Vice

Twenty Seven

She sat on the tile floor with her cheek pressed against the cool porcelain. The putrid smell of undigested food hung in the stagnant air. Like clockwork her body heaved up the contents of her stomach.

Sweat dripped from her forehead and she wiped it away with a sigh of exhaustion, resting her head against the hard floor. She swallowed the bitter taste of stomach acid that burned her throat. Her weak muscles collapsed underneath her as she attempted to push herself up.

Gentle hands helped her from the floor and supported her back to her bed. She let out a gasp of pain as needles shot through her abdomen. James kept her from falling, and helped her into the bed.

"Here." James held out a glass of water for her.

She took the glass with shaking hands, "You don't need to stay with me."

James ignored her, taking the glass and placing it back on the table.

"How did we get out of the office?" Another wave of nausea coursed through her at the image of the syringe. She shifted and a bolt of pain shot through her stomach.

"Let me see it."

Thea shook her head, waving him away, "It's fine."

Ignoring her again he perched himself beside her on the bed. With steady hands he pulled the hem of her shirt up until it rested just under her bra, conserving whatever dignity she had left.

He removed the red soaked bandages. The fabric tore away from tender flesh, causing the cut to pulsate painfully. Thea grit her teeth and looked away from the sight of her disfigured body. Her old faded scars now freshly opened. The thin divots making up the knight were drawn with presicion and grimly detailed, the work of a skilled assailant. Marks more permanant than any tattoo artist could ever guarentee. 

Shane had cut just shallow enough to avoid the need for stitches, but deep enough that this scar would likely outshine the old one in all its ghastly glory.

James carefully spread cream onto the wound, easing the pain, "Lottie and Ryder found us just after he... finished."

Thea glanced back at his face. She noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the bloodshot veins that spiderwebbed within them.

"It didn't hurt." She knew it was a poor attempt at consoling him. From the sound James made, he knew it too.

"What happened to them?"

He looked downwards, "Ryder and Lottie were able to put them down, but they only knocked them out."

"And Shane?"

He turned away from her, "Alive."

She tried to decipher the look on his face. Anger was the most prevalent emotion, she could tell that by the ghostly white of his knuckles and they clenched onto the new roll of bandages. But there was something else.

It clicked as he turned back to face her, his eyes cast down as he worked on the new bandages.

Guilt.

"James." She sat up with groan, "We all fell for it."

He shook her off and stood up, running his hand through his uncombed hair, "I should have known not to go there. I should have known it was their headquarters."

Thea couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. Their headquarters. He no longer thought of her as one of them.

"I let my emotions get control. And I let that prick get the upper hand. I let him attack my team while I was strapped to a chair."

She studied his face, he wasn't only guilty, but there was shame written into the lines of his face.

James Carson, leader of the elite gang Vice, was embarrassed that he had lost a fight to the Black Knights.

A laugh bubbled its way up her throat, and she couldn't contain the strangled sound that escaped her. James eyes shot upwards in concern and he stopped pacing to rush to her side.

"Are you okay? Do you need more water?" He quickly stood and grabbed the glass. Thea stifled the laugh, pulling him back down.

"I'm fine." She huffed, doing her best to conceal the unleashed laughter. 

"Are you laughing?"

Another fit of giggles threatened to emerge at the red blushing his cheeks. She took and deep breath and finally controlled her brief loss of sanity enough to curse the aftermath of getting high.

"You're embarrassed."

He scratched the back of his neck, "Well...yeah."

"James. Look at who you're talking to." She gestured down to the blood soaked bandages and the residue on her shirt, left over from her trip to the bathroom.

The red in his cheeks deepened in anger, "You should have told me."

Thea made an indignant noise, "Yeah, because 'Oh by the way I used to be addicted to drugs' comes up so well in a conversation."

"I deserved to know."

"I've been clean for over a year."

"You could relapse."

"Too late for that now isn't it?" She turned away from his guilt stricken face.

"Thea-"

"Forget it James."

His eyes softened, "I just want to help you."

She kept her eyes fixated on anything other than him. Anything other than the vulnerability in his face, the raw emotion that he only let her see.

He stood from the bed and sighed, "You should be better within a day or two. The symptoms will get worse before they get better."

"I've gone through worse." She closed her eyes.

The heavy thud of his boots on the wooden floor lulled her into a dreamless sleep.

A/N:

So this update kinda took a while :/ so sorry. 

I'm trying to make my writing more descriptive....so let me know how it works out:)