Chapter 9
Chelsea moved carefully around her apartment as she made her way to the bathroom to get her medication. The sink was cluttered with pill bottles, makeup, hair accessories, perfumes and lotions, and there were more towels than usual hanging from the rack. Grabbing what she needed, Chelsea slowly made her way back to the living room for a much needed break and placed the pills on the coffee table next to a bottle of water. She sat down slowly on the couch and closed her eyes.
It had been nearly a week since she was released from the hospital. Ben's bullet had nicked her lung, but luckily the damage wasn't any more extensive than that. She was forced to rely on Raven and Eddie to tell her what happened after she was shot. She had lost a fair amount of blood and her memory was foggy.
It turned out that Eddie's shot had been fatal and Ben Sturky was dead. The bullet hit an artery and he lost a lot of blood quickly. Chelsea had only seen her partner a handful of times since the incident and he insisted that he was okay, but she knew how difficult it was to deal with the taking of a life, no matter what the circumstances. Memories of her time as a homicide detective came flooding back to her, but they were quickly pushed away when she heard a key in the door.
She smiled when she saw Raven enter. "Hey," she greeted.
Raven smiled at her girlfriend and returned the greeting. "Hey. How are you feeling?" she asked as she kicked off her shoes and sat her purse down.
"I'd feel much better if you'd come over here," Chelsea said.
"Gladly." Raven joined her on the couch and leaned in to kiss her lips softly, being careful of her injury. She moaned when Chelsea deepened the kiss, her tongue sliding past full lips to taste her. "Chels," Raven whispered as the redhead's kisses moved to her neck. "You have no idea how much I want you right now, but if we don't stop, I'll have to rush you back to the hospital and we'll have to explain how you ripped your stitches," she said.
Chelsea smiled against Raven's neck before planting one last kiss on her mouth. She wanted Raven, too, but she knew she was in no condition to do anything about it. Both of them were just happy to be able to touch each other after the horrible ordeal.
"How was your day?" Chelsea asked as she picked up Raven's hand and locked their fingers together.
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You're the one who's been shot," Raven said.
"Still, you went through a lot, too. We both did, but I have a bit more training on how to deal with these things. I know it couldn't have been easy seeing Ben like that," Chelsea said. They hadn't had much time to talk about everything that went on. Most of her time in the hospital was spent sleeping and it was more of the same once she got home.
"I'm okay," Raven said softly. "It's still pretty scary when I think about it and I hate going home…" she trailed off. There was no way she was going to stay there anymore and she had already contacted her real estate agent about listing it. Her family had flown in immediately after hearing about what happened and they had stayed in a hotel for week before she was finally able to reassure them that she was okay. She had been staying at Chelsea's place since before she was released from the hospital.
"Just know that you don't have to hide anything from me. You can talk to me about anything," Chelsea reassured.
Raven smiled, touched at her compassion. "Speaking of which…we haven't really had a chance to talk about what I told you before all of this happened," she said. A part of her was hoping that Chelsea had forgotten that, too, but she doubted it.
"You mean that you love me?" Chelsea asked innocently, teasingly, knowing exactly what Raven was really referring to.
"Well, I do love you…very much, but…"
"And I love you, too," Chelsea said softly in return.
Raven saw the sincerity in the detective's brown eyes and leaned in to kiss her again. "I was going to tell you that night," she began, referring to their short time together in L.A. "When Jordan kissed me, it brought back a lot of memories, but that's all it was. When you kiss me, it makes me think of the future and us spending the rest of our lives together," Raven finished passionately.
Chelsea almost felt breathless at the designer's words. "If I wasn't hurt, I'd jump your bones right now," she said uncouthly as she looked into hazel eyes, causing an eruption of laughter from Raven.
"Well, hurry up and get better," Raven said as she snuggled into Chelsea side, "Because we haven't done nearly enough of that." They sat quietly for a while, but Raven was keenly aware that they still hadn't discussed the other elephant in the room. Her heart sped up a little at the thought of talking about it. It was the very first time she told anyone outside of her family.
"Raven, you remember the first time we had dinner together and I told you about my boyfriend in high school?" Chelsea asked. She continued as she felt Raven nod. "He had a secret that only I knew about. His family didn't even know." She moved until Raven sat up and they were facing each other. "He was psychic," she finally said, smiling softly.
Raven grinned, unable to contain her joy. "Well, if that's not a sign that this was meant to be then I don't know what is," she laughed. "You're the first person I've ever told besides my family."
"That must have been hard for you. Especially, being in the spotlight and all," Chelsea said as she hugged the designer close once again.
"It was, but I managed somehow, which is crazy because I have no control over when I have these visions."
That sat quietly again before Chelsea spoke up. "Raven, what is it?" she asked.
"That night before you came over, I had a vision that you were going to get shot. I was going to try and push you away, but…I couldn't do it. You could have died because of me," Raven said as her eyes clouded with tears.
Chelsea only held her tighter. "I remember Ben used to try and keep certain visions from me if he thought they might hurt me, but it never worked out. It seemed like anything he did to keep a vision from happening only helped to make it a reality." She kissed the top of Raven's head and rubbed her shoulder. "Ben and I used to get into all sorts of trouble because of his visions. Sometimes it was fun and sometimes it just plain sucked, but I wouldn't change any of it. I know you've never had anyone you can share this with before, but you have me now and I'm glad you tried to tell me instead of pushing me away. If you hadn't we might not be together now," she finished.
Raven let out a deep sigh as she dabbed at her tears. "You know, I think I fall more and more in love with you every minute," she said, moving until she was once again looking into Chelsea's eyes.
"Good, because I feel the same way and I'm not going anywhere," Chelsea said. "I'm sorry I left instead of trusting you."
"It's alright. What else could you have thought?" Raven asked as she brushed some of the hair away from Chelsea's face. She placed a light kiss on her lips before continuing. "Our relationship is new and we still have a lot to learn about each other, but you know what?"
"What?" Chelsea asked softly.
"I've never been so sure about anything in my life."
