Shatter Pieces

Chapter 22: Helping Her

Mateo

I had decided I was going to leave Elvira alone for the rest of the day to allow her to explore the new spaces around her without feeling the need to constantly look over her shoulder. I had guards patrolling around the house to make sure that she wasn't going to get hurt outside or try to run away. So far they had only seen her once when she stood on the porch at night and stared up at the moon.

I didn't sleep well knowing that my mate was just five minutes away and I wasn't with her. But I also knew that she needed time to get acquainted with her surroundings without feeling pressure from those around her. I didn't want her to think that she had to do things to please me or anything like that. I wanted her to become comfortable with her surroundings and give her a chance to think through all that she had been experiencing.

When it finally reached an hour most people would be awake I made my way back to my house to see my mate. I would make her some breakfast and we could hopefully talk about what had been happening. I wanted to get to know her, whatever parts of her she would allow me to see. I knocked on the door and waited for a solid minute before opening the door and walked inside.

To my surprise I found Elvira very much awake and she was furiously scrubbing the floors. I quickly approached her though she didn't seem to notice until I was almost on top of her. When she did she looked up at me panicked than quickly back to the floor she was washing.

"What are you doing?"I asked curiously.

"I'm s....s....sorry I'm not done ye...t." She whimpered trying to clean faster.

"Hey, hey, you don't need to worry about stuff like this." I leaned down and took her trembling hands in mine,tThat was when I noticed they were raw and bloodied.

Looking around I realised she must have been cleaning since I had left her, the house was spotless more thoroughly than any of the pack cleaners had ever gotten it before. I wondered how she had gotten it to look so spotless, but more importantly I wondered why she had felt the need to do all of this.

"Elvira look at your hands. Do you see what they look like, why didn't you stop?" I asked her pulling her into my arms and carrying her into a much to tidy kitchen. I set her on the counter waiting for her answer.

I had spent the night learning about how to work with people who struggled talking. I learned that you need to leave paused to teach them where they were supposed to contribute so they learned how the conversation flowed and the back and forth action of talking. One of the biggest things was leaving the space blank until they realized it was their job to fill the silence. It took a few minutes but eventually, she glanced up at me and whispered her reply.

"You got m...m...me all those nice thi...things. Gifts c...com....come with consequences and t...te...tests, that way y...you can prove you de...dese....deserve them. You have t...to make up for the g...gift by giv...giving something b...bet...better back." She explained to me wringing her hands together which I immediately made her stop. It once again sounded like a rehearsed speech she was giving without a second thought

I took a closer look at her hands and realized they had to be burning from the chemicals that must have gotten in them while she was cleaning. I had no clue how to treat a wound like this so I quickly called Dr Karthan. As the phone dialed I tried to explain things to Elvira.

"No, you don't have to give me anything back sweetheart. I gave you those things because I wanted you to be happy, no other reason. We have people who clean this house so you don't need to worry about that. Everything I gave you was simply given because I wanted you to be comfortable. The best thing you could do to pay me back would be letting yourself relax and be yourself whoever that may be." She looked up at me as if not quite sure if I was lying to her or not. Karthan answered as I pulled the med kit out from underneath the sink.

As Karthan talked me through the way to treat her hands my mate seemed to be considering what I had said to her. As I bandaged her hands and thanked Karthan before hanging up. I found Elvira studying the bandage as if it was foreign to her for some reason.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked her cautiously.

"Broken?" She quired looking at me like a lost child.

"Not broken, just hurt. Don't worry I've taken care of it so that you will get better quickly. She studied her hand again for a moment than looked up at me once again.

"Scar?" She whispered quietly as if scared of what I might tell her.

"No, no it shouldn't scar. Would you be upset if it did?" I knew that she had scars and I wondered if they bothered her.

She rolled up the long sleeved shirt she was wearing and pointed at her scars shaking her head. I don't think I had really noticed exactly how many scars she had until I really examined her arm. There were hundreds of little scars running the length of her arm and they seemed to all be stacked and piled on top of each other.

"No more." She told me with a firmness that I hadn't ever heard from her before and I hadn't been expecting it.

"Okay, I promise you it won't scar. No more scars," I promised her.

She relaxed slightly and I smiled down at her.

"You sit there and let your hands rest while I work on making you a breakfast." With that we got on with our day and I was excited to see that she was beginning to learn to trust me.