Hands
Arianna Shapour & Ian Thornhart
(Port Charles)
Over the past several years, Arianna had known the touch of too many hands.
Cruel hands: hands that punished, pressed down, muffled screams, and took what was never offered.
Familial hands: hands that should be comforting and forgiving, but instead, meted out cruel punishments for imagined betrayals.
Hands were weapons.
She shrank from touch, trying to make herself as small as possible (almost invisible) to escape desperately grasping fingers.
And then there were a new pair of hands - callused and strong; the right one always laced with a special henna bracelet - that touched, but only ever with permission, and only to heal. Gentle and steady, practiced and careful.
Ian's hands.
Ian Thornhart was Arianna's doctor, but he also became her friend. She never had a true friend before, let alone one of the male persuasion, but when she saw the unmistakable compassion in his eyes and heard the kindness in his voice (thankfully, never pity), some of the heavy burden hoisted atop her shoulders began to lighten.
While she was in the hospital and then, eventually, living under his protection, she grew to trust him.
He reached out his hand to her, and she reached back, without any fear.
The End