Now it was Charles whose unconscious frame lay on the floor, motionless and defenseless. For the first time in almost two years, Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief without fear of retaliation. She headed to her bedroom and gathered up everything that belonged to her. As she packed, she wondered why Charles had let his injury turn him into a monster. She wondered why she had let him mistreat her for so long. She wondered briefly if she had killed him. But most importantly she wondered, as she loaded the last of her things into the boot of her car, where was she going to go?
She drove without any sense of destination for a half an hour. She cried the whole time. She cried for her injuries, both physical and emotional, some of which would never completely heal. She cried for the life she was leaving behind. She cried for her parents who had sadly died a few years back in a car crash. She even cried for Charles, for a reason even she couldn't figure out. The tears were becoming so thick she had to pull over because she could no longer see. When she was no longer physically able to shed another tear, she pulled out her phone. The first thing she did was scroll through her contact list all the way to the T's until she found the name she was looking for. The name who always brought joy to her eyes and a smile to her face. A name she hadn't spoken in her own her house in six months. Jack Thornton.
The line rang 8 times before he picked up. His voice was groggy; the call had woken him.
"Hello?" He said.
Elizabeth became so overwhelmed at hearing his voice for the first time in weeks, she couldn't do anything but let out a small squeal and hang up. Her phone rang again thirty seconds later. When she answered, his voice sounded much more awake and alert.
"Elizabeth?" He asked.
"Jack?" She asked timidly, her voice shaking.
She knew perfectly well who was the other line. She had said his name because it was the only thing she could say at the moment.
"Elizabeth, is everything okay? Did something happen?" He was sounding more and alarmed with each word.
"Jack," she repeated. "So much has happened. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I don't know where to go."
She was in hysterics. The tears had returned as she thought about all that had happened in the past two hours. They stung her eyes as she tried to hold them in.
"Where are you now?" He asked.
"I'm on pulled over by Applegreen on Sleaford." She managed to get out before her body once again was wracked with sobs.
"Stay there. I'm coming right now." With that, he hung up and she was left, once again, alone and pulled over on the side of the road, sobbing.
Thirty minutes later, she saw his black Audi and tried to pull herself together. She got out of her car as he parked his. Neither of them said a word as she lunged into his arms. Neither of them had to. She and he had always been able to communicate without saying much. He held her for as long as she needed. Jack's arms had always been open for her. It had taken years and what felt like endless abuse for her to realize that somewhere along the 24 year road, the boy that she had spent her childhood with had turned into the man who put her before any and everything. Suddenly, her tears stopped. She stepped back from his soft, yet firm, hold and looked him dead in his eyes.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
His burrowed eyebrows raised in confusion. His hand left her back and traveled to her tear streaked face. His thumb wiped away one of many fallen tears. She had never seen him look at anyone the way he was looking her.
"You have nothing to be sorry for." He said. "I don't know what happened tonight and I will wait until you are ready to tell me on your own terms, but you haven't anything to apologize for."
Elizabeth didn't care. She didn't deserve him in any capacity. She tried to pull away from him but his grip tightened. When she looked away, the finger that still rested on her cheek pulled her gaze back to him.
"You don't deserve this. You have your own life to live. You shouldn't have to wake up at two in the morning to come hear my problems."
His face betrayed him for a split second as the hurt quickly washed over him. He was usually good at hiding his true feelings being a officer and after years of masking his sadness over the fact that Elizabeth had chosen Charles. His disappointment was gone as fast as it had come but Elizabeth was faster. She had hurt him. Again.
"If that were true, I wouldn't be here. You know that Elizabeth. I would wake up at two in the morning every day if it meant that I never have to see you like this." He stopped and his entire demeanor changed. "Why are you bleeding?"
She hadn't even noticed the blood on the back of her shirt when she left. Her overwhelming need to distance herself from Charles before he woke up made everything else secondary at the time. Now, an hour later, she had nothing to take her attention away from it. She reached up and felt the back of her head where Charles had hit her and when she looked at her hand, sure enough, it was covered in red. When Elizabeth was young, she was always squirmy around blood. Now, it was ironic because she had been around it almost daily for a year and a half.
"Elizabeth, did he hit you?" His nostrils were flaring.
She had never seen them do that before. Then again, she had never known Jack to get angry.
"We should get off the side of the road." She tried to change the subject.
Jack, however, was having none of it. He did open the passenger side of his Audi for her to get into though. Once they were both situated in the car, his eyes returned to hers. They repeated the question he'd asked outside.
"Yes. He hit me." She murmured.
"Was this the first time?" He inquired.
In any other situation, she would have laughed at how Jack never truly stopped being "Officer Thornton", even when was off the clock. But now all she could do was nod her head no.
"I'll kill him."
"Jack," she immediately looked at him. "Don't say that."
"How long has this been going on?" He asked.
"About a year and half."
"Elizabeth!" He shouted.
"Don't yell at me. I've had to put up with that for almost two years. Do not yell at me."
His eyes apologized.
"I'm sorry. But why didn't you tell anyone? Why didn't you tell me?" His voice was softer now.
"I figured at first that he didn't mean to hit me. He kept apologizing and I kept forgiving him. After a while, he stopped apologizing. By that point, I was too scared to do anything. So I didn't."
"Elizabeth," he said her name like he were talking to a stray kitten. "I feel awful. I should've-"
"Jack stop! None of this is your fault. The last thing I wanted tonight was to make you feel bad." Her breath caught in her throat.
"What is it?" Jack asked.
"It's been forever since I've been able to say what I want." She replied earnestly.
He grabbed both of his hands in her own. If it were anyone else, he would have genuinely felt sorry for them. But this was Elizabeth, one of the strongest woman he knew. She would get through this and he would do everything in his power to help her.
"You never have to feel scared to say what you want again. I promise you. I can't repair your heart in a single night. But I want you to know that I will be there right beside you whenever you need me."
"Oh Jack," she reached for him again. "I will always need you."
"That's good." He said, pulling back a bit to look at her. "Because I'll always need you too.
They remained in their embrace for a bit, a little awkward because of the confines of the car, but neither of them minded because they were together.
"Are you okay enough to drive?" Jack asked after a while.
"I think so." She nodded.
"I want you to follow me back to my flat. Okay?" He said.
Elizabeth shook her and got out of the car. Jack waited until he saw her headlights before pulling out. His eyes constantly traveled to his rearview mirror for fear that she might simply disappear. Jack pulled into his garage and left the bay open for Elizabeth. As she shut her car off, he got out to shut the bay door. He grabbed her hand led her into the house. Neither of them knew how long she would be staying with him so he showed her where the kitchen, the loo, and the laundry room were. When he led her to the guest bedroom, she stopped.
"Can I stay with you tonight?" she asked.
She couldn't read his expression and automatically started apologizing profusely.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean- I didn't want- I just thought-" she stammered.
He hated seeing her this way, feeling the need say sorry for everything she did. The only reason he hadn't gone and strangled Charles was because he couldn't entertain the thought of leaving even for a minute.
"Elizabeth, slow down," he stopped her rambling. "Of course you can stay with me tonight. I just didn't think you would want to be around another man after what Charles did to you."
"I just want to be close to you." She whispered.
"If that's what you want, I'd be a fool to refuse." His smile brought a light to heart that had shone in a very long time. "Let me just get your stuff from the car."
"I hate to impose Jack." She started.
"It's not an imposition." He grabbed her hand. "You are one of the most important people in my world Elizabeth. Of all people, you do not deserve what happened to you. Getting your stuff pales in comparison. I'll be right back."
Elizabeth sat on the couch feeling useless as Jack brought in all of her belongings from her car. Once he had brought in the last of her bags, she got up, walked over, kissed Jack on the cheek and grabbed the bag with her nightclothes and her toiletries and went into the loo. Jack stood there speechless. It was only a kiss on the cheek but it was the best he'd ever had. Once he regained his senses, he went back to his room and took back off the shirt he had thrown on when Elizabeth had called, not even registering that she was just in the next room. When she entered the room her breath hitched. He looked up and realized why she hadn't come all the way in.
"Shite, I'm sorry. I didn't even realize- Let me get a shirt."
"No it's fine. Really. Don't. I don't want you to act any differently now that I'm here. You've done enough for me already."
She crawled into bed without another word and switched her side's lamp off. She turned to face him. He switched his lamp off as well and scooted down so he was eye level with her, holding his head up on his elbow.
"Goodnight Elizabeth." He smiled and made to turn over but Elizabeth grabbed his cheek.
Before he could register what was happening, her lips were on his. She kissed him like she had something to prove. Her lips ravaged his as though she were starving and he was the last morsel of food. As much as he wanted this, he felt all kinds of wrong. He knew he had to stop but the selfish part of him didn't want to. When her hands started to travel however, he couldn't let himself continue.
"Elizabeth, stop." He said, breathless. "What are you doing?"
"Giving you what you want." She replied flustered.
"What makes you think that this is what I want?" He asked.
"Charles did." She said, as the tears started rolling again.
"Elizabeth, I'm not Charles. I would never-" he stopped short. "Elizabeth, did he-"
"No, he didn't." She already knew what he was asking and didn't want to hear the rest of that question. "He asked and I wasn't ready. Maybe if I had said yes, he would have loved me."
"Elizabeth, look at me." He grabbed her face in his hands. "Is that why you did that, because you don't want me to hate you."
She nodded in the affirmative. She had never felt so defeated in her life. She had been hit in the head and in the heart in one night.
"I could never hate you. I love you too much to ever hate you." Hearing the words out loud made her heart stop.
"He has an STI. He slept someone else because I just didn't feel right about sex yet and he blamed me for pushing him into another woman's arms. I just figured if I gave myself to you, you wouldn't want to leave me." She sighed through her tears.
"I could bash Charles' face in right now. Elizabeth, you don't owe him anything and you don't owe me anything either. What he did to you was despicable and I hate that you thought I was the same way. I would never do anything like that until you were one hundred percent sure that's what you wanted."
"I love you too Jack." She said as she wiped away her tears. "I'm sorry."
"I don't expect you to get over him immediately. I do want you to know that I am here and no matter what, I always will be."
"Thank you." She snuggled into his chest as her breathing calmed.
"Elizabeth?" Jack asked after some time had passed and she had almost drifted off listening to the steady thump of his heartbeat.
"Yes Jack." She answered.
"Don't ever think that I don't want you." He began. "I know it's not the right time to be talking like this but I never, for a single second, want to think that I don't want you in every sense of the word. If it were any other situation, I would have been jumping over the moon. I just didn't want you to feel like you had to exchange your body and your innocence for my love."
"I know Jack. That's why I feel safe now, here with you, in your arms."
"Goodnight Elizabeth." He kissed her forehead.
"Goodnight Jack." And with that, they both drifted off to sleep.