InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Forgive thy enemies."

Joanna Beth Harvelle (harvelle) wrote in wariscoming,
@ 2011-01-21 08:50:00

Entry tags:

chuck shurley, jo harvelle-shurley

Who: The Shurleys
Where: Their apartment above the Roadhouse
When: Last night
Rating: A for Angst?
Status: Incomplete

After Chuck had released her and she'd put the apology on the network, Jo could barely look at him. It wasn't his fault, but hers - she was disgusted with herself and how she had acted, how mean she'd been to the man she loved. She hoped that he wouldn't withdraw from her because of this, and didn't even realize that she was the one withdrawing. The first thing she did after standing up from her desk was head to the shower. Being tied up for over a day did not make one smell good, and she also had to take care of the rope burns on her wrists and ankles from when she had struggled too hard. Jo was lucky that she hadn't broken the skin - instead of bloody marks, all she had were ugly blue, black, and purple bruises.

Once she was standing in the shower, Jo stood with her hands bracing herself against the wall, head down, eyes closed as the water hit her. She flinched a little when it struck the rope burns, but she didn't cry out. For a long moment, she stood that way, then finally sank to the floor. Why the hell had she been affected that way? First War, now Wrath...the only conclusion Jo could come to was that there was something angry, something dark, inside her. Something that could get her or her baby hurt. Drawing her knees up under her chin as the water fell around her, she barely even realized that she had begun to cry until she tasted salt, and her shoulders began to shake as the water and tears mixed and fell. She was trying to be quiet so that Chuck wouldn't hear, but she honestly wasn't paying attention to anything at the moment, and didn't hear him calling her through the door.

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capriciousgod
2011-01-25 03:22 am UTC (link)

Chuck had no idea how to fix this. He was pretty sure it wasn’t something he was supposed to fix, technically, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to. If it were possible to make Jo forget about how crappy the last week or so had been, he’d probably have done it. As it stood, he hadn’t been able to do it yet, or even cheer her up, or anything.

Of course, that was possibly because she’d immediately pretty much fled to the bathroom and he’d been trying to give her some space so he hadn’t busted in the door (or, more likely, knocked politely a few times and then called her a couple more times and then tried the doorknob to see if it was even locked)... but still. He had a feeling this wasn’t going to be easy to solve, wasn’t going to be something like grilled cheese and tomato soup or cake or even hugs. And aside from those things, he had no idea what to try. He wasn’t exactly equipped to deal with this kind of thing, okay?

About five minutes after Jo had disappeared, after he’d fed the rabbits and the puppy, he found himself standing outside the bathroom door, calling her name a couple of times, between knocks. When he got no answer, just the sound of the shower and the almost imperceptible sound of crying, from inside, he went ahead and tried the doorknob. She may have thought she needed space, but he needed to be sure she was okay just as much. The doorknob turned, and he slipped inside and nudged the curtain aside a little, carefully and almost sheepishly. Yeah, they were married, but that didn’t mean she might not want her privacy.

“Hey, Jo? You okay?”

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