A/N: warning: this chapter describes drug use/abuse. I'm actually increasing the rating to M although it's for violence/drug use rather than sex, just to let you know.
The wall of heat slammed into her as soon as she stepped out of the air conditioned hospital. But it didn't slow her down as she stormed onto the street, fuming. How dare they! How dare she! Poking her nose in where it didn't belong and wasn't wanted.
What gave that meddling nurse the right to call in the cops? And it was her father! Was that why? Was it because Nurse Swan had a direct line to someone at the Met or would she have called the police if she didn't have a connection there? Is this what she does? Just call in the cops for every patient she sees who's got a suspicious injury? Surely the hospital should know about how much that nurse overstepped.
No, that would require her submitting a formal complaint and that wasn't an option. There'd be questions. She'd have to go back and speak to the nurse's superior. And, well, in Nurse Swan's defence, she wasn't exactly wrong. True, Regina hadn't wanted police involvement. She had no interest in speaking with the authorities. But Regina couldn't deny that Nurse Swan's intuition was correct. It was the way she went about that it was entirely wrong.
Her anger had carried her halfway home already, although she was slowing down now, the stifling London air cloying and making her sweat. She was ignoring the sideways glances people were shooting her as they passed. Whether it was her ultra fast pace in the summer heat or the fact that the steri strips had in many ways made her injury more obvious, she didn't know.
The dull throb of her cut was receding, and in its place emerged a familiar discomfort. An itch. A need. She checked her phone, relieved to see a text confirming that her dealer was available to meet her. She sent a quick message back, letting them know she'd be there in ten minutes as she switched directions and made her way towards his flat.
As she walked, her mind was still full of what had happened in the hospital, the myriad faces which had appeared to see what the commotion was as she'd left, shouting uncharacteristically because she was so angry at what he'd said to her.
Well, maybe it wasn't anger. At least, not anger directed to him. That police officer, David, had been nothing but kind and sympathetic to her. It wasn't his fault his daughter had called him in without Regina's permission. He was just doing his job, something she believed him to be very good at. Too good, perhaps. What he had said, his perceptiveness, had shocked her. Hearing it vocalised for the first time by someone had felt like a slap to the face. And that was a sensation Regina knew all too well.
Sex trafficked.
Her body had frozen when he said those words, fear flooding her veins. What was David going to do? Was she going to have to give a statement? What would happen when he found out? It didn't matter that she'd not said a word, the police officer had made an educated guess and Regina's reaction had all but confirmed his theory. She could tell that by the look on his face. The only thing she could think to do had been to leave that room as he tried to tell her about bringing charges to enable them to take a case to court. It was too big. It was too much. It was impossible. She had to get out of there.
And then with both him and his daughter chasing her down the corridor, Regina had lost it, a mixture of terror and anger which overrode her brain and told her to do whatever it took to get back home, to get away from the questions.
Now she needed something to make her feel good, to settle her nerves. The street she'd turned onto was quiet, as it usually was. None of the residents ever seemed to spend much time outside their homes. A fox was sniffing around and overflowing wheelie bin and it just looked casually at her as she passed on the opposite pavement, undeterred by her presence. London foxes were the cockiest animals she'd ever come across. A few doors further down, she stopped and rang the bell.
It took almost a minute for him to come to the door. "Hey, come in."
Stepping into the dank hallway, it was like the summer outside had been blocked from entering the house. As she closed the door, the heat and the light were both eclipsed and she followed the shadowy figure further into the house.
"How much you want?" he asked, slumping down onto a collapsed sofa before leaning forwards and picking up a spoon and a lighter.
Regina reached into her bag and pulled out some cash. She counted out what she owed her pimp, peeled off a few more notes which she'd use to buy food, and tossed the rest onto the cluttered coffee table. His eyes lingered on it before flickering back to the spoon to concentrate on what he was doing.
She waited patiently, wondering if he'd offer to share with her. From somewhere else in the house, the dull thud of a bass could be heard, reverberating through the walls. Focused on the task at hand, her dealer drew most of the liquid heroin into a syringe before rolling up his sleeve. Regina watched on as he prodded his own arm for a few seconds before identifying a vein. When he was done, he held out the syringe to her, nodding towards the remnants of his own hit.
"Got a clean one?" Regina asked.
He rolled his eyes but nodded, pointing over to a box in the corner. Regina opened it to find piles of syringes and needles in their packaging. She picked one of each and returned to the sofa, sitting beside him as she counted her money.
"Enough for a couple of grams here," he said as she prepared her own needle. "You must've been busy."
"Fuck off," Regina replied.
He laughed. "Come on now, love. I know you work hard for it."
Regina ignored her, cocking her left leg up to expose the soft skin of her inner thigh. A faint mark from the last time she'd injected there was visible and she made quick work of repeating the move.
"That's hot."
"Fuck off, Jefferson," Regina spat, tossing the used syringe onto the coffee table.
Jefferson just laughed before handing over a small plastic bag filled with powder. Regina grabbed it, already feeling the delicious euphoria begin to spread through her body as the femoral artery carried the drug through her system.
"Thanks. See you," she said, getting to her feet as she stuffed the drugs into her bag.
"Hey, who hit you?"
She looked down at the man who was sprawled on the sofa, eyes slightly glazed from his own fix. "Just some punter. A nobody."
"You should tell your daddy. He'd wanna know who's messing with his girls."
"Only because now he can't charge as much for me until it heals," Regina growled. "He doesn't give a fuck about me. And don't call him my daddy." The word made her stomach flip. She'd heard other women refer to him that way but every time she thought about it, her skin crawled. "Look, I gotta go. See you next week."
"Sure, sweetheart. And remember, any time you want a discount, you know what I want."
Regina shot a look of distain at the man before leaving the room, her body now fluttering with delight as the heroin took full effect. Outside, the world looked brighter, the hot air reminded her, blissfully, of her true home. She took a deep breath, allowing the joy to take root before heading towards her crappy bedsit.
As she walked, her mind wandered. Away from the night before. Away from the cut on her face which had stopped hurting the moment her veins received their fix. Away from the hospital. She thought of Puerto Rico. Of her mother. Of her father. Yet rather than the sadness which so often accompanied recollections of her parents, and her father in particular, her mind conjured up fond memories, joyous memories.
She recalled the park near their house where she and her father would walk after he returned from work. She remembered standing beside her mother in the kitchen, learning from her skilled hand as she prepared perfect Puerto Rican recipes. She could hear the music which had been playing as her parents danced together in their back yard at their twentieth wedding anniversary, laughing at a joke they shared while friends and family stood around celebrating their love.
Regina only became aware that she was laughing out loud when she realised someone on the street was staring at her. She managed to stop herself and hurried on, not wanting to draw attention to her intoxicated state. She didn't usually shoot up outside of the relative safety of her bedsit but Jefferson's offer of a free hit was too good to pass up. Luckily the building which she now called home was just a few yards ahead and soon she was stepping into the cool relief of the dark entrance hall.
She fumbled in her bag for her key as she climbed up the stairs. It was only when she was turning the key in the lock that she registered a presence in the hallway. Footsteps, heavier than any of the girls who lived on her landing, thudded behind her. She'd been followed home. She closed her eyes as she felt the cool blade pressed against her throat as his hot breath ghosted over her ear.
"Where've you been, bitch? I wanna know what you've been doing."
Resistance would be foolish, she knew that. Her body froze, blood pumping in her ears as she felt the large body behind her press forwards as he reached around and opened the unlocked door. She felt his foot make contact with the back of her knee and she stumbled as he booted her inside, the knife mercifully away from her neck for now. But then he shut the door behind her. Within her ribcage, her heart thundered even faster as a deafening silence filled the apartment as she shrank away from his imposing figure.
"Where've you been?" he asked again when Regina didn't say anything.
"Nowhere. Just out to get some smack." Stay as close to the truth as possible, that's what she needed to do. She hoped Jefferson could act as her alibi if he called to check if she was lying. All she needed to force her doped-up brain to remember was not to mention what happened at the hospital. Let that slip, and it could be a fatal error.
"What happened to your face?" he asked, noticing the white strips, stark against her tanned skin.
"Nothing. Just some bloke last night."
"Who?"
"I … dunno," Regina admitted. "Can't remember his name." It wasn't the first guy she'd fucked whose name she didn't know and she knew he wouldn't be the last.
"A regular?"
"No, never seen him before. Picked me up from my usual corner"
Thick fingers gripped her chin, turning her head sideways to get a closer look. Regina shut her eyes, the memory of how Nurse Swan's fingers had felt as they gently touched her face flickering in the back of her mind.
"If you see him again, call me. Can't have no dick damaging the product." He hesitated for a moment, eyes squinting at the cut. "Did a doctor do this?"
"Just A and E," Regina nodded. "I thought it would heal faster if they stitched it."
His eyes flashed dangerously and he took a step closer, the fingers gripping her chin even harder. "What did you tell them?"
"Nothing."
"Did they say anything?"
"No," Regina lied.
He stared at her, trying to decide if she was telling the truth. She kept her face as blank as possible, her brain still fuzzy from the heroin.
"Where's my money?" He asked, moving past her and walking further into the small room.
Regina slipped the bag from her shoulder and opened it but before she could had him the money, he snatched it off her. Turning it upside down, he shook it so the contents fell to the floor. Notes fluttered across the grotty carpet along with her phone, the bag of heroin, some make up and the typical remnants which end up in the bottom of every woman's handbag.
But despite the mess there was only one thing that caught his eye. A business card from the metropolitan police, stamped with the name David Nolan and the job title of Domestic Abuse Police Officer.
As he raised the six inch knife, the blade caught the sunlight which filtered into the room from the solitary window. She cried out in fear, her body frozen to the stop as she realised what was about to happen. "Killian, no, please!" she begged.
"You lying little whore," he hissed, just before they both heard a loud knock at the door.
A/N: ok, I've come to the (almost) end of where the thing which inspired me will be left behind and my story will take a different path. I'll be revealing what it is in the next chapter. Any final guesses? No one has got it right yet!