He carried her over to the sofa, placing her down with all the gentleness in his being.

"Rae? Baby? What happened?" He brought his hand to her cheek, offering the lightest of touches.

The way she immediately turned her head toward it, as if seeking a comfort she had been deprived of, nearly broke his heart.

Letting out a sigh of contentment, she finally turned to look him directly in the eyes. A myriad of emotions whirled behind her eyes.

Shame. Guilt. Yet there was also strength and peace.

"It...it was Ronnie. I told him that I wanted to come back here to visit because I missed y'all so much...but he didn't like the idea. We got into a bit of a fight, but I eventually got away."

Laz's eyes were lit with rage. "Is this the first time he's done this to you?"

The small shake of her head in the negative made him want to vomit.

"No. It wasn't long before it started. At first it was just yelling and then it escalated."

She let out a sigh and tried her best to give the best smile her tired and battered face could muster.

"But it's okay. I'm home now."

She wrapped both of her tiny hands around his and curled herself into a ball.

Her closed eyelids as she drifted off to sleep kept her from seeing the tears that trailed down his cheeks.

Angie woke up a few hours later to find the other side of the bed empty and cold.

Confused, she walked out into the main part of the house and immediately stopped in her tracks.

She saw Lazarus sleeping while sitting straight up on the floor, his hand clutched between Rae's as she slept on the sofa.

She walked over to Laz and shook his shoulder gently. He slowly opened his eyes and gave her a weak smile.

"Laz, what's going on?" she asked, surprised by Rae's presence, but more confused by Laz's need to sleep out here with her all night.

Her questions seemed to be answered as she got her first real good look at Rae's face.

"Oh, sweet Jesus," she gasped. "What happened to her?"

Laz's face morphed into a look of rage so pure that Angie had never seen it before.

"Ronnie happened," he answered darkly. "He's been doing this to her for the past year and she only now was able to get away."

Angie's eyes grew wide and her heart hurt as she brought her eyes back to the sleeping young woman.

She'll admit, with no small amount of shame, that like most of the town, she had had her own preconceptions about Rae. She heard the stories, had seen her from time to time, but it wasn't until that day Laz showed up at her house, explaining Rae's story, that she realized the true harm that comes with making assumptions about people she didn't even truly know.

They had gotten to know each other as they prepared for her wedding to Ronnie, and now she truly had a love for this poor girl. This girl who had been forced to cope with so much in her young life.

"I'm gonna clean her up. I didn't have the heart to do it last night. I could tell all she really wanted to do was sleep. Who knows when the last time she slept peacefully was."

Angie could hear the guilt in his voice clearly. She reached out her hand, squeezing his shoulder reassuringly.

"This isn't your fault, Laz. You couldn't have known. And with not knowing, there was nothing you could have done. The only fault you could possibly have, we all share. We all should have seen what kind of person he really was, but we all just assumed it was your typical anger in a bad situation. If you're at fault, we all are. But we can't dwell on that, Laz. We just gotta do what we can now. We'll protect her and love her and take care of her."

Laz nodded slowly, still not fully believing that he held no more blame than anyone else, but he decided to let the subject drop in favor of focusing on taking care of Rae.

He gently shook her awake as he heard Angie say that she would run Rae a warm bath.

When she came to, he told her what they were doing and then he scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the bathroom. After her bath, Laz and Angie worked together to mend her many cuts and gashes. They got her changed into one of Laz's old shirts, since she had absolutely nothing with her when she'd left the house she shared with Ronnie.

Knowing her body had to still be sore, Angie told her to rest as Laz went outside to think.

As much as he tried to calm down and tell himself it wasn't the Christian thing to do...all he could think of at the moment was murder.

TBC