Your Heart

Keeping Me Safe

It was late on a Saturday night and Peta and Maks were curled up on the sofa watching some of their shows they had saved on the DVR. Eventually they finished up and the news came on while they were still sitting there. Starting with a story about a woman whose boyfriend had been abusing her before she recently got out of the situation and was now pressing charges against the man. Maks felt Peta tense up during the broadcast and he reached for the remote shutting it off. He knew these type of stories always got to her.

"You ready to head to bed?" He asked her. She nodded pulling herself up so that they could both stand.

Maks and Peta headed to their room as they got ready and Peta curled up in the bed. Maks came in after finishing in the bathroom and went to curl up on the bed.

"Umm, I know we are both sleepy and it's been a long day but can you umm....I just wanna lay with you for a bit." Peta said softly as her boyfriend looked at her curiously.

"Since when do you get nervous asking me for that?" Maks said laying down and pulling Peta on top of him as she nuzzled into his chest.

"I don't know. I just don't want to seem needy. " She gripped his body tight as he felt her shudder.

"Babe, what in the world brought this on? I have never ever said you were needy. You know I love when we get moments like this." He said soothingly as his one arm held her to him while the other one moved slowly back and forth. She continued holding on to him for a moment before she spoke up.

"This is gonna sound stupid....ehh..don't stop me...I know what you're going to say, nothing I feel or think is stupid but just give me this, k?"

"Alright, go ahead." He chuckled placing a kiss to her head before she continued.

"That news story just really got to me. I kept thinking about the things they said he did to her and the words and I just..." She paused as her body shivered thinking of the lady and just the idea that someone would treat someone like that.

"Hey, she's safe now and so are you. I know it doesn't fix what happened earlier but she's safe now and it's not going to happen to her again. I should have shut the story off as soon as it started, I know the news gets to you sometimes." He said soothingly.

"We can't always keep it from me. And I know but I just I don't know. I feel like she was so strong and so are so many other people in situations like that and then I get upset about something little and I want you to fix it or I get upset and it's nothing compared to what they are going through. Not only this lady but just everyone. It's not fair. So what makes it that I can take my tiny little problem and want and need you and have you but they get that treatment?" She stopped realizing her rambling was getting intense as she started to sob into his chest. He held her tight while he let her get this out. As she started to settled he got ready to flip them on their sides so he could look at her.

"Hold on babe." He said as he started to turn them. He didn't want her to think he was pulling away and they had done this a number of times before. He scooted her up so she was laying on the pillow next to him but kept her body tucked close to him. He leaned forward to kiss her softly as he tucked some of her hair behind her ear.

"Do you know one of the biggest reasons why I love you?" He asked her softly. She shook her head softly as the tears were still evident in her eyes. "Because of your heart."

"Maks...." She said softly looking down at his chest.

"I'm not kidding beautiful, your heart is one the best qualities about you. It has this amazing quality to be compassionate and caring about anyone and every situation. And not only that but you let yourself take on the pain or joy of that person and situation. Not everyone would do that. Most people would shut themselves off and take it in but not think a second thing of it. But you, you take it in and you let yourself feel it and you want to do something about it. Now in this situation I don't know that we can fix things per say. This is something that sadly goes on all around the world and all we can do is hope and pray that every day someone finds their way out of this type of situation. But babe just because it's going on doesn't mean that you don't deserve to be happy and loved. No one deserves to be treated like that, everyone deserves to feel loved and safe wherever they are and I wish that were the case but it doesn't take away from this and from what you, we have. It doesn't make you not allowed to want to be loved or comforted."