“You’ve seen blood before,” he said, aware that he was purring to her, that low soothing voice he’d used on her when she was just a tiny girl of eight.
“But I…” Little sniffle. “I could touch you then, and reassure myself that you were okay.”
He almost laughed; there was a smile in his voice, to go along with the purr. “You could touch me now if you’d get your cute ass over here.”
She groaned. “Mercy…”
“You could give me a backrub. I need a backrub bad.”
Silence, the gentle rush of her breathing.
“You’ve got those nice skinny fingers,” he prodded. “You can get in all the tense spots.”
She made a sound that might have been a laugh. “I can’t. I start school in about…” Pause; checking her clock, no doubt. “Five hours.”
“I can wait till after. That’s cool.”
“Ugh. Mercy.”
“Mon amour.”
“Do you have any idea how much you’re testing my self-control?” she asked, without malice, just a laid-bare question, revealing more than she would have wanted to in the daylight.
“Hopefully a lot.”
Silence, again.
“Come spend the night with me, tomorrow. After school. Say you’re with your little douchebag, if you don’t want to come clean to your old man yet.”
“Oh, like it was me who wanted to lay low and keep quiet.”
“I’m not gonna argue with you. I miss you. Give me one night – one whole night – and tell me you don’t miss me, too, and I’ll leave you alone.”
“Liar.”
“Maybe a little.”
A beat passed. She didn’t say yes, but she didn’t say no.
“Call me when you get out of class,” he said, pleading at this point. “I’ll still need that backrub.”
She sighed. And then… “Yeah. Okay.”
He grinned, so wide his face hurt, there in the dorm room by himself. God, he needed this. How had he gone five years without?
“Hey,fillette?”
“Yeah?”
“Kick ass tomorrow.”
There was a faint smile in her voice when she said, “Night.” And then the line disconnected.
When he was in the shower, with the nozzle angled low so the jets hit him in the stomach and his bandage stayed dry, he shoved the ache, the remembered screaming, the bullshit aside, and unfolded an image of her face inside his mind, until she filled up the dark corners.
He went to bed a mostly happy man.
