It was the sound of plates clanking that woke her the next morning, and Erin sat up slowly, taking stock of her surroundings. "You're back," she muttered as she stretched, working the kinks out of her back as she stood and padded over to the table. "What did you make for breakfast today?"
"Aren't you going to shower and dress for the day, Erin?" Mary asked as she looked her up and down. Erin shrugged a little, not really caring how she looked at the moment. "I thought you would take better care of yourself than this."
"It's not like I'm going to be seeing anyone that I care about," she replied listlessly as she sat down and picked up a mug, sipping at the warm coffee. "Why should I get dressed up for the woman who wants to make money off me? I'm not a whore."
"I never said that you were."
Again, she shrugged and began to pick at the food, finding that her appetite had fled for some odd reason. "I still feel like one, though. Like the only thing that I'm worth is the monetary value I can bring." A few tears began to roll down her eyes, and she knew that she was giving in to her moroseness, that she wasn't seeing things clearly.
"I'll be right back." Mary stood and made her way up the stairs, disappearing behind the door for a few minutes. Still, Erin poked at her food, trying to find her appetite. She managed to eat another half of a pancake, feeling it turn to lead the moment it hit her stomach. Erin didn't look up when she heard Mary's footsteps start back down, focusing on her food.
"I'm done," she said, pushing the plate away from her before picking up her coffee and sipping at it, not meeting Mary's eye.
"You didn't eat very much, you really need to keep your strength up. You don't want to go back to Dave all skin and bones."
Erin shrugged as she took another sip. "I'm just not hungry today." She got up and went over to the bed and curled herself up into a ball, staring at the floor. She heard Mary sigh deeply as she got up and rummaged around in her bathroom, finally taking a seat behind Erin on the bed. She fought to keep from shuddering as Mary began to brush her hair, taken extreme care to not pull at the snarls left from a night's restless sleep.
"Your hair reminds me of my oldest girl's. Julianne always had this wispy, curly, hair, though hers is much longer than yours. I loved brushing it out every night until she got too old to want me to do it any longer."
"My girls were always too independent to let me brush their hair," she found herself saying, a sad smile crossing her lips. To her horror, she started to sob as thoughts of her family came to the forefront of her mind. Mary's arms closed around her waist as she hugged her, and Erin tried to keep the bile down as she accepted the embrace. It was nice to be hugged, that was for sure, but she wanted it to be David's arms around her, holding her tight.
"You'll see them soon enough, Erin, I promise." Mary squeezed her a little tighter before resting her chin on Erin's shoulder. "It's going to be so hard to get my children liking Cathy now. My husband has poisoned them, and on the few times that we've been together, they've been less than welcoming to her."
"Of course they're going to be less than welcoming. To them, she's a home wrecker, the person who destroyed their family. You have to see it from their point of view."
Mary pulled away from Erin, and she turned to look at the woman. There were tears in her eyes and Erin felt her heartstrings being tugged against her will. Reaching out, she wiped away a few of the tears and saw Mary smile a little.
The door at the top of the stairs slammed open, and Erin stiffened in fear. Mary sighed deeply as she shook her head. "It's just Cathy."
Still, Erin couldn't stop the frisson of fear that slid down her spine as the woman stomped down the stairs, shoving a key into her shirt. "What did you say to make Mary cry, you bitch?" she bellowed out as she crossed the distance that separated them and Erin shrank into herself, knowing that violence was imminent. Mary met her eyes, a sad look on her face as she pulled away from her.
And then, Erin tasted the sharp, metallic, flavor of blood as Cathy's fist made contact with her cheek. Never in her life, even when Curtis had been drugging her, had she experienced physical violence, and so she wasn't expecting the second blow, which landed on her shoulder, knocking her back onto the bed. Instinctively, she curled into a ball, trying to block out the feeling of blows raining down on her. "Stop, Cathy! You're hurting her! Rossi won't pay if we hurt her, and you know that. Just go, go upstairs and I'll take care of her."
Erin barely registered Mary pulling Cathy off her, all she could focus on was the overwhelming pain that was radiating across her back. She felt like she couldn't draw a full breath, and still she refused to uncurl her body, even when Mary gently smoothed her hair back from her face. "Leave me alone," she managed to hiss out, even her teeth hurting as she said those words.
"No, I'm a nurse, I need to check you out, make certain that you're okay."
"Why don't you listen to the bitch, Mare? She wants to be left alone."
"Just get out of here, Cathy." Vaguely, Erin heard the woman stomp away and then the door slammed shut once more, the lock turning over with the same finality that never failed to send shivers down her spine. "Come on, sweetie, let's get you over to the bathroom so that I can check you out."
Erin tried to fight her, but in her current state she was unable to do much good, and so she stumbled after her into the bathroom, sitting heavily on the closed toilet. As Mary tried to remove her nightgown, she fought a little, not wanting the woman to see her naked. "Stop."
"No, Erin, I need to do an exam, crude though it might be since we're not in the hospital. I need to make certain that you don't have any broken bones, all right? And believe me, I've seen everything in my days in the ER." Knowing it was useless to resist, she let her body slump down, her arms covering her breasts from Mary's gaze.
"Could I at least get a bra?" she muttered as she tucked her chin into her chest.
"All right," the woman replied as she left the room and rummaged through her bag. The moment she returned, Erin went to snatch the bra from her hand, only to hiss in pain as her ribs screamed at her not to extend herself so. "Your ribs are most likely bruised. Let me help you get this on. Hold out your arms."
Wordlessly, she did as told, letting Mary help her into the wisp of fabric as the tears rolled down her face. The salt of them stung at the open wound on her cheek, and she bit her lip as she tried to stem the flow of her tears. This was quickly going from bad to worse, and her prayers began to turn more to just making it through the next day than to her hope of being rescued. Deep in her heart, she knew that this was not a good sign, as it signaled that she was starting to give up, but there was no way for her to turn her view around, and so she let herself be tended to, trying to block out the feel of Mary's hands gently examining her, fixing her the best she could. The more she felt, the more she knew that she was still alive, and that was all she would focus on from then on – the next moment and how she was still alive.