Rose POV
It had been three weeks since since that night at Adrian's. He'd kept his word and hadn't told anyone what we'd spoken about. He'd also visited me every night in a spirit dream to make sure that I was okay. Every night he showed up just after I fell asleep and he stayed with me until it was time to wake up. It was nice to be around someone that understood how I felt, at least when it came to being crazy. Adrian's admission about being the family screw up and people walking on egg shells around him actually helped me. We didn't usually do much; we'd eat and watch movies or he'd take me out for food. I couldn't decide if it was something that he enjoyed or if he was trying to get the weight that I'd lost back on, but it didn't matter. I was glad just to be near him.
It wasn't awkward with Adrian the way that it was with everyone else. He didn't ask me questions or look sad whenever I flinched away from him. He didn't judge me when I drank the fear away or cried for no reason. He held me when I needed him to and gave me space when I didn't. When I was too scared to fall asleep, all I had to do was call him and he'd come to me in a spirit dream so that no one else could. We'd spend the night playing stupid games or lying under a made up sky and watching the clouds, though Adrian did cheat; he'd make the clouds in to whatever shape he wanted them to be. Still, he made me feel better.
Dimitri had been sleeping on the sofa in the living room. I'd told him that he didn't have to do that but I was secretly relieved. Not because I thought that he would hurt me but because in those few hours that I was alone, I could let down my defences and cry myself to sleep without having to worry. He'd gone with me to all of my follow up appointments at the hospital to make sure that my infection was under control, which it was. My back still wasn't properly healed so I couldn't go back to training, but it didn't matter. For the first time in my life I was glad that I didn't have anyone else to look after.
As the days passed, things went back to some semblance of normal and I started to feel a little better. I was in less pain and I could finally sleep on my back, though it was still tender. I still wouldn't let anyone touch me, but I was allowing people to get closer to me.
I'd called Sydney a few times and she always asked how I was doing and then she'd say 'Baby steps, Rose. That's all you can take'. She'd offered to introduce me to her sister or find me a meeting to attend for group support but so far, I'd told her that I wasn't ready. I hadn't told anyone the whole truth, not even Adrian, so I couldn't tell a room full of strangers. She said that she understood but deep down I knew that she didn't. It was something that could only be understood if it had been experienced first hand.
I was thinking of Sydney whilst Adrian was out fetching food. He'd noticed that I wasn't putting any weight back on and had made it his mission to keep feeding me. He fed me at least four times a day; pizza, doughnuts, burgers. Whatever I wanted, he'd bring it to me. I was starting to feel guilty, like I was abusing his friendship or something but he kept assuring me that he didn't mind. He liked looking after me.
And then he asked me a question that I never thought he'd ask me. A question that I didn't want to answer.
"When was the last time that you and Dimtri had, uh, were, uh, intimate?" He asked, looking incredibly awkward.
It took me a while to answer him because I was so shocked by the question. It wasn't the kind of thing that Adrian and I talked about. We talked about Dimitri but we didn't talk about my sex life, or lack thereof. "Not since... Not since I've been back."
He nodded, a crease in his brows, and then he changed the subject completely. "What do you want to do today?"
"Uh, I don't know." I said quietly, wondering where the hell that had come from.
In the end, we decided to stay in seeing as it was raining outside. It was the heavy kind of rain that said a storm was to follow, the kind that I'd always loved. We put a movie on and ordered in, Chinese this time.