Victor didn’t argue with Summer, knowing it was futile. “Yeah, I can walk,” he said mostly to himself since she had gone to the kitchen. He trudged up to the bathroom and started the shower. He stepped in and suddenly felt like his legs were going to give out on him so he slid down the wall and sat on the floor of the shower. Victor closed his eyes and just sat there with his head in his hands. Things were a mess and he needed to prepare but first he needed to sort himself out.
Rubbing at the edges of the bandage, Summer went into the bathroom. “You okay? I can’t — I’m not going — uuugh. If you need more blood, I don’t know how to handle that.” She pulled out a couple towels and set them on the counter, then hung a robe over the edge of the door. “I’ll — I — I still have some of your clothes. Here. I’ll just … go get those.”
How was she supposed to stay angry at him when he kept looking like that? Months he was gone, and then he shows up looking beat up and the world is after him. Leaning against the wall, she put her head in her hands, struggling to control her feelings.
Victor waited a second before standing up. He took a moment to make sure he wasn’t going to collapse then he showered as quickly as he could. His hand reached out for the towels and he dried himself off as best as he could. He donned the robe and left the bathroom. Victor found Summer leaning against the wall and a pang of guilt went through him. “I don’t need any more blood right now Summer. I-it’s jus’ tha’ things happened while I was captive. I haven’t been the same in a while an’ I need t’ heal.” He wrapped his arms around her gently, the wall holding both of them up.
When he put his arms around her, she let her hands fall to his shoulders and her head to his chest. “I was so worried,” she whispered. “I was afraid you’d gone back to the alcohol. That someone had killed you and I would never know, because to the real world you don’t exist anymore. That vanishing was your way of putting an end to, to us. So many things.”
She sniffled, and went on, “I missed you so much. So much. And then just when I finally started to heal, when it finally stopped being my first thought when I woke up — then you’re here, on my doorstep, in the rain you melodramatic shit,” she shoved one shoulder, “and I don’t know how to feel.”