❖Gabriel❖
"It's getting late." I say, looking down at my angel who is cuddled up against me.
We are still at the warehouse, laying on the couch together. After we tolled each other that we love each other, none of us felt like moving.
"Has a doctor looked at you yet?" I ask her, softly playing with her hair.
"No, I refused to go to one until I had seen you. Eliot bagged me to go, but I still refused and said no. I needed to know if you were okay first."
A smile finds its way to my lips. My girl has gone through so much, and still she is worried about my health instead of her own.
"Is there anything hurting you right now?" I ask her.
"At the moment I just have some cuts and bruises, I think. So, don't worry. I've been through worse for a long time."
I frown, not liking the sound of that. I know she's been through years of abuse by her father, but it still hurts to think about that.
Anna looks up at me, and notices my frown. She brings her hand to my forehead and softly rubs her pointer finger in between my eyebrows. "You shouldn't frown so hard," she says, "you'll get wrinkles."
I feel my frown disappear and a smile takes over. "I love you."
"I love you too." She answers with a soft blush on her cheeks.
"How about this, we go home, you take a bath, relax a little, and then we'll go to sleep. In the morning I'll have a doctor ready to check on you, so I know for sure that you'll be okay."
She nods with a small and we stand up.
"Then let's go home." Wrapping my arm around her waist, I pull her close to my side.
She looks up at me with a raised eyebrow, but wraps her arm around me as well.
Together we walk out of the warehouse and make our way home.
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Ones we're home, I walk Anna to our room and get into the bathroom and turn on the water.
"I'm already running some hot water for your bath. Go sit in it for a while and try to relax a little. I'll go downstairs and make you my famous hot cocoa"
"With marshmallows?" she asks softly.
'Definitely."
I give her a loving kiss before leaving her to make the cocoa. Even though I know she loves it, I did kind of use it as an excuse to give her some alone time.
"How is she?" River asks ones I enter the kitchen.
"Handling. She hasn't shown or talked much after I got back to the warehouse."
"Understandable. She must have gone through a lot when she was there. It takes a while for her mind to understand it all. Just give her some time."
I nod, focussing on not burning the cocoa.
"How are yóú handling it Gabe?"
"How do you think I'm handling it? I'm already planning on how those bastards will go to their graves. They will burn in hell for what they've done to my angel."
"Just don't forget to include us in your plan. We care about Anna too."
I finish making the hot cocoa and walk back to my bedroom where I left Anna.
"Angel? Are you still in the bathroom? I got the hot cocoa ready. You better get out quick before the marshmallows melt completely."
Anna doesn't answer and I get slightly worried. "Anna?" I say as I knock on the door. "Angel, are you okay?"
I push the door open and see her standing in front of the mirror, naked. Every guy would get excited to see his girl naked, but not the way Anna looks. Her complete body is covered in bruises. It's as if everything has a different colour.
Some bruises look older than others, some small, others big. But every single one of them makes me want to kill those assholes even more.
"I look so ugly." She says to herself, clearly not having noticed me yet.
"You're not ugly." She jumps, afraid of the sudden sound of my voice and looks at me with scared eyes.
I hold up my hands, showing that I mean no harm. "It's just me angel." I step closer to her, standing behind her so that we are being reflected in the mirror.
"These bruises will fate angel. And the scars that remain will show everyone how incredibly strong you are."
Her eyes connect with mine through the mirror, but it doesn't seem like she is really there. There is a dullness in her eyes, as if her thoughts have brought her to a different world.
"Why don't you put on your pyjama angel? Then we can go lay in bed."
She doesn't react, so I take her hand in mine and walk her into our bedroom.
I slowly help her get dressed, making sure not to hurt her in any way, while muttering sweet nothings to her, trying to calm her mind.
After she is done and all tucked into bed, with the hot cocoa, I quickly change myself and get in bed next to her. While we're both lost in our own thoughts, we drink the cocoa. Anna still hasn't spoken, but I notice that she is a little more relaxed.
Ones we've finished our drinks, she snuggles into me and falls asleep.
Having my angel back in my arms again is a wonderful feeling. Her warm skin against mine, the feeling of her breath tickling against my chest. It's heavenly.
I close my eyes and fall asleep with a smile on my face.
I'm finally complete again.
❖Anna❖
Finally waking up in Gabriel's arms again is a bliss. The feeling of his strong arms wrapped tightly around me, his warmth against my skin, it feels safe.
I've woken up before Gabriel did, so I'm taking this moment to have a look at him.
Even though he's asleep, he still looks extremely handsome and powerful. His strong features still standing out and even in this dim light, his jawline still looks as sharp as ever.
But I also notice the dark circles under his eyes, and the slowly growing stubbles of a forgotten beard.
He hasn't been taking care of himself when I wasn't here.
"You know, it's rude to stare." Gabriel says with his husky morning voice.
"And you are all for 'playing by the rules' aren't you." I answer teasingly, earning a small smile from Gabriel.
"I play by my own rules mio Angelo." He says as he pulls me closer. "And I can bend and change those rules however I want." He sends me a cheeky wink. "So, where is my good morning kiss?"
I giggle softly and lean over to peck Gabriel on his lips. "Good morning."
"Good morning mio Angelo."
I'm about to lay down again, when Gabriel stops me. "No, you can't go back to sleep just yet angel. We have a doctor's appointment remember."
Groaning, I roll over to my other side. "Just give me 5 more minutes."
"Anna." Gabriel sighs. "I know you're tired, but we really need to get up and go to the doctor. I need to know if you're going to be okay." Giving me a quick kiss on my cheek, he gets out of the bed.
"I'll go downstairs to make some breakfast. You got precisely 20 minutes to get ready and be sitting at the kitchen table. Deal?"
I hum an answer, closing my eyes again.
"Get up angel." Gabriel says softly and he walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.
For a short moment I think about going back to sleep. At Samuel's place I didn't get a lot of it and this bed feels too good to get out. But I understand Gabriel's worry. If something would have happened to him, I would have wanted him to go to the doctor as soon as possible. So, I decide to just get up and get ready for the day.
In the bathroom I'm about to brush my hair when I see myself in the mirror.
There is a long cut starting above my left eyebrow and ending on the middle of my cheek.
There are also a lot of other cuts and bruises over my entire body. But this one feels like it is the worst one. Because it looks like the one that I gave to my father the day I ran away. He cut my face as a 'return of the favour' as he called it."
With a big sigh, I try to push my thoughts away and move on with my morning routine.
Exactly 19 minutes after Gabriel had left the room, I'm in the kitchen, sitting at the table.
"You actually made it in time." Gabriel jokingly says. He hands me a cup of coffee and some freshly made toast.
We eat mostly in silence, both busy with our own thoughts, when Gabriel suddenly asks; "Did you get any food while you were... there." He is clearly struggling to say that sentence, so I quickly answer it.
"Sometimes. It depended on whether I had 'behaved' or not. It wasn't much though. Just enough to stay hungry."
Gabriel nods, deep in thoughts I can see anger flashing through his eyes.
I don't want him to get mad though, so I quickly change the topic. "I promised Senna that I would go back for her. She helped me a lot Gabriel and she deserves so much better than the life she has right now."
He nods again, still lost in his thoughts.
I stand up and put my dirty dishes in the sink. Suddenly I think of a different way to get him out of his mind. "What time did you say that doctor's appointment was?"
That does do the trick and his eyes jump to mine. "Right, we need to go." He says as he stands up and walks out of the kitchen. Not long after that, I hear the front door open and close, leaving me standing in the kitchen, with a confused look on my face.
"Where did Gabriel go?" Eliot asks as he walks into the kitchen.
"He went to my doctor's appointment, without me."
Eliot starts to laugh when suddenly Gabriel appears back in the kitchen doorframe. "You need to come with me." Gabriel says, making Eliot laugh even harder.
"What is going on here?" Joel starts. "Why are you laughing so hard?" Aro finishes.
Gabriel grabs my hand before Eliot can explain, and pulls me out of the kitchen.
But before the front door closes, I hear more laughter erupting from the kitchen and I know that Eliot has told the twins what happened.
Gabriel is going to be teased for this for a while.