"Tell me where'd you ever learn to fight without saying a word?"
"I don't care what the hell you do!" Elizabeth turned on her heel and slammed the bedroom door behind her. Henry could hear her violent sobs through the door and felt his heart shatter.
"Baby? Elizabeth, open the door." His plea only served in intensifying her sobs. After trying again, he quietly walked away from the door and out into the brisk, early spring air. She obviously needed time to let her anger simmer. Perhaps a walk around campus would allow him to do the same.
Hours later, when hunger had forced him to return, Henry stepped back into the small apartment he had shared with his girlfriend for the past few months. He wouldn't necessarily say this was their first fight, but this is the first one that had lasted longer than an afternoon.
Walking through the door, however, only served in agitating the nerves he thought had been settled on his walk. Honestly, the fight had been ridiculous. Elizabeth suspected a flirtation with one of his fellow grad students. Henry had sputtered, aghast at her accusation. She assumed his hesitation to be a lack of denial, and immediately fell over the edge. That is when she shouted her apathy toward him and slammed the bedroom door in his face.
Frankly, he was irritated that she had come to such a conclusion. Madeline, the grad student he was comparing research with, was in her last year of her Master's program, and had helpful insight to offer him as he developed and researched his own thesis.
He fixed himself a cold-cut and retreated into his makeshift office, determined to make today semi-successful. If she hadn't pulled herself from the bedroom while he was gone, she probably wouldn't for the remainder of the evening. The sun had begun setting, and he wasn't ready to fave her irrationality lright now.
He had buried himself so deep in research organization, that he was startled when his eyes opened, landing on the artificial wood of his desk and his palm resting on his cheek. Moments later Elizabeth appeared in the doorway, timidly leading against the frame. "Are you coming to bed?" Her voice was quiet mirroring the time of night.
He shuffled the papers on his desk and wiped the sleep from his face. "Yeah." He mumbled. "I'll be there in a second."By the time he had stored his documents on the correct folders and slid them into corresponding drawers, Elizabeth appeared to be asleep. She lay motionless, her face buried in her pillow.
He wasted no time dressing in his pajamas and flopping into bed. When Elizabeth felt is weight shift the mattress she opened her eyes, only met with the sight of his bare back. She moved closer, softly resting her hand on his toned shoulder. "Babe?" She barely whispered, afraid to interrupt the suffocating silence that had engulfed her since he had walked out.
She moved her nails against his warm skin, trying to elicit any response. "Baby?" She repeated nervously. When she received no answer she choked down a sob that rose within her throat and moved to cover her mouth, preventing any harsh sound that would alert the man beside her. She rolled to the other side of the bed and curled herself into a right ball, nearly touching her knees to her forehead as silent tears streamed down her swollen cheeks.
Xxx
Henry woke up to an empty bed the following morning. He reluctantly rolled out of bed, and headed toward the kitchen where he saw Elizabeth sucking down her third cup of coffee with her backpack on the floor beside her.
"Good morning." She tried, hoping the events of yesterday could soon be resolved. He merely turned his lips, attempting to smile, yet somehow it looked more like a grimace. Her heart broke receiving his silence, but she didn't have time to dwell on it, she needed to be in her first class in 20 minutes. She downed the final sip of her coffee and placed the mug in the sink before placing a gentle kiss on the corner of his stiff lips and heading out the door. "I'll see you after lunch." She didn't bother turning to look after shutting the door. She hadn't received a verbal response, giving her no reason to look back.
As she walked across campus she felt her mind flood with emotions: anger, heartbreak, confusion. Bitter nostalgia is what was etched into her mind, though.
The silence terrified her.
Silence was a representation of her parents. It characterized her busy older brother. It was the tense Christmas dinners that she never enjoyed. Her first semester at college has been her breaking point. She stayed on campus for winter break and didn't communicate with the outside world for nearly three weeks. She spent much too many nights crying herself to sleep, her heaving sobs the only sound that filled the stifling air.
She managed to throw herself onto each class she entered, doing her best to push her troubles with Henry to the back of her mind. After each dismissal asshe walked to her next class, her mind always wandered back to him though.
After her day ended, she stopped at a local cafe for a sandwich, hoping to stall her way back home. With any luck Henry would have already left to fulfill his office hours by the time she found her way back to the apartment.
She wasn't so lucky, though. When she stepped into their apartment, she immediately saw Henry close a book he had been reading and rearrange a pile of papers on the coffee table.
"Hey." She mumbled, dropping her bag by the door, her eyes staying low. She failed to notice the forced smile he sent her in lieu of a 'hello' and simply rode the silence into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water.
When she returned to the main room, it seemed he hadn't moved. Still staring at a pile of assumed theology essays, his elbows rested heavily on his knees. She stood motionless, staring, with the cold bottle in her hand. A lump formed in her throat when he didn't move to kiss her forehead., when he didn't move to embrace her. Was she invisible to him? She was simply looking for an explanation, yet she hadn't gotten anything.
"Henry?"
Her weak voice caused his eyes to lift, meeting her broken form across the room. It was as if his eyes had been opened to bed broken heart. What had he done?
"Baby, what's wrong?"
She bit her lip, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "What's wrong?" She nearly spat. "what's wrong is that I haven heard your voice, I haven't felt your touch in nearly two days!"
He felt the air hitch within his throat. He hadn't even realized he had reverted to blanketing her with 'the silent treatment.' It was instinctual, and it wasn't until she pointed out his actions that he was made aware. He came from a noisy, obnoxious, raucous family. Anger often began with heated words, and progressed into silence. A lack of words seemed to belabor the point in his home.
He hadn't even thought of the implications for Elizabeth, though. Silence, to her, had a much different message. It wasn't a form of argument, it only meant absence. His silence had made her feel completely alone.
His eyes fell closed as he felt the air being sucked from his lungs. "Baby," he immediately paced across the room to her and pulled her into his arms. "I'm so sorry."She buried her head in the crook of his neck, letting a single tear run through her closed lashes.
"I can handle almost anything, Henry. My life has not been a walk in the park." She lifted her head to look into his eyes. "Silence is the one thing I can not tolerate, though. It scares me more more than arguing, more than screaming. I need something... Anything."
He placed a tender kiss upon her trembling lips, causing the dam within her to break.
"Please promise me that we will always talk through our issues in the future?"
"Of course. I didn't even consider how my silence would affect you, and for that I cannot be more sorry."
"I know it seems silly, but i just need to know that you're still here, physically and mentally. " she rested her hand on his chest, staring intently as if she would be able to gaze at his beating heart.
"Nothing about that is silly, Elizabeth." He placed a gentle finger under her chin, coaxing her eyes to meet his.
"I love you Henry McCord." Her heart was overwhelmed with relief as she rested her nose upon his cheek.
"I'll never stop loving you, Elizabeth Adams."
A/N: i hope you enjoyed this! Reviews make me smile! (: I will apologize now if this is spotty and there are errors, I wrote this with brainstorms while my family and I were traveling. Also, the next chapter of "Hirry Home" will be up Monday or Tuesday, but I will not be able to finish the final chapter until I return home. So, so sorry. I may have some more one-shots up over the next week though because apparently all I can do on a 10 hour trip is sleep, eat, and write!