Marked by Guilt
Chapter One: Black and Blue
Today had been hard and his head was pounding he could feel the pulsating throbbing in the back of his head as he turned the shower to the hottest setting. He stripped off the last of his clothes and stepped into the brutally hot water. It was here that he let his mind wander to the devastation of his life, his son was dead murdered by a terrorist and the love of his life had disappeared without a single trace. The faint shadowing of purple and blue tinged his pale truculent skin and the hot water and steam from the shower made them all the more visible. He was tired, so tired and the fatigue of the day and grief was starting to make his bones feel like jelly beneath his skin but he had one more task to face before the day was out. He shut off the water and wrapped a towel around his now too thin waist and stepped out into the bedroom where his wife was waiting for him. He stood and braced himself as he reminded her not the face because people will notice. It was then that she picked up her weapon of choice for the night a wooden shoe horn and let her rage against him fly.
" Thats enough for tonite Mel"
His voice was quite and broken and Mellie had a sheen of sweat covering her entire body from the effort she was putting forth into punishing her husband. Fitz's abdomen was already turning a mottled purple and pain was radiating from his left shoulder but he did not complain or let the tears sitting in his eyes fall. He deserved all of this and more he was an empty shell of a man and this was the only thing that made him feel again and it even though it was pain he felt it. Mellie watched as her husband took every blow and hit and it gave her a sick satisfaction to see the physical damage that she was causing to see each fresh bruise and welt made her feel as if she could get a piece of her son back and hurt Fitz for not loving her like he did his missing in action mistress. Mellie knew that their already toxic relationship had taken a even more sick and sinister turn since the death of their oldest son.
She watched as he pulled on a t- shirt wincing slightly from pain and got into the bed that they still shared. She quickly climbed in beside him shutting off the light and listened as he began to softly cry the weight of the day finally too much for him to take. He was broken completely and utterly broken. He didn't know how it had come to this he lived in a place between death and hope, hope that she would come back before the lure of death became to great.