Once they were safely upstairs, Julie collapsed onto the edge of the bed, yanked off her heels, tossed them in the corner angrily and let out a tiny sob of frustration and pain.
"It's okay," Nick soothed, kneeling beside her "we're gonna get out of here, I promise."
He glanced at her leg now which was a mangled mess of blood and bruises.
"Let's clean this up first," he insisted, going into the bathroom, retrieving a first aide kit and kneeling beside her again.
When Julie saw the kit, she trembled, anticipating pain.
"No," she begged him when she saw the bandages and other medical supplies in his hand "it's gonna hurt."
"Just for a minute," he promised her.
They both knew that was a lie. The pain radiated through her entire leg when he touched her, tending carefully to the wound from the fence, cleaning it delicately then bandaging it gently. The process was agonizing but when he finished, she looked a lot better but still grimaced in pain as she hobbled to the bathroom to change into something other than her now disheveled looking dress. Back in the bedroom, she had to carefully slide into the bed and keep her leg perfectly still, afraid of the slightest touch or movement causing her pain. She hadn't been paying attention to what Nick was doing when she got in bed so she glanced over at him now, scrolling through his phone, searching for flights home.
"Damn," he cursed "nothing until seven tomorrow night."
"Night?" she repeated horrified "Nicky we can't stay here another day."
"I know," he said "I'm sorry, it's all they have."
Crushed by that, she turned over in bed, biting back tears as pain shot through her leg again.
An ear shattering explosion of sound startled Julie awake. The first thing she saw was darkness. The first thing she felt, pain in her leg so intense she cried out but her cry was drowned out but another explosion of sound. For a moment she had forgotten where she was until a bright flash of light illuminated the guest bedroom of Nick's parent's house and she remembered the night's events. She turned her head towards the source of the sound and bright light and noticed the window being drenched in rain. The storm had really picked up and the wind was now howling aggressively, thunder making the entire house shake. Her heart raced in fear of the unknown from the storm outside. Reluctantly and with a great deal of pain, she turned over in bed and called for Nick. Somehow he was managing to sleep through all of this and that upset her even more. Under normal circumstances, she loved rain and the occasional windy day in Seattle but this was a full blown, supersized, bad atmosphere, Texas thunderstorm in all it's rage and it terrified her.
"Nicky," she tried again, desperate for his attention yet embarrassed for overreacting.
Her pitiful cry woke him up at last and he blindly reached out for her in the darkness.
"What babe?" he asked.
"The storm," she whimpered, tugging at the covers until they were up to her chin.
Another violent flash of lightning streaked across their line of sight and she whimpered again, anticipating the thunder, feeling the vibrations in her chest from the sonic boom it produced. Seeing her trying to hide under the covers broke his heart so he reached out for her again.
"C'mere," he soothed embracing her and all the blankets she brought with her "just relax, don't look at it, it'll be over soon."
It was as if nature had sensed their tense, awkward moments with his parents and thought it would be a cruel irony to trap them all here, he thought, as he held onto her tight, shielding her from the violent storm outside. She struggled to keep the covers pulled over her head and cover her hand over her ear to muffle the deafening thunder above them. She had squeezed her eyes shut so she wouldn't have to see the vivid neon flashes of light, her whole body tensing up with nerves, her leg aching, it was all too much. She felt him gently tug her hand away from her ear which she protested with another whimper until she felt him cover his hand over her ear instead, so she would no longer have to. The gesture, though small, was enough and it, coupled with his fingers tangled in her hair, scratching her head trying to calm her down, eased some of her fears at last. Nick stole a glance at the digital clock on the nightstand, it was only two in the morning; they were in for a rough night.