She knew that Charlie had entered the room before she had even opened her eyes. She could feel his presence, a wave of calm that came over the room all at once.

There was the squeak of a chair on the floor and the sound of him sitting down at her bedside.

"How're you feeling?"

He spoke quietly, the bed creaking as he rested his hands on the metal side rail.

She opened her eyes ever so slowly and rolled her head to one side to look at him.

"How would you be if your life fell apart?"

She asked, her voice hoarse and low.

He regarded her for a moment with those steady blue eyes.

"Elliot is in ICU."

He said finally. As simply as that, as though he were telling her the most innocent thing in the world.

She considered his words for a moment, and how she felt towards them, a huge wave of relief coupled with the quickening heartbeat that came with the realisation of 'what now?!'

"How is he?"

She asked quietly, averting her gaze to where Charlie's hands rested on the bed rail. How soft and well worn they looked against the stark silver.

"It's looking positive."

Her eyes flickered to his face again.

"Is Rita still here?"

He shook his head slowly. She nodded gently and turning her head to look over at the door.

"I told her to go home, get some rest. She needs to think about herself now. She's gone home to look after your daughter."

She smiled slightly. Was that a veiled pointed remark about how she had failed to ask about her own daughter? Probably, she thought. And if it was, she knew she deserved it.

"You know, don't you."

"It doesn't take a genius..."

He said quickly.

She drew in a long breath and exhaled a sigh that seemed to draw the very life right out of her.

"It's the oldest excuse in the book, but I didn't plan it...I didn't mean to."

She let her words tail off, there was no point in trying to defend herself.

"Why don't you tell me how it happened?"

His voice changed, quieter, softer, and he smiled a small smile when she glanced at him. She pulled up her shoulders in a half shrug.

"He just turned up at the bar. It was crowded, and the only spare seat was opposite me. We just started talking. It was so nice to just sit and talk to a perfect stranger! He was funny. He made me laugh."

She paused, but Charlie merely waited for her to continue.

"He offered to get me a taxi...I just didn't want him to leave. I didn't want that feeling to end...I liked that he had taken an interest in me, albeit a purely platonic..."

"Platonic?"

He broke in, sounding surprised.

"It was me who said I didn't want to go home, that I wanted to go back to his boat."

She looked again at the door, wishing so much that Rita would walk back through them.

"Because you wanted to have sex with him?"

She balked at his bluntness and frowned down at her own hands.

"No! Because I was scared to be alone. When we got back to the boat it was as though it had all happened before, as though it were a script that had already been written and we were just reading the lines. We didn't have a choice."

She opened and closed her fingers, enjoying the sharp wince of pain that shot up the length of her forearm.

"Connie..."

He paused, smiling a stiff smile as though what he was about to say might upset her.

"I need to know what those men did to you."

-.-

Xxx