Chapter Text
Crack
The sound of impact was a tennis ball connecting to the bridge of Sadie's nose.
"Oh my god." Kathrine yelled out as Sadie's hands covered her face, her racket falling to the floor of the Hastings’ tennis court.
Sadie spun around so that her back was to Katherine as the older woman started jogging over to her with her mouth open a bit from shock.
"I'm fine." The instructor called out, but it sounded panicked and muffled from the hands still holding the spot where the tennis ball smacked her straight on.
"You don't sound fine." Kathrine insisted, quickly walking around the court net and trying to get a better look at her. Once she reached Sadie, blood was already dripping down onto the pristine white of her fitted polo shirt.
"I'm just–I’m just going to go now." She announced weakly, taking a few distancing steps back from Katherine. The hand on her face adjusted a bit and more blood came pooling out, causing Sadie to give a small whimper.
Katherine didn't wait for her to bleed even more on literally everything, guiding her–with a hand on her elbow and another on Sadie's lower back–into the house.
On the way to the kitchen, Katherine had one of the staff get paper towels and an ice pack. Two white pills were being shoved in her hands along with a glass of water. Sadie took them with extreme difficulty and then they were moving upstairs, which Sadie had never been before, to one of the bathrooms.
She tried an escape once more, mumbling about a hospital but the words were garbled and Katherine had already called their private doctor to be here. Twenty minutes, tops, was what she confirmed with Sadie.
This was mortifying, really. Sadie was supposed to be the professional one, the sober one, the one that was going to fine tune Katherine's tennis skills–not the one that was bleeding out onto a very expensive sink while Katherine all but doted on her. Wetting paper towels and applying pressure and trying to get the bleeding to stop. This was mortifying.
"I don't know what happened." Sadie said, her voice warped and nasally. It wasn't true though, Sadie knew what happened. She got distracted–
"I hit you in the face with a tennis ball." Katherine replied flatly, but still her tone was softer in this room, with her watching Sadie's face intently.
"No, I mean–...I'm sorry." She relented, just needing to say it because if she hadn't been watching Kathrine's body movements in the least most helpful or professional way–
"Finally, you apologize." Katherine's smile was also soft when Sadie met her gaze, and it was a little more than she could handle at the moment.
She was handed an ice pack eventually to replace the towels, once the bleeding stopped. Then Katherine left the bathroom and Sadie wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed, but she took a few deep steadying breaths regardless. She was starting to calm her nerves though and wasn't sure if that was due to the painkillers she took downstairs.
Katherine reemerged with a neatly folded stack of clothes.
"These should fit...well enough."
Sadie shook her head.
"Thank you, but I'm fine."
"You look like a crime scene." Katherine countered, sounding a little flabbergasted that Sadie was declining her offer. The tennis instructor tried to look down at the state her clothes were in but the slightest tilt of her head made pain rush back through her brain. Sadie settled on the mirror to see the crimson streaks and drops painted down her shirt and even on her white tennis skirt. Great she thought, now trying to figure out how she was going to get out of the tight polo she had on without making her nose start bleeding.
"Well, I'll just let you–" Katherine started, taking a few steps towards the door to the bathroom and Sadie cursed a few times in her head before stopping the other woman's departure.
"Wait." Katherine did and Sadie took a few breaths. "I need help with my shirt."
"Oh."
That was the reaction Sadie expected, followed by her going to get one of the people on her staff to help her clean up the rest of the way. Katherine didn't leave though, only fidgeting a bit before making a decision and grabbing the hem of Sadie's shirt, giving it a fast pull. That made Sadie panic a bit for the sake of her broken nose, putting her free hand on top of Katherine's to stop her movements. Which she did, pulling back with a jump as if she was burned.
"Slow."
Katherine nodded, then took a step closer to rest her hands on Sadie's hips. She didn't grab at her shirt this time, only dragged her hands up slowly, collecting the fabric as her fingertips traced her ribs and that–that was much worse for Sadie, closing her eyes tightly and choosing not to watch Katherine's face as she worked the shirt off of her. Sadie helped once it was time to pull it over her head, and it was awkward and hurt, but mostly successful.
Katherine didn't immediately reach for the replacement shirt, which was fine. Sadie needed a minute to readjust her ice pack and take a breath as the pain started to turn into fuzzy waves. The pills she took were doing their work and Sadie just let herself feel it for a moment. Maybe she could think of every moment before this moment that she had fucked up so badly, to end up here.
She cracked her eyes open to look at Katherine and even if she didn't know–which she very much did know–how hard her nipples were at the moment, she would have known by the way Katherine was staring at her chest. She was just in her skirt and white sports bra at that point, and the bathroom air along with the ice pack was giving her goosebumps and other side effects.
Sadie just closed her eyes again and let Katherine stare.
It felt good not looking up into the light fixture, and she figured it was fitting. Sadie was staring at Katherine's tits when the tennis ball came hurtling towards her face. And before that–this morning when she was showering and thinking about exactly the same thing–touching herself to exactly that. Sadie figured Katherine deserved to stare as long as she wanted. Though the memory of it did make Sadie's breathing pick up, her stomach twitching at the feeling of eyes on her.
Sadie took the risk of removing her ice pack, and when she straightened out her neck it didn't hurt like it had before.
Katherine was staring at her, with a blush creeping up her chest.
"Do you..." the housewife started but lost her voice. Sadie just watched her patiently. "Do you need help with your skirt?"
Katherine's phone buzzed loudly, breaking themselves out of the thick moment. She grabbed the phone in an almost desperate attempt to distract herself.
"The Doctor's here."
"I'll be out in a minute." Sadie said, giving Katherine an out, which she took after a second of deliberating.
The shirt Katherine gave her was a button up, thank God. The print was a pretty atrocious floral and the blue shorts did not match, but it did fit her, mostly.
Sadie didn't do herself the disservice of looking in the mirror on her way out of the bathroom, leaving the same door that Katherine did. Which did not lead her back to the upstairs hallway like she thought, because of course this house was a maze. The bathroom was large and Sadie was now realizing it was the master bath because now she was in the master bedroom. Katherine was nowhere to be found, so Sadie took her time looking around the space before planning her next move. The space was meticulously tidy and clean, but it was still lived in–Sadie's eyes caught on a vanity with some gold jewelry pieces that she recognized adoringly the sloping neckline of Katherine's dresses.
She regretted getting her nose broken for a number of reasons, but at the moment it was because she couldn't smell a thing. This room probably smelled like Katherine in a dizzying way. Fresh citrus and mint. It suited her for all the cocktails she'd have during the day, but mixed with the light scent of sweat–it would have such a chokehold over her.
"Sadie?"
The sound of Katherine's voice, with the slightest lilt of annoyance, caused Sadie to spin towards the main bedroom door, feeling utterly caught–even though she was just standing in the middle of the room. The quick movement towards her voice made her cringe a bit in pain.
"The doctor's downstairs."
"Right." Sadie looked back towards the bathroom then back towards Katherine. "I got turned around."
The older woman's eyebrows knitted, taking some steps to close the space between them. Sadie froze again, mentally asking a slew of questions that never gained a voice. Katherine kept watching her, intently, reaching up with a crooked finger to the underside of Sadie's chin, tilting her head up and their eyes meeting. She was examining Sadie’s face, the bloody openness of it feeling too vulnerable for Katherine to be this close to. Panic alarms were going off inside Sadie, but she stayed very still.
Katherine smirked.
Sadie wanted to die.
"Those pain pills I gave you were pretty strong, huh?" She said, looking from one of Sadie's eyes to the other before taking a step back and letting the other woman take in a steadying breath.
"Follow me and don't fall down the stairs," Katherine started walking out of the bedroom and Sadie did her best to keep up with her. "I'll never hear the end of it if I have to call an ambulance."
The doctor was young and exactly the kind of doctor a rich person would have on call. He charmed his way through an examination, bandaged Sadie up and gave Katherine another bottle of pain pills with a smile.
It was still daylight out when Katherine walked Sadie to the guest room she would be staying in, and it couldn't come fast enough. Sadie was drowsy and ready to lay her head down, and maybe forget this day ever happened–maybe if she was really lucky she'd forget the last year or so.
She guided Sadie to the bed, who dropped down onto it with a thump.
"Stay as long as you need." Katherine offered, playing with the rings on her hands nervously. Sadie just smiled and gave a bit of a salute, ready for this to be over.
Even if she didn't forget today though, she still wouldn't learn her lesson because at this point, Katherine was wearing the fuck out a house dress that was cut low and Sadie would be thinking about those tits for as long as her consciousness lasts.
–
The next morning Sadie snuck out of the property without having to face the consequence of the day before, going to the tennis court and getting her rackets before pausing with her bag in hand. She looked down at the lone tennis ball that had just a few spots of her blood on it.
She picked it up and took it home with her.