I’ve Got You

CHAPTER 7

It had been three weeks to the day since the breakout of the rabies virus. Three weeks since Eris and her son had been dragged from their home. Three weeks since they came to live in the facility. And things -oddly enough- had never been better for Eris and Dorian. Rationing was difficult, but the scout teams were often successful with the hauls they managed to bring back, and Grimm had kept true on his word that he would roster herself and Dorian on different duties that rotated daily. Since the civilian roster came in she had only been scheduled to work with James twice. This made meal times and recreation times spent with him much more bearable. James had also traded his physical violence for verbal insults or cold indifference. Emotionally it was just as upsetting as any physical abuse. But Eris had found that with the lack of physical attacks, her previous injuries and overall appearance had improved tenfold. Dorian smiled a great deal less. But who could blame him? In fact, the only thing that seemed to cheer him up were their visits to Grimm’s medical office to keep tabs on Eris’s physical condition. James -who was once the center of Dorian’s universe- had become sullen and broody, not often having the time or patience that he used to have for Dorian. A time and patience that never felt lacking in Grimm’s presence. Their visits to his office becoming longer as time went on and he and Eris became somewhat closer to friendship. As close to friendship as circumstances would allow.

Towards the beginning of the fourth week, however, there was a shift in the usually jovial atmosphere of Grimm’s office. A feeling of unease as Grimm was significantly quieter than his usual self.

“Are you going to tell me what’s bothering you? Or am I going to have to guess?” Eris asked Grimm as he studied her latest X-Ray on the monitor. Grimm forced himself to smile and sat up a little straighter. “Nothing’s bothering me, what makes you say that?”

“Because you’re moping” Dorian piped up from where he sat beside his mother. Eris nodded “what he said. Moping... What’s up?” Grimm frowned

“I am not moping”

“Then what’s wrong with your face?” Dorian asked, grinning. Grimm jokingly tossed a scrunched up ball of paper at Dorian’s head, making the boy giggle as he tried and failed to avoid it. “I was born with this face”

“How unfortunate” Eris chuckled. When all Grimm offered her in return was a strained smile, she reached her bandaged hand out to place it over his knee. Hesitating, then eventually thinking better of it, she withdrew. “Grimm, please. What’s going on with you?” Grimm sighed, her green eyes seemed to burn right through him and he relented. “I’m on the roster to go with tomorrows scout group, and to be honest with you, I’ve been a medical Doctor for so long I’m not even sure I remember how to hold a gun any more, much less kill something with it should I need to”. Eris waved her hand dismissively

“Nah, you’ll be fine. You know what they say about guns. Once you learn how to use one, you never forget”. Grimm stared at her

“That’s bikes, Eris.”

“Pretty sure it’s guns”. Eris smiled, Grimm raised his brow at her, “You’re having me on, aren’t you”

“Of course”. Eris studied Grimm for a moment, he looked tense, she could only imagine how terrifying having to go out there in the world’s current state would be. “Grimm, you’re gonna be okay. They haven’t lost a single scout yet-”

“You don’t hear the stories they come back with though, Eris How many sick people they’ve had to kill. Put them down like dogs. The contaminated eat each other out there, Eris, you know that?”

“Enough” Eris hissed, gesturing to Dorian.

“It’s okay Mum” Dorian reassured her. “Dad promised he’d play UNO with me after lunch anyway, If I leave now, he might still have some time for me”. His wide blue eyes looked hopeful. Eris smiled, kissing the top of his blonde head. “You go straight there, okay baby? Just give me a couple more minutes and I’ll join you guys”.

“Love you”

“Love you too, mate.” Eris waited for her son to exit the room and turned back to Grimm, her voice was firm “none of that talk around Dorian. He’s just a boy”. After a moment of silence between them, Eris found herself softening slightly. Grimm swallowed and continued “everything is going to s**t fast out there. Looting, Riots, screaming. Those... Things-”

“People, Grimm, they are just very sick people”

“That’s not what I’ve been told by the scouts. They aren’t ‘just people’ anymore. Mindlessly attacking anything that moves, tearing people apart like animals, eating what’s inside-” Grimm blanched and swayed a little. Eris reached out and put a hand on his upper arm to steady him. Grimm seemed surprised by the gesture, and so did she. She gazed at her hand resting on his upper arm, thinking about what James would do to that hand if he found out she’d actually touched someone. She shook the thought from her mind. “What if I don’t make it back?” Grimm asked, shocking Eris, this terrifying mountain of a man had never seemed like anything could shake him. “You will” she said nodding. Against her better judgment, Eris wrapped her arms around Grimm’s waist and held him there. “You have to... I don’t know if you’ve noticed but this place kind of sucks, you make it okay”. Grimm rested his hands on Eris’s shoulders. Wishing he could forget that she was his patient, wishing to forget that she was not at all interested in him, wishing to forget that she was married. Through the course of her visits, Grimm had come to find that she wasn’t just some pretty but wilted flower, she was actually very intelligent, she was funny, she was kind to a fault. And at times her attitude was almost as fiery as her hair. Grimm chewed the inside of his cheek in annoyance. How typical, the only woman to capture his attention since his wife left and she was completely uninterested. “Okay, get off me, all this emotion is making me sick” he joked. Eris grinned

“That’s the spirit. So how are my ribs looking?”

“Great, actually. We can probably call this our last visit if you want? The fracture will take some time to completely heal but it looks to me like things are moving along nicely.” Eris’s brow furrowed. A look that seemed strangely similar to disappointment.

“Awesome” she said without enthusiasm. Grimm tilted his head in confusion. “You don’t look happy about that?”

“No, I am. It’s great. But... It’s just...”

“ Oh, I see, you’ve fallen head over heels for your incredibly handsome Doctor friend and you are unwilling to let me go. Is that it?” Grimm chuckled as Eris screwed her face up at him.

‘You wish. No, it’s just you’re really the only friend I have. And lord knows you’ve certainly made Dorian’s days here a little happier. And James would never let us come here without an excuse-”. Grimm held up the small hammer used to check knee reflexes “I can break another one of your ribs if you’d like”. Laughing heartily Eris held her hands up in surrender. “I’m good, thanks”. Grimm shrugged, placing the hammer back down. Before long his demeanor settled back into the state of unease it had been earlier. “You will make it back from scouting” Eris stated as a matter-of-fact. After a short pause she added “I will be incredibly cross with you if you don’t”. Grimm nodded

“Duly noted.” Eris offered him the most convincing smile she could muster, turned on her heel and left him alone in his office. When he was sure she would not return for anything he ran his hands through his disheveled hair and groaned.

“I hate my life” he muttered to the empty space around him. Digging through his pocket, the felt for the receiver for the safety alert device he had given Eris the day she arrived and sighed. He would have to hand it over to Lieutenant General Yarran, just in case she needed help while he was gone. Although he hoped with every fiber of his being that she would never need to press her distress button, a sinking feeling in his gut told him that she would. “She’ll be fine” he told himself, putting the receiver back in his pocket. ‘For James’s sake, she’d better be’.

***

Eris knocked on the door to her families room and chirped “I brought lunch!”. The door was flung open in an instant and Dorian squealed “food!”. Kissing his head, Eris handed him a ham and cheese roll. Flopping her self down on the double bed she handed James both his roll and her roll. Despite scout success, rations were still pretty tight, and she had found that James was often more happy with her when he’d had a big lunch. He gave her a chaste peck on the cheek and took the rolls without a word. “How’s the game going?” Eris asked. James showed her his cards

“Would be great if this little monster didn’t keep cheating” Dorian grinned at them, his mouth full. “Mum, next time we go to Dr Grimm’s office you should ask him if he has any other games for us to play. Dad doesn’t get the rules of UNO”. Eris felt James’s eyes on her, as if he were trying to bur a hole in the side of her face. She ignored it and focused her attention on Dorian. “Actually, baby, I don’t know if there will be a next time. Dr Grimm is due to leave on scout duties tomorrow and he said I’m healing up pretty nicely so I shouldn’t need to see him again”. Dorian’s face fell “oh”. Eris smiled, trying to hide the fact that she was just as upset at the news as Dorian seemed to be. “But I’m sure we can ask around. The Lieutenant General might have something to do for us to pass time between chores. We don’t need Dr Grimm for that”. She waved her hand dismissively as if Grimm was nothing more than an afterthought to her. This seemed to placate James for the time being and he gave her knee a quick pat. Eris cringed under his touch. She had been finding it harder and harder to be within the same space as James since the night he’d bruised her jaw. When it came to James and his abuse, Eris had always been quick to find excuses for it. But he had hurt her while their son lay asleep in the same room as them. Eris wasn’t sure why, but it had changed something inside of her. The thought that he would so readily expose their son to such things had given birth to a revulsion towards him that she was sure she would never be able to feel for the man she -until recently- loved more than anything else. As the three of them played together, Eris found her mind wandering on more than one occasion to the feel of holding Grimm’s waist, and the look he’d given her when she reached out for him.