Chapter twelve
Oh god, I think my heads splitting in two!
Tori tried to open her eyes but found they were stuck tight. In a sleep induced daze, she rubbed at her lids until they blinked apart.
The white early morning light shot into her irises, nearly blinding her.
Covering them with her hand, she slowly sat up in the bed, stubbornly ignoring the shooting pains in limbs.
She pulled up the sleeve of her pyjama arm to check up on her burns, they were the same, redish pink bumps making their way to the worst area. A large ashen black spot sitting just below her shoulder, to the right of her collar bone.
The bedside clock beeped, informing her it was only four o clock. Groaning she slid back down in the sheets, debating the time old question whether she should go back to sleep or stay up until morning.
Apparently that decision was already made for her. As soon as her head reached the pillow she fell back to sleep.
The room door opened slowly, a skinny man in doctor's dress silently crept towards her. His feet made no sound as he made his way across the room, his face blank of emotion except from the slight quirk at the side of his thin mouth.
Reaching inside his shirt pocket, he pulled out a folded piece of paper. With the other hand he gently pulled at the thin cotton blanket so it fell down, revealing her torso.
He admired her little form for a moment, knees curled up to her chin, then stepped back to slip the paper into her case file.
He stepped back, the smile on his lips growing, but still not quite reaching his eyes.
As he turned, his tall shadow past the bed, covering her face in darkness.
"Tori?" John whispered, poking his head round the curtain. The nurse's had informed him she was taking some new medication and would be a little drowsy.
She was cradled in her bed, knees brought up to her chin, rocking backwards and forwards. Fists clenched in the thin bed sheets.
"Do you need me to call the nurse?" Slowly, he paced towards her, reaching out a hand to comfort her.
She snapped her head up before he came in contact with skin. "John?"
As her dark hair fell away from her face, he rocked back at her startling appearance. Her eyes were clouded over and darker than usual, skin a ghastly pale, pulled over her cheekbones a little too much.
"Tori, are you okay?" his voice was barley a whisper this time. Crouching down so he was at her eye level.
"Why are you here?" she croaked, her lips dry and wrinkled.
"You asked me, remember?" He pulled up one of her small hands and found it cold to the touch.
She snapped back, creating as much distance between them as possible without falling off the hospital bed.
"N-no…" She stuttered, eyes closed tightly together. "Maybe…I don't remember…" Finally deciding on an answer, she looked at him, pupils unfocused. "Yes, I mean yes. I do, you and Sherlock came yesterday"
He gave a sigh of relief and relaxed in the chair. "So…Did you finish the case" It seemed a safe enough subject.
"Yeah, the brother killed him, then left it on the train carriage so in the morning the body would be carried along with the train and no one could trace it back to him" her face had returned to its usual, but still pale, completion and her pupils had that electric spark back.
"You really are brilliant, you know that" he grinned at her, one part confusion one part amazement.
"Oh shut up!" she laughed as they broke into mindless chatter.
John's smile remained plastered to his face as his mind went into over drive. How could someone go from depressed to joking about hospital food in minutes. Well he could think of one reason but it seemed quite drastic, best observe for the moment.
A.N
I promised dark, hope it suffices. Can you guess who the skinny guy was?
If not I won't reveal it to you, but, seriously, you must have guessed.
Sorry, that was a bit of reader-bashing. I don't hate you, I love you. Really, I do.
Now these chapters are becoming shorter to accommodate more suspense, so as usual I'll try to upload quicker to make up for lack of words. I have this thing which makes me go back over chapters and change things about them so, they do take longer than I imagine when publishing.
Love Rosie
