Once again, sorry for the long wait...

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ENJOY!! And sorry for it being short...


Chapter 41 - The Key

Sitting on her knees on her bed, Abby was leaning up against the window by resting her elbows on the frame in her room. Her room. It just sounded so weird, she'd never had her own room before. Or well, it wasn't really her room. It was the guest room, but for the next multiple weeks it would be hers.

She sighed as she looked at the moon, the full moon, which somehow seemed way bigger and brighter than she'd ever seen it before. But it was beautiful, and she couldn't tear her eyes away from it. She had always loved the moon. The stars. The dark. The night. She wasn't sure why, but it somehow always made her feel calm. Or not calm, calm, but it was like it had this depressing, melancholic effect, making her feel a bit sad, but also made it easier to just leave reality and forget everything. Like she could disappear among all the bright, shining, beautiful stars.

She had no idea what time it was, but it was definitely late and way past midnight. She hadn't been able to fall asleep, and she was pretty sure she'd been sitting there for hours. Dinner had been okay, she actually liked the food, even the spicy sauce, and luckily it hadn't been as awkward as she'd feared. Afterwards she'd just retreated to her room and finished the book, as the boys had done their homework. She'd thought about joining Luka, but when she figured out it was Spanish she'd changed her mind. The only time she'd been out of her room was to use the restroom and brush her teeth, stuff like that.


She practically flew into the air as someone placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Abby." Trying to get her breathing back to normal, she placed her hands back on the window frame and looked at Dr. Kovac for a short second before turning back to the window. "I figured you were still up. I tried knocking, but I guess you didn't hear me." Tightening her grip so her knuckles turned white, she slightly shrugged her shoulders. "Can't sleep?" Shaking her head she leaned back down on her elbows, silently cursing a small cloud for moving in front of the moon.

"It's weird." Pushing herself away from the window, she let her body sink down onto the bed. Pulling her knees close to her body, she tightly wrapped her arms around them as Dr. Kovac started carefully rubbing her arm. "I can't remember when the last time was I went this long without him..." Even though her voice had been weak from the beginning, she slowly trailed off and leaned her chin on her knees.

"Hurting you." Dr. Kovac tried finishing off the sentence, but Abby just shook her head, never lifting her head.

"No. He could go for days without that, but not..." She couldn't get herself to say it. She wasn't sure why, cause she usually didn't let it get to her, but she just couldn't.

"Raping you." Closing her eyes she nodded slightly as she felt the water build up in her eyes, somehow happy that the doctor had finished the sentence for her.

"I just keep expecting to wake up by him putting his hand over my mouth and... you know... with Eric sleeping right next to us the entire time." She didn't realize she was crying till she felt Dr. Kovac wipe away her tears.

"How often did he do that to you, Abby?" Biting her lip she looked back towards the window.

"Do you mean in front of Eric, or just in general?"

"Just in general." Closing her eyes she took a deep breath before looking back at Dr. Kovac. It was one thing she'd been trying not to share, but figured she could just as well say it since she was already being so open. She didn't know why she was, because she didn't really want to be, but somehow it did feel good to get it out, although it also made it seem so much more real.

"Every day." She looked back down at her feet as Dr. Kovac hid her shocked, but at the same time not too surprised reaction. "Sometimes more often." She silently cursed herself for having braided her hair, wishing it had been hanging down over her face instead.

Not really knowing what to say, Dr. Kovac gently stroked Abby's arm which was exposed, since she was sleeping in one of Luka's oversized t-shirts. She wanted to ask more questions, to get more information out of her, but at the same time didn't feel like knowing any more, since it only got more horrible with each word Abby spoke.

"It's okay." She moved a strand of loose hair behind Abby's ear. "Nothing's gonna hurt anymore." As Abby shrugged her shoulders, Dr. Kovac pulled her hand back and took a deep breath. "Which reminds me, there was a reason for why I came in here." Not moving, Abby looked up confused. "I brought you something." She held out her hand and Abby hesitantly sat up and reached out for it.

"A key?" Biting her lip, she looked at the little grey key in her hand.

"It only works for this room. I thought you might like to... that you would feel safer, if you could lock the door." Still staring intensely at her hand, she closed it. It did make her feel better, just the fact that se was able to lock it if she wanted to. "I have a key myself that works for the whole house, but I don't use it unless it's absolutely necessary." Biting her lip she looked up at Dr. Kovac, trying to return her smile, but not really succeeding as her body was slightly shaking. "Are you okay?" Tightening her grip on the key even more, she nodded.

"I'm just cold." Dr. Kovac gave her a sympathetic smile. When you were as skinny as Abby it was pretty hard to keep warm, and it didn't help either that she was still pretty sick and recovering from a miscarriage and surgery.

"Okay." She moved the duvet to the side before stroking the side of Abby's face. "How about you try to get some sleep?" Biting her lip, she carefully nodded her head. Taking a deep breath she hesitantly placed the key on the night stand and slowly laid down, careful not to do anything which would make her wounds hurt. It felt pretty awkward as Dr. Kovac tucked her in, but she didn't care and she couldn't complain, she actually liked it.

"Goodnight." Turning to her side, she took a deep breath.

"Dr. Kovac?" She let go of the door handle after having opened the door and turned to face Abby. "Thank you." Her voice was weak, but she felt the doctor walk back towards her.

"What for?" She didn't need to thank her, just knowing she was safe was enough.

"No one has ever cared about me before." Sighing, Dr. Kovac sat down on the bad, playing with a strand of her hair.

"That's not true, Abby." She took a deep breath as Abby rolled into a ball, still laying on her side. "We both know that Luka cares more about you than I've ever seen him care about anyone. And Eric, well, anyone can see that he adores you and look up to you like crazy." Biting her lip, Abby tightened her grip on the duvet.

"That's only because he has to. He knows that no one would take care of him if I wasn't there." She felt Dr. Kovac stroke her cheek, and she had to fight to keep her eyes open as her exhaustion was finally taking its toll on her.

"I don't believe that. Trust me Abby, that boy loves you more than anything." When she didn't respond, a smile formed on Dr. Kovac's face. She had known Abby was really tired, so it didn't surprise her at all that she fell asleep so fast. Carefully kissing her forehead, she got up and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.


Abby walked into the kitchen with the blanket tightly wrapped around her, already having brushed her hair out of the ugly, messy, morning hairdo, so it was hanging wavy down her back from the braids.

"Well good morning dear." Leaning up against the counter she gave Dr. Kovac a small smile as she started the dishwasher.

"Morning."

"You missed the others, they just left." Shrugging her shoulders, Abby sat down on one of the chairs.

"I know, I heard them leave."

"Ahh." Dr. Kovac gave her a small smile as she went to the fridge. "Waited for them to leave before coming downstairs?" She wasn't sure whether it was a question or a statement, so she just returned the smile.

"Yeah, something like that." Or well, that was pretty much the reason. Not because she didn't want to see them, she just thought it would be easier not to.

"I see." She turned to look at Abby. "You like eggs?" Biting her lip she nodded. "How do you want them?" Still biting her lip she thought for a few seconds.

"With ketchup." Slamming the refrigerator door she brought the eggs to the counter.

"Eggs with ketchup coming right up." It only took a few minutes before the plate was placed in front of her

"Thanks." Dr. Kovac just gave her a smile and padded her shoulder.

"No problem, honey. I'm gonna go get laundry started. Just put the plate in the sink when you're done and go get dressed, cause we have a few errands to run." Picking up the fork she smiled back.

"Okay." As Dr. Kovac left the room, Abby started eating her breakfast, starting off with the cute, little chocolate chip pancakes. She couldn't remember when the last time was she had gotten pancakes, least of all with chocolate chips in them, but she absolutely loved them. What better way to start the day than eating some of her favorite breakfast food and drinking nice, cold orange juice?