"Don't leave her here by herself. You never know what will happen if she's here by herself."
That was the first thought that entered René's mind after he had covered Leila with a blanket. He wouldn't leave her alone so soon after she had just told him something that even her twin sister didn't know about.
Looking at Leila, René quickly decided that she looked very fragile at that point of time. She was curled up in the foetal position, one thumb looking as if it was in her mouth, her other hand holding her Ted E Bare to her chest. Her face was bright red and she sounded as if she had a cold because she was sniffing. It wouldn't be right to leave her alone until Sophie and Sylvan showed up again - if she woke up at any stage, needing someone, he would be there for her.
As he happened to be leaning in very close to Leila, he noticed several long, white scars on her left forearm - scars that weren't visible from a distance - and he cringed. No doubt, she had cut herself after what had happened between her and Marc in an attempt to release some of the pain then followed that up by keeping it inside her, refusing to tell a soul.
René felt the anger rush through his blood at what this bastard had put her through and wanted to get on the first flight to France to find him and finish the job that Thomas had started. But what good would that do? He'd find himself languishing in the hell of a French jail and that would be good for his WWE career because this Marc creature sounded like the type of bloke who'd press charges. An assault conviction didn't exactly look that crash hot on the old resume either.
Backing away from Leila, René settled on the chair again, getting bored with the cartoons and began channel surfing, stopping when he came across a channel which was broadcasting the 1960s programme Batman. There was something about this programme that he liked - it might've been all the "Zok!" "Oof!" and "Kapow!"s that graced the screen whenever Batman and Robin were fighting the villain and his/her cronies - but, nonetheless, he watched it. For some reason, it striked him as the kind of programme that Leila would watch.
In between various Batman and Robin fights, René glanced at Leila. She was no longer holding Ted E Bare in a death grip and was now lying on her back, one arm covering her face and the other resting above her head. How could anyone want to hurt such a lovely person? It was beyond him.
He jumped a few minutes later when he heard a beeping sound. Leila's mobile phone was resting by the TV and as he went over to pick it up, he realised that it was the source of the beep. Leila had a text message from Sophie. Correction - it was sent from Sophie's mobile phone but the message itself was from Sylvan, who wanted to know how Leila was.
Quickly glancing at Leila, René began to write out his text message back to Sylvan. He told him that she was currently sleeping after spilling her guts to him and that he was staying with her until he and Sophie returned. A few minutes later, Sylvan replied, saying that he and Sophie would only be staying there for a couple more songs, after making a snide remark about Chris Jericho's singing.
He could only hope that Sylvan didn't say anything to Sophie about Leila - maybe, she would prefer to tell her sister herself, not have La Résistance do the job for her.
Sighing, René placed the mobile phone back beside the TV and again took up residence in the chair beside Leila's bed, his gaze almost absently caressing Leila. Sylvan was right in a way - he did have to tread carefully with Leila. It wasn't something he was used to doing but if he had to do it in order to keep Leila in his life, he would do it.
Looking more closely at her, René realised that her eyes were open. As he looked closer at Leila and found himself smiling, she smiled back before closing her eyes again. He quickly filed that away in his memories box, the one that no one, including Sylvan, knew about.
Speaking of Sylvan, he was true to his word when he said he and Sophie would be back after a couple of songs. Sophie looked very concerned for her sister as did Sylvan.
Sophie sat on the bed beside her sister, smoothing back her hair, obviously wondering what she had said then it came to her.
"Did she say something about what Marc did to her?"
René looked away from Sylvan to look at Sophie in near absolute horror which pretty much gave Sophie her answer.
"I had a feeling something horrible happened to her. She wouldn't tell me anything immediately afterwards and neither would our brother, even though he literally beat the crap out of Marc at that party."
She looked both sad and confused.
"Sophie, she'll tell you in her own time. It was bad enough for her to tell me what happened and her telling that story twice in one night will be bad enough as it is for her."
Sophie nodded, looking even more dismayed. She kept whispering "Why didn't she tell me?" in French under her breath, all the while continuing to smooth back Leila's hair from her face.
René suddenly felt extremely drained. He reckoned he probably looked extremely drained as well so he wearily glanced at Sylvan who nodded in understanding.
"Sophie? If you want us for anything, you know where to find us, okay? If you need to talk to either one of us, just pick up the phone or come to our room. You know which one it is."
Sophie nodded and wiggled her fingers in a farewell as René and Sylvan took their leave of the twins. René had walked about two steps towards their room before leaning against the wall as realisation went through him, making Sylvan stop in his tracks.
"It was bad, wasn't it? What Leila told you?"
René nodded as he looked at Sylvan.
"Like how bad?"
"Her brother's friend …" he paused, trying to keep calm over an event that had happened three years earlier, "raped her at a party. Her brother walked in on it and beat the crap out of his now former friend."
Sylvan's jaw was, literally, on the ground, as if he couldn't believe what René was telling him. He had been right in telling René to tread carefully with Leila.
"That's how I felt when she told me. I've seen things on that young girl you wouldn't want to - you have to be very close to her to see the several scars on her forearm. Then there are the mental scars. Something like this would've damaged her trust in men."
"She told you what happened and that's saying something to me. It tells me that she's starting to trust you. That she's allowing you to tread in her world."
René sighed as he mulled over Sylvan's words and realised that what he had said was true. In telling him what had happened to her, Leila effectively had allowed him passage in her own world. And that was something he didn't want to abuse. At all.