“Hey!” She said, trying to sound normal, pushing down the panic in her chest, “You’re back.” She turned to smile at Holly leaning in the doorway.

Holly came and sat on the edge of the bed across from where she was resting on the couch. Her cane had fallen to the floor and she wished she could gracefully retrieve it.

“How was your lecture?” She inquired

“Fine, it was fine.” Holly said, and Gail realized she was nervous too.

Holly took a deep breath, adjusted her glasses, looked Gail up and down and said, “Tell me everything.”

“ I guess I did something reckless and stupid, just like you were always afraid I would.” She said with a bitter laugh.

Holly waited. Gail fidgeted. The shrapnel in her ribs itched. She scratched at it mindlessly. Sometimes a piece would still work its way to the surface and poke through her skin. She was supposed to tell her doctors when that happened, and have them do something surgical about it. But these days she just picked at them and pulled them out herself, not being able to stand another moment of medical intervention. Two weeks after she had come home, Chris had caught her at it, picking at her side with an old lock-blade and a pair of pliers gripped in her bad hand. She had just gotten out of the shower, and was sitting on the bathroom floor twisting and cursing. She had lived with him for years and never cared if he saw her naked. He thought she had fallen, until he saw the blood, and then he freaked!

“I swear to God I will remind you what it was like to be stabbed if you leave this room and tell Traci!” She had threatened, waving the knife in his direction. “Now get your ass over here and help me get this fucking thing out of my skin! It’s driving me crazy!” She insisted.

He had protested at first, afraid to hurt her. She had cursed, and threatened and finally cried with frustration. He could never resist her, not even when they had first broken up and he had tried to stay mad. And so, He had given in with a sigh, to be rewarded with a wicked looking shard of metal, and a rare, wild, impish grin on Gail’s face.