Behind These Wings

Survivor

The memories flashed behind her eyelids every time she shut them. Despite shaking her head briefly on each occasion she never could eradicate the images that lay in wake for her there.

The jeers.

The taunts.

The torture.

She would never get rid of those recollections.

"Izzy?" Drew called out to her from where he sat at her dressing table. Apparently the day simply wasn't long enough for Drew, consequently he had commandeered her dressing table as a temporary desk so that she could sleep in a reclined position, not hunched up in an office chair, and he could work until the early hours whilst still keeping a watchful eye on her.

"Yes?"

"You were mumbling again." Drew replied, most of his attention seeming to be on the paper and pen he was holding however this was merely a rouse to put Izzy more at ease. A hundred percent of his attention was on her actions and the second she had started to make a noise he had whipped his head around from his work to ensure that she was in no immediate danger.

"Sorry."

"What's the matter?"

"Nothing."

"I thought that we agreed that there would be no more lies." Drew stated calmly, picking his eyes up off of the paper and placing them on to Izzy.

A long pause stretched out between the young pair but Drew made no attempt to break it. He could see that Izzy was struggling to find a way to express her feelings but he knew that rushing or pushing her would only move her further away from recovery.

Izzy had never found it easy to express how she felt, always opting for an actions speak louder than words approach. This was a characteristic that seemed to have intensified with the long period she had spent supressing her true emotions in favour of how she was expected to feel. Now, with her freedom returned to her and the opportunity to speak her mind as it truly was, Izzy appeared to be struggling.

"Will it ever get better?" Izzy asked in a quiet voice, barely detectable. "Will I ever be normal again?" She continued, her innocent eyes bearing deep into Drew's as if she could view the answers to her deepest queries on his soul however he held no such forms of divination.

"No Izzy, you will never be normal." He said, as he put down his piece of paper and pen that he had been nibbling the end of and turned his body fully towards her form stretched out on the bed in their room. "But that's because you were never normal in the first place. In my eyes at least you have always been incredible, a far stretch from normal, in a different country to ordinary and not even remotely resembling average."

His voice taking a more serious tone, Drew made sure not to blink as he told Izzy the fullest extent of the truth in his eyes.

"Yes, one day you will get better. I can't tell you whether that will be tomorrow, next week or next year but I can promise you that you will get better. Things will get easier and you will find that you are able to do those things that you have had to stop. Someone wise once told me that you will never be the same again but that that isn't a bad thing. I didn't understand at the time but I think I do now." Drew rose from the precarious stool that Izzy perched on daily whilst she was doing her make-up and walked the few steps to the bed before he carefully placed his body over hers, his hands either side of her head supporting all of his weight. "You are the strongest, most beautiful, thoughtful, compassionate, clever and all over wonderful angel I have ever, or will ever, meet. This whole experience has only enhanced those qualities. You feel damaged, broken and beyond repair but you can't see what I can. You are perfect just the way you are, nothing about you needs to be fixed. You are an inspiration. You are my inspiration Isabelle." He finished, dropping his lips to hers and stealing a kiss.