"I need your help I can't fight this forever I know you're watching I can feel you out there."
-------------- My Demons (accoustic) - Starset ----------------
Nolan
I watched Carter through the glass. She sat very dossal on the edge of a hospital bed.
Getting her here was not easy. This little scandal, Carter's disappearance that is, had the press swarming me like no tomorrow. Worse than usual. It had been less than 24 hours, but being the 911 text to Rita, the bloody mess and broken glass all over her living room, clear signs of struggle present, neighbors reported some noise and yelling late in the afternoon, and being her father was apparently a big shot lawyer there was already a missing person's report out for her.
Hard to believe she was just sitting in my closet the whole time, her car in my garage and out of sight. Even if I could have gotten my car through the swarm of people crowding the driveway, I wouldn't have bothered going into the garage because I'd never planned on staying home that long. I needed to be out looking for her, or doing something, I don't know, I couldn't just stay home. Considering our love affair, if you could call me loving Carter and her hating me a love affair, had swarmed the tabloids for a whole week and my recent "love interests" had been an even hotter topic because of Carter, when she went missing the media was all over it. When I left, mid-concert, and flew back home instantaneously the press had been waiting at the airport.
Carter was obviously in no condition to be met with by the press, she'd barely said two words to me after we'd left the closet she couldn't stop crying in she went completely mute. Not a single tear, or whimper or shaky breath did she let out. I wanted to ask what had happened, fȕck if I didn't want to ask, but I caught the panicked look in her eye when I set her down on my bed and for the first time got a good look at her in the light. She'd gulped so loudly that I'd been able to hear her even with the phone pressed to my ear. I knew then that she wasn't ready to talk yet and I knew if she faced the press now she would surely break.
To distract the press and get Carter out without hundreds of cameras and questions in her face we'd developed a plan. Dressed Derek like a much less handsome version of myself, he and Gunner had gone out first pretending to be me and furious at the media for swarming my house. He even kicked my trash can over, it was a fairly believable performance. They had made their way down and drove out in my car. Ten minutes later Carter and I snuck out the back entrance and floored it out of there on my motorcycle.
She hadn't spoken to anyone yet, had refused to even look up to me, even when I was telling her the plan about how we'd get her out of my house without the press seeing her. She couldn't even look at me.
But on the contrary, I couldn't stop looking at her. The dried blood on the side of her head, bruise on her cheek and wrist, and dirty rumpled clothes. She looked worse than hell. She kept toying with a loose string from her shirt, twirling it tightly around her finger, pausing when the doctor would say something particularly interesting, and then she would begin unraveling.
Wrap, wrap, wrap. Unravel, unravel, unravel. Wrap, wrap, wrap. Unravel, unravel, unravel.
Her finger was turning a deep red at one point when the doctor sat on a chair in front of her and rolled up to her, when he reached out to her she jerked, the string breaking free from the shirt and her eyes finally lifted to glare at him.
After several minutes the doctor came back out to talk to us.
"What happened?" Her father was the first to demand. The rest of the band and her friends were mulling about, taking up room in the waiting room, wandering the halls, drinking one coffee after the next. Only her father and I were at the window. Her one friend, Rita I think it was, had tried to stay close but the other girls flocked around the window with her and Carter had grown agitated with so many watching her so she'd gone back to the waiting room.
"Unfortunately at this time Carter hasn't agreed to allow us to evaluate her, nor has she disclosed any information to us about what has transpired over the last twentyfour hours. She's pretty agitated. We'd like to give her a light sedative, just to relax her. It'll make her pretty sleepy, but more agreeable with us so we can get a feel for her injuries. From what I can tell there don't seem to be any obvious signs of weakness to her motor skills which leads us to believe that there hasn't been any permanent damage from her head trauma. But without her letting us examine her it's hard to say for sure. We'd like to run a few tests, a rápe kit, until Carter is willing to talk to us I'm afraid we can't say what she has been through."
This time I was the first to speak up, it wasn't with the same kind of concern and worry her father had had, I wasn't pleading for information or worried about Carter. I was standing up for her. "No."
They both looked at me like I was mad.
"No sedation. No rápe kit. You drugging her up and performing traumatizing tests on her without even knowing if there is a reason to isn't going to help shít."
"Mr. Doufer, I understand your concern, but you should understand ours. We have no intention of traumatizing your friend or harming her in anyway. Our priority is merely to help."
"No."
The doctor turned to her father. "We don't believe that Carter is in the right state of mind to make this decision herself."
"No!" This time I yelled and the hallway around us grew quiet quickly. "I'm not about to let you violate her, not about to let your prick and poke and prob and drug her. Not without due fȕcking cause."
"If she was ráped it's important for us to gather evidence Mr. Doufer. This will be crucial in finding the culprit, we'll check for internal injuries and-"
"Give me five minutes." I grunted and pushed past him and threw the door to her room. Over my shoulder I heard the doctor telling a nurse to call security and her father urge him down. "I want my five minutes." I said harshly to Carter.
Her eyes rose to meet mine but she didn't say a word.
"What happened?"
"What do you mean?" She finally spoke up, sounding perfectly casual.
"You texted Rita 911, your house is trashed and all bloody, you're all bloody. What the hell happened?"
"I have no clue what you're talking about."
I was so surprised, so impressed that she was able to lie with such ease I couldn't help but smirk a little. "You little minx." I let go of the door handle and let it fall closed. "You have to let them look at you. If you don't they are going to drug you and they are going to do it without your permission and they are going to do a rápe kit on you and I'm probably going to get arrested for trying to break your doctor's hand and using an IV rack as a weapon."
Her brows knit together.
"You have to let them look at you Carter. Tell us what happened. If you don't they're going to poke, and prod, and take pictures and they are going to make sure you're too doped up to tell them no."
I put my hands on the bed, leaning over her to be level with her, she surprisingly didn't pull away, rather she raised her chin to keep eye contact. "Talk to me baby. What happened?"
She searched my eyes, as if looking for reason to doubt me. I'd given her enough reasons in the past.
"What. Happened." I repeated firmly, leaving little room for confusion or debate now. She let out a small breath and then almost completely calmly answered.
"Kaleb."
I twitched. It was my body's natural reaction to go and find him. I wanted nothing more, and I do mean nothing more than to make good on my promises of using the IV rack as a weapon. A lethal weapon. But I didn't. I held myself still, still leaning over her I forced my anger to calmness because I knew Carter, and I knew it was what she needed in this moment. "Okay." I finally mimicked her calm tone. Because she needed it, because if I lost myself in this rage she would lose herself too. "Did he..." I paused to really consider this one. Really consider it. "Did he hurt you?"
"What do you think?"
"Well I mean I see but-"
"Did he rápe me do you mean?" She said it so easily, without a flicker of hesitation. Was this the same girl who lost her mind because her white t-shirt had gotten wet? The girl who blushed uncontrollably at my nipple lasers? "No Nolan. He didn't."
I let out a long sigh. "Okay." I took my hands from the bed and put them on her cheeks. "This is a good start." I muttered, her hands moved to be on top of mine instinctively, gently, I tilted her head down to kiss her forehead. "You need to let the doctor look at you though." I said in as firm a tone I could manage when what I really wanted to do was fall to my knees and hold her and never let go. But she needed me to be bossy and strong right now, so I would do it because she had always done what I had needed.
"Okay." She finally agreed after several moments of silence.
"Okay." I agreed.
She looked away towards the door and I let go of her to do the same. The doctor and two security guards were in the doorway. "I'd like to be seen now." She said in a low voice.
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I thought it would be kind of fun to use this song, it was actually used in one of the very very first chapters! I thought using the acoustic version today would be kind of cool as they've come so far!
It's been asked a few times how many chapters are going to be in the book and I'll just say...not many. :O
So, don't forget to vote and comment!