Fic: Blind, Chapter 12
Title: Blind
Author: ktwrites
Pairing: Kradam, Kradison friendship
Rating: R
Summary: Adam takes care of some unfinished business
Disclaimer: I still don't own any of them, but hey, a girl can dream. This never happened except in the recesses of my funny little mind.
A/N: Graphic depiction of physical violence. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE TRIGGERS. Previous chapters can be accessed through my author's tag at the bottom of this entry.
~Start~
Adam flew into action the moment he set foot into the small, two-bedroom house. Although Rhys was backing away from him, Adam was in front of him in two long strides. He grabbed him up by two fistfuls of the T-shirt the smaller man had been sleeping in and rammed him into the wall.
“Please,” Rhys whimpered. Adam made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. He was right, the man was a coward. He had no problem preying on someone who couldn’t defend herself, but when it came down to actual man to man action, he was a pussy.
“Please what, douchebag? Please don’t break your nose and ribs like you broke Allison’s? Please show you mercy that you didn’t show Allison? Please don’t give you what you deserve? Please what, mother fucker?”
“I’ll…I’ll sue. I swear to God, I’ll go to the press, I’ll go to every gossip magazine out there. You’re precious fans won’t be so in love with you after they find out what you’ve done,” the slime’s false bravado couldn’t mask the small tremble in his voice.
Adam laughed cruelly. “Good. Go to the press. Then I can tell them why I destroyed your pretty-boy face. I guarantee that my fans will be a lot more understanding knowing I was defending Allison, than your measly fans will be knowing you beat up a woman. And as I understand it, you really can’t spare any fans.” Adam brought his knee up to connect in between Rhys’ legs, which doubled the smaller man over. “So what now, fucker?”
Rhys groaned and gasped, his face in perfect position to connect with Adam’s knee, which he brought up with enough force to snap the man back upright. The blood that he saw explode from Rhys’ nose was intensely gratifying, but not enough. Adam had taken several kick-boxing classes at the gym he worked out at, and he began applying what he’d learned on the pathetic man before him. He struck with such quickness and ferocity that the weaker man didn’t even have time to retaliate. Adam was dimly aware of the screams coming from the younger man, but he was in a sort of anger and adrenaline induced trance. He kept seeing Allison’s face, her beautiful, funny face that he adored, broken and marred by this bastard. He saw her face contorted in pain as she gasped for breath through the pain of her broken ribs. He imagined her on the receiving end of what he was doling out now which only further fueled his rage. He only paused and realized he was panting when the younger man hit the floor, moaning and clutching his stomach. Adam spread his hands in front of him, noting the swelling and slight bleeding on his knuckles, and the chips in his freshly applied nail polish. He crouched in front of the man who disgusted him so, took a handful of his hair and yanked his swollen, blood covered face up to meet his own.
“Goddamnit,” he snarled. “You chipped my polish.” He stood and kicked Rhys as hard as he could in the side. He heard him yelp, and kicked him again for good measure, hoping to break ribs. Tit for tat, he thought. And maybe a little more, in this case. He hauled the young man to his feet and punched him hard in the stomach.
“Bitch,” he swore. He grabbed ahold of him and tossed him in the direction of the coffee table, on which stood several glass figurines. Rhys screamed as he made contact with them and the broken glass embedded it itself in him.
“Please,” he whimpered again, wheezing heavily, “I can’t…I…I can’t….breathe.”
Adam raised him up off the floor by the front of his shirt. “You listen to me, dickweed. I swear to fuck, if you ever come near Allison again, if you call her, email her, text her, Skype her, tweet her, facebook her or anything else, I will kill you. And I will fucking do it slowly. Do we have an understanding?”
The broken man could barely nod but it was good enough for Adam. Suddenly he felt very weary and slightly sick at what he’d done. Unlike this piece of shit lying before him, he wasn’t the kind of guy who got off on hurting people. He had to get out of there. He stopped in the bathroom and washed his hands, dabbing at the knuckles to get rid of the worst of the blood. On his way out the door he stopped as a thought occurred to him. He picked up the cordless phone sitting in the charger on the end table by the couch and dialed 911. He heard the operator’s voice come on and hung up. He knew they would send someone out just to check and that Rhys would get medical attention. He set the phone back in its charger and, taking one last glance at the wheezing man on the floor, walked through the door and closed it on Rhys forever.
**
It was close to one in the morning by the time he got back to the hospital. Allison was in a very private room, and the nurses had told Adam and Kris that they were free to come and go. It was one of the many perks of celebrity, Adam figured. They were willing to bend the rules a little for them. The door to the room was cracked slightly and there was a soft glow coming from inside. He took a deep breath to steady himself. The worst of the shaking had passed in the car, but he needed these two loves of his life to connect with, to remind him that he was a good person, that what he had done, he’d done in love.
He pushed the door open quietly and saw Allison sleeping, however peacefully he didn’t know. He couldn’t imagine sleeping with broken ribs was very comfortable. Kris however, was wide awake scribbling on a piece of paper on Allison’s food tray. Adam stood in the doorway and observed him without his knowledge. He frequently glanced back at Allison before returning his attention to his writing. Adam pressed away the nagging feeling he had been getting lately about Kris not sleeping and writing more furiously. He told himself this must just be the way he worked. It was not the way Adam worked - he did his writing in the studio and slept at night. But, he had never been with Kris while he was working on an album. Maybe this was how Kris did it.
He gazed at the man he loved, his profile softened in the warm glow of the light from the TV. He thought of how much he loved him, how long he had waited to share his life with him. He had the particularly pessimistic thought that sometimes plagued him of how empty and lonely his life would be without him. He wondered how he would go on if something were to happen to them. He felt emotion rise in his throat at the thought of it, along with the thought of all that had happened that night. He had reacted first with anger and a need to act upon that anger, but now that it was spent, he had time to reflect on the pain of what he felt for Allison, the fierce love he felt for her. It wasn’t as though Rhys had just attacked a good friend of his, it was as though he had damaged one of his family. And it hurt. It hurt more that he hadn’t been able to tell Allison that he understood, that he didn’t blame her. He silently cursed himself for his impulsiveness. He sighed. He was an emotional guy, it was one of the reasons he was so successful. He couldn’t help his knee-jerk reactions, he’d spent his whole life fine tuning them. But he felt himself now wanting to wake Allie and hold her, stroke her hair, kiss her forehead, tell her everything was going to be alright. But he would let her sleep. He was not going to wake her blessed escape from her pain to ease his conscience. There would be plenty of time to talk in the morning.
He roused himself from his reverie and walked into the room. Kris greeted him with a warm smile and put his arm up to pull Adam down for a quick kiss.
“What are you working on there, baby?” Adam murmured, nuzzling into Kris’ neck.
“It’s this great new song. It’s amazing how fast everything’s coming to me. I wish I had my guitar. It’s like the words and the chords are coming so fast I can barely write them down. I have about four more going in my head. I’m gonna have to make this a double album!” He laughed and took a breath. His words had come out in a rush and he’d barely stopped to breathe.
Adam frowned at him thoughtfully. “Aren’t you tired, love? I think you’ve gotten about four hours of sleep in the last three days.”
“No! It’s weird, isn’t it? I should be exhausted, but I’m not. I feel great! I’ve got so many ideas running through my head. I guess when the creative fire gets lit, it burns bright.”
“Has it ever been like this for you before?”
Kris shook his head. “No, this is different. I mean, a couple of songs would come really easy, but I usually have to really work and collaborate for the rest of the album. The way I feel right now, I could write two albums. I think it’s you. Really. I think opening myself up to the truth of our love has freed me in a way that I haven’t experienced before.”
Adam crouched in front of Kris’ chair and took his hands in his own. He turned them over and kissed the palms. He licked from the middle of Kris’ palm all the way up his middle finger and plunged his mouth down over it. Kris’ head fell back and he sighed softly, not wanting to disturb Allison.
“That’s the other thing,” Kris mumbled. “I’m on fire all the time. I can’t get enough of you.”
Adam chuckled. “I’ve noticed. The last week has been amazing. I have no complaints.”
Kris sat forward and caught Adam’s face in his hands and kissed him roughly. He snaked his hands down the front of him and cupped his hand on Adam’s growing erection. He stroked and stroked until Adam was fully hard. He grasped the button of Adam’s pants and began to unbutton them when Adam caught Kris’ hands.
“Baby, stop,” he laughed. “We can’t do this with Allison laying right there.”
“She’s totally zonked out on pain medication. She’s not going to wake up,” Kris insisted, grasping the button again.
“Kris, really, the nurse could come in at any time,” Adam said, playfully, although he was getting a little annoyed. He was horny, but there was a time and place.
“Adam,” Kris whined, pulling Adam’s hand down to touch his hard cock. “Just jerk me off, baby, please. I’m gonna die if you don’t touch me.”
Adam looked around the room and his eyes settled on the door to the bathroom that was adjacent to the room. He pulled Kris by the hand and led him through the door.
“I have a better idea,” he said, as he dropped to his knees.
**
The next morning Allison woke up early and groaned in pain. Adam was at her side in a second, asking if she needed anything.
“When’s the nurse coming with my pain medication?” She rasped.
“I don’t know,” Adam replied. “But I’ll go to the nurse’s station and find out. Take it easy, honey. We’ll get something for you in just a minute or two.” Adam left in search of the nurse.
Allison didn’t see Kris around anywhere. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The pain was no longer just in her ribcage, now it was everywhere else. Her nose throbbed, her side hurt where she’d run into the table and all of her muscles ached, especially the ones in her stomach that had taken a direct blow. She was glad Adam was there, but she was still a little uncertain about how he was handling all of this. She wasn’t sure what time he’d made it back to the room, if Kris had stayed overnight and Adam had come to relieve him early this morning or what. She had secretly been hurt when Adam had chosen to go to a late-night recording session instead of stay with her. Surely Sam could have waited ten hours and seen Adam in the morning. It was more proof, in her mind at least, that he was angry with her and she sighed, sadly. She had appreciated what Kris had said last night, and it had helped, but now, by the light of day, she couldn’t help but feel another wave of shame wash over her. Tears slipped under her lids and coursed down her cheeks.
She felt a hand on her hand. “Hey,” Adam’s voice said softly, “hey, now…what are these?” He touched his fingers to her face and wiped away her tears.
She kept her eyes closed and shook her head a little. She didn’t know if she could talk to him about this, which made her want to cry harder. She had always been able to talk to Adam about everything. She just felt so guilty and she was so sure that Adam was going to judge her. She knew that wasn’t Adam’s style, but she felt like she had been so stupid, and that he would think the same. And she couldn’t bear it, couldn’t handle that this was going to be the thing that was going to unravel them.
“I don’t know…” she cleared her throat. “What did the nurse say?”
“She’s going to be in to inject a shot of Demerol into your IV in just a few minutes,” he kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair. “Is the pain really bad?”
She nodded. She finally opened her eyes and looked at him. His eyeliner was smudged, his eyes were bloodshot and there was a dark stain on his gray shirt that looked like…ketchup? But Adam hated ketchup. That’s when she noticed his hands resting on the plastic railing of the bed. His knuckles were swollen and scraped. Her eyes flew up to his, where he’d been watching her observe the damage to his hands. He met her eyes with a grim look. She searched his eyes questioningly, her eyes filling with tears.
“For me?” She peeped, and he nodded, solemnly, stroking a hand down her long hair.
“But, God, Adam, what if he presses charges? What if it gets into the media? The press would have a field day with it!”
“Allie, he’s not going to press charges. We had a nice little chat about it. And even if he did, we’ve got your lawsuit against him to prove that what I did, I did out of love for you. People won’t have a fit over that. I can handle whatever fallout comes from this.”
“Is that where you went when you said you had to meet Sam?”
Adam nodded. She sat back and took it all in.
“So,” she began in a small voice, “you’re not like…mad…at me, or anything?”
Adam smiled sadly and shook his head. “I was so afraid that you were going to take it like that. God, no Allison, how could I possibly be mad at you? I was just so fucking pissed at him…and,” he swallowed because he hadn’t realized it until now, “and at myself, for not protecting you better. I should have forbid you to see him. I feel like I let this happen, and I had to go there and finish this thing with him to prove to you that I’m not going to ever let anyone hurt you again.”
Tears were cascading down her face. “I thought…I’m just so embarrassed about all this…I mean, I should have known better, but like…I just thought the way you kept having to get away from me…I just thought…” she halted because she didn’t feel like she could say the words.
Adam put his arm around her and laid his head on top of hers. She interlaced her fingers with his on the hand that was dangling over her shoulder. She finally found the courage to voice her fears.
“I thought that you were thinking what I was thinking - that I got what I deserved because I let an abusive guy stay in my life.”
“Oh, honey is that what you think? I could never think that and you shouldn’t either. This is not your fault. I know it’s going to take some time to get over, but every day that goes by you will see clearer and clearer that you are not to blame. And I will be here with you every step of the way as you heal from this. Anything you need, day or night, you got it. Do you hear me?” He titled her chin so that she was looking directly at him. She nodded.
“Good,” he said firmly, and kissed her again on the forehead. They sat resting against each other for several minutes.
“Where’s Kris?” She wondered.
“I sent him to get coffee. He should be back any minute.”
“Did you both spend the night here?”
“Yeah,” he said, “although Kris really didn’t sleep. He’s been lit up with creative energy the last week or so, churning out song after song. He stayed up most of the night writing another one last night.”
“Is that like him?” Allison asked, frowning.
“Not really,” Adam admitted. “He says he thinks it’s because he’s finally free to admit what he feels for me.”
She smiled. “That could be it. I’m so happy for you guys. Do you know how much I love both of you?” She asked, suddenly serious.
Adam picked up her hand and kissed it. “As a matter of fact, we do. And the feeling is mutual, munchkin.”
The nurse entered the room with a cheerful “Good morning!” and Allison sighed happily.
Author: ktwrites
Pairing: Kradam, Kradison friendship
Rating: R
Summary: Adam takes care of some unfinished business
Disclaimer: I still don't own any of them, but hey, a girl can dream. This never happened except in the recesses of my funny little mind.
A/N: Graphic depiction of physical violence. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVE TRIGGERS. Previous chapters can be accessed through my author's tag at the bottom of this entry.
~Start~
Adam flew into action the moment he set foot into the small, two-bedroom house. Although Rhys was backing away from him, Adam was in front of him in two long strides. He grabbed him up by two fistfuls of the T-shirt the smaller man had been sleeping in and rammed him into the wall.
“Please,” Rhys whimpered. Adam made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. He was right, the man was a coward. He had no problem preying on someone who couldn’t defend herself, but when it came down to actual man to man action, he was a pussy.
“Please what, douchebag? Please don’t break your nose and ribs like you broke Allison’s? Please show you mercy that you didn’t show Allison? Please don’t give you what you deserve? Please what, mother fucker?”
“I’ll…I’ll sue. I swear to God, I’ll go to the press, I’ll go to every gossip magazine out there. You’re precious fans won’t be so in love with you after they find out what you’ve done,” the slime’s false bravado couldn’t mask the small tremble in his voice.
Adam laughed cruelly. “Good. Go to the press. Then I can tell them why I destroyed your pretty-boy face. I guarantee that my fans will be a lot more understanding knowing I was defending Allison, than your measly fans will be knowing you beat up a woman. And as I understand it, you really can’t spare any fans.” Adam brought his knee up to connect in between Rhys’ legs, which doubled the smaller man over. “So what now, fucker?”
Rhys groaned and gasped, his face in perfect position to connect with Adam’s knee, which he brought up with enough force to snap the man back upright. The blood that he saw explode from Rhys’ nose was intensely gratifying, but not enough. Adam had taken several kick-boxing classes at the gym he worked out at, and he began applying what he’d learned on the pathetic man before him. He struck with such quickness and ferocity that the weaker man didn’t even have time to retaliate. Adam was dimly aware of the screams coming from the younger man, but he was in a sort of anger and adrenaline induced trance. He kept seeing Allison’s face, her beautiful, funny face that he adored, broken and marred by this bastard. He saw her face contorted in pain as she gasped for breath through the pain of her broken ribs. He imagined her on the receiving end of what he was doling out now which only further fueled his rage. He only paused and realized he was panting when the younger man hit the floor, moaning and clutching his stomach. Adam spread his hands in front of him, noting the swelling and slight bleeding on his knuckles, and the chips in his freshly applied nail polish. He crouched in front of the man who disgusted him so, took a handful of his hair and yanked his swollen, blood covered face up to meet his own.
“Goddamnit,” he snarled. “You chipped my polish.” He stood and kicked Rhys as hard as he could in the side. He heard him yelp, and kicked him again for good measure, hoping to break ribs. Tit for tat, he thought. And maybe a little more, in this case. He hauled the young man to his feet and punched him hard in the stomach.
“Bitch,” he swore. He grabbed ahold of him and tossed him in the direction of the coffee table, on which stood several glass figurines. Rhys screamed as he made contact with them and the broken glass embedded it itself in him.
“Please,” he whimpered again, wheezing heavily, “I can’t…I…I can’t….breathe.”
Adam raised him up off the floor by the front of his shirt. “You listen to me, dickweed. I swear to fuck, if you ever come near Allison again, if you call her, email her, text her, Skype her, tweet her, facebook her or anything else, I will kill you. And I will fucking do it slowly. Do we have an understanding?”
The broken man could barely nod but it was good enough for Adam. Suddenly he felt very weary and slightly sick at what he’d done. Unlike this piece of shit lying before him, he wasn’t the kind of guy who got off on hurting people. He had to get out of there. He stopped in the bathroom and washed his hands, dabbing at the knuckles to get rid of the worst of the blood. On his way out the door he stopped as a thought occurred to him. He picked up the cordless phone sitting in the charger on the end table by the couch and dialed 911. He heard the operator’s voice come on and hung up. He knew they would send someone out just to check and that Rhys would get medical attention. He set the phone back in its charger and, taking one last glance at the wheezing man on the floor, walked through the door and closed it on Rhys forever.
**
It was close to one in the morning by the time he got back to the hospital. Allison was in a very private room, and the nurses had told Adam and Kris that they were free to come and go. It was one of the many perks of celebrity, Adam figured. They were willing to bend the rules a little for them. The door to the room was cracked slightly and there was a soft glow coming from inside. He took a deep breath to steady himself. The worst of the shaking had passed in the car, but he needed these two loves of his life to connect with, to remind him that he was a good person, that what he had done, he’d done in love.
He pushed the door open quietly and saw Allison sleeping, however peacefully he didn’t know. He couldn’t imagine sleeping with broken ribs was very comfortable. Kris however, was wide awake scribbling on a piece of paper on Allison’s food tray. Adam stood in the doorway and observed him without his knowledge. He frequently glanced back at Allison before returning his attention to his writing. Adam pressed away the nagging feeling he had been getting lately about Kris not sleeping and writing more furiously. He told himself this must just be the way he worked. It was not the way Adam worked - he did his writing in the studio and slept at night. But, he had never been with Kris while he was working on an album. Maybe this was how Kris did it.
He gazed at the man he loved, his profile softened in the warm glow of the light from the TV. He thought of how much he loved him, how long he had waited to share his life with him. He had the particularly pessimistic thought that sometimes plagued him of how empty and lonely his life would be without him. He wondered how he would go on if something were to happen to them. He felt emotion rise in his throat at the thought of it, along with the thought of all that had happened that night. He had reacted first with anger and a need to act upon that anger, but now that it was spent, he had time to reflect on the pain of what he felt for Allison, the fierce love he felt for her. It wasn’t as though Rhys had just attacked a good friend of his, it was as though he had damaged one of his family. And it hurt. It hurt more that he hadn’t been able to tell Allison that he understood, that he didn’t blame her. He silently cursed himself for his impulsiveness. He sighed. He was an emotional guy, it was one of the reasons he was so successful. He couldn’t help his knee-jerk reactions, he’d spent his whole life fine tuning them. But he felt himself now wanting to wake Allie and hold her, stroke her hair, kiss her forehead, tell her everything was going to be alright. But he would let her sleep. He was not going to wake her blessed escape from her pain to ease his conscience. There would be plenty of time to talk in the morning.
He roused himself from his reverie and walked into the room. Kris greeted him with a warm smile and put his arm up to pull Adam down for a quick kiss.
“What are you working on there, baby?” Adam murmured, nuzzling into Kris’ neck.
“It’s this great new song. It’s amazing how fast everything’s coming to me. I wish I had my guitar. It’s like the words and the chords are coming so fast I can barely write them down. I have about four more going in my head. I’m gonna have to make this a double album!” He laughed and took a breath. His words had come out in a rush and he’d barely stopped to breathe.
Adam frowned at him thoughtfully. “Aren’t you tired, love? I think you’ve gotten about four hours of sleep in the last three days.”
“No! It’s weird, isn’t it? I should be exhausted, but I’m not. I feel great! I’ve got so many ideas running through my head. I guess when the creative fire gets lit, it burns bright.”
“Has it ever been like this for you before?”
Kris shook his head. “No, this is different. I mean, a couple of songs would come really easy, but I usually have to really work and collaborate for the rest of the album. The way I feel right now, I could write two albums. I think it’s you. Really. I think opening myself up to the truth of our love has freed me in a way that I haven’t experienced before.”
Adam crouched in front of Kris’ chair and took his hands in his own. He turned them over and kissed the palms. He licked from the middle of Kris’ palm all the way up his middle finger and plunged his mouth down over it. Kris’ head fell back and he sighed softly, not wanting to disturb Allison.
“That’s the other thing,” Kris mumbled. “I’m on fire all the time. I can’t get enough of you.”
Adam chuckled. “I’ve noticed. The last week has been amazing. I have no complaints.”
Kris sat forward and caught Adam’s face in his hands and kissed him roughly. He snaked his hands down the front of him and cupped his hand on Adam’s growing erection. He stroked and stroked until Adam was fully hard. He grasped the button of Adam’s pants and began to unbutton them when Adam caught Kris’ hands.
“Baby, stop,” he laughed. “We can’t do this with Allison laying right there.”
“She’s totally zonked out on pain medication. She’s not going to wake up,” Kris insisted, grasping the button again.
“Kris, really, the nurse could come in at any time,” Adam said, playfully, although he was getting a little annoyed. He was horny, but there was a time and place.
“Adam,” Kris whined, pulling Adam’s hand down to touch his hard cock. “Just jerk me off, baby, please. I’m gonna die if you don’t touch me.”
Adam looked around the room and his eyes settled on the door to the bathroom that was adjacent to the room. He pulled Kris by the hand and led him through the door.
“I have a better idea,” he said, as he dropped to his knees.
**
The next morning Allison woke up early and groaned in pain. Adam was at her side in a second, asking if she needed anything.
“When’s the nurse coming with my pain medication?” She rasped.
“I don’t know,” Adam replied. “But I’ll go to the nurse’s station and find out. Take it easy, honey. We’ll get something for you in just a minute or two.” Adam left in search of the nurse.
Allison didn’t see Kris around anywhere. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. The pain was no longer just in her ribcage, now it was everywhere else. Her nose throbbed, her side hurt where she’d run into the table and all of her muscles ached, especially the ones in her stomach that had taken a direct blow. She was glad Adam was there, but she was still a little uncertain about how he was handling all of this. She wasn’t sure what time he’d made it back to the room, if Kris had stayed overnight and Adam had come to relieve him early this morning or what. She had secretly been hurt when Adam had chosen to go to a late-night recording session instead of stay with her. Surely Sam could have waited ten hours and seen Adam in the morning. It was more proof, in her mind at least, that he was angry with her and she sighed, sadly. She had appreciated what Kris had said last night, and it had helped, but now, by the light of day, she couldn’t help but feel another wave of shame wash over her. Tears slipped under her lids and coursed down her cheeks.
She felt a hand on her hand. “Hey,” Adam’s voice said softly, “hey, now…what are these?” He touched his fingers to her face and wiped away her tears.
She kept her eyes closed and shook her head a little. She didn’t know if she could talk to him about this, which made her want to cry harder. She had always been able to talk to Adam about everything. She just felt so guilty and she was so sure that Adam was going to judge her. She knew that wasn’t Adam’s style, but she felt like she had been so stupid, and that he would think the same. And she couldn’t bear it, couldn’t handle that this was going to be the thing that was going to unravel them.
“I don’t know…” she cleared her throat. “What did the nurse say?”
“She’s going to be in to inject a shot of Demerol into your IV in just a few minutes,” he kissed her forehead and smoothed her hair. “Is the pain really bad?”
She nodded. She finally opened her eyes and looked at him. His eyeliner was smudged, his eyes were bloodshot and there was a dark stain on his gray shirt that looked like…ketchup? But Adam hated ketchup. That’s when she noticed his hands resting on the plastic railing of the bed. His knuckles were swollen and scraped. Her eyes flew up to his, where he’d been watching her observe the damage to his hands. He met her eyes with a grim look. She searched his eyes questioningly, her eyes filling with tears.
“For me?” She peeped, and he nodded, solemnly, stroking a hand down her long hair.
“But, God, Adam, what if he presses charges? What if it gets into the media? The press would have a field day with it!”
“Allie, he’s not going to press charges. We had a nice little chat about it. And even if he did, we’ve got your lawsuit against him to prove that what I did, I did out of love for you. People won’t have a fit over that. I can handle whatever fallout comes from this.”
“Is that where you went when you said you had to meet Sam?”
Adam nodded. She sat back and took it all in.
“So,” she began in a small voice, “you’re not like…mad…at me, or anything?”
Adam smiled sadly and shook his head. “I was so afraid that you were going to take it like that. God, no Allison, how could I possibly be mad at you? I was just so fucking pissed at him…and,” he swallowed because he hadn’t realized it until now, “and at myself, for not protecting you better. I should have forbid you to see him. I feel like I let this happen, and I had to go there and finish this thing with him to prove to you that I’m not going to ever let anyone hurt you again.”
Tears were cascading down her face. “I thought…I’m just so embarrassed about all this…I mean, I should have known better, but like…I just thought the way you kept having to get away from me…I just thought…” she halted because she didn’t feel like she could say the words.
Adam put his arm around her and laid his head on top of hers. She interlaced her fingers with his on the hand that was dangling over her shoulder. She finally found the courage to voice her fears.
“I thought that you were thinking what I was thinking - that I got what I deserved because I let an abusive guy stay in my life.”
“Oh, honey is that what you think? I could never think that and you shouldn’t either. This is not your fault. I know it’s going to take some time to get over, but every day that goes by you will see clearer and clearer that you are not to blame. And I will be here with you every step of the way as you heal from this. Anything you need, day or night, you got it. Do you hear me?” He titled her chin so that she was looking directly at him. She nodded.
“Good,” he said firmly, and kissed her again on the forehead. They sat resting against each other for several minutes.
“Where’s Kris?” She wondered.
“I sent him to get coffee. He should be back any minute.”
“Did you both spend the night here?”
“Yeah,” he said, “although Kris really didn’t sleep. He’s been lit up with creative energy the last week or so, churning out song after song. He stayed up most of the night writing another one last night.”
“Is that like him?” Allison asked, frowning.
“Not really,” Adam admitted. “He says he thinks it’s because he’s finally free to admit what he feels for me.”
She smiled. “That could be it. I’m so happy for you guys. Do you know how much I love both of you?” She asked, suddenly serious.
Adam picked up her hand and kissed it. “As a matter of fact, we do. And the feeling is mutual, munchkin.”
The nurse entered the room with a cheerful “Good morning!” and Allison sighed happily.