Will caught her leaving the meeting after they had, once again, been cooped up in the room for 48 more hours. He had been wandering yet again and had happened upon the release of the bigwigs. She was walking stiffly, her body straight and her back rigid. She waited in her spot until everyone else had left, only her and Declan remained. Will sauntered up to them and she grasped his arm tightly. "I think I'd like some tea, Will, care to join me?"
"Yeah sure." Even though he hated drinking her kind of tea, he would drink it if it meant she would be talking to him.
Declan spoke roughly, "I've got some catchin' up to do; I'll leave you two to it." Magnus nodded at him and he left with permission. She sighed heavily into Will and let her weight be fully supported. Will, realizing that his arm was not enough, wrapped his hand around her back and carefully began to lead her away.
"Will, I need to go to my rooms." He nodded and changed his direction quickly. When they reached the door she hesitated and shook her head.
"Mine?" When she nodded he tightened his grip then loosened it at her sudden wince of pain. "Magnus?"
"Just, let me sit for a bit." She sat in the chair he had slept in a few nights before.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?"
Her eyes sharply landed on his, "John, who else?" His eyebrow raised and she sighed, knowing she would have to show him. She lifted her shirt carefully, dragging in a full breath as her arm hitched higher.
"Jesus Magnus!"
"It's not that bad," she dropped her shirt immediately.
"No it's bad, get on the bed." She didn't have the energy to argue and the bed did look mighty appealing.
"Help me then." He helped her to stand and sit on the edge of bed. He slowly unbuttoned her blouse and she closed her eyes, ignoring that it was him and that this situation made this necessary. When he pulled the material away from her he noted that her entire abdomen was sickly shade of yellow and purple.
"How many are broken?"
"All but one, I'm afraid. Not the first time I've broken them."
"Coughing?"
"Minimal." His eyes shifted to the ground, but he stopped when he saw another bruise on her leg.
He placed a hand against her knee, "I'm going to move this up." He waited until she agreed before sliding the material up. He found large handprints bruised into her thighs, no matter how far he went up. Noticing the angles of the prints, he picked her hand up and placed it softly on her own leg. Magnus looked at him curiously and he explained, "It was a hallucination."
"Yes," her fingers found his cheek, "Help me to lie down. I need to sleep."
"We need to do something about these hallucinations."
"I know," she rested against the pillows he set up behind her head, "I think I need a few more days here, before we go back. And this is the first one I've had since we've last talked. It has been helping, no matter how much I might like to disagree." She grabbed his hand then to get his attention. He had unclasped her bra, knowing it must be uncomfortable and buttoned her shirt again. He stopped to look at her eyes, "Thank you, I mean it."
"Yeah I know, now get some sleep. I'll go make the arrangements."
She slept for six hours straight and woke in a coughing fit. Which was good, because it meant her lungs were clearing, however, the movement caused her even more pain. He was waiting for her to wake and immediately rang for some tea and food, knowing she would need to eat. After she'd finished her meal he stared her down. "Magnus, you need to start talking, and I mean really talking. We need to figure out how to work through this. It's unhealthy." She nodded and coughed into her hand. "What set him off?"
"Mostly it was jealousy, of anyone, even James and Nikola. That was how it usually started, but then it was a game to him. How far can I go without killing her? He never wanted me to die, I'm sure he would never kill me. I don't believe he can, but kill everyone around me? That he could easily do."
"Hence your dreams with me and Henry."
"Yes, if he knew it would hurt me, I have no doubt he would do it."
Will paused a second, "Why do you only fight back when someone else is in the room?"
"I—" she stopped then, realizing she didn't have an answer. When she looked up at him there were tears in her eyes and she was begging him to stop, to allow her not to cry for pains sake and for her own mental sake.
"It's just something to think about." He whispered softly. "Here's an easier question, when did you stop fighting back?" She didn't even pause to think, she knew exactly when it was.