Beyond

83

*Milan

Tomar is my last day here. Today, I just had my rape kit done and I needed time alone. I sent mom and Melody out for a while. I told them to go get food and spent time together and be back in a hour in a half.

Today Crystal was supposed to help me shower and wash my hair. Cookie ended up getting sick at school and she had to take care of her. Miles is out on a business trip so she had to be there. I told her to do what she needed with her kids and I was good.

I was by myself for like 45 minutes when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in..." I said

The door opened and Zion walked in.

"Is your mom here??" She asked

"No, her and Melody left a few minutes ago..." I said

"Oh okay..." she said

She looked up at me.

"How you doing??" She asked

"I'm okay. I'm ready to go tho..." I said

"When do you leave??" She asked

"Tomar..." I said

"Well you don't have long..." she said with a small smile

"I should get going. Tell your mom that I came by and to call me back..." she said going in to close the door

"ZION!!" I yelled

Her head appeared back.

"Yes..." she said

"I need your help..." I said making her come all the way in

"What you need??" She asked

"I wanted to take a shower and wash my hair but I need help. They told me to get some assistance cuz I didn't feel comfortable letting the nurse do it. Crystal was supposed to be helping but Cookie got sick..." I said

"That's okay. I can help you..." she said closing the door

I held my hand out, she came up to me, and grabbed it. She helped me outta bed. We slowly made our way to the bathroom.

"You think you can stand on your own while I cut the shower on??" She asked

"Yes..." I said before she was hesitant to let me go

She finally let me go and quickly cut on the shower. She was adjusting it to a better temperature then she came back to me.

"You ready??" She asked and I nodded

She went behind me and untied the hospital gown. She pushed it over my shoulder and I heard her breath hitched. I felt her touch the scar on my back. The one that was gave before I went and I found out I was pregnant.

"This is an old scar. How long was this??" She asked softly as she finger traced it

"Like a month or 2 ago..." I said

She let out a deep breath.

"Did you tell them he did this to you??" She asked

I turned to her.

"How you know he did this to me??" I asked looking in her eyes

"Cameron told me. The day we brought you here, she told me. The black eye she seen, was it the same one I seen or a different one??" She asked

I looked down. My throat started burning. I felt myself bout to cry.

"Milan..." she said softly before bringing my face up to look at her

"It was a different one..." I said
"He wouldn't stop hitting hitting me. I tried everything in my power to make him stop, but he wouldn't..."

At this point I was crying.

"I wanted so badly to call for help, but he threatened to kill me. I didn't know how far he would go, so I did what he said. He needs to be away. I'm scared to talk to the city, because he's going to get right back out. I'm scared to find out what he'll do to me when he returns. The county is my only hope, but it's not much they can do for me..." I said full blown crying now

She was standing there looking at me. I could tell she was conflicted about grabbing me and hugging me. Or not touching me cuz I told her I didn't wanted her around. She looked in my eyes and she got her answer.

She gently grabbed me and pulled me into her. I cried harder. She squeezed me but not too tight.

"I'm going to do everything I can to get him into the county. Whatever I gotta do, I'll do it. I'm going to make sure he can't brother you
again..." she said softly still holding me

It took a minute for me to calm down. Once I did, I wrapped my arms around her, and pulled her closer.

"I gotchu, okay..." she said rubbing my back

I nodded into her neck.

She held me until I raised up. We look at each other before I started talking.

"I did a rape kit..." I said

"With??" She asked

"With the county..." I said

"Good Good. That's good..." she said nodding

"So what do I do now??" I asked

"Because we have the upper hand with this case. It could be shifted to us, even tho it happened in the city. But there's no guarantee, that it'll stay ours..." she said making me let out a breath and looking down

She grabbed my chin making me look up at her.

"But I'll try everything in my power to keep it with us. I'll tell Terry that it needs to stay with us. We are going to fight this with you..." she said

"Okay..." I said looking at her

"You ready to get cleaned up??" She asked

"Yeah..." I said nodding

She grabbed my hand and lead me to the shower. I stepped in, I stepped up, and let the water run over me. The hot water felt sooo fucking good. After a few minutes, I opened my eyes and looked at Zion. She was sitting on the sink waiting on me to be ready.

"You ready??" I asked her

"I'm ready whenever you are. Take your time, I'm not going nowhere..." she said looking at me

I nodded and turned back to the shower. I slowly turned around and let the water run down my back.

"You can come wash my hair..." I said

She grabbed my shampoo, conditioner, and detangling brush.

"First, get the—..." I started

"Shhh..." she said
"I know what I'm doing. I was once a loose natural..."

I closed my mouth and let her do her thing. She started off with detangling with conditioner. Once she was done, she rinsed it out, and started shampooing. She moved in front of me, started massaging and, rubbing my scalp. It felt so good, it don't even feel this good when Smithy shampoo my hair. After, she rinsed out the shampoo and shampooed me again. After that she put conditioner in my hair with oil for a few then rinsed it with cold water. She grabbed a towel and wrapped my hair up. She grabbed my towel and body wash. She let the water run on my towel, poured some body wash on it, and rubbed it until it lathered with soap.