Lily had woken up and left before Otis did, she thought he might enjoy some coffee so she went to make some and collect medical supplies to change his bandages.

"Thought you might like some morning coffee?" Lily offered smiling as she noticed Otis was awake when she we went back into the bedroom.

"Thanks" He mumbled, gritting his teeth as he sat up.

"I have to change your bandages today too," Lily said handing him the coffee.

"What happened to your eye Mama?" Otis frowned looking up at her, their faces only inches apart. Lily's heart skipped a beat hearing the pet name as his intense eyes stared into her very soul ordering answers.

"Oh this, oh it's nothing" Lily said dismissively shaking her head, trying to avoid the situation she turned her head to leave, Otis's hand grabbed her chin and turned her face back to him still looking into her eyes.

"What happened Lily?" He growled.

"It was just an accident, my fault" She said, Otis put a palm on her cheek and rubbed his thumb under her eye.
"Did, Did I do this Mama?" His face stern and serious, he wanted to know, No he demanded to know if he had hurt her, just the thought of it made him want to punch a hole in a wall.

"It was just an accident Otis" She soothed she could see the hurt in his eyes at the possibility of hurting her, she was trying not to make a big deal out of it, why did he have to?

"Don't insult my intelligence by lying to me!" Otis yelled throwing his coffee cup across the room, it smashed into hundreds of tiny shards against the wall and Lily yelped and jumped back.

Otis eyes had turned black with anger his face a furious snarl behind his dirty blonde coloured beard. His face frightened her he looked dangerous in his frustration at being lied to.

"See! I did do it didn't I? Great now you really are fucking scared of me" Otis growled his voice angry and irritable.

"I'm not scared of you Otis, it was just an accident you was having a nightmare and I got it the way it's my fault" She tried to sooth him, Otis looked at her and seeing her immediately started calm his anger and bring him back down to earth, he sighed deeply and clothed his eyes.
"I told you not to come in when I have nightmares for a fucking reason" Otis sighed trying to calm down, he cursed himself inside for being such a twisted fuck up, he hadn't wanted her to get hurt, he never wanted to hurt her and he cursed himself for letting himself get so caught up in her.

"I know you did and I didn't listen so it's my fault" She said as she got up and picked up bits of broken cup off of the floor.

"I'm, I'm sorry mama" He said sincerely looking at her across the room. Wow what was wrong with him he thought to himself, he never apologised to no one for nothing before what on earth was she doing to him?

There was a long awkward silence as Lily changed Otis's bandages, he was deep in thought he wondered what was going on with his brain, he had tried to keep her at a distance, tried to stop her from getting close and yet she knew more of his secrets and more about the real him than anyone in the Firefly household and it frightened him. What he was feeling now he had never felt before, he had never given a shit about anyone he had hurt why did she matter so much? Lily was learning over him in silence taking care of his wounds; Otis looked around awkwardly trying to keep still as she took care of him.

"You OK mama?" He asked looking down at her, Lily nodded her head slowly.

"Yeah, I'm OK" She replied somewhat unconvincingly.

"I'm sorry for scaring you mama, I, I know you're still jumpy, I shouldn't have yelled" Otis said feeling ashamed by his actions; he wondered what the hell was happening to him he'd never been ashamed about anything he had ever done. But he had frightened her, he knew he had frightened her she came from an abusive family and gone through hell and thinking of his own experiences he was now beginning to regretting shouting at her.

"It's fine really, there you go you're all done" Lily sat standing up and turning to leave, Otis grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving.
"Wait!" He called Lily turned round to look at him. "No hard feelings huh mama?" Otis asked looking up at her; his eyes had softened now the anger had gone and the friendly but stern looking face was back.

"No Otis no hard feelings"

"You're not scared of me mama?" Lily shook her head.

"I could never be scared of you Otis" She said smiling, Otis gave a small smile back. "You look nicer when you smile Otis" She quipped before leaving.

The following night Lily sat in bed listening to Otis's pained screams and shouts, it killed her inside to not run to him and comfort him but he had told her not to come in and that was exactly what she was going to do, she couldn't risk losing what little of his trust she had. She wanted to be by his side comforting him as he came out of his nightmare but she knew she only had one eye left to bruise. 'When he's ready he'll let me come to him' she thought to herself. Lily began to wonder to herself whether Otis would ever allow her to break down the walls that he had built around himself.