MC's Viking Warriors- Viper #3

Caine

"Doretha, wait!" I realise that in my total infatuation with the need to kiss her, I forgot to mention the main thing I wanted to ask her tonight.

She frowns and pauses by the door, I hold up a hand to ask her to wait and then race up the stairs and into my room. Laying on my bed, is the anxiety blanket my therapist recommended my father to buy when I lost my mother. It helped me sleep through the night without my night terrors: it may help Doretha too. That is if she accepts it.

Thundering back down the stairs blanket in hand, I am relieved to find her still waiting for me, biting down on a fingernail nervously.

"What's this?" She asks as I hold the blanket out for her to take.

"It's a blanket to help with anxiety and nightmares of sort." I shrug anxiously, I don't know if there's any medical evidence that it helps with nightmares, it just did for me.

"Oh, really?" Her voice sounds hopeful and not at all snobbish or judgemental.

I nod and smile reassuringly as she takes it from my grip. "Woah! It's really heavy!" She exclaims as she struggles to hold the blanket up.

"Perhaps I should take it round for you?"

"That might be for the best." She agrees eagerly and we head out the door together. I can feel this weight starting to lift from her, obviously nothing major yet, just small things. A smile where once there would have been silence, a comment instead of a curse. I feel privileged to witness it.

Opening her door for her, I follow Dot up the stairs to her bedroom. Unfortunately, it's exactly what I expected, there are half drunk or empty bottles everywhere. I can tell she's embarrassed, her feet are shifting from side to side and she's ringing her hands anxiously.

I take her hand in mine and squeeze. "It's ok Dot, hell I've been here more times than I will ever admit."

"Really?"

"Yep, but what you need now is what Vidar and Mouse were for me." I lead her over to sit on the bed, placing the blanket beside her. And then I begin to gather up the bottles, I take them downstairs and throw them in the recycling.

"Caine?" Her little voice calls down the stairs anxiously and it takes everything in me not to growl in satisfaction and joy at the sound of hearing her say my name. My actual name.

"I'm coming back now Dot. Don't worry."

I take the steps two at a time and stride back into her room. She's laying under the blanket with her hands pressed firmly into her lap. Sitting down, I go to take her hands in mine but she yanks them out of the way.

Wincing at the rejection, I almost leave her alone, until I spot the tremor in her hands. She's embarrassed about it.

Sighing deeply I take her hands in mine and she looks up at me fearfully. I press kisses on both hands before pressing them against my chest firmly.

"Breathe Dot, breathe."

She tries to but as expected it's laboured and panicky. "Deep breath in, and out." I demonstrate and help her to follow my breaths. Within a few moments her hands have stopped shaking and Doretha no longer looks panic stricken and pale.

"What happened, Dot?"

"Y-you took my cure."

"The bottles?"

She nods shyly and I sigh internally, I remember feeling that once. Terrified that there isn't a liquid to numb my problems within arms reach, but it has to happen.

"It's not gone baby, I'm just helping you for now. Like Vidar did for me once upon a time."

She frowns, puzzled and confused.

"What I mean is, you can't drink on your own anymore. That's a slippery slope to drowning. If and when you want a drink, you find me and we'll have one together. You'll soon find that the insatiable pit feels smaller with someone."

That answer seems to agree with Dot as she squeezes my hand, I take it as a dismissal and I stand from the bed.

"Do you need help escaping the blanket before bed or are you good?" I tease lightly, knowing that Dot is quite weak and the blanket heavy.

"I think I'll manage." She replies playful and I smile before walking from her room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning I am pleased to realise that Doretha must have slept through the night for I was not woken for a 3am binge drink. Glancing over at my phone, I check the time. It's almost nine meaning I have about an hour until I have my duties again.

Eager to see Doretha again, I find it easy to rouse myself from bed and ready myself for the day. After cleaning my teeth, I take a moment to brush and style my hair. I want to look good for her.

I'm standing before her door and true to form, there is no response to my knocking. I try again. Still nothing. After my third knock I frown, something in my gut is telling me that there is something wrong.

I test the door and find it unlocked, there's not much point to locking it anyway, our compound is so secure that it's not necessary. Vidar's cabin is always locked as well as Mouse's now too, I guess when you have such precious people in you house it comes as more of a necessity.

Opening the door, I step inside the house and find it unmoved since I left it last night.

"Dot?"

No reply.

"Doretha?"

No reply.

"Doretha please!" Just as I'm about to panic, I hear a low pained groan from upstairs. I'm moving before my brain can catch up.

Throwing open her bedroom door, I find it empty. I race into the slightly open en-suite toilet when I hear another groan and whimper. Doretha is laying on the floor, collapsed half in and half out of the shower. The water around her is stained with blood.

"No no no." I beg and plead. "Not her too, please God no."

I drop to my knees and grab at her wrists, expecting there to be cuts. There are none and I almost sob with relief. Ignoring her nakedness, I pull her over and onto my lap. She looks up at me with glazed, pained eyes.

"What is it baby? Tell me please."

Looking down I can see a distinct tickle of blood running down her legs. "They are always like this." She mumbles weakly before crying out in pain and clutching at her abdomen.

Sighing, both in relief and sadness at her pain and discomfort, I haul her up and into my arms and carry her from the floor. I grab a towel and say a small prayer that it's navy and not white before I sit on the toilet seat and begin to dry the whimpering and pained Dot.

"Are they always like this?" I ask her quietly as I wrap the towel around her body and pull her up against my chest. She rests her head on my shoulder and whimpers and groans in pain as another cramp hits her.

"Yes-" she gasps. "Always. I'm sorry..." she moans feebly, "when it gets really bad I can't stand."

Brushing away the wet strands of hair from her face I press a light kiss to her forehead.

"Nothing to be sorry about, baby. I was just worried about you. Am worried about you." I add as she hunches over again and cries out, biting her lip as tears start to fall.

"For now lets get you some painkillers and a hot water bottle, hmmm?"