Thank you for being here.
Her eyes slowly peal open and there are hands tugging her bound wrists upwards. A pang of immense pain shoots through her left shoulder at the motion and she lets out a yell. She can't see who it is through the fog, the pain, the haze.
"Stop-pp," her voice cracks against the word as warm tears stream violently down her cheeks. She breathes out through the throbbing pain, choking on her breath before she spits blood and salvia onto the upholstery in front of her.
"The key," she rasps through a strained breath. "Get the key."
She can't see what is happening beside her, that's when her eyes move to across to the empty passenger seat and she realizes Elliot is no longer wedged between metal.
She freezes, waiting for confirmation that it's him beside her.
"Where is it?" Elliot voice cracks and a wealth of assurance floods through her chest at the confirmation he's alive and upright and moments from getting her out of this godforsaken car.
She can feel him patting down the seat behind her.
"My shoulder," she whispers. "I think it's broken, El I can't move it," she panics, trying to steady her breath as she breathes into the car seat. "I can't lift my arms, please get the key."
"Where is it?" he rasps again.
And that's when it hits her and she closes her eyes.
There is silence beside her as she takes a few short breaths.
"Olivia?"
"On me," she breathes out slowly.
"On you where?" he whispers.
She lets out a breath silently berating herself for being so stupid, there is no fucking way he can reach the key now.
"It's in my," she starts. "Jesus it's in my bra." She moves forward, her forehead dropping onto the seat in front of her that's when a slice of pain rips through the bridge of her nose. She calls out in agony, heavy breaths expelling, the pain reverberating as a fresh bout of warm liquid spills out of her nose.
"God Elliot please," she whispers through sobs. "Just get me out of here."
He moves forward then, gripping the side of her torso trying to figure out how on earth to get the key when her chest is flush up against the seat.
"Jesus, Liv are you serious. How am I supposed to.."
"Go over my shoulder," she chokes out, petrified of knocking her nose again. "And push your hand down, it's in the middle.."
He moves forward, reaching over her shoulder, awkwardly trying to angle his hand to wedge his hand between her throat and the seat.
"Move back," he tells her and she tries but the pain in her shoulder is too much.
"Ugh-h," she snaps back. "I can't," she closes her eyes, tears starting to formulate once more. "El please I can't move, just push your hand down."
He moves in closer, flattening his hand against her upper chest and moving it downward, his knuckles scraping down the seat in front of him until he is dipping into the cleavage of her torn dress.
"I can't get any further," he rasps as his hand gets wedged against her chest. "Why did you-"
"I don't know," she cries out, having not thought it through.
He sucks in a breath, moving forward, pushing his hand down in one fluid moment. She makes a sound as his hand slips awkwardly between her breasts but she is overtaken by the pain radiating from her shoulder.
"Can you feel it?" she calls out, biting down on her lip trying to counteract the pain in her shoulder.
She takes shallow breaths through her nose to avoid pushing her chest into the seat and when he finally ceases the key he is quickly moving, opening the drivers door, grasping her wrists from the other side and unlocking the cuffs.
He frees her from the metal and she tries to slowly move on her own accord but the pain is too much. She bites her lip, trying to move her left arm but her muffled cry gets trapped in her ears, it feels like a knife slicing into her joint. His hands are on waist and he is moving her out of the broken car, leading her backwards but he is pulling her too fast.
Her bare feet hits gravelled pavement and when he turns her around his eyes flinch at the state of her bloodied nose before they move across to her shoulder.
He moves forward to inspect the swollen joint, tiny shards of glass are nicking at her feet as nausea starts to permeate in her stomach.
"Oh God," she whispers, "I'm gonna be sick." She falls forward, trying to push him away, a bout of pain induced nausea churning but he doesn't move far, his large arms holding her steadily by the waist as she bends over.
"Liv," he whispers down at her bowed head as she takes jagged breaths trying not to be sick. "You gotta stand up okay, your shoulder's dislocated."
She hears the words but they don't completely register until is moving her back up.
"You need to hold real still okay," he whispers from behind and that's when she feels his hands on her bicep gripping her firmly.
She swallows. "What are you-"
"Don't move okay," he demands and when she feels him lining up her arm and shoulder she starts to panic.
"Elliot wait," she calls out when she realizes what he's about to do, trying to move any which way but he doesn't let go, one hand on her upper arm, the other on her shoulderblade.
She tries to move him off her but he has twisted her joint back into the socket before she get the chance. Her howl echoes down the darkened street and she falls forward in harrowing pain. He catches her against around the waist once more, but she slips suddenly out of his grip hitting the cement with a hard slap.
"Jesus," he calls out as he tries to lift her from the ground once more. Tears are streaming now, from the pain, from the cement - from the goddamn depth of despair that she is feeling right now as her palms and knees press into broken glass.
"Take your weight off the shoulder," he calls down to her. But she's still reeling from the shock of the pain that had just ripped through her ligament and the unrelenting aftermath of cement.
He has her moving back up to her feet again, her back falling unsteadily against the wall of his chest. He holds her firmly against him this time and she is shaking from the cold. "I'm sorry, I had to do it," he is breathing erratically from behind as his words expel into her ear. "The longer we left it."
Tears fall helplessly down her face as her throat constricts and she presses her eyes closed, trying desperately to ride out the waves of pain that are rendering her helpless.
He begins to move her around, holding onto her shaking body as he turns her full circle moving her to rest against the car but she refuses to open her eyes because she cannot face this, face him. She feels his hands cup her cheek, gently tilting her head upward and then slowly to side to side as if inspecting the damage to her nose.
She hears him whisper his concerns, warm tears spilling once more as she his thumb lightly brushes the ridge of her nose.
She flinches, her breathing unsteady, a muffled sound escaping and when her damp eyes finally open and meet with his, that's when she sees it.
The stark devastation caused tonight and the irreversible damage within.
TBC
Happy Birthday K.
