THERE AND BACK AGAIN (Joseph Quinn)

Aftermath

Sarah opened her eyes the following morning and for a moment, wondered if it had all been a fever dream.

The pain when she tried to turn over to face Joe told her that this was not the case.
It had been all too real.
She watched Joe sleeping for a few moments, tears pricking into her eyes as she allowed her thoughts to wander to what could have happened.

What if he had stabbed Joe?

What if she had been hurt more severely?

The thought was too melancholy. Her forearm throbbed in a dull way through the bandage that was wrapped around her arm.

She needed tea. Hot, sweet, comforting tea.

She gingerly got up out of bed, not wishing to disturb him. He was absolutely exhausted in the truest definition of the word. She hobbled towards the kitchen stiffly. As she passed the mirror she pulled down her pyjama bottoms to look at her painful hip, a dark red and purple bruise was now developing on her hip and spreading out onto her buttock. She prodded it, which was a mistake, and winced.

She looked at the clock, it was 8.36am, the thought crossed her mind that she needed to ring in and tell the uni what had happened, and that she wouldn't be there. She rang her bosses mobile and reached the answerphone.

"Julie, it's Sarah, I'm afraid I won't be in today as we were attacked last night and I have some injuries, please call me when you get this"
'Some injuries' Sarah thought that it might take them a while to get over this in every sense.

It was with a sense of peculiar relief, however, that she knew there would definitely be no-one observing her as she made her tea that morning.

DI Rhodes had said to call the incident room so that someone could take their formal statements, she would ask Joe to do that when he woke up.

Sarah's phone suddenly started ringing
"Hi mum"
"Sarah I've just seen the news, is that your road on the telly?"
"Yes it is mum, you need to know that we're both ok before I explain what's happened"
"Both? Was Joe there?"
"Yes"
"Thank God! Why didn't you call me last night?"

Sarah explained what had happened very matter of factly. When she had finished her mum went quiet.
"Mum?"
Siobhan was sobbing softly down the phone
"Oh mum, we're fine!"
"We're coming over"
"Ok, but Can you give us a couple of hours, Joes still asleep, he's whacked"
"Ok, we'll see you soon"
"Love you, Mum"
"Love you too"

Sarah poured hot water into her mug and poked her teabag with a spoon impatiently. At that moment Joe walked through into the kitchen and put his arms gently around her from behind.

"Everything ok? I heard you talking"
"Sorry to wake you, I rang work and then Mum rang me as she's seen the news. I'm sorry but she's on her way over in a little while. You'll get to meet John, my stepdad too; What a treat that will be for you!" Sarah said sarcastically.

"After last night anything will be a treat" Joe sighed, as Sarah turned around to face him he planted a kiss on the top of her head.

"I keep replaying it in my mind Joe, what if I hadn't open my eyes and seen him?" Sarah looked up at him with dewy eyes.
"But you did; and we got him!"

Sarah didn't speak as she had started to cry and she hated crying in front of people, she buried her face firmly into Joes chest, he hugged her close, just letting her cry it out.

When she lifted her head up to look at Joe she left two wet splodges on his slightly faded black T-shirt.
"Oh god, I'm sorry!" She laughed patting the wet patches
"Don't be daft! We've made damp patches worse than that!" He laughed tenderly, still holding her in a half embrace as she reached behind him for a tissue.
"We'll need a few days to process this and make any sense of it" said Joe quietly
"we have to let our emotions come out"
"You're right" Sarah sniffed.