Bo bolted upright as he was woken by Carly's scream. Scrambling to his feet, he saw her clutching the blankets in terror, still in the throes of whatever nightmare she was having. Bo stumbled over to the bed to wake her and calm her down at the same time.
"Carly," he said as he held her hands to keep her from flailing to much. He didn't want her to re-injure her ribs. "Carly wake up."
Carly continued to scream as her eyes flew open, darting around.
"Carly, it's OK. You're OK. You're safe." Bo murmured in her ear, over and over until she began to calm. He could feel her trembling. He let go of her hands and slipped his arms carefully around her, murmuring soothing words in her ear until she stopped shaking. He pulled back slightly to look into her face. She was extremely pale.
"Was it a bad dream? Do you wanna talk about it?"
Carly took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before speaking.
"I think it was another memory."
"Tell me what you remember."
"I was in an elevator." She heard and felt a sharp intake of breath from Bo. His arms tightened around her slightly, but still careful of her healing ribs.
"You know what I remembered don't you?" Carly asked, her voice laced with the remnants of fear from that memory.
"I think I do, but I want you to tell me what you remembered."
"OK," Carly said slowly. "I was in an elevator. It was stopped and you were talking to me from a floor above me. Then you said you would send me back down to a lobby to wait until you were ready. When the elevator started up again it fell. Did the cable snap?"
Bo knew he couldn't tell her that Victor had rigged that elevator. At this moment he was glad she couldn't see his face, maybe she wouldn't know he wasn't telling her everything.
"Yes, princess. The cable snapped."
Carly heard the fear in his voice as he uttered those few words and once again felt his arms tighten around her a little more.
"Tell me what happened, Bo." Carly's vice was quiet, but Bo knew she was leaving no room for argument or stalling.
"I had set up a romantic night for us, at the Salem Inn. I was going to send a limo to pick you up, but you found out where I was bringing you and you showed up early. I had rented the penthouse suite and you talked the manager into giving you the elevator key."
Carly's face had a small smirk on it as Bo spoke.
I stopped the elevator just below the penthouse door. We talked a few minutes before I turned it back on to send you down to the lobby." Bo's voice had taken on a far away quality as he remembered and explained one of the scariest nights of his life. "Then I heard the scrapping of the elevator and you screaming. I was terrified."
"So was I. How far did the elevator fall?
"10 Floors. I managed to pry open the doors from the penthouse and climb down."
"How badly was I injured?"
"You were critical. The fall broke one of your ribs. The rib then punctured the sac around your heart."
Carly shuddered but Bo continued.
"Marcus and Dr. Horton operated on you to fix it and stop the internal bleeding. Your heart stopped during the surgery. I felt it."
"What?"
"I felt it when your Heart stopped. I knew something had gone wrong. Isabella had to physically hold onto me to keep me out of the operating room. I felt it when they got your heart started again too. I could feel you."
"Really?" Carly choked out as a tear fell from her sparkling green eyes.
"Really." Bo gently wiped the tear away and pressed a kiss to her temple.
"I love you, Bo."
"I love you too, princess."
"What time is it?"
Bo looked at his watch. "A quarter after 5 am. Why?"
"I don't know. I have no concept of time as it is, but with my eyes like this it seems worse. I'm not sure if it's morning or night. It's kind of throwing me off."
"Well, hopefully, when we get the glasses from Daniel, they will help. Are you tired?"
"Not really. I feel more drained than tired. And sore. Are my injuries from the elevator falling?" She didn't see how they could be. Questions were starting to pop up in her mind.
"No, princess. The elevator accident was years ago. You spent about 6 weeks or so in the hospital after that."
"Then how did I get these injuries?"
Bo cringed. He had no idea what he was going to tell her. He knew she would eventually ask but he hadn't yet come up with an explanation that would be plausible enough to prevent more questions. Marlena had cautioned him against telling her about the apparent abuse she had suffered at the hands of Lawrence Alamain. 'Carly should really remember on her own, and not have the information presented to her. Her brain is protecting her from the reality of what her life was. It's a coping mechanism. She will remember when she is ready, and telling her about it before then could cause much more psychological damage."
"Bo? How did I get these injuries? And what do my injuries have to do with Lawrence?"
"Why do you think they have anything to do with Lawrence?"
"You said I was here and not in the hospital because you were hiding me from him."
"Oh, yeah."
"Did he do this to me?"
"No, Carly you were in a car accident." Bo said, having no idea where the words that had just left his mouth had come from.
"Then why are you hiding me from Lawrence?"
Flying by the seat of his pants, Bo came up with more of a story to feed Carly until her memories could come back on their own.
"I only said that because you only remembered the villa. You've had a few more memories come back since then so I don't have to use Larry as a reason."
Carly said nothing as she contemplated this statement. She couldn't be angry at Bo, because she had lied to him, to manipulate hi to that villa.
"Carly?" Bo asked breaking her from her thoughts.
"If Lawrence isn't the reason you hid me out here, then what is?"
"Someone is after you, Carly. I hid you here because it is a place only we know about. Too keep you safe."
"Who?"
"What?"
"Who's after me?"
"I don't know, princess. There have been serious threats and they think your car was tampered with. That's why I hid you out here. Now enough questions. I am going to scare up some breakfast. If you feel up to getting up and around after breakfast, maybe we can go for a walk."
With that Bo kissed the top of her head and got off the bed to find something they could eat for breakfast.
