"God Cleo, you had me worried." Greg held Cleo's hand as if she was going to disappear if he didn't, and watched as she slept. The whole ordeal had left her with cuts and bruises, and a massive black eye. He knew he was being ridiculous, but Greg couldn't help and blame himself.
"Don't blame yourself darling," he looked up at Cleo, whose eyes were still shut, but her face was now a mask of pain she was trying to hide, "I saw the idiot on the way to your house." She chuckled humourlessly, "and when he approached me I tried to ignore him, dear God I tried, but he wouldn't leave me alone, and I shouldn't have given my name, cos then I swear his eyes lit up and then he grabbed me and…" Greg shushed her, stroking her hair carefully.
"It's not your fault either. It's his," and Hannah's, he added mentally. Cleo could obviously tell what he was thinking, and shook her head slowly, opening her eyes.
"Don't blame her Greg. Did you hear what Catherine said? She is a closeted depressive, who was quite close to mental breakdown. And Trevor hurt me in so many ways," she sighed, "how could Hannah even deal with that for a week, let alone over a year?" Greg smiled at Cleo.
"He's still hiding you know? Somewhere out there, that," he refrained from swearing, knowing the nurse would tell him off yet again, "guy is walking free, cos Hannah didn't tell us where he was." Cleo chuckled again, squeezing his hand. She missed Monday. Monday was when Greg had just asked her out, when she was still talking to Hannah, who could honestly make her day better. Monday she knew nothing of Hannah's past, nothing of her inside torment, her physical pain, her abusive relationship history. Cleo wanted to go back to Monday, and knew that she would miss bubbly happy Hannah, the one who introduced her to all the Lab Techs (Hodges not included) and gave her ideas for her next hair colour.
"You know she's scared right? Scared and hurt and completely paranoid. The reason she told no one is because she was jealous and not thinking straight," Greg gave her a look, "no seriously, hear me out, okay? Cos she had this image in her brain, of what would have happened if she was the one who had disappeared. All she could think was that if she was in my position, no one would care. That's obviously untrue. Thanks to the information she gave me the evening I disappeared about her psycho boyfriend, I would've raised the alarm bells as soon as she was late for work." She groaned, which made Greg check whether she was ok.
"I'm fine worry guts. Just annoyed."
"At what?"
"At the fact that my people observation skills have failed me for the first and worst time they could." Cleo smiled to herself, "you know I was in the armed forces for a bit right?" Greg shook his head, amazed, "yeah I know. They weren't hugely into my hair colours. But I learnt tons from it, one of those things was how to read people and their movements." Cleo closed her eyes, "you know, thinking back, Hannah was showing all the signs of an unstable mind. She'd be quiet for ages, wouldn't make eye contact. I only found out a couple of days ago that she was from California, which shows she doesn't like to tell people her position unless they're cards are completely shown. I gave her my confidence, so therefore she gave me hers." Greg looked down, automatically feeling bad for judging Hannah off the bat.
"Do you know why he kidnapped you?" He looked up at Cleo who still had her eyes shut. She didn't move, and he took that as an invitation to continue, "he was jealous. Of me. Ridiculous, I know, but he heard about Hannah's crush, and so he decided to make me feel the same pain. Hannah tried to talk him out of hurting you, explained that she felt nothing for me, even though we all know that's a lie, but she told him everything he wanted to hear. And he took none of it. I think he may have read her e-mails or something to you, and he wanted me to suffer, because I was the one who was making him suffer," Greg laughed, "you know, I didn't actually know how much you meant to me, right? So this was a big shock. You suddenly disappear, on the evening of our first date. So when you don't turn up, I begin to feel hurt, like, really badly hurt. Cos I honestly thought we had a shot. Then I realise that you wouldn't do this. So when we find out you've been kidnapped, my heart stops. Like, literally.
"You mean a lot to me Cleo, and I hope you feel the same about me. Shame it took you being kidnapped for me to realise, hey?"