Since I Don't Have You (Guns N' Roses - Duff McKagan)

Chapter Eleven

Waking up the next morning, I found it a little hard to open my left eye due to the obvious swelling and bruising of my cheek. So that wasn't the best to wake up to. Leaving the bedroom and heading into the bathroom, I found myself gazing in the mirror to look at my face. The bruising on my cheek and under my eye was a dark blue and my cheek was visibly swollen, along with the bottom of my eye. So washing my face hurt like hell, but there wasn't much that I could do about it. Duff's punch hit me a lot harder than I thought, because my face never blew up like this when Axl had hit me.

"Morning Shelia." Gilby's voice drew from the doorway of the bathroom. "How are you feeling?"

Turning my head to look at Gilby, I shrugged my shoulders. "Morning and a bit shitty, how about you?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Was his reply. "Do you mind if I head off? I've gotta take a buddy of mine to an appointment." He briefly explains.

"No, go right ahead." I answered. "Thank you for staying the night with me."

"Any time." Gilby returned.

Gilby had left the house probably about five minutes later, not without him kissing my forehead before he went. So I was pretty happy with myself when he did that. But what was bound to happen in the next couple of hours I wasn't looking forward to, so I had went back to bed and tried to sleep during that time. When I woke up a second time and got myself dressed, I carried my bag back down the stairs and placed it down on the lounge. Duff was nowhere to be seen, the blanket I had covered him with and the bucket was also missing, so he must have gotten up. But I could hear the sounds of the kids up and awake, so I had made my way through the house and out the back to see the kids completely dressed and playing on their little playground. Duff was sat on the grass having a smoke, simply watching them muck around.

If I had been feeling a little better and what happened last night didn't happen, I probably would have swooned at watching him watch them.

"Aunty Shewia!" The kids sung out excitedly before leaving the playground and bolting towards me.

Kneeling down as they both gave me a quick hug, they both gazed at my face in complete confusion.

"What happened to your face Aunty Shewia?" Asked Sasha with furrowed eyebrows.

"What happened to my face?" I returned the question, trying to think fast for an excuse. "I fell down the stairs! You see, this is why you need to be careful when you go down the stairs."

"Ow." Was Dominic's reaction, that was before he left me and ran over to Duff alarmed.

"Aunty Shewia's hurt!" He sung out to Duff.

That was kind of the last thing I was hoping for either one of the kids to do. But what were they to know, of course one of them would go running back to Duff alarmed. As I returned to standing, that's when Duff returned with Dominic, he himself was looking very concerned. As soon as his tired/hungover eyes landed on my face, Duff looked furious.

"Aunty Shewia fell down the stairs, Uncle Duffy." Sasha tugged at Duff's jeans, as if she was trying to explain to him the entire accident.

"Did she, sweetie?" Asked Duff, not sounding convinced.

"Yeah." Both of the twins agreed.

"How about you guys go and play and I'll make sure Aunty Shelia feels better?" Asked Duff.

Without answering, Dominic and Sasha ran back out onto the grass and continued on playing, as if nothing had happened.

"Shelia, who did this to you?" Duff exclaimed, coming towards me, extending his arm out and caressing my swollen cheek.