To her, it didn't matter if he slept in someone else's bed that night, as long as it was her that he came home to. She knew the stress that he was under when he was working, she knew because she had been there. Sometimes, he needed release that she couldn't give him. Sometimes he needed someone to take control of him, force him into those taboo situations. Sometimes that's all he needed and that was sometimes, something that she could not give him.
It didn't matter one bit when he came home with big marks over his body, scratches over his back. Bite marks on his chest, because she knew that it was only a matter of time before he would be able to look her in the eye and tell her about all the wicked things that he fought. All the cases – the reasons why he needed to punish himself so much about the lives he couldn't save; about the children that would grow up without a mother and father, without anyone to protect them.
Nothing really mattered, as long as he came home to her. It was the only thing she cared about. Was that after all the monsters were locked away, after every time he needed someone to fuck him so hard they left scars, that it was her who held him at night. His arms wrapped tight around her.
After a while, he stopped coming home to her. He started to find comfort in his co-workers arm, his body being held by someone else. He had started to not come home anymore, started staying over another man's house. It was nothing she had imagined. Her childhood sweetheart had transformed into a shell of a man.
That didn't really matter though, because as soon as that phase finished, he would be right back with her, letting her hold him, kissing his cheek. Pretending that everything was okay.
After all, that's all she wanted. Haley needed to pretend it was okay, not just for her, but for the baby she was carrying. It was the most heartbreaking thing to know that Aaron was losing himself in his younger co-worker, and she had stood by and let it happen.
It didn't matter though. Soon she would be gone with the baby, soon she would leave him, just like he had done. He would hurt. Just like she had. She just needed to find the right weapon.