Part 11

'Morning darling.' Jay's Nan's soft voice startled Ruth.

'Morning.' Ruth yawned as she padded through to the kitchen where the family were eating.

'Tired dear, Elham was going to wake you but I thought you could do with the extra sleep.' She smiled at Ruth as she passed her a coffee.

'Thanks. I was in need of a few extra hours, this past weeks have been hard.' She sat on the chair across from Jay's younger sister sipping on the hot liquid.

It had been a hard couple of weeks for both Ruth and Jay. At first Ruth found it hard to mix with his family she was so use to living alone that she didn't know how to act around them. And Jay was completely obsessed with protecting them he was forgetting to be Jay, Ruth knew he was looking out for them but she just missed Jay, she wanted her boyfriend back.

'Hey you.' Ruth's thoughts were interrupted by Jay entering the room and kissing her on the forehead.

'How was work?' She asked as he kissed his Nan's cheek before leaning on the side.

'It was alright. I hate working nights and leaving you lot.' He winked at Ruth making her blush.

'Don't you mean you miss sharing a bed with your girlfriend.' Jay's sister interrupted.

'And that.' He rolled his eyes as his sister laughed at her comment.

'Anyway, I have something for you today.' Ruth looked up at him as he grinned at her.

'Me?'She looked confused.

'Yes you. Go get changed then were going.' He pointed upstairs.

'Fine.' She passed him her mug as she headed upstairs.

'Would you hurry up?' Jay said to Ruth as he dragged her through town.

'Would you slow down? Where are you taking me?' She pouted at him.

'Somewhere special. So hurry up.' He stopped and turned to face her.

'What? I thought you said you were in a hurry, why stop?'She folded her arms at him.

'Well at this rate we'll be late anyway.' He said sarcastically.

'Well give me a piggy back then.' She grinned at him.

'Come on then, if that will get us there quicker.' He turned around to allow Ruth to climb onto him.

'Ready?'She giggled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.

After another five minutes of walking Jay stopped on the edge of a street corner and looked over at the woods. Ruth was confused, where was he taking her? She looked at the woods a large bush covered the gate and a large trees hung over the area while many birds flew around them.

'Come on then.' She climbed down and came in front of him.

'Come where?' She frowned at him.

'There silly.' He pointed towards the woods.

'He didn't give her a chance to reply he just grabbed her hand and dragged her into the woods.

'Jay!'Ruth screamed as she dodged a branch.

'Sorry.' He bit his lip.

After climbing through all the tress and bushes they reached a clearing. A single bench sat in the middle and a large beam of light shone down on it. It was perfect so peaceful and private out of the prying eyes of the people the only presence was the birds. It couldn't be more relaxing, she couldn't believe he had brought her here.

'I use to come here as a kid; when stuff at home was hard. I came here the other day before I went to the station, it helped a lot.' She snapped out of her trance and slipped her heand down to Jay's.

'It's perfect.' He led her over to the bench.

'I know. Lately it's been the only place I can relax.' He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and her head fell to his chest.

A silence fell.

'You can trust me you know.' Ruth said suddenly.

'Why do you say that?'He kissed the top of her head.

'If you have any problems you can tell me.' She looked up at him.

'I don't want to put to much on you.' She touched his cheek.

'Jay listen to me. Your problems are mine.' She stood up and kisses his lips.

'Where you off to?'He tried to pull her back down.

'Well if you haven't noticed the time, I'm working soon.' She raised her eyebrow at him.

'No!'He complained as he followed her away from their private haven.

'Right I'm going to go straight there.' She turned to face him as he closed the gate.

'What? Do you want me to walk you in?'

'No I'm fine, you go home and have a nice day with you Nan and Elham.' She rubbed his arm.

'You sure cus...'She placed her finger on his lips.

'Go home now! I'll see you at seven.' She moved closer and kissed his lips before pulling away and walking off down the street.

'Nan, I'm back.' Jay shouted as he headed through the door.

'Jay!'Elham bolted down the stairs, tears streaking down her face.

'What? What...Calm down?'He grabbed her arms to stop her from babbling.

She took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her dark brown hair.

'He...He came round. Nan tried to stop him, but he pushed her out the way.' Tears began to rolling down her face once again as Jay's heart sank.

'Where's Nan?'His chest became tight at the thought of her being in danger or worse hurt.

'She...she...' She just couldn't speak.

'Elham where's Nan?'He interrupted her as she struggled to talk.

'They took her, there was blood everywhere.' Jay looked confused, she wasn't making any sense.

'They took her where? Who take her?'He rubbed his neck.

'Ruth could you go to recues please.' Adam shouted Ruth in as she stood at reception.

'Yeah.' She flung her stereoscope around her neck and ran after Adam.

When she got inside, the usual recues panic was no-where in sight, there was one patient sat in the last bed and that was it. Why would Adam call her in if she didn't have anything to do? She approached the bed and she knew something was wrong. Adam kept glancing up at her whilst he checked their obs.

'Adam where do you want me?'She bit her lip.

'Ruth!'Ruth's attention was shifted by the patient shouting her name.

She moved closer to see who was shouting her name, the voice sounded familiar but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Then she saw her.

'Ana, what happened? Where's Jay?' Ruth felt sick.

The older lady looked a mess both her eyes were black and she had a deep cut to the side of her face. Her tiny figure looked invisible under the bed sheets as she lay still on her back.

'My dear listen to me, get Jay and tell him to stay away from his father.' She gripped Ruth's hand tightly.

'What did he do this to you?' She began to worry about Jay.

'Darling you have a good heart; Jay's father never knew the meaning of that.' She winched slightly.

'What happened? Is Elham ok?'Ruth felt over protective to her surrogate family.

'He came in demanding money, I told him to leave so he pushed me down the stairs. And here I am. Elham fine she's gone to collect my things for me.' She gave Ruth a smile to reassure her.

She was such a nice lady. Ever since Ruth had moved in she had been great, she had made her feel welcome and part of their family. Ruth didn't understand how her own son could hurt her like that. But she knew one thing Jay was not going to let this one slid he would want to kill his father.

Ruth was snapped out of her trance by someone barging into recues.

'Nan what happened?' Jay ran towards the pair as Ruth backed away from the bed side to give the pair some space.

'Jasmide. Calm down.' She said sharply causing him to blush slightly.

'Nan did he do this to you?' She nodded her head.

'I'm going to kill him.' Jay tensed slightly.

Jay's Nan looked towards Ruth as anger built on his face. Ruth took it as her cue as she stepped forward and took his hand.

'Jay?' He turned to look at a concerned Ruth.

'Look after Nan.' He tried to pull away from Ruth.

'No!' She gripped his hand tightly.

'Ruth let go. I need to sort this if the police won't I need to.'

'Please. Come to the staffroom, calm down and then we can talk about this.' She titled her head.

He didn't reply he looked towards his Nan and then nodded.

'Come on then.' She smiled at Ana and then took a reluctant Jay towards the staffroom.

'Jay you need to calm down and listen to me.' Ruth told Jay as he paced the room.

'How can I when he's hurting everyone close to me.' He said in a raised voice.

'Your Nan's ok that's the main thing.' Ruth said as he turned to face her.

'How can you say that she could be dead?' Tears filled Ruth's eyes.

'I'm only trying to help.' She shuffled on her feet.

'Well you're not...It's not your family and what would you know about wanting to protect family anyway. Yours hate you.' He said spitefully.

Ruth was gutted. How dare he, she was only trying to help. She didn't need this, she didn't need him.

'Fine then I'll stay away. If that's what you want.' She held back the tears.

It finally dawned on him about what he had said. She didn't deserve that she was trying to help him. He went to apologize when she turned on her heels and ran slamming the door behind her. Now he had lost the person he was trying to protect.