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Driver sat in his car, the pain from being stabbed starting to subside from the adrenaline.
His thoughts were blank. He didn't know what to do, where to go, how to fix this.
He sighed. "Fuck it" he thought.
He hobbled out of the car, into the trunk, and dropped the money next to the body that was growing cold on the ground.
He paused for a minute, debating on taking some of the money and giving it to Irene.
Maybe he could apologize?
No, what he did in front of her in the elevator solidified it.
It was over, he had no chance anymore.
He turned on his heel and got in his car, still holding his side as he turned the car on and drove away, leaving the money and the body.
He debated just skipping town right there, never seeing this place again, but he had to clean himself up and gather some belongings.
He drove the familiar route home, and pulled into his spot in the parking garage.
Noting that Irene's car was there.
He wanted to see her.
he wished he could see her.
He couldn't.
He had called, that was the best he could do.
Holding his side and pressing forward he got in the elevator and pressed his floor number.
Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the pain was coming back.
He collapsed against the wall of the elevator, throwing his head back as he let out a strangled breath.
God it hurt so much.
He heard the elevator ding, so he pushed himself off the wall and started to wobble down the hall.
He fell against the wall, bracing himself to continue to his room.
Just a little further.
As he was about to push off the wall and continue forward he heard a gasp and then footsteps.
Irene.
She was in the hall and happened to pass by at just the right moment.
She ran up to him.
Not knowing what to do she reached out to grab his arm.
Driver had no will to fight. He let her put his arm around her shoulders and carry him to her apartment.
She placed him against the wall and fumbled to open the door.
Driver could tell he had lost a lot of blood, he was starting to feel light headed and woozy.
Irene grabbed him again and led him through the door.
"Benicio go to your room now." She told the kid sitting on the floor.
He was playing with some toys before they walked in.
He looked up, saw Driver, and ran to his room.
Poor kid.
"Here uhm- sit on the couch." Irene says as she helps Driver sit.
He falls with a thud, holding his side harder now and laying his head on the wall.
"One second." Irene says as she hurries off.
Driver cant think, his mind is blank, all he sees and hear is pain.
His entire body is throbbing, his ears are almost ringing, and he cant really think at all.
He tries to think, think about how he doesn't want Irene to see him like this.
About how he should get up and leave.
He holds onto that last thought and tries to push himself up.
Irene walks in just then and kneels down beside him.
"Woah hey, don't move." She says, pushing him back down onto the couch.
Driver just sighs.
"Can you- take your shirt off?" She almost whispers.
Right yeah, wound on his side, shirt blocking it.
Driver moves to take his jacket off, he struggles with it so Irene helps.
He tosses his jacket to the other side of the couch, and reaches for his shirt.
He takes one hand, grabs the hem on the bottom, and pulls it up and over his head, tossing it over by his jacket.
He leans back onto the couch again with a groan of pain.
He closes his eyes as he feels Irene's delicate hand move his from the wound.
He puts both his hands down by his side, gripping the couch.
Her fingers are cold. A stark contrast to his overheated body.
Now he can only focus on her hands, softly touching him.
Her hands pull away and he almost whines at the loss.
He opens his eyes and looks down at her. Shes gathering some rubbing alcohol and cotton balls, pouring the liquid onto the cotton.
"This is gonna hurt." She warns.
Driver just nods and braces himself.
She brings the cotton ball up to his side and presses down to wipe some blood away.
Driver hisses in pain, gripping the sofa harder, and throwing his head back as his eyes close.
"I know I'm sorry." She whispers to him.
Her hands and her soft voice give him something to focus on, other than the intense sting of the alcohol.
She continues to dab around the wound, cleaning blood away as she goes.
She stops, thinking its good enough, and reaches for some gauze.
Driver takes a deep breath in and opens his eyes again, looking at her once more.
She grabs a handful of gauze, "Here hold this on it." She says as she hands it to Driver.
He obeys and puts it onto his side. Watching her as she grabs some bandages.
She starts to unroll it, "sit forward a bit."
Driver moves his body off the couch and sits forward, sitting up as straight as he can.
He lifts his arms up, and with no where to put them, sets them on his head.
Irene presses the bandage onto the gauze and starts to roll it around him.
Driver can feel her uneven breath on his chest.
God he cant think of anything right now.
He looks down at Irene as she finishes wrapping the bandage.
She reaches for some scissors and cuts it, grabbing tape and taping it in place.
She sits back and puts everything back into her makeshift first aid kit.
Driver falls back onto the couch, eyes never leaving Irene.
Shes so beautiful.
She looks up at him, finding him already looking, and blushes as she looks away.
She stands, grabbing the first aid kit and pulling it closed.
She walks away around the corner to put it away.
Driver looks down at his side, its all bandaged in white.
Almost like it never happened.
Irene comes around the corner, pausing for a second before deciding to sit next to him.
She plops down on the couch, facing him.
Driver turns so hes facing her.
"Want to explain?" She says, slightly nervous and irritated.
Driver sighs as he looks at her. Where does he start?
"I got stabbed." He says flatly.
"Yeah i see that!" she exclaims, "what happened??" She tilts her head a bit, looking for answers in the man of few words.
Theres a pause, so she fills it.
"I got your call." she starts, "your here, so what- what the hell?"
She's perplexed and angry, also worried, which is justified.
He had left her a message that said he had the best time of his life with her, but that he wouldn't be coming back. Now here he is, back.
"I went to meet someone." He looks into her eyes, "I didn't think id come back alive. Or come back here at least." He sighs.
Theres another pause before he continues, "the last guy who wanted the money told me to meet him. So I did. When we made a deal I took him to my car and then he stabbed me." He pauses, not wanting to tell her the next part.
"So I dealt with it, and left the money next to him on the ground. I was going to come back home to clean up, then skip town, until you saw me." He sighs.
"You shouldn't be involved, I should be a state over by now." Driver looks down as he closes his eyes with a huff.
"You cant just-" She pauses as shes trying to decide if she should say her next words.
Whatever.
"You cant just kiss me like that and then leave." She says quietly, searching for his face.
Driver opens his eyes, a small smile forming on his lips.
"You liked it?" He teases quietly, looking up at her.
"That-" she starts as her face heats up, "doesn't matter." She says looking away.
Driver smiles, she's cute when she's flustered.
"I'm still mad at you for what you did in the elevator." She says, looking back at him as she raises her hand to point.
"In my defense he was going to kill us."
"How did you know?" She says dropping her hand in her lap.
She knew he had to have had a reason to do that, but she didn't think of that somehow.
"Had a gun in his coat" Driver replies flatly.
They look into each others eyes for a minute.
Her eyes had a faint glow to them.
He noticed they tended to glow a bit when she looked at him.
Irene looks away, taking a breath.
"So you went to meet this guy, and he's-" She holds up her hands to make air quotes, "dealt with," she drops her hands again, "and you left the money. So are you done?"
He takes a second to think, "I'm not sure. I don't know if anyone else knows I'm tied to it, but there's no finger prints or anyone- that i know of -alive to say anything."
He looks back into her eyes.
She nods slowly.
"So you can stay here?" she says quietly.
Driver smiles, "its a bit risky, but yeah."
Irene smiles at that.
"Ill keep you and Benicio safe." Driver promises.
She nods again and smiles at him.
Driver can't help but admire her.
He has a small smile as they look at each other.
He wants to kiss her again. Kissing her in the elevator was the best thing he had ever experienced.
Until he had to smash someones head open.
Irene's eyes fall down to his lips for a second before looking back up. Her smile starts to fade.
Drivers does too, he realizes he had been staring at her lips on accident.
He also realized that Irene had somehow gotten a bit closer.
He glances down at the little distance between them, "can I kiss you?" Driver whispers as he looks back up at her.
Her breathing is uneven and heavy, "yes." She whispers.
Driver reaches his hand up and cups her cheek. She basically falls into his hand as she inches forward.
Her ha find his jaw as he leans forward. They are inches apart, breathing in each others air.
Driver closes the distance and their lips lock together.
Its like heaven all over again.
His hand travels to the back of her head as he tangles his hands in her hair.
Her other hand comes up and grasps onto his shoulders.
He gives her hair a light tug to angle her better, and she whimpers into his mouth.
She grips his shoulders tighter.
Sure driver had one night stands, and hookups, but this was different.
This felt different.
Irene was about to crawl on top of him, and he groaned.
Not a good groan though, a groan of pain.
Driver pulls away suddenly, bringing his hand to his side.
His head falls back a bit as he catches his breath.
He shouldn't go any further.
God he wants too, and the bulge in his pants make that obvious.
He wouldn't be able to stop himself, and Benicio is in the other room.
"Did- did I do something wrong?" Irene asks breathless, falling back down onto the couch.
Her hand falls from his shoulder onto his chest.
"No- no, I just-" he pauses, "I don't know if id stop if we continued." He whispers.
Irene's eyes widen as she stares at him, a blush creeping up her face.
"o-oh." she whispers, surprised.
Driver searches her face, looking for any signs of disappointment.
He finds that she does seem disappointed, but understanding.
"and I just got stabbed. probably not a good idea." Driver whispers, trying to lighten the mood.
Irene lets out a breathy laugh, "yeah- not the best idea." She agrees.
"I can walk you to your apartment?" She offers, starting to stand.
Driver doesn't want to leave, he would rather stay here with her.
Though its probably not the best idea to leave her and Benicio alone.
She reaches her hand out for him to take,
"I don't want to leave you alone. Someone could hurt you."
She takes a breath in, "right-"
"I can stay on the couch." Driver says, starting to lay down.
"No no, come lay down in bed." Irene reaches to stop him from laying.
"I don't want to take your bed." Driver responds firmly.
"It's fine, I insist. It's better than the lumpy couch, and I don't want you to hurt yourself more." Irene holds her hand out once more for him to take.
Driver looks at her hand, then back up at her.
Hes not going to win this fight.
He takes her hand and stands up.
He stands too fast and wobbles a bit.
Irene catches him and goes to his side, stabilizing him.
"Don't fall on me." She teases.
Driver smiles as he's led to her room.
Under different circumstances, he would be very excited right now.
But all he feels is a twinge of guilt for taking her bed.
Maybe she would still sleep with him?
That would be a bad idea waiting to happen.
Irene guides Driver to her room.
She lets go of him to open the door and swing it open.
It was almost like a gust of her was thrown at him. Her room immediately smelled like her, and he cant lie and say he didn't get a little harder.
He groans as he holds his side, leaning into Irene further.
She takes his hand again and takes him to her bed.
She helps him lay down on the side closest to the door.
As he goes down he has to adjust a few times to get into a spot that isn't painful.
Driver gets into a pretty comfortable spot on his back, not too much pressure on his side, and still comfortable.
Holy shit her bed is so comfy.
He basically melts into her bed further, almost knocking out right there.
All this has made him exhausted.
"You get some rest, I'll be on the couch if you need anything, okay?" Irene says as she starts towards the door.
"wait-" driver croaks out, "your not sleeping on the couch?" He questions her.
"Well I- didn't want to bother you or hurt you or make you uncomfortable-" she stumbles out.
"No, get over here." He says softly.
"If I'm sleeping here, so are you."
She wants to argue, and she tries too, but driver raises his finger and wags it back and forth.
Nope.
"Both in here, or I'm on the couch." Driver says.
Irene sighs loudly.
"Let me get Benicio ready for bed." She says in defeat, leaving the room.
Shes cute when shes mad.
Driver has to concentrate really hard on not falling asleep immediately. He wants to make sure she comes in here, and doesn't take the couch.
That wouldn't be fair, him taking her bed and shoving her to the couch.
It should be the other way around.
He shouldn't even be here at all really.
He hears Benicio argue about going to bed, argue about brushing his teeth, and argue throughout the whole process basically.
The only part he doesn't argue is putting his pajamas on.
Who would argue about putting comfier clothes on?
Hes got his priorities straight, thats for sure.
Irene finally wrangles him to his room after all his bedtime chores, and says goodnight to him.
She comes back in her room, shutting the door quietly.
The light dims as she closes the door, leaving her silhouette behind.
She starts to walk towards the bed, taking cautious steps.
Shes being so careful.
She's so sweet.
God Driver is fucked.
Hes holding together by a thread at this point. Hes so exhausted he's barely keeping his eyes open.
Irene walks to the other side of the bed, and lays down slowly.
Driver almost immediately knocks out when he feels her weight beside him.
She was in her bed, not on the couch.
He can sleep now.
.
Irene is trying to stay as still as she can, afraid to move or breathe wrong and hurt him again.
She hears a soft snore beside her.
He's already asleep?
Well he did get stabbed, so he's probably exhausted and needs rest.
She turns over onto her side, looking at Driver.
Hes so mysterious.
So dangerous.
She doesn't even know his name.
That all just excites her more.
She wants to learn all about him.
His favorite food, his favorite color, what he likes to do during the day, what his first job was, when he got his drivers license, what lead him into stunt driving.
The list of what she wants to know is endless.
She looks down at his chest and realizes she somehow forgot hes not wearing a shirt.
Oh my god he looks good.
Not ripped, but not unfit either. A good in between.
Hes got stamina and strength, but not a crazy amount.
Just what she likes.
She cant help but stare. He is really nice to look at.
Especially in this low lighting.
The contours of his face are lit up just right, same with his muscles.
It looks like hes glowing.
Maybe he is.
Hes so beautiful.
Hes so soft.
Irene realizes that she's fucked.
She finally feels herself drifting into sleep. The last thing she sees is Driver lit up so beautifully it makes her teeth hurt.
She sighs as she drifts off.
She could get used to this.
If this started to become her everyday, she wouldn't complain.
She would be happy.