The Love Story #26

Ash was seated on the floor in the AA room, drunk. He had three empty bottles of tequila next to him and one half empty in his hand. He couldn’t erase the look Lee had given him from his mind. He didn’t want Lee to see him like that, but he couldn’t control himself. Seeing her in pain made him snap. And when he heard that faint pop, all he wanted to do was kill Steve.
He had originally come with the guys. He just had to work up the nerve to go into the diner. Ash decided it was time for him to be a little selfish. He had lived five hundred years without love and happiness, and now that he had gotten a taste of it with Lee, he found it difficult to forget it. Lee had intoxicated him, woken him up from the shallow grave he had buried himself in, and because of Baku he was to go back into his grave as if his heart hadn’t started beating again?
He loved her enough to try, and that he did. But it was impossible to deny himself any longer. There were other ways to keep her safe and he would exhaust them before he dared to let her go. Ash had more reason to kill Baku, not only for revenge but also for love.
He wasn’t going to let anything harm her, be it human, animal or mortal.
He yelled at the guys for not stopping Steve before he could come close enough to hurt Lee. But they had apparently felt Ash’s anger a long time before and they were preparing to keep him from killing Steve. They were right, whether or not they stopped Steve, nothing could have stopped Ash from trying to kill Steve.
Billy walked into the room and crouched down beside him. “Ann says Steve is okay. He has a concussion. They stitched up the gash in his head. He also had seven broken and three bruised ribs, his right hand was broken and his collarbone bruised and a fractured leg. The doctor told him he wasn’t to speak for a while, just until his throat healed. You really did a number on him. Billy patted his shoulder. “If it was Ann, I would have done the same.”
“I don’t care about that rat, how’s Lee?” Ash bellowed drunkenly.
“She was out cold when they got to the hospital, but she’s okay. Her left shoulder is dislocated. She’ll have to use a sling for six weeks or so.”
“Why did she faint?” Ash was frantic. He tried to get up but sagged back to the floor. The room was swimming.
“Whoa! You’re drunk. Sleep it off, and then we’ll talk.”
Ash was about to protest, but he was already on the couch, falling asleep.

****

Dave was pacing in his room, nervous. He had spotted the guys at the diner Merilee works in. He saw what Steve was doing to Merilee, if Ash hadn’t helped her, he would have. He was grateful Ash had beaten the crap out of the leech, but he was still concerned about how well he knew her. He wanted to ask Billy or Joe but decided against it. He didn’t want to make them even more suspicious.
*At least I’ll have more time to feed, with the guys watching them. They’ll keep them safe from humans, and I’ll keep them safe from our kind. But they can’t know my relationship with them. I’ll keep watching my daughter, but I’ll need to be more careful.*

****

“How are you feeling?” Maria brought Lee a cup of tea.
Lee was sitting on the couch trying to watch TV but it was a waste of time. She felt sleepy but she didn’t want to go back to bed. She had been confined in it for days, and had grown tired of it.
“Groggy. Thanks.” She sipped at the tea, hoping it would make her feel better.
“You want something to eat?”
The thought of food made her queasy. The painkillers were making her sick. Keeping food down became a task she never looked forward to.
“No thanks. I think I’m going to stop taking these meds,” she said, sipping some more of her tea.
“You can’t do that they are supposed to help you.”
“The only thing they are doing is making me sleep through the day. The time I spend not sleeping, my head is over the toilet, and I can’t even eat without gagging. I can’t take this anymore,” Lee whined.
“Okay, okay when Ann comes back we’ll go get you checked out.”
“No. They’ll just give me more meds.” Lee wasn’t a fan of hospitals. It always depressed her seeing all those sick people. She wasn’t a fan of blood and wounds. They always made her queasy. One visit a year was all she could stand.
Maria was silent, it was evident she was wrestling with Lee’s decision. “Okay, but you are going to be in more pain.”
Lee looked at her arm. “I think I can handle it.”
Ann walked into the door, with a stack of mail in her hands and some textbooks. “How’s our patient doing?”
“She is going to stop taking her meds,” Maria offered before Lee could say anything.
She put the books and the mail down on the table and sat next to Lee. “Thank God. I was getting tired of the puking and the fifteen hour pass outs. We can finally get our bathroom back…and our sister, I missed you.”
“Nice save.” Lee chuckled.
“I brought you some of your assignments, and some books to read. Finals in two weeks. I’m glad we’ll all be done with school at the same time.”
School, Lee had forgotten about the finals, with all that had happened she couldn’t concentrate on other things.
“Ann, how’s Steve?”