The Runaway • 𝑇𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑦 𝑆ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑏𝑦

19

The Runaway
Chapter
19

season 1
                 ↳ episode 5
Part 2

♕♡︎♔

"Oh! Charlie, what happened to your head? Are you alright?"

Without realizing Grace moves her hand to the cut on the side of Charlotte's forehead, brows creasing in worry.

Charlotte turned her head towards Grace who had just arrived for her shift. It was sometime in the early afternoon, just a few hours after the events of last night. The swelling from the cut on her head had gone down thanks to a salve from Celeste, but it was still a nasty cut. Celeste assured her that the salve would heal it, scar and all, it would just take some time.

"Oh," Charlotte flinches slightly as one of her hands follows Grace's to the cut on her head, as if she had forgotten it was there. That salve did wonders to numb the pain. "Yes I'm alright Grace, just a little accident while closing last night is all."

It was what she had told Celeste this morning too, when she saw her. She had come down the stairs with tired eyes, glancing at Charlotte with a tired but loving 'good morning Charlie Rose,' before she stopped dead in her tracks and looked towards her again. As soon as she took in the sight of her forehead, her eyes widened and she was quick to dote on her, asking what had happened. Charlotte had cleaned it the night before after Tommy walked her home but it did nothing to help the pain and swelling, till Celeste gave her the salve that is.

Charlotte made some excuse about loose shelves and a box falling on her head. It was a foolish story but believable with how clumsy she had been lately. Celeste simply nodded, accepting her excuse. Whereas Scarlett, who came down minutes after her mother, saw the state of her forehead and Charlotte thought that perhaps she saw a flash of concern in her eyes before they shifted into a scowl as she heard Charlotte's story of how she got the cut. Charlotte could tell from her look alone that she didn't believe for a second that it was caused while she was working.

Grace suddenly drops her hand, as if she just realized it was there. She takes a step back from Charlotte in confusion.

"Last night?" Grace says to herself as she looks around the bar, taking notice of a few thrown about chairs and Charlotte sweeping up broken glass.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Grace then looks towards her with worried and questioning eyes.

Charlotte gave her a small reassuring smile and a nod as she picked up the last of the broken glass in a dust pan to throw away. She had gotten most of the mess from last night cleaned and had a bill set aside for the expenses to cover anything that was broken.

"Oh yes, it was my fault really. I've been quite clumsy lately, if you haven't noticed." Charlotte laughs it off like it was nothing. Grace wasn't so sure.

She had in fact, noticed how jumpy Charlotte was lately, and not a normal startled jumpy either, but a scared one. Looking over her shoulder constantly like she was being watched. Breaking glasses because she had grown so startled from a loud noise in the pub, which had never bothered her before. The way she had covered more and more shifts at The Garrison, even though Grace could see the dark circles around her eyes from obvious lack of sleep.