Rating: PG-13
Sara's POV
Warnings: Mention of domestic violence.
Archiving: Just ask.
Disclaimer: Catherine, Sara and Eddie are not mine.
"God Cath, what did he do to you this time?" It is hard to keep the fury I feel with Eddie out of my voice, but it is tempered with concern for Catherine.
She is standing in my doorway framed by the light in the hallway just outside my apartment. She has bruising starting to show around her left eye that's going to be a real shiner tomorrow, and as she raises her hand to push her messed up hair out of her face I catch sight of angry red marks on her wrist. The stiff way she's standing tells me she probably has other bruising elsewhere on her body.
I step back to let her into the living room, then open my arms to invite her into a hug. Normally, when Eddie hasn't just beaten the shit out of her, I would not hesitate to pull Catherine into my embrace, but when she is like this she needs to feel in control of our physical contact.
She snuggles against my chest for a long minute, then I sit us down on the couch. I fetch a bowl of warm water, a washcloth and some arnica cream, and begin the familiar ritual. It's amazing how quickly something can become a familiar ritual, I muse bitterly as she relaxes under my gentle touch. He only started hitting her about a month ago, so it has been for less than a quarter of the time we have been seeing each other, but it feels like forever.
"What happened?" I ask again, realising she did not answer the first time.
"He was drunk. He started comparing me to one of his bimbos." She pauses and looks at me guiltily. I immediately know in what capacity he was comparing the two of them, but choose to put it to the back of my mind. It is a problem for me that she is still having sex with him. I guess I'm not really cut out for the part of the other woman. I always comfort myself with the thought that they might have sex, but we make love. She continues, "I got mad and threw a mug. It hit the wall and broke. Nowhere near him, but he saw red." I do not ask whether it was deliberate or just bad aim that it was nowhere near him. Even if it had hit him, that still would give him no right to do this to her.
"Cath, why don't you leave him?" I ask for what feels like the millionth time.
"Please don't, Sara."
"Don't what? Don't care?" My voice is raised a little, but I'm feeling angry, at Eddie and at how ineffectual I am in all this.
"I know you care, baby, I just don't want to talk about it. I come to you to forget. Please just drop the subject." She pulls me into her arms and we both settle back onto the couch. I stretch out and she snuggles down beside me, her head on my chest. My fingers run absent mindedly through her hair.
I reach for the remote for the CD player and press play. The sultry voice of Melissa Etheridge fills the room. She takes the remote out of my unresisting hand and changes track. It makes me smile that she knows my CD collection well enough to select the track she wants without looking at the CD case.
"I love you," I whisper, leaning down to kiss her on the tip of her nose.
Her eyes are warm as she murmurs, "I love you too." The outside world slips away as we lie safely with our arms wrapped round each other.
tbc.
"God Cath, what did he do to you this time?" It is hard to keep the fury I feel with Eddie out of my voice, but it is tempered with concern for Catherine.
She is standing in my doorway framed by the light in the hallway just outside my apartment. She has bruising starting to show around her left eye that's going to be a real shiner tomorrow, and as she raises her hand to push her messed up hair out of her face I catch sight of angry red marks on her wrist. The stiff way she's standing tells me she probably has other bruising elsewhere on her body.
I step back to let her into the living room, then open my arms to invite her into a hug. Normally, when Eddie hasn't just beaten the shit out of her, I would not hesitate to pull Catherine into my embrace, but when she is like this she needs to feel in control of our physical contact.
She snuggles against my chest for a long minute, then I sit us down on the couch. I fetch a bowl of warm water, a washcloth and some arnica cream, and begin the familiar ritual. It's amazing how quickly something can become a familiar ritual, I muse bitterly as she relaxes under my gentle touch. He only started hitting her about a month ago, so it has been for less than a quarter of the time we have been seeing each other, but it feels like forever.
"What happened?" I ask again, realising she did not answer the first time.
"He was drunk. He started comparing me to one of his bimbos." She pauses and looks at me guiltily. I immediately know in what capacity he was comparing the two of them, but choose to put it to the back of my mind. It is a problem for me that she is still having sex with him. I guess I'm not really cut out for the part of the other woman. I always comfort myself with the thought that they might have sex, but we make love. She continues, "I got mad and threw a mug. It hit the wall and broke. Nowhere near him, but he saw red." I do not ask whether it was deliberate or just bad aim that it was nowhere near him. Even if it had hit him, that still would give him no right to do this to her.
"Cath, why don't you leave him?" I ask for what feels like the millionth time.
"Please don't, Sara."
"Don't what? Don't care?" My voice is raised a little, but I'm feeling angry, at Eddie and at how ineffectual I am in all this.
"I know you care, baby, I just don't want to talk about it. I come to you to forget. Please just drop the subject." She pulls me into her arms and we both settle back onto the couch. I stretch out and she snuggles down beside me, her head on my chest. My fingers run absent mindedly through her hair.
I reach for the remote for the CD player and press play. The sultry voice of Melissa Etheridge fills the room. She takes the remote out of my unresisting hand and changes track. It makes me smile that she knows my CD collection well enough to select the track she wants without looking at the CD case.
"I love you," I whisper, leaning down to kiss her on the tip of her nose.
Her eyes are warm as she murmurs, "I love you too." The outside world slips away as we lie safely with our arms wrapped round each other.
tbc.