Chapter Eighteen

I wake up the next morning before the sun does, meaning I haven't been asleep for that long of time at all. My mind keeps jumping back to a few hours before, Wade raping me playing clearly in my mind. I look down to notice blood on my nightgown. I can't tell if it's from Wade using me roughly or because I've started my period. Anyways I go into the bathroom area and strip down, not being able to face my reflection in the mirror. I turn on the shower as warm as it will go and step in, grabbing the soap to try and scrub myself clean. I take care with my hips, brusies are formed where Wade's fingers grabbed me and where he kicked me in the gut. I feel filthy, like I can't get clean no matter how hard I scrub. Finally I get out of the shower and sit down on the toilet. After a while it's clear that the blood was from a mixture of both me starting my period and Wade being rough with me. I change my undergarments into something more simple and put on loose jeans with a belt. Instead of a t-shirt I put on a long sleeved black shirt. I just feel more comfortable in it.

I look up at myself in the mirror, trying to decide if I want to tell Chris or not. I know he said he'd never leave me but...well...if I admit that this happened I'd have to face the facts. I'd have to face the fact that Wade Barett, a man I had once sympathized with, forced me to have sex with him. And I don't want to do that. This is something I can face on my own. No one is ever going to know about this except me and Wade. I lay a towel over the spot on the ground where Wade had left me laying and crawl into bed. I need to get some sleep. After all, Chris and I do have to talk in the morning. I turn off the bedside lamp, the only lighting in the room and curl into the fetal position again. It seems to comfort me and I don't know why.

X X X

I hear a knocking on the door and my eyes flutter open. I roll over and look at the alarm clock on the side of the bed. It's 11. I fling the covers off and only open the door a crack to see Chris standing there with two coffee's. "Hey, you gonna let me in?" Chris asks, smiling.

I open the door wider so he can come on in. "Hey..."

"You don't look like you slept much," Chris says concerned. He looks at the towel and then looks up at me, "Why were you bleeding?"

"Oh, I was laying on the floor cuz it was much more comfortable than the bed," I lie quickly. I've been lying to Chris for this long, one more white lie can't hurt can it?

"That doesn't explain the blood." he looks up at the calendar hanging on the hotel room wall, "Oh...now it does." I smile. Chris has always kept in touch with when it was that time of month. He usually knows then not to say or do something that's going to either piss me off or make me cry. "Want to talk about this later?"

"Nah, we need to get through it." I smile, sitting on the bed. I pat the spot next to me and Chris walks over, sitting down and handing me my coffee.

"So...um...how long had you known about the attack before last night?"

"First of all, I didn't know it was going to be an attack. I just knew it was going to be something. Second of all...for a few weeks now. Remember when I took Wade's wallet to him? I heard then that he and the others were planning something. I didn't want to make you think less of Wade so I didn't tell you. Then when I went to breakfast with Jerry and Micheal on my way up to the room they confronted me. Wade made me swear that I wouldn't tell anyone. That's when he told me that our jobs could be jeopardized and he and the others could help us keep them." saying that, I fell like a load has been taken off of my chest.

Chris nods, "You didn't think that I deserved to know something like that? Let's say what happened to William Regal and R-Truth happened to me. What would you do then?"

"I would have fought them off tooth and nail to protect you," I honestly say. "Just because I'm an announcer doesn't mean that I don't have the urge to fight back."

"I know you could have fought back but this is something you should have come to me about."

I nod, "I'm sorry, I just...I didn't know it was going to get this bad."

"I know you didn't Meg. And I don't mean to sound rude. But we've all got to be on high alert now. Wade and the boys...I worked with Wade I know what he's capable of. The others may look bad and despicable but Wade...well...Wade's always had a bit of a nasty side to him. I mean, one night we went out to see Saw with some of the other boys at a local theater that was playing it as the dollar movie. He never cringed, never looked away. He laughed Meghan. When a man can sit there and laugh at the sick, twisted games in Saw that Jigsaw plays, you know he's disturbed."

I bite back a comment and instead say, "Yeah, yeah that must mean he's disturbed."

"Is something wrong?" Chris asks me, looking at me, "And don't lie to me."

"No," I lie even though he told me not to. I can't have him knowing about what Wade did. That's my battle. "So we have this figured out?"

"Actually, there's one thing that we...well...you still have to do." Chris says, looking me in the eyes.

I'm confused as I ask, "What's that?"

"You have to go to the hospital and tell John and Robyn that you knew the Nexus was planning something."