Twenty Minutes
Title:Twenty minutes
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Character/Pairings: Lacey Harkness, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones, pre Lacey/Owen
Series: Just A Human with Two Hearts
Setting: Between Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Sleeper
Rating: R for violence and Non-con
Warnings: This story features physical and sexual assault. If these are triggers for you, please, please skip this story. You won't hurt my feelings, honest.
Summary: In Twenty minutes between your car breaking down and your friend coming to get you, anything can happen, and it usually doesn't belong in a Romantic Comedy
Notes: Written for the hc_bingo Prompt: Assault.
She should have known it was going to be a bad day when her gun jammed and the car she’d borrowed from Owen broke down. Cardiff wasn’t necessarily a crime ridden cesspool like some of the places she’d been to, and she didn’t exactly live in the poor side of town, but she’d been out on a job for Jack and was stuck out in the bad side of town without a car. She’d called the Hub, and Ianto was on his way to pick her up, but that still left her with twenty minutes to kill while she waited.
She didn’t want to wait in the car because it was a stuffy evening and she couldn’t get the Air conditioning running since it was as dead as the alien in the trunk she’d been sent to retrieve. So she sat on the bonnet, her phone out as she texted back and forth to Owen, complaining that it was his fault their car broke down. That lasted five minutes before she was on the phone talking to him, the silence around her that night driving her a little batty. She paused midsentence about their weekend plans.
“Lacey? Everything all right?”
“Yeah, fine, just thought I heard something, that’s all. Where was I? Oh, yeah, no, I don’t want Italian this weekend, I know, faint away from shock. I’m thinking French. And I don’t mean that lousy French place around the corner. I mean somewhere high class. Possibly even in France, Doc owes me several favors, a short trip to Paris is not out of the realm of possibilities.”
Owen chuckled on the other end. “You know, we have about a week’s worth of vacation coming up, we could always bug Jack into getting those temps from UNIT early and just fly out there like normal people?” He was back at the flat, still on half days because of the gunshot wound in his side. He had mostly healed and the stitches were out, but he was milking it for all he could. “What do you think? A real vacation.” He leaned back against the arm of the sofa, waiting for an answer. When several seconds passed, without even a sound from her, he moved the phone from his ear. “Stupid signal.” He muttered, “Never works out in the field.” He dialed her back, concerned when the phone went to voicemail. He shrugged, trying to ignore the twisting in his gut that told him something was very, very wrong. She’d call back once she got signal again.
Lacey looked at her phone that lay broken on the ground, before looking back at the half crazed man with the bat. She reached up with a shaking hand to her head where he had hit her, pulling it away red with blood. She got to her feet, slowly, her head already swimming though it didn’t hurt. “I have a mean older brother on his way here right now. I’d suggest walking away right now, and I’ll just tell him I was trying to do a stupid trick on my car and fell.” She watched him carefully.
He didn’t say anything just approached her again, swinging the bat at her. She threw her arm up to protect her face, screaming in agony as her arm broke. When he tried to swing again, Lacey was able to grab the bat with her uninjured arm and fling it aside. “What do you want?” she asked, the panic rising in her voice. “If it’s money, here,” she reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet. “Take it, just, go, leave me alone.” She waited, the wallet in her hand, for him to take it and leave her alone.
The man looks down at the wallet, as if unfamiliar with the object, and she idly wondered if an alien or something possessed him. She didn’t have time to wonder for long before the man knocked the wallet out of her hand, the mere presence disgusting to him and slammed her against the wall. She gave a little cry, dazed from the second injury to her head. She only barely registered the man pinning her arms above her head. Where was Ianto? Hadn’t it been twenty minutes yet? She glanced down when she heard what sounded like a zipper. He had his pants undone. The zip she’d heard was he undoing hers. “No!” She cried, the first real tears starting to fall. “No please, stop. No.” She wriggled in his iron grip, trying to break free. She brought a knee up to hit him in the groin, but he knocked it away, moving to pin her legs with his own and still be able to penetrate. “Help!” She screamed. “Somebody, Help me!”
He slapped her hard with his free hand, the force knocking the woman’s head to the side. She bit her cheek in the process, and spit the blood out on his face, which just led him to slap her again. She whimpered when he thrust inside her. She stopped struggling, knowing that would just make it worse, but inside she felt like she was dying. She knew she was probably going to die. She only hoped she’d regenerate, because she hadn’t gone to Paris with Owen and he just promised they’d go, didn’t he?
She did her best to control her body’s natural reaction to intercourse, but even a Time Lord can only do so much to control their own instincts. She bit her lip to keep any moans, or other noises from escaping, she wouldn’t give the bastard the satisfaction. She could taste blood in her mouth and she didn’t know if it was from biting her cheek earlier or from her lip, and she didn’t care. Her head was throbbing, her arm ached and the bastard was using her to get off.
Then he was being pulled off her so quickly she fell forward, the man the only thing that had actually been keeping her upright. She threw her hands in front of her instinctively only remembering the broken arm when she cried in pain, nearly fainting from it. She heard a gunshot and she jumps, ready to start running on bruised and shaking legs, but there’s someone there, stopping her. She struggled again, thinking it was someone else trying to hurt her.
“Lacey, stop, it’s me, it’s Ianto. It’s all right, you’re safe now.” He said, softly, holding the older woman in a way that she wouldn’t hurt herself further.
She looked up, her motions stilled, before collapsing into her friends arms in tears. Ianto just held her, let her cry and scream and yell at the world. When she’d cried herself out, she leaned on his shoulder as he helped her to her feet. “My phone. I was on the phone with Owen. He broke my phone.”
“I’m sure Jack will get you a knew one. Let’s get you back to the Hub, and I’ll call Owen, tell him to meet us there.” He walked her slowly to the car, careful of the broken arm.
“Last time I borrow Harper’s car,” she muttered, “should have taken the SUV.”
Ianto ignored most of her mutterings, they were all used to them. Lacey had a tendency to mutter and bitch after she was injured. He also knew in this case, she was using it to cope. He could see the fear waiting in the wings, the way she kept glancing at the corpse, almost as if she expected it to jump up and finish what it started. He went to the back of the SUV, pulling out the med kit they kept in it at all times. He took a little longer than needed, letting the woman do herself up so she had at least the illusion of dignity. He took the moment to call Owen.
“What’d she do this time?” Owen asked, as if expecting the call.
“She was assaulted, Owen, you need to get to the Hub.” He lowered his voice. “She’s been raped.”
Owen didn’t say anything for a long time, just held the phone to his ear, staring at the wall his other hand clinched in a fist. “The bastard better be dead or worse, Ianto.”
“Shot him myself when I finally pulled him off her.” He confirmed. He heard Lacey asking what was taking so long. “I’ve got to go.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
Ianto walked back to the red head sitting in the passenger seat. “Let’s at least get that arm in a brace. No need to move it anymore than it has been.”
“You told Owen.”
The Welshman sighed. He’d forgotten her hearing was better than a human’s. “He’s your doctor, Lacey, he needed to know. He’s also your friend,” if not something more. Ianto had begun to suspect there was more between the two than either were ready to admit, “and I didn’t want him to see you like this unprepared.”
“I don’t want his pity. I don’t need doctoring, I just need a shower and sleep.” She pulled back when Ianto tried to slip the brace on her arm. “It’s fine.”
Ianto gave her a look. “Your arm is broken, that gash on your head needs to be cleaned and quite possibly stitched. You need medical attention.”
“I don’t want Jack to know.” She said finally, holding out the arm so he could slip the brace on it. She pulled her legs up onto the seat after Ianto put the arm in the brace and a sling, pressing some gauze he handed to her to the wound on her head.
“I can’t keep this from him, Lacey.” Ianto said as he drove them back to the hub. “He’s not just your boss, he’s your father.”
She rolled her eyes at him, making a slight scoffing sound. “I don’t care what the genetics say, he’s not my father.” If he were he would have been there when she was a kid and needed a dad. “And besides, it would only be more reason not to tell him. It’s just as easy to say I got wounded fighting the alien that fell through the Rift.”
It was the same song and dance, just a different tune. It had been a week since they learned Lacey was Jack’s daughter, and she hadn’t taken to the idea very well. He couldn’t blame her for it, but at the same time, the tension between the two was getting on everyone’s nerves. “I’ll let you tell him,” he said finally, “but if you haven’t told him by tomorrow evening, I’m doing it for you.”
“I don’t want him to know about it,” she said again, almost petulantly. “I don’t want anyone else to know. I don’t want sympathy and pitying looks from the team, and that’s what’s going to happen.” It was bad enough that Ianto had seen it, and then told Owen about it, she didn’t want the others to know. “Besides, you can’t share anything that would violate the Patient confidentiality agreement.”
“Nice try, but I have a feeling Owen is going to side with me on this one,” Ianto said.
Ianto was right about Owen siding with him. He didn’t just want to tell; he wanted the man to be there while he did the exam, only compromising to showing the medical report the next morning when she locked herself in the showers.
The exam took longer than either wanted. Lacey was still a bit jumpy, and Owen tried to keep from startling her by walking her through everything, keeping a calm, even tone with her the whole time. He wasn’t surprised when after the exam she asked for the spare set of scrubs. He nodded to where he kept them, watching her take them and head off to the showers, wanting to be clean of the night. He didn’t put the cast on her yet, letting her get one last shower in. It allowed him to get the stuff set up, and to write up the report so it would be waiting on Jack’s desk in the morning. He looked up as he finished the paperwork to see Lacey walking out of the showers, in his spare scrubs, her ginger hair hanging loose. “Ready?”
She nodded, and headed back into the med bay. The fact that she hadn’t fought him at all about the doctoring concerned him more than any of the injuries. He followed her into the med bay. “Can we make this quick? I’m exhausted.” She said finally, she looked around the deserted Hub. “Where’s Ianto?”
“Sent on home. Figured I got the spare car, I can take you back to Tosh’s. It’s on the way.” He said, prepping a needle to numb the arm, and her face, and provide painkillers. He paused when she shook her head. “Lacey, I have to give you the shots. I have to set your arm, and stitch that gash. I can’t do that without numbing the area first. You know that.”
“No, it’s not the shots,” she said, “I don’t…can I stay at your place? I’ll sleep on the sofa, I swear, but I just…” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t want Tosh to see me like this. She’ll ask questions, and I don’t…I don’t want to answer them.”
“You’re not sleeping on my sofa,” he said, giving her the shots. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the sofa.” He brushed a bit of her still damp hair out of her face. “Doctor’s orders, besides, better to have you where I can keep an eye on you with that concussion.” He smirked. She gave a small, relieved look, then turned away, his indication to give her the damn shots. “Let’s start with the head, first.” He pushed her hair back slightly. “It might scar slightly, but your hair should cover it up.” He said as he began stitching the gash shut. “Then again, with your superior healing, you know, the one you go on and on about? With that, this might not scar at all.” He gave another smirk as he finished up with her head. He checked her bruises again, making sure she didn’t have any other hidden gashes they didn’t know about. Lacey sat very still, and very quiet. She hadn’t laughed at his quips, bitched about him barely waiting for her to be numb, hadn’t even said anything about needles in the first place. “Right then, time to move on to your arm. Come on then, go ahead and pick out a color for your cast,” he moved the tray around so she could see the different shades.
She glanced at the tray, looking at all the colors. “Pink,” she said finally in a more subdued voice than usual. “I want the hot pink.”
“Why am I not surprised? Although I had thought you would go for the radioactive orange.”
“Don’t tempt me,” she said, a hint of her normal humour showing through, “I might change my mind.”
“Right, pink it is.” He took her arm in his, working quickly to set the arm so the bones knit properly, apologizing when he moved it in such a way to cause pain even through the numbing agent. Once he had the cast on, he went to pat her on the shoulder, only stopping when she flinched away from him. He smiled at her instead. “Well then, all done. Let’s get you back to my place, and you can sleep.” He stood aside, letting her get off the exam table by herself. She headed up the steps without him, and he quickly grabbed the report and stuck it on Jack’s desk.
It was a quiet ride back to his flat, the only conversation was Lacey calling Tosh to say she was staying over at Owen’s because she had a concussion and refused to let her out of his site. He chuckled at that, then again, he’d given her that out. He helped her out of the car; the painkillers had put her in a half dozing state. She let him put an arm around her, though he kept the hold loose, easy for her to pull away should she get uncomfortable.
Instead, she leaned on his shoulder in the lift to his flat on the top floor. Owen rubbed her shoulder gently, in as comforting way as he could. He shifted her slightly so he could get his keys out, opening the door to the flat. “I’ve got something I think for you to sleep in if you like.” She nodded, heading towards his bedroom as he stopped in the bathroom. He walked into the bedroom, to see her standing next to the bed. She was in one of his shirts, starting out the window. It reminded him idly of the night Gwen had come to him for the first time. “Lacey?”
“He never said a word,” she said, not looking at him, still looking out at the city below them. “Not once. He walked up, and slammed the bat into my head. Even after that, when I threatened and pleaded, no words.” He walked into the room, not really speaking, as he knew she wasn’t done. “That was the scariest part. It would have been less terrifying if he spoke, or made any kind of noise.”
She was trembling and Owen moved closer, letting her see him in the window’s reflection. “What do you need?” He asked softly.
“I don’t know,” she said, sounding like a lost child, “I feel…I don’t even know what I feel right now.” She scrubbed a hand across her face. “Everything’s all a jumble and mixed up.”
He reached up to put a hand on her shoulder again, this time she didn’t pull away or flinch. He thought he could feel her tense up under his hand, but he couldn’t blame her. “It’s ok,” he said, shushing her gently, letting her lean back into him. “You don’t have to understand now, or ever really. You don’t have to explain.” He turned her gently so that she was looking at him. “Just let me know what you need. Even if it changes five minutes later.”
She looked up at him. “Stay with me? Tonight, please?” She asked, almost pleaded. “I don’t know if I want to be touched or want you on the very far side of the bed with pillows between us, but I need you closer than the sofa.”
Owen nodded. “All right, but let’s get you into bed, we’ll decide about the pillow barrier later. You look about five seconds from sleeping on your feet, which, we both know is a bad idea.” She chuckled, finally, and nodded, letting him help her into bed before changing himself, getting into a pair of sweatpants, and a plain t-shirt. He turned around, about to ask her a question and instead only chuckled. “Told you,” he said softly to the sleeping form, moving to get in on the opposite side of the bed. He left some space between them, knowing she’d need to be able to make the choice on whether to snuggle or just have him in the same room with her. If need be, Owen was willing to sleep in one of the overstuffed chairs that he didn’t remember owning before Lacey showed up in their lives, but never really spoke about. He did reach out gently to brush some hair out of her face, the only reaction a slight wince as he brushed against a bruise. He hoped the painkillers were enough to allow her to sleep through the night without dreams, because he had a feeling there would be many a sleepless night in her future. He laid there until he was sure she wasn’t going to wake up soon, and let himself drift off to sleep next to her.
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Character/Pairings: Lacey Harkness, Owen Harper, Ianto Jones, pre Lacey/Owen
Series: Just A Human with Two Hearts
Setting: Between Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Sleeper
Rating: R for violence and Non-con
Warnings: This story features physical and sexual assault. If these are triggers for you, please, please skip this story. You won't hurt my feelings, honest.
Summary: In Twenty minutes between your car breaking down and your friend coming to get you, anything can happen, and it usually doesn't belong in a Romantic Comedy
Notes: Written for the hc_bingo Prompt: Assault.
She should have known it was going to be a bad day when her gun jammed and the car she’d borrowed from Owen broke down. Cardiff wasn’t necessarily a crime ridden cesspool like some of the places she’d been to, and she didn’t exactly live in the poor side of town, but she’d been out on a job for Jack and was stuck out in the bad side of town without a car. She’d called the Hub, and Ianto was on his way to pick her up, but that still left her with twenty minutes to kill while she waited.
She didn’t want to wait in the car because it was a stuffy evening and she couldn’t get the Air conditioning running since it was as dead as the alien in the trunk she’d been sent to retrieve. So she sat on the bonnet, her phone out as she texted back and forth to Owen, complaining that it was his fault their car broke down. That lasted five minutes before she was on the phone talking to him, the silence around her that night driving her a little batty. She paused midsentence about their weekend plans.
“Lacey? Everything all right?”
“Yeah, fine, just thought I heard something, that’s all. Where was I? Oh, yeah, no, I don’t want Italian this weekend, I know, faint away from shock. I’m thinking French. And I don’t mean that lousy French place around the corner. I mean somewhere high class. Possibly even in France, Doc owes me several favors, a short trip to Paris is not out of the realm of possibilities.”
Owen chuckled on the other end. “You know, we have about a week’s worth of vacation coming up, we could always bug Jack into getting those temps from UNIT early and just fly out there like normal people?” He was back at the flat, still on half days because of the gunshot wound in his side. He had mostly healed and the stitches were out, but he was milking it for all he could. “What do you think? A real vacation.” He leaned back against the arm of the sofa, waiting for an answer. When several seconds passed, without even a sound from her, he moved the phone from his ear. “Stupid signal.” He muttered, “Never works out in the field.” He dialed her back, concerned when the phone went to voicemail. He shrugged, trying to ignore the twisting in his gut that told him something was very, very wrong. She’d call back once she got signal again.
Lacey looked at her phone that lay broken on the ground, before looking back at the half crazed man with the bat. She reached up with a shaking hand to her head where he had hit her, pulling it away red with blood. She got to her feet, slowly, her head already swimming though it didn’t hurt. “I have a mean older brother on his way here right now. I’d suggest walking away right now, and I’ll just tell him I was trying to do a stupid trick on my car and fell.” She watched him carefully.
He didn’t say anything just approached her again, swinging the bat at her. She threw her arm up to protect her face, screaming in agony as her arm broke. When he tried to swing again, Lacey was able to grab the bat with her uninjured arm and fling it aside. “What do you want?” she asked, the panic rising in her voice. “If it’s money, here,” she reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet. “Take it, just, go, leave me alone.” She waited, the wallet in her hand, for him to take it and leave her alone.
The man looks down at the wallet, as if unfamiliar with the object, and she idly wondered if an alien or something possessed him. She didn’t have time to wonder for long before the man knocked the wallet out of her hand, the mere presence disgusting to him and slammed her against the wall. She gave a little cry, dazed from the second injury to her head. She only barely registered the man pinning her arms above her head. Where was Ianto? Hadn’t it been twenty minutes yet? She glanced down when she heard what sounded like a zipper. He had his pants undone. The zip she’d heard was he undoing hers. “No!” She cried, the first real tears starting to fall. “No please, stop. No.” She wriggled in his iron grip, trying to break free. She brought a knee up to hit him in the groin, but he knocked it away, moving to pin her legs with his own and still be able to penetrate. “Help!” She screamed. “Somebody, Help me!”
He slapped her hard with his free hand, the force knocking the woman’s head to the side. She bit her cheek in the process, and spit the blood out on his face, which just led him to slap her again. She whimpered when he thrust inside her. She stopped struggling, knowing that would just make it worse, but inside she felt like she was dying. She knew she was probably going to die. She only hoped she’d regenerate, because she hadn’t gone to Paris with Owen and he just promised they’d go, didn’t he?
She did her best to control her body’s natural reaction to intercourse, but even a Time Lord can only do so much to control their own instincts. She bit her lip to keep any moans, or other noises from escaping, she wouldn’t give the bastard the satisfaction. She could taste blood in her mouth and she didn’t know if it was from biting her cheek earlier or from her lip, and she didn’t care. Her head was throbbing, her arm ached and the bastard was using her to get off.
Then he was being pulled off her so quickly she fell forward, the man the only thing that had actually been keeping her upright. She threw her hands in front of her instinctively only remembering the broken arm when she cried in pain, nearly fainting from it. She heard a gunshot and she jumps, ready to start running on bruised and shaking legs, but there’s someone there, stopping her. She struggled again, thinking it was someone else trying to hurt her.
“Lacey, stop, it’s me, it’s Ianto. It’s all right, you’re safe now.” He said, softly, holding the older woman in a way that she wouldn’t hurt herself further.
She looked up, her motions stilled, before collapsing into her friends arms in tears. Ianto just held her, let her cry and scream and yell at the world. When she’d cried herself out, she leaned on his shoulder as he helped her to her feet. “My phone. I was on the phone with Owen. He broke my phone.”
“I’m sure Jack will get you a knew one. Let’s get you back to the Hub, and I’ll call Owen, tell him to meet us there.” He walked her slowly to the car, careful of the broken arm.
“Last time I borrow Harper’s car,” she muttered, “should have taken the SUV.”
Ianto ignored most of her mutterings, they were all used to them. Lacey had a tendency to mutter and bitch after she was injured. He also knew in this case, she was using it to cope. He could see the fear waiting in the wings, the way she kept glancing at the corpse, almost as if she expected it to jump up and finish what it started. He went to the back of the SUV, pulling out the med kit they kept in it at all times. He took a little longer than needed, letting the woman do herself up so she had at least the illusion of dignity. He took the moment to call Owen.
“What’d she do this time?” Owen asked, as if expecting the call.
“She was assaulted, Owen, you need to get to the Hub.” He lowered his voice. “She’s been raped.”
Owen didn’t say anything for a long time, just held the phone to his ear, staring at the wall his other hand clinched in a fist. “The bastard better be dead or worse, Ianto.”
“Shot him myself when I finally pulled him off her.” He confirmed. He heard Lacey asking what was taking so long. “I’ve got to go.”
“I’ll meet you there.”
Ianto walked back to the red head sitting in the passenger seat. “Let’s at least get that arm in a brace. No need to move it anymore than it has been.”
“You told Owen.”
The Welshman sighed. He’d forgotten her hearing was better than a human’s. “He’s your doctor, Lacey, he needed to know. He’s also your friend,” if not something more. Ianto had begun to suspect there was more between the two than either were ready to admit, “and I didn’t want him to see you like this unprepared.”
“I don’t want his pity. I don’t need doctoring, I just need a shower and sleep.” She pulled back when Ianto tried to slip the brace on her arm. “It’s fine.”
Ianto gave her a look. “Your arm is broken, that gash on your head needs to be cleaned and quite possibly stitched. You need medical attention.”
“I don’t want Jack to know.” She said finally, holding out the arm so he could slip the brace on it. She pulled her legs up onto the seat after Ianto put the arm in the brace and a sling, pressing some gauze he handed to her to the wound on her head.
“I can’t keep this from him, Lacey.” Ianto said as he drove them back to the hub. “He’s not just your boss, he’s your father.”
She rolled her eyes at him, making a slight scoffing sound. “I don’t care what the genetics say, he’s not my father.” If he were he would have been there when she was a kid and needed a dad. “And besides, it would only be more reason not to tell him. It’s just as easy to say I got wounded fighting the alien that fell through the Rift.”
It was the same song and dance, just a different tune. It had been a week since they learned Lacey was Jack’s daughter, and she hadn’t taken to the idea very well. He couldn’t blame her for it, but at the same time, the tension between the two was getting on everyone’s nerves. “I’ll let you tell him,” he said finally, “but if you haven’t told him by tomorrow evening, I’m doing it for you.”
“I don’t want him to know about it,” she said again, almost petulantly. “I don’t want anyone else to know. I don’t want sympathy and pitying looks from the team, and that’s what’s going to happen.” It was bad enough that Ianto had seen it, and then told Owen about it, she didn’t want the others to know. “Besides, you can’t share anything that would violate the Patient confidentiality agreement.”
“Nice try, but I have a feeling Owen is going to side with me on this one,” Ianto said.
Ianto was right about Owen siding with him. He didn’t just want to tell; he wanted the man to be there while he did the exam, only compromising to showing the medical report the next morning when she locked herself in the showers.
The exam took longer than either wanted. Lacey was still a bit jumpy, and Owen tried to keep from startling her by walking her through everything, keeping a calm, even tone with her the whole time. He wasn’t surprised when after the exam she asked for the spare set of scrubs. He nodded to where he kept them, watching her take them and head off to the showers, wanting to be clean of the night. He didn’t put the cast on her yet, letting her get one last shower in. It allowed him to get the stuff set up, and to write up the report so it would be waiting on Jack’s desk in the morning. He looked up as he finished the paperwork to see Lacey walking out of the showers, in his spare scrubs, her ginger hair hanging loose. “Ready?”
She nodded, and headed back into the med bay. The fact that she hadn’t fought him at all about the doctoring concerned him more than any of the injuries. He followed her into the med bay. “Can we make this quick? I’m exhausted.” She said finally, she looked around the deserted Hub. “Where’s Ianto?”
“Sent on home. Figured I got the spare car, I can take you back to Tosh’s. It’s on the way.” He said, prepping a needle to numb the arm, and her face, and provide painkillers. He paused when she shook her head. “Lacey, I have to give you the shots. I have to set your arm, and stitch that gash. I can’t do that without numbing the area first. You know that.”
“No, it’s not the shots,” she said, “I don’t…can I stay at your place? I’ll sleep on the sofa, I swear, but I just…” She shrugged helplessly. “I don’t want Tosh to see me like this. She’ll ask questions, and I don’t…I don’t want to answer them.”
“You’re not sleeping on my sofa,” he said, giving her the shots. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the sofa.” He brushed a bit of her still damp hair out of her face. “Doctor’s orders, besides, better to have you where I can keep an eye on you with that concussion.” He smirked. She gave a small, relieved look, then turned away, his indication to give her the damn shots. “Let’s start with the head, first.” He pushed her hair back slightly. “It might scar slightly, but your hair should cover it up.” He said as he began stitching the gash shut. “Then again, with your superior healing, you know, the one you go on and on about? With that, this might not scar at all.” He gave another smirk as he finished up with her head. He checked her bruises again, making sure she didn’t have any other hidden gashes they didn’t know about. Lacey sat very still, and very quiet. She hadn’t laughed at his quips, bitched about him barely waiting for her to be numb, hadn’t even said anything about needles in the first place. “Right then, time to move on to your arm. Come on then, go ahead and pick out a color for your cast,” he moved the tray around so she could see the different shades.
She glanced at the tray, looking at all the colors. “Pink,” she said finally in a more subdued voice than usual. “I want the hot pink.”
“Why am I not surprised? Although I had thought you would go for the radioactive orange.”
“Don’t tempt me,” she said, a hint of her normal humour showing through, “I might change my mind.”
“Right, pink it is.” He took her arm in his, working quickly to set the arm so the bones knit properly, apologizing when he moved it in such a way to cause pain even through the numbing agent. Once he had the cast on, he went to pat her on the shoulder, only stopping when she flinched away from him. He smiled at her instead. “Well then, all done. Let’s get you back to my place, and you can sleep.” He stood aside, letting her get off the exam table by herself. She headed up the steps without him, and he quickly grabbed the report and stuck it on Jack’s desk.
It was a quiet ride back to his flat, the only conversation was Lacey calling Tosh to say she was staying over at Owen’s because she had a concussion and refused to let her out of his site. He chuckled at that, then again, he’d given her that out. He helped her out of the car; the painkillers had put her in a half dozing state. She let him put an arm around her, though he kept the hold loose, easy for her to pull away should she get uncomfortable.
Instead, she leaned on his shoulder in the lift to his flat on the top floor. Owen rubbed her shoulder gently, in as comforting way as he could. He shifted her slightly so he could get his keys out, opening the door to the flat. “I’ve got something I think for you to sleep in if you like.” She nodded, heading towards his bedroom as he stopped in the bathroom. He walked into the bedroom, to see her standing next to the bed. She was in one of his shirts, starting out the window. It reminded him idly of the night Gwen had come to him for the first time. “Lacey?”
“He never said a word,” she said, not looking at him, still looking out at the city below them. “Not once. He walked up, and slammed the bat into my head. Even after that, when I threatened and pleaded, no words.” He walked into the room, not really speaking, as he knew she wasn’t done. “That was the scariest part. It would have been less terrifying if he spoke, or made any kind of noise.”
She was trembling and Owen moved closer, letting her see him in the window’s reflection. “What do you need?” He asked softly.
“I don’t know,” she said, sounding like a lost child, “I feel…I don’t even know what I feel right now.” She scrubbed a hand across her face. “Everything’s all a jumble and mixed up.”
He reached up to put a hand on her shoulder again, this time she didn’t pull away or flinch. He thought he could feel her tense up under his hand, but he couldn’t blame her. “It’s ok,” he said, shushing her gently, letting her lean back into him. “You don’t have to understand now, or ever really. You don’t have to explain.” He turned her gently so that she was looking at him. “Just let me know what you need. Even if it changes five minutes later.”
She looked up at him. “Stay with me? Tonight, please?” She asked, almost pleaded. “I don’t know if I want to be touched or want you on the very far side of the bed with pillows between us, but I need you closer than the sofa.”
Owen nodded. “All right, but let’s get you into bed, we’ll decide about the pillow barrier later. You look about five seconds from sleeping on your feet, which, we both know is a bad idea.” She chuckled, finally, and nodded, letting him help her into bed before changing himself, getting into a pair of sweatpants, and a plain t-shirt. He turned around, about to ask her a question and instead only chuckled. “Told you,” he said softly to the sleeping form, moving to get in on the opposite side of the bed. He left some space between them, knowing she’d need to be able to make the choice on whether to snuggle or just have him in the same room with her. If need be, Owen was willing to sleep in one of the overstuffed chairs that he didn’t remember owning before Lacey showed up in their lives, but never really spoke about. He did reach out gently to brush some hair out of her face, the only reaction a slight wince as he brushed against a bruise. He hoped the painkillers were enough to allow her to sleep through the night without dreams, because he had a feeling there would be many a sleepless night in her future. He laid there until he was sure she wasn’t going to wake up soon, and let himself drift off to sleep next to her.