37. Scott
CHAPTER 37
Scott
I move to stand up, to take them into the bedroom to see my girl but Artemis presses on my thigh. “Not yet.” He searches my face, but I’m not sure what he’s looking for, or what he sees. “Other than Ares’s question about who did it, we also need to know that you’re okay.”
“They were gone when I got there.”
Apollo shakes his head. “That’s not what he means, hermano.” He grips my shoulder. “We know you’d have killed them both and left their bodies for the wildlife. He means, are you okay?”
“Thank you for helping her.” Ares is clearly shaken. His face is pale, his hands are shaking, and he looks like he’s about to cry at any given moment.
I know how he feels.
“I’ll always help her.” The words come out shaky.
Apollo nods. “We know. But what you saw, what you went through with her at the hospital.” He flexes his fists at his sides. “I’m not sure I could have kept my shit together enough not to break down.”
“It was what she needed. I didn’t have time for a meltdown when she needed me to be strong for her.”
They all nod in their agreement.
“She’s so strong.” My jaw trembles as words I’m afraid to hear out loud pass through my lips. “But I’m not sure she’s strong enough to survive this.” I’m whispering, because she can’t hear what I’m saying. “I couldn’t. If that was me.”
I pull my borrowed shirt from my throat. “I th-thought she might be dead when I first saw her foot.”
In the moment, all I needed was to make sure she was okay, but looking back, I’d shoved down a primal fear that when I rounded that corner I’d be staring at a dead body.
“I don’t know how to help her through this.”
I’m probably not making sense, jumping from thought to thought, but the fractured words, the flashes inside my brain, nothing’s cohesive.
“I’m a man, she was hurt by a man. How? I. Shit.” I wipe my cheeks and nose with my sleeve. “How does she ever trust another man again? How do I tell her we’re not all like them? How?” I break down, heavy, chest-aching sobs that are quickly stifled by Artemis’s shoulder as he pulls me against him.
“We will all get you both through this. Do you hear me?”
I nod, undoubtedly snotting on my best friend’s likely extortionately priced sweater.
“We’ll figure this out. We’ll get Athena the help she needs to recover.” He pushes me back by my biceps.
“And whatever help you need too, Scott.” Apollo assures me from a few feet away. “This was a trauma for you as well.”
I can’t possibly make this situation in any way about me. That’s fucked up. But I also can’t deny that I’m not falling to pieces because of what I saw. Right now isn’t the time for this deep dive, however. She’s in there by herself, probably reliving everything in her head just like I am in every second I’m not kept busy by something else.
I wipe my face and survey my friends. “We’ll figure me out later, right now, we need to find a way to get her through this. You know she’s going to say she’s fine, she’s going to say it’s all okay. She’s always strong, she never needs help, and she hates feeling weak. This is going to be tough. But there has to be a way to get her through this. There has to be a way to help her heal.”
Ares nods. “There is, we’ll get her through.”
“Together,” Apollo adds.
“Are you ready?” Artemis has that intense stare on his face again.
I nod. “It’s you guys I’m worried about. She really doesn’t look so good.”
He pushes to stand. “We can all lock it down for her sake.”
I give another nod, stand, and lead them to the door.