I Will Love You Forever

Chapter 4, part 2: Anguish

Lu was sitting in the middle of the mattress, and she did not appear hurt. That was good news. Even better news was that her face was showing more emotion than it had since the accident.

The problem was the emotion that Lu was showing.

Lu's face wore an expression of the purest anguish Ken had ever seen. All the stricken loss and horror that could be imagined were there, and to a degree Ken never could have imagined. He had once heard someone describing the faces of those who had undergone weeks of physical torture in wartime. He had heard that grief or pain could be engraved on a living human face. He had somehow thought that was a metaphor, yet here was his beloved Lu, sitting alone with deeper lines than he would have believed her face, or any human face, could show. Her eye did not focus on him, and she had not reacted to his coming in.

There were two wet spots from tears on her shirt, under the corner of her right eye. Vomit and blood slimed her front, mixing with other bodily fluids below.

"Lu! Lu!" He set the cooler down as he slid to his knees in front of her. "What happened?"

Lu stared right through him, as if he was not there. Her one eye looked glazed and unseeing. She did not react to his voice.

"Lu!" he gasped, trying not to let it become a sob. Tears began to well in his eyes. He took her hands in his. "Tell me what happened!"

She was still breathing; he could see the rise and fall of her chest. After a moment, her left hand twitched, and closed on his. Then her right hand twitched and did the same, as her eye finally blinked, with obvious effort.

"Lu?" he said, as she continued to blink. Then her eye finally focused enough to see him in front of her.

With a howl, Lu tackled Ken, knocking him flat on his back, her arms crushingly strong.

Ken thought it was a fear reaction at first, and he was looking around for the threat, but all Lu wanted to do was kiss him. Given the state she was in, it was not the pleasant experience he might have expected. After a minute of kissing him all over his face, and getting tears and snot all over him, Lu let up enough that Ken was able to get back up to a sitting position.

"Are you okay?" he said. He was still very worried, and had no idea what the problem was.

"You not come back!" Her voice quivered.

Ken looked at her a full ten seconds before he realized what she had said.

"You mean," he said, slowly, "That you were in that state because you thought I wasn't coming back?"

She just nodded, but it was the way her lip trembled just a bit that almost broke his heart. Lu was tough and lively, but she had always been vulnerable about being left alone. Somehow, Ken guessed, the injury had made her extra vulnerable to her emotions. Still, Lu having her emotions back, out of control or not, was a miracle all by itself. Even as he held her, his joy at getting another piece of his beloved back mixed with the shame of having left her for so long.

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