She failed. She knew she had failed because the second she opened her eyes and his hand was on her, his voice coaxing her awake, a sickening feeling plummeted in the pit of her stomach.
"I failed," she whispered, letting him help her sit up.
"No," he said, his voice as soothing as it always was whenever he worried about her. "You didn't."
She looked up into his eyes and for a moment she did not believe him. It was already too obvious to deny the fact that she had failed to protect him from others. The blood on the side of his forehead, the bruises that marred his knuckles, his gaze sweeping across her face than down at her body as if he was searching for any wounds of some kind.
"I failed," she repeated.
"You didn't." He offered his hand and she took it. Rising, she almost stumbled, but he grasped her shoulders, keeping her upright. "You're alright, Ecco, everything is alright. I dealt with it."
She kept her head lowered, her heart racing in her chest. The shame circulated through her body and as she looked around. She recognized the place as a parking lot where she was knocked out by one of Jerome's old henchmen. She managed to fight off a few when she came upon them, but one had come up from behind her and hit her in the back of the head.
The last thing she felt was the pain of hitting the ground, the laughter fading from her consciousness, and the guilt that she couldn't do anything to get back to Jeremiah.
Now here he was, how he had found her was confusing but he always knew where she was.
"I'm sorry," she told him, dropping her hands from his, the shame too unbearable, she couldn't let him touch her for what she had done and what she hadn't been able to do. "I should've been there with you. I should've…"
"Ecco," Jeremiah said, he was hesitate to touch her, but he stayed close, his head tilted to the side, trying to look at her, "everything is fine, I dealt with it, and when I was looking for you and heard that you were knocked out," he took her hand in his, "I didn't let them live for what they did to you."
She raised her head and then she noticed the blood on his face wasn't from anyone injuring him, it was someone else's blood, the bloody and bruised knuckles meant he had did it without any weapons. He had made them tell him where she was.
Her devotion swelled, even though she was still ashamed she wasn't able to be there with him, in case something did happen. Her incompetence would haunt her for sometime, but for now, he was here and he wasn't truly harmed by anyone.
"You're okay," she said, turning her body to look at him fully.
He smiled down at her. "I'm alright." He held her hand a bit longer, squeezing only for a moment before letting go. "Come along. We still have things to do."
She nodded and followed right after him.