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She hated cases like these, the ones that would bring up memories, nightmares and unwanted thoughts.
She was sitting in bed, Jay was in the shower, they’d eaten dinner after their conversation and decided they should both just get some sleep since it had been a long day,
‘I’m not going anywhere Hailey’ kept rattling around inside her head, and the words ‘I love you’
This was finally an ‘I love you’ that wasn’t followed by an ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘it won’t happen again’
It always did.
The endless loop of ‘I love you I’m sorry’ a cuddle given and sometimes a present bought the next day, but by the evening time, when he was six whisky’s in, it would happen again.
She sighed. She was exhausted all she wanted to do was go to sleep, Becca was okay. She should be good but like Voight has said ‘the bruised part of her’ had been poked and probed she felt like an offender having their past used against them to get answers.
The shower switched off, she immediately grabbed her book from the bedside table, she didn’t even look at the page as she flipped it open and pretended to read.
“Good book?” Jay asked as he wandered into the bedroom, just wearing sweatpants and a towel wrapped around his neck,
“Hmm?”
“Book”
“Oh yeah, it’s good, sorry I must have been too interested,” she forces a soft laugh out, she watches as Jay pulls a clean shirt out of the couple of draws Hailey had given him,
“Must of,” he agrees.
He gets into bed next to her, places his watch he has brought in with him onto the bedside table next to the lamp and makes sure to turn his alarm off, they had the day off tomorrow and he didn’t feel like waking up at seven am when he didn’t need to.
He leans over and kisses her temple, “I love you, so much hail”
“I love you too,” she whispers back to him, and his face splits into a lopsided smile which in turn makes her smile for the first time all day,
“You going to be able to sleep?” he asked his girlfriend,
“Yeah, yeah I’ll be able to, go to sleep Jay, I’ll be fine” she reassured him,
“If you’re sure”
“I am”
“Okay, Goodnight, baby,” he kisses her head one last time before settling down under the covers,
“Night Jay,” she imitates Jay's actions she pulls herself under the covers and when he turns the lights off she closes her eyes.
Even though she’s not going to be sleeping.
Jay had stayed awake for a while she could hear his uneven breathing,
“You sure you’re okay?” He questioned, it had been an hour since they had said goodnight, his arm was thrown over her waist,
“Yeah, I just can’t get to sleep I-I just keep thinking about little Becca” she quickly makes an excuse to him,
“We could go and see her tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice,”
“Wanna try and sleep?” he asked her and she nodded to him, turning to have her back to him and he understood,
——
She had been tossing and turning for a couple of hours before she fell into a restless sleep,
“Come on, Dora” she heard her dad’s slurred words bounce off of the walls of the kitchen as she wandered closer to the stairs, moving to sit on the top step. Her brothers were out, like normal probably at their friend's house if it was a weekend they were never home, which never meant anything good for her.
“Niko you don’t need anymore,”
“Give it back, Dora.” And then she heard a smash on the floor,
“Now look what you’ve done!” Hailey heard him scream at her and then the slam of the fridge.
Another beer.
She could hear his heavy footsteps coming towards the hallway and she knew she was next,
“Hailey, why you up?”
“Uh, I-I was jus-just,” the thirteen-year-old stuttered,
“You were just what?” She didn’t even answer him she ran up the hallway towards her bedroom and standing in the closed doorway holding the with her small body,
“How dare you!” she could hear him walking after her,
“Open this door right now!” Niko was banging on the door, she couldn’t hold him forever,
“I’m sorry, please I’m so sorry,” she begged. It never worked.
“Open the door right now!”
“I’ll break it down, Hailey. This is my house. How dare you disrespect me in my own house!” Hailey opened the door. It would make whatever was next a tiny bit better,
“Now. Why were you up?”
“I was just going to g-get a drink, I’m sorry,”
“You should have been asleep.”
“I know, I know”
“You never. Ever do as I ask,”
And before she could react, he had grabbed her arm, twisting it slightly so she couldn’t get away and he pushed her towards her wardrobe, she cried out in pain,
“That didn’t ’urt,”
And just as he raised his hand up to strike her in the face.
She woke up.
She pulled herself up into a sitting position, she swiped a hand along the back of her neck and forehead she was sweating badly, and she tried ti catch her breath,
“Hey, hey you’re okay hails,” she felt Jay gently whisper against the side of her head,
She couldn’t speak or breathe, she brought her hand up to her chest, her t-shirt -Jay's t-shirt- and as covered in sweat,
She didn’t even realise Jay had gotten out of bed as he kneeled in front of her.
When did she move to sit over the edge of the bed?
“Come on, baby” he reached his hand out to her and beckoned her to come with him, he had already grabbed clean clothes for her, and he continued to lead her to the bathroom,
He helped her out of her sweat-soaked clothes, stripped himself down and helped her into the shower stall, he wound his arms around her waist and pulled her to his chest,
“You’re okay” he rubbed his hands over her arms, and she just turned into his chest pressing her cheek to it, Jay just moved his arms to hold her closer.
“You’re so strong. You’re amazing, I love you so much. You’re safe,” he reassured her and then continued,
“Wanna talk about it?” he gently asked her, Hailey just shook her head against him,
“Okay, you don’t have to” he kissed the top of her head,
—
After ten minutes they finally got out of the shower and Jay helped her get dressed into his clothes that he had brought with them, he pulled his clothes on to himself and then grabbed her hand to lead her back to the bedroom, he encouraged her to sit on the chair in the side of the room while he continued to change the bedsheets.
“Hail?”
“Hmm?”
“Come back to bed, baby,” reaching his hand out to his girlfriend, she got into bed next to him and he immediately wrapped his arms around her body, holding her in between his legs. She settled down on his chest, face pressed to him and her hands were gripping onto his t-shirt.
“You didn’t need to do that,” he heard her muffled voice say,
“What?”
“All of-,” she cut herself off by waving her hand over the now clean bed,
“Hailey. I love you, I wanted to do this, let me help you,” he leaned his cheek to the top of her damp hair,
“Love you too,”
“We don’t have to talk about it tonight, wanna try and sleep again?, I’ll be here,” he rubbed his hands over her back, she didn’t even answer him she just curled into his chest more.
She was loved.
She was safe.
Finally.