FIVE
Chris had a very simple plan in mind: put Vin in the truck, drive the truck to the University, get Vin to Nathan's clinic in the Health Building. Three steps, no problem. Vin had a little more complicated plan playing out in his mind: stay upright, don't think about anything that would set off nausea, keep one foot moving in front of the other, remember to breathe, don't trip over the dog...An old house with minimal furniture had never seemed as crowded as it did now that Chris had to maneuver Vin through the kitchen into the dining room across the front hallway and out the front door. The dog danced around their feet.
"Cowboy - get out of the way...Cowboy - we don't need any help..." as arms and legs made contact with tables and chairs and Vin muttered something that Chris didn't hear until finally:
"STOP. Please. Chris give me a minute. It hurts..." and Chris practically skidded to a stop.
"Vin - we're almost to the front door." He saw that Vin was letting himself be led along with his eyes closed.
"It hurts." Chris had been guiding Vin with one hand pressing on his back and it hurt. He couldn't draw in enough breath to finish a whole sentence. "Just....gimme...a minute..."
"Okay." But Chris wasn't happy about stopping. In spite of the heat outside and in the house, and the long sleeve shirt Vin was wearing, his skin was cold, his body still trembled with shock and he'd gone deadly pale.
So they stood a few minutes in the doorway between the dining room and the front hallway. Vin kept his eyes closed, shoulders hunched, his breath came short and fast. "Just a few more steps," Chris urged, trying to not let the impatience sound in his voice. They could be to Nathan's in fifteen minutes if only Vin would keep walking.
All Vin heard was the roar in his ears as the pain rushed through the veins with his blood and penetrated every cell in his body. He put his hands up on either side of his head. How could hitting his back on the edge of the sink hurt that bad? How could hitting his head on the mirror keep hurting so long after it happened? Why were his legs still so weak? Why was he throwing up and why did he suddenly start hearing their voices in his head?
Hold him down...hit him harder then...keep him still...kick him if you have to...
Chris could see that Vin was sinking away somewhere, getting lost in the pain. "Vin?" he tried again, more quietly. "What happened to you? How did you get hurt?" He nudged him a little to try and get his attention. "Vin?"
"F-f-fell," the answer finally came, stammered out through the haze of pain. "I f-f-fell gettin' outta the sh-sh-shower."
"Did you hit your head?" The only reason Chris could think of for Vin's severe condition. Vin nodded.
"Hard enough to crack the mirror...hit my back...on the sink..."
"Vin - you've got to go to the hospital - or Nathan's," Chris added when Vin started to object. "But you've got to go NOW. You probably have a concussion, throwing up after whacking your head isn't good. It's just a few more steps out to my truck Vin. Just out the front door and over to the driveway."
"I just...need...a minute." Vin didn't open his eyes. One hand reached out instinctively to hold himself upright on Chris' arm.
"Okay, we'll take our time," Chris said. How close was he to a phone? Could he get Nathan here? Or Buck? Or somebody to help him?
"It just hurts," Vin said again.
"What hurts Vin?"
"My back, you're pushing on my back and it hurts." Chris immediately removed his hand and Vin wavered a second, tightening his grip on Chris' arm to stay upright alone.
"It's just a few more steps," Chris tried again. "We've gotta get moving. We've gotta get you medical attention."
"I waited this long, a few more minutes won't matter," Vin said through clenched teeth.
"How long?" Chris asked, worried by the way Vin said it.
"Last night..." Even half disoriented from pain, Vin knew it would be a nightmare if he told Chris that he - fell - nearly twenty hours before.
"Last night? Why didn't you call me? You've been like this since last night?"
"SSHHHH...makin' my head hurt."
"Sorry...Vin...just a few steps and we're outta the house. Okay? You need help. Okay?" Chris insisted.
And finally, Vin nodded. "Okay." His voice was unsteady. "I think I can go now...just don't touch my back..."
"Okay..." Chris took Vin's arm instead and kept him balanced as they crossed the front hallway and went out the front door. When they were on the porch with the door closed behind them, Chris set Vin to lean against the upright railing support. "I'll get the truck, you wait right here."
"Mmm hmmm..." Vin was more than happy to stand still again, eyes closed. He didn't even think about Chris's words I'll get the truck until he heard it pulling across the lawn, over the sidewalk, and stopping only inches in front of him. Then the sound of truck doors opening, closing, and opening, and Chris was at his side again.
"Think you can get in by yourself?"
"Drove myself here, reckon I can get in." But Vin didn't move until Chris laid a gently steadying hand on his shoulder and guided him the final foot to the open door of the truck. Vin surveyed the situation first; Chris' truck was little higher than his own. He took a deep breath and held it, gritted his teeth, and prayed his legs would support him just long enough to make it to the bench seat.
One hand on each arm, Chris tried to lift Vin - but not too forcefully - into the truck. He could feel Vin's trembling get worse with the exertion of easing his body up and in, and when it was accomplished, they both let out long breaths of relief.
"You okay?" Chris had to ask - eyes still closed, Vin was even more pale, and sweat had broken out his face.
"I'll keep."
Chris closed the door as softly as he could, to keep from jarring Vin, then jumped in the driver's side to make a run to the Health Clinic on St. Michael's campus. He tried to avoid every pothole and blacktop irregularity, still Vin pulled in a sharp breath a time or two on the drive. He finally got a look at himself in the side view mirror. His black eyes made him look like a football player and he turned away fast before he could get any better look. He didn't want to see, he didn't want to think, he didn't want to remember...
Traffic and lights were with them, and the whole trip took fifteen minutes, with Vin pressed against the back of the seat to keep his body and his spine still, and Chris trying to remember to keep his eyes on the road as he kept wanting to gauge Vin's condition by the shades of pale his face was turning.
Summer sessions had ended, and the Fall semester hadn't started so there were precious few other cars on campus. The circular drive that swooped in at the Health Building was still a good forty five feet from the front so Chris took another path over lawn and sidewalk and stopped his truck a foot away from their destination. Rank has its privileges he thought.
Getting Vin out of the truck was a little easier than getting him in and - thank God for small favors - the clinic was on the first floor just inside the entrance. But this time, when Chris put his hand on Vin's arm to guide him in, Vin shrugged him off.
"Don't - please - don't touch me." He wouldn't take a step until Chris had moved a few feet away from him and held the door open into the building. Then he took stiff, shuffling, unsteady steps through the door and to Nathan's clinic.
Chris felt bad for Vin - he was in so much pain he couldn't even stand being touched. Must've pinched a nerve, or thrown his back out when he hit the sink. Ignorant fool, didn't have enough sense to call a friend for help, no matter what time of night he hurt himself. He followed Vin to the clinic, shadowing him from behind, expecting at any second that Vin's legs would give out. But they made it.
St. Michael's was tiny as far as Universities went, but it boasted a world-class health clinic and it passed through Chris' mind with no small amount of irony that the clinic had mostly been paid for with donations by Lucas James' uncle, in an attempt to keep his errant nephew gainfully employed. Right now though, Chris didn't care who paid for the clinic so long as Vin got taken care of - and soon.
Nathan came out from an exam room when he heard someone come into the clinic. His eyes quickly and expertly took in Vin's condition and he immediately recognized a man in shock and slipping away. A few more seconds and Vin would be flat on his face.
"Vin - what the hell? Chris - what happened?"
"F-f-fell." Vin put his hands up and took a step back to keep Nathan from touching him.
"He told me he fell getting out of the shower last night," Chris supplied the rest of the details.
"Hell of a fall Vin. Can't do anything by halves, can you?" Nathan could see that Vin was trying to keep a distance, but Nathan didn't want him collapsing. "We need to get you into the exam room..."
"His back hurts him real bad Nathan, said he hit on the sink."
"Okay..." Nathan looked from Vin to Chris and back again. "Can you walk Vin? Just back to the exam room?"
"Try...can try. Just...gimme some room..."
Neither Chris nor Nathan were comfortable giving Vin a lot of room to walk and fall down in. They shadowed him, Nathan in front, Chris behind. Vin was hardly aware of them, as long as they stayed at least two feet away from him. All that was on his mind was that Nathan would give him something for the pain, and please God he'd make it a big enough dose to put Vin out a good long time. He took his time, afraid of falling, and finally made it to the exam room. He even managed to get himself sitting on the edge of the exam table, but he held himself stiffly against the pain.
"Your back hurt you the worst?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah, goes down my arms and legs if I move the wrong way."
"He was throwin' up too," Chris said.
"Don't remind me," Vin complained. "Been doin' nothin' but throwing up since last night...everything hurts Nathan. Not just my back, everything."
"Okay, but let me start there." Vin's shirt was untucked and he pulled it up to have a look. Chris watched Vin for any sign that he was about to topple.
"Hmmm," Nathan made a non-committal sound, looking at Vin's back. "Chris, this is going to take awhile. I'll want to get x-rays of Vin's back just in case, and examine him for anything else he might've cracked when he fell. If you've got something else you can do for awhile...?"
Before he answered, Chris looked at Vin. If Vin gave him any indication that he wanted him to stay, Chris wouldn't move from that spot. But Vin gave no response at all. "Yeah, I've got some policies at my office I have to go over...I'll be back in a little while...okay Vin?" Giving Vin one more chance to ask him to stay.
"Okay...I'll be here..."
"Thanks Chris," Nathan said. "I'm going to beep Rain, but if you see her jogging out there, let her know what's going on, okay?"
"Sure thing Nathan...Vin, I'll be back in a little while." Just to be sure he understood.
"Okay..."
When Chris left the exam room and shut the door after himself, Nathan lifted Vin's shirt tail again. There across his back, just below his shoulder blades, was a long thin purple bruise, pretty much the right size and shape for the edge of a bathroom sink. Right below that bruise, in dark purple relief, Nathan stared at another one - the stark imprint of a boot right across Vin's spine.
"Who did this to you Vin? And why didn't you tell Chris?"
"I fell," Vin insisted. Nathan dropped the shirt tail and came around to face Vin.
"Vin, you look like you got hit by a truck."
"I fell hard," he tried again. This line of conversation was going somewhere Vin didn't want to be.
"Vin." Nathan's voice was stern, and he grabbed one of his hands. "Falling doesn't put a boot heel over your kidneys and it doesn't leave defense wounds on your knuckles." Vin looked down to see scratches and faint bruises on both hands. "Who did this and why are you protecting them? Don't even say it." Nathan snapped when he saw that Vin was going to insist again that he'd only fallen.
The room started to spin, and Vin felt nauseous again though he knew perfectly well that there was nothing left to bring up. He took a couple of sharp inhalations and insisted once again.
"I fell."
SIX
With Chris gone, Vin felt alone. Nathan was a friend, and had been a few years, but now that Chris was gone, the sensation that he was about to shatter into a million pieces came back hard on Vin. The more Nathan poked and probed, physically and verbally, into his assorted wounds and bruises, the closer Vin felt to that edge that was too sharp to hold onto. Every nerve was a jumping bean, and every word or touch set them off, popping and arcing like live wires, until he had to stop listening, had to stop being there. He wanted to think of someplace he felt safe, the last place he'd felt safe so that he could go there now, emotionally if not physically. Somewhere this hadn't happened.There was that first time Nettie hugged him. Vin put himself back into that moment when she'd unexpectedly hugged him when she discovered he'd fixed the water pump on her car without being asked. That was a good, warm feeling.
Or there was when he'd gone hiking by himself up Rogers Rock, and came out into a clearing on the side of the mountain that gave him a view of eternity. That felt good, being by himself, in the relative wilderness, with the sun warming him and the breeze cooling him.
But what he found himself feeling safest in was the recent memory of sitting on Chris' deck, and Chris sitting beside him, asking 'are you okay?' Strange that it was a good memory, and the safest place, coming as it did after being hurt. But it was safe there, and Vin wanted to go there, and leave the rest of himself in the exam room with Nathan. But Nathan's voice kept calling him back.
+ + + + + + +
Nathan couldn't get Vin to admit that he'd been beaten, even though the proof was starkly evident in the bootprint on his back. He got tired of asking Vin what happened. Any question that started with "Did they...?" ended in "...I fell." Still, Nathan worried when Vin stopped saying even that. He'd gotten as far as examing the intricate laceration on the back of Vin's scalp when Vin went dully quiet.
"Vin?" Nathan tried for the second time. "How did you cut your head open?"
"I fell." Nathan gave in to an exasperated sigh. He came around to look into Vin's face.
"I KNOW you fell Vin." He spoke each word separately, deliberately. "How did you fall, what did you fall on that that tore your head open like this?"
...ha look at the mirror! you left a piece of his head on the mirror scalped him just like an Indian ha! look at him bleed - better get your turn before he bleeds to death...
"Mirror." Vin breathed out when he saw Nathan getting ready to ask again. "Cracked my head on the mirror over the sink...there was blood everywhere. Couldn't get away from the blood." He held his hands out, like he expected them to still be covered in it. Little pieces were falling off of him, Vin could feel it. He'd begun to quietly shatter, and there'd be no getting the fractures all back together again. "Had to walk through it, got it all over my carpet...don't know how they didn't get it all over them too..." Vin didn't even realized he'd said that.
Nathan didn't pounce on the statement like he wanted to; he just turned and wrote it down exactly in Vin's chart. "Allright Vin, you should be lying down. You lost a lot of blood, you're in shock. I can get a look at this laceration when you're lying down."
"Think I'm gonna be sick again Nathan."
"Allright Vin, keep the emesis basin next to you, I'll give you something for the nausea. You let me know if this hurts..." He helped Vin lay back, moving him carefully to keep his back straight and out of spasm, then turned him onto his side to give Nathan a clear view of the laceration. When Nathan looked up, Rain was in the doorway, dressed in a tank top and jogging pants. She silently motioned that she'd change and be right back. Nathan nodded that he understood.
"Don't want to feel this way anymore...," Vin said. His voice wavered. Couldn't stand feeling this way. Not physically or emotionally.
"It's okay Vin, we'll have you feeling better in no time."
+ + + + + + +
In a few minutes, dressed and in her white lab coat, Rain came into the exam room and read Vin's chart. Her eyes went from Nathan's notes to Vin, who didn't seem to know she was there.
"Nathan, can I consult with you a moment?" she asked. Vin gave no indication that he even heard her.
"Sure...what is it?" Nathan followed her out of the room, out of earshot, but both keeping an eye on Vin.
"You haven't asked him about sexual assault."
"What about it?" Nathan asked. His mind went in a dozen directions trying to make sense of her statement. Vin would never harm another person, why would Rain think this beating had something to do with Vin harming a woman?
"Nathan - read your own notes. Severe beating, multiple attackers, deep bruising and scratches - and that's just on his torso, emotional withdrawal...if a woman came here with these signs, that would be the first question we asked her."
"Yeah but this isn't a woman - this is Vin. He's a man." As though Rain might've forgotten that. She only shot Nathan a look and went back into the room. Nathan had never known Rain to be so far off base. He followed her back to Vin, waiting to have to apologize for Rain's misguided diagnosis. He'd never known her to be so wrong.
+ + + + + + +
This doctor's visit was not going the way Vin wanted. He'd hoped by now to be wrapped deep in the fog of pain killers, and unaware - if only temporarily - of the misery he was in. Instead, Nathan was asking questions Vin didn't want to answer, increasing his pain with every poke and query. The only good thing was that Nathan was so intent on getting Vin to admit he'd been attacked, the true nature of the attack would never occur to him. That was the only good thing so far. Maybe eventually, Vin would admit to getting beat up, and Nathan would be so relieved to finally have it out that he'd stitch up Vin and send him home with a prescription for strong painkillers.
Then Rain walked into his line of vision. She smiled down at him and laid her hand on top of his. "It seems you've had a most disagreeable day." Vin nodded. Rain couldn't be had with just a little information. She'd dig to China if she figured she didn't have the whole story. The shatters and fractures grew, and more little pieces fell away from Vin. He was being broken up and scattered on the waves of pain.
He should've just let them kill him. It would've been less painful than this.
"Vin - there is something I must ask you, then we can proceed with treating you." She hesitated briefly, to make sure Vin was paying attention. "When you were attacked, did they sexually assault you?"
"What?" The word dragged raw out of his throat, Vin hoped he sounded dismayed enough to be believed. But Rain would not be put off.
"Vin - were you raped?"
The words sprang again easily to his mind, but not as easily to his lips. "I fell," he insisted for the last time.
"We'll have to do blood tests for venereal disease, and if you have never had a hepatitis shot, I recommend you start them now," Rain continued, as though Vin had said yes. "And while you don't have to decide right now if you want to file a complaint with the police department..." This was getting too much for Vin. The calm efficiency in her voice was drilling holes in his head. "...we should collect as much evidence as we can. Check for semen..."
"They used condoms," Vin blurted.There it was, on the table, and no taking it back. Vin stared up at her, heard the sharp breath from Nathan behind him. Funny how, now that he'd admitted it, he didn't feel so nauseous. His mouth had gone dry and all he wanted was to be sitting back on Chris and Mary's deck, that first moment when Larabee had sat down beside him and easily touched him - You okay? That moment of friendship and concern would never come back, Vin knew. He'd be an outcast, now that all the little pieces of who he was, who he used to be, had fractured and fallen away. All that was left now was filth and shame.
But Rain continued to touch him, lifting her hand off his to lay it firmly on his shoulder. "Vin -" she leaned down closer to him. " There is much damage they might have done. Will you let us do what we have to, in order to treat you properly?"
Then the nausea came back and Vin swallowed it down, trying to nod over the lump it left in his throat.
"Okay," he finally agreed.
SEVEN
It seemed to Vin that the few hours it took Nathan and Rain to patch him up went by in a shrill of pain, humiliation, and prayer. Finally shedding his clothes for the inexact safety of an exam gown was bad enough, even done in relative privacy behind a hospital screen, and Rain kept up a consistent line of communication - what they were going to do, why it needed to be done, it wouldn't hurt, let them know if it did hurt - but the nakedness of his vulnerability went way beyond the literalness of exposed skin. He should've gone somewhere else, he told himself. Nathan and Rain were friends, but that just made it worse. Vin knew they'd never tell his secret, but he'd never be able to face them again, knowing that they knew, remembering all they had to do to him.Sending his mind and soul to his safe place became impossible through the long moments of revelation and agony, x-rays, blood work, and IV. Vin gritted his teeth and held on, answering minimally, keeping his eyes shut. All that kept him from crying out and fighting against his doctors, his friends, was thinking that the faster they could work, the sooner it would be over, the sooner Chris would be there again - You okay? - unknowingly helping Vin keep his fractured being whole.
+ + + + + + +
Finally the blessed words from Nathan: "Okay Vin, we're done here. You just rest, we want to keep an eye on you for a little while, till the IV is done and we're sure you're out of the dehydration." Vin nodded. Turned on his side, covered under two thermal blankets, his eyes were open, but he couldn't - wouldn't - look at Nathan. He kept his eyes firmly on the rail of the exam table pulled up to keep him safe. Nathan reached out to touch him, to reassure him, but after the prolonged, intimate contact of the exam and treatment, it was too much for Vin and he squirmed his shoulder to get away from it.
Nathan couldn't blame Vin, he was still in shock. They both were, in shock over what had happened to him. He doubted that Vin would ever let anyone touch him again. "The call light is here Vin, right next to your hand. You buzz us if you need anything, OK?" Another vacant nod. "One of us will be back in a little while to check on you."
Nathan left the little room and shut the door behind him. Rain was another room, going over Vin's x-rays. "How's he look?" he asked.
"Well, his nose isn't broken," Rain answered without taking her eyes off the dozen x-rays on the light panel in front of her. "Hairline fractures in two ribs, and a suspicious shadow on one of his vertebrae..."
"How did you guess what happened to him?" Nathan had to ask.
"I didn't 'guess' - remember I did my residency in New York City. If it was a crime, I saw the victim of it...do you think that looks like a fracture? Here..." she pointed to a vertebrae on the film in front of her.
"I can't believe you're taking it so calmly. That man's whole life has been destroyed."
Rain turned to look at Nathan like he'd suddenly renounced the Hippocratic Oath. "Nathan, I know it's a terrible thing to survive, but he will survive. He has survived and now he must recuperate. It's not the end of the world."
+ + + + + + +
Vin knew that his life was over. Laying on the exam table, all alone, he knew that everything that had been true about his life before was over and he'd have to start again, trying to build a new life with new truths and new expectations. He could forget about ever having a wife and a family, forget about the friends and relationships he had now. Everything was over. He was alone, and if he curled up and died right now, it wouldn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
The door to the exam room opened and Chris walked in. "You okay?" He came right up to Vin. "I didn't think they were ever going to let me back in here."
The sudden relief that Chris was back, and in the same room, talking to him, and obviously concerned about him almost overwhelmed Vin. He coughed once or twice, to hide that he didn't trust his voice.
"Guess I'll live."
"They take care of you? Neither of 'em will tell me what's going on. Kept spouting 'confidentiality' at me."
"Yeah, they took care of me." Vin's mind recoiled at the thought of what that had entailed. "Said I was dehydrated from throwin' up, gotta wait for the IV to be done. They finally gave me painkillers for my back, took about a billion x-rays. Didn't think they were gonna run outta tests to do on me." Life was a little less dismal with Chris nearby.
"Yeah, they did tell me you'd be here at least another hour. I called Mary, had her bump dinner back a couple hours...what else?"
"Nothin'." Did Chris have any idea?
"What about hitting your head? You got a concussion?"
"A little one they think...they stitched up the cut I got on my head hitting the mirror. They're looking at all my x-rays now, seeing what else I mighta busted up.They think maybe a coupla ribs."
Chris shook his head. "You got all this damage, just from falling in your bathroom?" His voice conveyed that he believed the story, that somehow only Vin could incur so much damage from something as slight as falling in a bathroom.
"Reckon I musta bounced," Vin offered.
"Yeah, I reckon...Nathan says you gotta rest awhile, it bother you if I sit in here with you and get some reading done?"
"Naah, that'd be fine..." At least one prayer answered. It gave Vin the impetus to ask: "What's up at school anyway? You didn't say in your message."
Chris was turned around, pulling the chair into a good spot when Vin said that. He turned back. "You got that message?"
"Yeah...that's why I was coming to your house...'cause you said you needed help..." Sort of a lie, not one hundred percent.
"You nearly kill yourself and you drove all the way to my house because I asked you to?" This too Chris believed, but it dismayed him.
"You said you needed help." Vin's voice was soft and earnest. He dropped his eyes and poked a little bit around the IV plug in the back of his hand. "Didn't figure I was this bad off..."
"Well..." Chris left the chair alone and came back to Vin. "Lucas James was arrested yesterday morning."
"Another prayer answered," Vin said.
"What?"
"Nothing - what'd they get him for?" It felt weird, but somehow comforting, to be talking about normal things with Chris.
"DUI, heroin or cocaine, something. Ezra was telling me -"
"Which means you weren't exactly paying attention," Vin said. He thought it must be the pain killers finally kicking that was making him relaxed enough to joke.
Chris shook his head. "I tell you, I paid pretty damn close attention once Ezra told me I'm supposed to run my department AND environmental services, till the Board figures out how to handle this."
"I bet - they wouldn't mind dumping Lucas, just can't stand to lose his Uncle's money..." Chris looked him over before answering.
"You're tired Vin...you should rest. We can talk about it later. Okay?" He patted Vin's shoulder lightly, and Vin steeled himself not to flinch. But it wasn't as bad as Nathan or Rain touching him. The feel of Chris' hand briefly, lightly touching him through the thermal blankets didn't make him cringe inside and wish he was anywhere else.
"Okay," Vin agreed. Chris brought his briefcase in from the hallway and shut the door to the exam room. He sat in the chair near the exam table and pulled out a binder of policies and procedures to go over. Vin shut his eyes and tried to put himself back on Rogers Rock, or Chris' deck, or anywhere that wasn't here. Even so, the part of his brain that still functioned reasonably well sifted through the problem at school.
"Should talk to Gloria," Vin said after awhile. "Mrs. Potter. She's in charge of Housekeeping. She was anyway, till Lucas took over. Turned her position pretty much into a glorified secretary. She does all the time cards and scheduling, for all three departments. She'd be an awful lotta help."
"Okay, I'll do that." Chris made a note to himself. He was glad that Vin felt well enough to talk. The way he'd been looking all day, Chris was surprised he was still conscious. They went back to resting and reading. A few minutes later, Chris'cell phone rang; he grabbed it out of his briefcase.
"Hello?"
"Chris! Is Vin with you?"
"Nettie? How'd you know where we are?" Chris saw Vin's eyes fly open at the mention of her name.
"I called Mary." Nettie sounded uncharacteristically upset. "I was expecting to hear from Vin today, and when I didn't - - well, I just - - is there with you? Mary said you took him to Nathan...is he allright? Can I talk with him?"
"Well, he's resting now Nettie, I'll see if he's up to a conversation..." Chris' eyes posed the question, and Vin took a while answering. Finally he nodded and Chris couldn't help but notice that Vin's hand shook as he held it out for the little phone.
The moment had come when Vin had to talk to Nettie. Explain where he'd been last night, and this morning, where he was now and why. More prayers were sent up as swift as they could go as Vin took a breath.
"Hi Nettie..."
"Honey, are you allright?"
"I'm okay, a little banged up. I fell..."
"Fell?" Nettie sounded clearly confused.
"Yeah, last night, when I was takin' a shower. I fell gettin' outta the tub, don't know how." Vin didn't know if he should be pleased or not that the lie was coming out so smoothly. "Cracked my head something fierce on the mirror. Bleedin' like crazy all over the place."
"You should've called me honey." But her voice still carried a trace of that confusion. "I thought maybe you got called into work last night, but when I still didn't hear from you by this afternoon, I didn't know what to think. Maria's mother told me she hadn't seen you - -"
"You didn't go into my apartment, did you?" Vin all but demanded. There came an icy silence on the other end of the phone before Nettie answered stiffly.
"No Vin. I didn't go into your apartment."
Vin regretted his tone. "I'm sorry Nettie - - I didn't mean anything. I just been havin' problems with the lock on the front door. Don't catch if you don't shut it just right. Sometimes."
"No honey, it's allright. I was just worried about you." The confusion was gone. Now her voice carried only concern. "I didn't mean to upset you...will you be coming home after Nathan's?"
"Don't know. Might...," he hesitated to say it, because they hadn't talked about it. "...might go to Chris' for the night...not too steady on my feet just yet." Vin was relieved when Chris looked up from his binder long enough to nod his agreement with that idea.
"Allright honey. I'll let you go then. You call me from Chris' if you need anything. Let me know how you're doing."
"I will Nettie." Vin breathed in relief that Nettie had bought the lie so easily. They said goodbye and Vin handed the phone back.
+ + + + + + +
Nettie hung up the phone and looked around the little apartment. Vin was never the world's best housekeeper, but this was beyond even his clutter. Books pushed off shelves, mail torn open and scattered, CD's jumbled and laying loose on the floor.
And that mess in the bathroom.
She took one more look in there, kicking the towel back over the blood where she'd pulled it up like sticky tape, and pushing the wastepaper basket and its mute evidence back into place. Vin was lying to her and she figured she knew why. He was safe as long as he was with Larabee, and she could keep tabs on him.
With one more look around, Nettie left Vin's apartment and went back to her home.
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