Janet
I woke finally and blinked my eyes a few times. I'd forgotten where I was. I sat up on the side of the bed, clinching my side as I tried to wake myself up a bit. I walked into the living room where Gil and Shawn were curled up on the couch together sleeping. He'd made it. I smiled, I'm so lucky to have such amazing people around me.
I walked into the kitchen quietly and pulled out my phone. Shawn was right, I needed to call my doctor. Rene had hurt me bad. It hurt to even breathe at this point. Just as I hung up, Shawn walked in to join me. She yawned sleepily.
"Good morning beautiful, coffee?" She said with a sweat smile.
"Morning and yes please. I see Gil made it last night."
She laughed. "Yeah he did, he ran in here yelling for me to get my bat and sneakers. Homeboy was ready to go to war."
I hugged my waist laughing as I adjusted in the chair. Shawn brought me a cup of coffee and joined me at the table. I gazed at her for a moment.
"I called my doctor like you suggested." I said breaking the silence.
"Good." She nodded. "So he's coming here then?"
"Yeah, if you're okay with that."
"Sure, that's not a problem at all." She said and took a sip of her coffee. She sat her cup down and I took her hand into my own.
"Thank you, I don't know if I said that to you last night." Words were not enough to express how full my heart was in that moment.
She touched my face. "J I think you should stay here. It completely safe and I can just stay hotel or..."
"Or stay with me bitch, hashtag sleepover." Gil said making his grand entrance into the kitchen. He pour himself a cup of coffee, kissed us both on the cheek and took a seat.
I look at Shawn. "This is your space and if I stay here I definitely wouldn't want to be alone."
"Then just stay here with me." She said. "Gil's place is not far from here. Even Preston is closer now. Everything you need is right here."
"Are you sure it's okay?" I asked again just wanting to be sure.
"I want to protect you J." She said.
My doctor showed up with an hour. Gil and Shawn waited in the other as he examined me.
"Your ribs are badly bruised. I don't think that any are broken but I can't know for sure without an x-ray Janet."
"I can't go to the hospital." He felt so anxious and embarrassed. "Can you please just help me."
He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Okay, just come to my office tomorrow morning. I will set up a private room just you and I, no nurses. We'll call it just a routine check up."
"Thank you doctor. There was one more thing." I went on to explain to him what happened in the bathroom.
"Janet have you called the police?"
"I'm not calling the police on my husband. I don't need that kind of attention right now, but I do need to know that I'm okay. There are a lot of sharp pains and swelling." He sterilized his hands and put on gloves.
The amount of bruising on my inner thighs shocked him and his eyes met mine quickly. I looked away as I tried to ignore how uncomfortable this was for me.
"There isn't much I can see from here but I do feel the swelling. Did he use protection?"
"Yeah, he took a second to put on a condom before raping me." I snapped and covered my face.
