Playing with fire (Amelia Shepherd) ABANDONED

Twenty nine

Mallie winced as she saw Amelia stood outside of her room after the CT scan had been done. Her handcuffs had not been put back on because the officer had left. All charges had been dropped against them, apparently.

"Hi, mi vida," Mallie said. 

Amelia stepped into the room and closed the door, pulling her mask down from her face. She kept her back to Mallie for a few seconds and Mallie could tell she was holding back tears judging by her shaking shoulders.

Amelia took a deep breath and turned around, looking at Mallie.

"You have a minor concussion and I'm going to stitch up your cut for you. Jackson said he'll come down and debride your burn when I'm done," Amelia said.

"Okay," Mallie agreed.

Amelia walked over and pulled on a pair of gloves. She turned Mallie's head to the side and winced.

"Amelia?" Mallie said. "You haven't said anything, yet," she said.

"I just need a minute to get my thoughts in one place so I don't stab someone," Amelia said.

"Ah. I will shut up," Mallie nodded.

Amelia pulled up a stool and sat down, grabbing a suture kit. She opened it up and cleaned the cut carefully.

"Okay, this is gonna sting a little bit," Amelia said, producing the needle with the numbing solution.

"Okay," Mallie said.

Amelia injected it and then moved to look at Mallie while they waited for it to work. She pulled Mallie's mask down, then her own, and leaned forward.

"Kiss me," Amelia mumbled.

Mallie leaned up and kissed Amelia, pulling her so she was sat on the side of the bed. Amelia's hands came up to cup Mallie's cheeks. She pulled back from Mallie and rested her forehead against hers, eyes closed as she tried to calm her breathing.

"You can cry," Mallie whispered, rubbing her hands up and down Amelia's thighs.

"I can't," Amelia shook her head.

"You can. Just because he didn't point a gun at you doesn't mean that you aren't affected by this. You're dating an Afro-Hispanic American. Your sons are Afro-Hispanic Americans. You know what this world is like and you know what'll happen to them," Mallie said.

"That is exactly why I cannot cry. If I cry, I won't stop and the world doesn't need my tears. The world needs us to stop this from happening to anyone else and crying won't get that done," Amelia said, opening her eyes to look at Mallie.

Mallie sighed and cupped Amelia's cheeks.

"Cry. We can't change the world until I'm out of here and that's gonna be a little while. We can take a minute to cry," Mallie said.

"I just..." Amelia whispered. She pulled back enough to wipe her tears before they fell. "I got the call from Bailey and I panicked because she said it was one of your guys and you didn't answer your texts. And then Warren called me and told me that Vic and Andy were coming with him to watch the kids for as long as I needed. And I just knew then that it was about you, because why would all three of them insist on me taking my time when I left? Why else would all three of them have looked that terrified?" Amelia sighed.

Mallie nodded slowly.

"I get it. It's scary," she said.

"That wasn't the scary part. You've been hurt worse than this before in a fire and I don't think I felt as scared then as I did today," Amelia said.