Mirrors

Chapter Twenty Six

As Niall made their coffee, Edie laid out her folder for him to take a look at.  She suddenly got quite nervous as he walked back into the room, carrying two mugs.  She took hers and sipped  it, pursing her lips, "Damn, that's strong," she said before taking another sip.

"You said you wanted it Irish, well, an Irishman made it, so it's definitely more whiskey than coffee," Niall said, smiling at her as he glanced over at her folder and box.  She almost had second thoughts but she'd gone this far, she needed to just keep going.

She pulled out a chair and placed a knee on it, not quite ready to sit down.  She grabbed her folder just as he reached for it.  "Uhh, there's something you should know before you open this."

"What's that?"

"I have the police and medical reports, and, umm, they're pretty detailed."

"Oh."

"It doesn't make for good reading." She paused as she laid the folder back down and slid it towards him, "But, you decide if you want to read them or not.  It's all color coded, so you can skip over it if you want."

"Umm, okay."

Edie bit her lip as she watched Niall stare at the folder.  She sat down and waited.

Niall slowly sat down at his end of the table and stared at the black folder in front of him.  He was nervous and scared to open it now that he knew what lied inside.  But he had promised her he would help, and he wasn't about to let her down.  If there was one person she could count on, besides her brother, he would make sure she could count on him.

He opened the folder to the first page.  She had a table of contents with the colors denoting what each contained.  Yellow for the police reports, red for the medical, blue for news articles, green for surveillance footage, and black.  She didn't have anything written down for black and as Niall quickly flipped through, he didn't even see any black tabs.

He flipped to the first page and began reading.  They spent the next two hours in silence.  The only sound was of shuffling papers.  The more Niall read, the more he had to stop, though.  He took several little breaks, getting up and walking out of the room multiple times.  She wasn't lying about how detailed they were, and he was still on the police reports.  He made several more cups of coffee for them both, each time there was less coffee and more liquor.  Two hours in and they were both back to being quite toasted.

"Niall?"

"Yes?" He said, looking up at her.

"Where's your toilet?"

"Oh, uh, the only one working at the moment is the one upstairs in my bedroom.  I can show you or point the way?"

"Point the way?"

"Sure, just go up the stairs and it's the second door to your right."

"Thanks."

Niall watched as she went up the stairs and then went back to his reading.  He flipped the page and had now entered the medical reports.  He barely made it through the first page before he had to stop, afraid he was going to get sick.  He stood up to stretch his legs again and then remembered that she had almost taken something else out of that box.

He walked around to where her box was and saw that there was another folder inside.  He looked out the dining room entrance to see if she was coming before he picked it up.  As he opened it, he saw all the black tabs.  He flipped to the first page and saw that the folder contained photographs and the first photo was of her body when the police found her.  EMTs were in the photo, doing whatever it is they were doing.  He flipped to the next page and nearly threw up right there.

He could hear her coming, so he quickly shut it and put it back in the box before he ran back into the kitchen and to the sink where he proceeded to puke.

"Niall?  You okay?" He heard her behind him.

He calmed himself a bit and said, "Yeah, think I've just drank too much, is all."

"Oh," she said, softly.   He felt her hand on his back, rubbing it to soothe him.  "Let me get you some water."

He took several deep breaths, calming his nerves.  She handed him the glass of water as she placed her hand back on his back.  He took a sip of it and stood back up.  "Thanks," he said, turning to look at her.  He found it hard to believe that he was looking at the same girl.

They both walked back into the dining room and sat back down.  After a few minutes regaining his composure, Niall found his voice again, "Uhh, Edie?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Okay?" She said looking up at him.

"I, uh, started the medical reports and I just wanted to make sure I was reading this right."

"Oh, okay." 

She stood up and walked over to where he was standing.  Her body brushed against his as she turned around to look at the paper, "What does this mean?" Niall asked, pointing to it.

Niall was so close to her he could feel and see her body tense.  "It means that there was, um, a lot of tearing and sutures were needed."  She looked at him, her eyes glossy from tears starting to well up.

"On your face?"

"Well, yes, but this particular line is speaking of tearing of the, uhh." She looked back up at him, her eyes pleading for him to not ask.

Niall could see the fear in her eyes, "It's okay.  You don't have to say it.  I think I get it."

She turned back to the page in front of them.  Niall felt like shit for the second time that night.  He let his curiosity get the better of him and now she was close to breaking again.  With only the thought of comforting her, he wrapped his arms around her from behind in an embrace.  At first, it felt good, she leaned back against him and he absentmindedly buried his nose in her hair.  She even brought her hand up to his arms but then he felt her instantly freeze up.

"This was a bad idea," she whispered, letting go of him, "I, uh, think maybe this is enough for tonight." She wiped her face, moved out of his embrace, and grabbed the folder tossing it back into the box before heading to the door.

Confused, Niall followed her, "Yeah, okay.  Do you want to go home or hang out a bit?  I could make us some breakfast?"

But her demeanor had changed.  In that moment she was the girl he had first met - scared and shut off.

"Home," she said.

Niall reached for the box to help her, "I can take the box for you."

"No, I've got it." She said harshly, nearly snatching it back from him as she ran out the door.

"Edie, wait."

"This was a bad idea, Niall."

"No, it isn't.  Edie, c'mon, it's okay.  You're safe here.  Everything is safe here.  I promise."

She just looked at him before saying, "Nothing is safe anymore, Niall."  She shut the door and drove  off.

Niall just stood there as she drove away.  He didn't walk back inside until the lights of her car were out of sight.