I'm Normally Perfect (re-upload)

Chapter Sixty-Seven

She looked so pale, making my sandwich with shaking hands, I hated that man for frightening her so more than what he'd done to me. Between the drugs and the muzziness after awhile the only things I could recall about the hospital were the lights being bright and being cold a lot. And when I'd said I would have done the same thing if someone hurt her that way I meant it. They'd never find the body because the pieces wouldn't be big enough to locate. I didn't feel brilliantly, but felt I should put on a brave front so Alex wouldn't be as frightened—I hated seeing such a strong person brought so low. I suggested we go to the home décor store and find wall hangings to make the living room unrecognisable as quickly as possible, but she said someone was coming to repair the glass in the kitchen and someone else was going to come the next day to install a security system.

I nodded, as much as she wanted to remain in the house I wanted to get out. The Bower was feeling a bit like Miss Havisham's house. I said sensibly, 'I'll go to the shop myself then and have them ship something back.'

She grabbed my hand, 'No, please don't go.'

The look of panic on her face scared me. 'All right, I'll not go anywhere. Do you want me to make the hangings?'

She let out a breath of amusement and let go of my hand, 'No, of course not. I simply don't want to be alone.'

She looked terrified and I wished she'd hit him harder with the statue. I said gently, 'It's all right. I won't go anywhere. You can buy anything online anyway. We'll shop later, how about that?' I felt as if I were talking to a child.

She nodded, 'That's a good idea.'

'You are going to have to go to work tomorrow, you know.'

'Oh God, I don't know if I can. That seems too hard.' I touched her cheek and she drew away. 'I don't...I can't...'

I nodded, she was beginning to truly frighten me. 'It's going to be all right, Alex. I promise. How about you go upstairs and have a lie-down? Take one of the pills the doctor gave me—they'll knock anyone out. I can handle the glass repairman.' She looked unsure and I turned her round and marched her up the back set of stairs, avoiding the living room altogether. In our room I filled a glass from the sink and gave her one of the sedatives I'd taken earlier—one of those things could knock out the whole of Hannibal's herd of elephants. 'Would you like to change?'

I went to the wardrobe to bring out some pyjamas and she said, 'I'd like to wear this.'

'Why are you wearing one of my sweatshirts, anyway?'

'It's very comfortable. And it smells of you.' She gave a small, apologetic smile and I helped her out of her jeans and tucked her into bed and stayed with her until she fell asleep.

A bit later there was a knock at the door and the dogs barked and led the way downstairs. I asked, 'Where the hell were you two last night, huh? That's it, we're getting a Rottweiler with Hepatitis.' I looked out the window by the door and let the man in to repair the glass. He did a double take when he saw me, at first I thought it was because he recognised me and then I remembered I had a beauty of a shiner with a few stitches to complete the pugilistic look.

He introduced himself in an apologetic tone, 'I'm Andy Marrow, ma'am. I heard about what happened on the news.'

I nodded, at a loss for what to say. 'The kitchen's this way.'

He followed along and once there he removed the chair Alex had pushed in front of the door with a grunt. After looking inside and out he said, 'You might want to consider putting wood here instead of replacing the glass. Only, it's not hard to get in.'