"Whoa, whoa," Sam started, instantly kneeling down beside her. A hand was quick to take it's place on her shoulder and the concerned puppy eyes kicked into action almost at once. "Slow down. Tell me what happened from the beginning, okay? Come on." He didn't know what was going on, but it was obviously disturbing the hell out of Elisabeth and that naturally became something that worried him greatly. What had she done? What was making her feel this way? Sam wanted to know. He really, really did.
Elisabeth flinched under his touch, playing opposites roles as she shied away, shaking her head. “Please don’t touch me right now, please, please, please don’t touch me.” Because she begged how often? for someone like Sam to not touch her? She took in a shaky breath and tucked her hands under herself, focusing her eyes in a glaze at the carpet. “I…there’s too much involved. I went after that foul mouthed, horrible excuse for a human being, Ryan, because he…tortured Arthur. He’s this wonderful kid, has no family here, so I took him, yeah? Convinced him to leave Lex Luthor and live with me. I couldn’t…couldn’t just let Ryan go unpunished. And he said awful things to Nicholas, not that that would be enough reason for what I did, but he deserved it for the damage he left on Arthur.”
She leaned forward as she moaned, closing her eyes. Elisabeth began to rock back and forth on her hands, eyes reaming shut tight. She wouldn’t be able to see Sam’s face this way. “I lured him to a hotel. Made him think…” her dress would say enough here and she pressed forward. “He had no idea what was about to happen.” Though it meant looking Sam in the face, she snapped her eyes open and stared at him imploringly. “I swear I didn’t sleep with him, Sam, I wouldn’t do that, I couldn’t, but he had to be completely clueless, he had to think I wasn’t there to rip him the fuck apart!” She clutched at her head, burying her fingers into her hair and slightly pulling. “I just…made him re-think ever touching my family again.” And because it was far easier to show than tell, Elisabeth tentatively reached out for Sam’s hand and sent him flashes of what had happened, only allowing so much to show; the bamboo shoots under the nails, the psionic blades into Ryan’s shoulders…and all this time, silent tears fell in streams and again, her eyes had dropped away from her friend’s face.
The images that flickered through his mind disturbed him. He wasn't going to lie. His eyes screwed shut at the images and, for a moment, he considered just yanking Elisabeth up by the hair and throwing her out of the hotel room himself. But he bit back his distaste, remembering that, despite it all, Elisabeth had always been a pretty good person. This was something else. It had to be. "You need to explain this to me. And fast, before I really freak out."
Elisabeth appeared to choke at first, her body jerking, until a raspy laugh emerged from her throat, her mouth. It wasn’t a happy laugh, no, it was just…gone. She licked her lips and brought her face to level with Sam’s, her voice dull. “If you think what I just did was bad, then you don’t want me to show you what that fuck did to my Arthur.”
She blinked slowly, digging her nails into the carpet. “I did what I had to to protect them. If you can’t understand that, then there is no way I can ever face them. They have to understand, Sam. He’s a monster, he was on the loose, and no one was stepping up to teach him a lesson. You weren’t there when I had to rescue Arthur. The kid doesn’t cry and he doesn’t like to be touched…and he would.not.let me go that night. Ryan tortured him for days, Sam. What I did? What I just showed you? Was heaven compared to what he put Arthur through.”
Elisabeth shook her head so fast it made her dizzy, plum lockes flying everywhere. Her emotions were switching like light fixtures bring turned off and on, not that she was able to help herself. “I’m sorry I came here, I’m so sorry, you don’t need this shit.” She was supposed to stand then, to march toward that door and leave…but she was glued in place, crying again.