

"It's so peaceful and so vast, it's beautiful." Alex agreed, looking around her and admiring how the landscape had changed over the last couple visits they'd had up here. She well remembered her first visit to the top of this hill, it had been in the winter and everywhere had looked bare and almost colourless but it had still taken her breath away. Now it was a patchwork of lush green fields and a myriad of green shades splattered with the pinks and whites of blossom thanks to the trees and bushes that had sprung into life.

"How do you feel now things are out in the open?" He asked, picking at a dried on bit of dirt on the handlebar of his bike.

She thought about it before she answered, how did she feel now that three people knew some of her secrets? How did it feel coming out as a victim of domestic abuse? No scrap that, she wasn't a victim, not anymore. Now she was a survivor. "I don't know really. How do you feel knowing what you know about me?"