Out of Desperation Came Forever After

Chapter 15

I had a gajillion questions ready for him after we got finished hugging in the dark hospital room.
We laid on my hospital bed together and snuggled under the covers. It was sort of new to snuggle, since we had a pillow now! This made everything different in the way our bodies lay together. We usually had one arm under our own heads as a pillow. Now, we had an extra arm, so we didn't know what to do with them now! We laughed a little as we tried to get comfy with this "new pillow contraption", as Ethan put it.

We got it all figured out and I got right to business.
I asked him what happened in our room with Marcus. And everything else after that. And I told him my story in between his story, when he asked.
I told him everything.
How it had taken Sir a few seconds to realize what Ethan was doing when he sprang up and lunged at Marcus. How Sir wasted no time in grabbing me and putting me right in front of him, so if Ethan got the gun, he'd have to shoot through me to get to him. Coward.
But then as the struggle ensued, Sir decided to just pull me down the hall, to that room with the table bed and straps.
I had put up a good struggle, but as scrawny and stringy as Sir was, he was too strong. Plus, stopping me from breathing by locking his arm around my neck didn't help my struggle at all.
I did manage a good shot in his junk with my knee at one point, though. To which he'd promised that I'd pay for that. I'd pay no matter what, so I was still happy about the knee shot. A small victory in the big war.
When I heard the shots, I freaked and spazzed, but at the same time, got so weak with sorrow, and that is when he was able to get me up on the table and strapped up. I had all but given up, basically. I didn't have any more fight left in me, thinking Ethan was gone. I just wanted to be next.

But, of course, Sir had his usual sicko plans for me. I realized at that moment, how suprised I was that this was the first time he actually touched me. He left it to his evil guards to do all the dirty work.
I wondered why, as he tore my white tank top off, followed by my white cotton boxer briefs.
I told him the joyous relief that flowed through me when I heard a loud "NOOOOO" in the hall, and looked over to see his wonderful face in the window. Just knowing he was alive....those shots did NOT touch his beautiful self...made what Sir was doing so much easier for me, because after I told him to "GO", I thought for sure we'd be saved. I'd just have to endure this, and it'd be over, I'd hoped.

I told him how Sir laughed and laughed the entire time he was on top of me. He laughed out "He won't get very far." He laughed out "Now he's going to DIE for this."
And how the more he laughed, he louder he got. And the louder he got, the rougher and faster and harder he got. I told Ethan how Sir slapped me over and over. Everywhere on my body.
And how when he was "done" he'd shoved into me so hard, I thought he'd surely punctured through my uterus, it hurt so bad.
And I told Ethan how Sir had said when Marcus got in here, he was next in line for me. Followed by Vince. And that when they were done, he'd be ready again, and so would they. And that they had another mixture of drugs made up for Ethan, that they'd give him, just to add in the fun.
He was quite a sick, perverted man. 
Ethan cried silently and rubbed my arm as I told him all this. I felt horrible each time I heard his sobby breath catch. I didn't want to tell him all of this, but....we'd gone through this all together. And I wasn't going to lie or hold anything back. This was the last bit of hurt he'd have, and it was all over.

He told me about making it to the outside, but being totally blinded by the sun, and how he yelled like he's never yelled before in his blind desperation, and how the police told him that's how we got rescued. Someone DID hear Ethan when he screamed. Someone DID see him, and call 911.
The description, "a guy with red hair", made every available police and SWAT team member show up, because they were sure this could be the missing Ethan Shean. They didn't know who Ethan meant about a girlfriend inside, but they'd find out it was me. That other stranger that had disappeared the day after Ethan. (no one would have noticed I was gone until the next day, obviously.)
He told me about the gun right in his back, and how horrible and sad he felt as he walked back in to me, having failed me.
He told me about his final thoughts as he was shackled to the wall, about to die.
He told me how it got to be too much to watch me struggling and flipping out so helplessly.
He told me how he even wished it was ME that was about to die, so I wouldn't have to hurt so bad, and endure more after he was gone. It sounded weird being said, but I knew exactly what he meant.
I told him how I had wished it was me, too a few times.
We talked together about the final events, and the shock of Vince killing Marcus and Sir. And how it wasn't registering in either of our heads, and how confused we felt.
He told me that a SWAT guy had just about gotten his shackles off, and he saw me sit up quickly, and start to fall over, and how thankful he was that the SWAT guy working on me was quick to act, and caught me in mid fall. He told me I would have hit the ground head first if that guy didn't catch me.
When he was finally free, Ethan said he pushed the SWAT guy out of his way to get over to me and take me from my SWAT guy's arms. He later told him sorry, and thanks for setting him free, and they both said they have wives...they would've done the same thing, and that no offense was taken.
He told me they pulled in a wheelchair for him and gave him a blanket, because he was shivering at that point, because the adrenaline from almost dying was wearing off a little, and the pain and exhaustion was setting in, but he refused to put me down, even when they begged and reassured him to.
So he sat in the chair, and cradled me in his arms, and leaned his head on my chest and cried happy tears of relief, until he felt me wake up. And he used the blanket to cover my naked body, instead of warm himself up. Awww. My Ethan. How I heart him.

I'd never noticed before, probablly because everything was so horrible, but everything he told me sounded so.....romantic! Like, he was such a romantic, loving, caring guy. I knew this already, but not quite in that way. The way he'd always try and save me. The way he'd hold me after bad things happened. Even the way he flipped out and lost it that one time in the room when he threw the mattress....THAT even seemed romantic to me, looking back now.
And the way he'd describe his thoughts about me, TO me....he was like a knight in shining armor! And I was too busy being scared and tortured all this time to really see it!
At that realization, I swear I could actually FEEL my heart swelling up with so much more love than I already had for him. I was shocked that there COULD be more. I thought I loved him as much as possible already.
Ethan looked confused when my heart was busy swelling up. I realized that I was squeezing him harder and harder as my love for him grew.
I told him why.
It was embarassing and I kept telling him I felt like a big dork, but he ended up smiling from ear to ear while I told him about his knight in shining armor...ness. Ha ha ha.
He told me I was daft, because HE had already saw me in that exact light, from the second we met. Only not as a knight, but as an Angel, sent from above.
He saw how romantic it was when I'd do anything to save him. How loving it was when I'd scream in vain when they were hurting him...
 "I'm more girly than YOU!" he told me.
And that made us laugh. And even though it wasn't THAT funny, we laughed and laughed hard. We couldn't stop laughing. We were rocking back and forth on our sides, cracking up. To the point where it hurt to try and catch our breath.
And when we finally stopped, we both took a huge cleansing breath, and Ethan said "Everything is going to be ok now", and kissed me with an intensity I'd never felt before. Not even from him.
And I felt it. He was right. Everything WOULD be ok now. Everything WAS already ok.