26.

During the car journey, which was longer than expected due to surprisingly heavy, slow-moving traffic, the two remained quiet, engaging in very limited conversation. The radio was on in the background but, while Chris may have been listening to it as he concentrated on the road, Shannon's mind was elsewhere and she had not heard so much as a note. For some reason, she kept thinking back to the day she had met Chris at the arena - after everything that had happened, it was hard to believe that had only been a little under a week ago. She still remembered clearly that drive home which, in spite of a few similarities, was such a contrast to her current situation. She and Billy had not talked much either, but those long periods of silence had been tense and uncomfortable while with Chris, she felt no pressure to say something purely to break the silence. While Billy had focused on the road with a look of grim determination, Shannon had rested her head against the cool window, trying to ease the initial dull throbbings of a headache.

"Not much change there then." she thought wryly, lightly touching the bandages covering her stitches.

That little coincidence now seemed to Shannon to have been almost like a premonition, a sign of things to come for her; and sure enough, Billy had caused her nothing but headaches, in one way or another. Had she known even then the trouble which that innocent meeting would lead to? She had considered the possibility that she had brought at least some of this on herself by allowing the situation with Chris to go as far as it had, but Chris had assummed full responsibility for that and protested so vehemently that nothing could justify this kind of attack anyway, reassuring her a little. However, she felt that she couldn't have expected anything else from a man like Billy who increasingly seemed intent on getting everything his own way and to hell with everyone else. yet she didn't like to think that she had known as, to her, that meant she had stayed regardless and allowed him to do this to her.For a moment, as she thought about that, Shannon hardly knew who she was more angry with - her ex-boyfriend, or herself.

Before she could consider the issue any further, Chris pulled into the car park of her apartment building. She turned around, determined to tell him she could manage from here, but found that he had already jumped out of the car in order to open the passenger door for her.

"I'm not an invalid, Chris." she said stubbornly, "I can manage."

"Jeez, you try to do the gentlemanly thing and you still get grief - there's no pleasing you women!" he pretended to complain. However, he knew that she was the type of person who hated the very thought of being dependent on anyone and so, said nothing more as he went nonetheless to fetch her bag from the trunk.

Slowly Shannon climbed out of the car and made her way over to him, a repentent look on her face.

"Sorry." she apologised ruefully, "I'm being a bitch and you really don't deserve it. I just ....."

"Shan," he interrupted her kindly, "Don't worry about it. Just remember, you don't have to prove anything to anyone - least of all me. You can let people help you, you know? You're straight out of hospital and I know you want to forget that, but there's no sense in hurting yourself."

She knew he was right and simply nodded, allowing him to carry her bag for her across the steadily darkening car park.

As they entered the building, Chris remembered something which he had neglected to mention to Shannon and, unsure how she would respond, he quickly broke the news that her apartment was still in the same state as when she had been taken to hospital.

"Didn't like to touch anything, in case you were gonna contact the cops." he said, watching her carefully to guage her reaction.

Although she tried to shrug casually, he saw the deep breath which she drew first.

"Well, I'm not so I guess I'll just have to do some cleaning." she stated.

"It's up to you." said Chris, resigned to accepting her decision.

"It's up to me." she echoed faintly.

*****

In the lift on their way up to the seventh floor, Chris kept casting glances at Shannon out of the corner of his eye. In spite of her eagerness to leave the hospital, she seemed less than thrilled to back back home. Wishing he could read her thoughts and hoping he was not overstepping the mark, Chris reached out and squeezed her hand lightly. Although she turned to him in surprise, after a second she smiled gratefully and made no attempt to pull away, as he had initially suspected she would.

At the door of her apartment, Shannon paused before trying to unlock the door with a hand which was too unsteady for the task. Seeing she was having difficulty, Chris reached around her to once again cover her hand with his, guiding the key home. Unlocking the door, Shannon stepped through it, her awareness of Chris's presence right behind her bolstering her confidence a little and enabling her to look around and survey the all-too familiar scene. It somehow managed to simultaneously be both comforting and unsettling - two coffee mugs still stood on the coffee table; cushions from the couch were still strewn on the floor where they had landed; the smashed remnants of her tape recorder on the floor; her bedroom door knocked from its hinges.

"Yep, could do with a spring-clean." she tried to quip, even as her heart sank.

"It won't take that long." assured Chris, "Tell you what - I'll deal with the broken stuff, you put the rest straight, okay? We'll be done in no time."

Following his instruction, Shannon fixed the couch; not without some difficulty as she had to be careful not to jostle her ribs as she stooped to pick up the cushions. While she then collected the mugs and took them into the little kitchen, Chris scooped up the remains of the tape recorder and followed her to reluctantly drop them in the trash can in the kitchen, unwittingly making Shannon start at the sudden noise. As she did so, an unpleasant thought struck him and he only paused long enough to throw her a quick apology before hurrying out of the room.

Stepping over her fallen bedroom door, Chris glanced around the room and, as he expected, a large dark patch on the carpet caught his attention. Blood, his mind registered with a slight shuddered of revulsion. Shannon's blood. It wasn't that he was particularly squeamish; in his line of work there were times when you got to see a lot of blood and various injuries, many of them serious, some career-threatening. However, when it had been Shannon lying there, as he had thought, lifelessly - well, that had been a whole different ball game. He had thought she was .....

"Well, it doesn't matter now." he thought firmly, trying to get rid of the lingering image in his mind. "She's not, but she sure isn't gonna need a reminder like this."

While he was considering how to remove the offending mark, which had long since dried into the carpet and would be extremely difficult to remove, he heard a soft step behind him and turned sharply.

"The door looks totalled." said Shannon quietly, looking at him curiously, "What's up? You look kinda ..... preoccupied."

"It's nothing." he said hastily, trying to think of a way to keep her out of the room but it was already too late as Shannon was staring past him at the dark brownish-red mark.

While she knew that what had happened to her had been serious, it was only now that she realised that the outcome could have been much worse. It was only now that she thought about how long she could have lain there, in a pool of her own blood.

"You saved my life, Chris." she said in a low tone, "If you hadn't turned up when you did ....."

"Don't think about that." he said, crossing the short distance between them to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder, "You got through it and that's all that matters. You go sit down and I'll get rid of that mark - you won't even know it was there."

Shannon smiled, but shook her head briefly before grabbing the bag which Chris had deposited just inside the room, beside the fallen door.

"What are you doing?" protested Chris, about to take the bag from her but she merely dropped it on top of the stain.

"I've been planning on redecorating." she said, "But that'll have to do in the meantime; that'll never come out now. Come on, I'll make you a coffee."

*****

When he had finished his coffee, it was with great reluctance that Chris told Shannon he should get going. She walked him to the door, but stopped him before he could open it.

"Chris, thank you so much for ..... well, for everything." she said softly, feeling starngely self-conscious but nevertheless placing a hand on his chest and leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

"You are more than welcome." he smiled, but she saw his blue eyes quickly turn serious again. "Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?"

"I'll be fine." she said, hoping she sounded more believable to him than she did even to her own ears.

Although he was unconvinced, Chris nodded. "Call me if you need anything, anytime. Promise?"

"I promise." she said gratefully, "Thanks."

For a moment she just watched as he headed down the hall towards the lift, longing to call out and stop him leaving. She knew all it would take would be a word and he would stop, but instead she closed the door and rested her forehead against it, her eyes tightly closed.

*****