BUTTERFLIES FLY AWAY (29 page)

There was a knock on the door which she ignored lost
in her own world as she rocked on the floor.  The knock was followed again
by Nico calling out to her.  She was oblivious to him or his calls. 
The door opened.

“Carrie, what’s happened?”  He turned off the
water and grabbed a towel to cover her.  “I just wanted to get clean Nico,
I had his blood on me, I feel so dirty,” she sobbed into his arms. 
Uncaring of her nakedness she felt no embarrassment as all she could feel was
the frustration from her failure in showering.   

“It’s okay, Carrie, everything’s going to be okay,”
he soothed.   “His blood was in my hair, I need to wash it, and I
want to get clean, please help me.”

Nico removed his top which was sticking to his chest
in its wetness, pulled over the chair that was in the corner of the room and
sat Carrie on it.  Her legs trembling too unstable to stand. 

“Let’s try this, if it doesn’t go to plan, we can get
a nurse to help us, okay?”

She nodded.

Slowly and gently he washed her hair, helped her
soap her body which days before he had explored and worshipped in its
glory.  Now her beautiful skin was marred with a technicolor display of
bruises that were developing.  He could feel the rage build that someone
had done this to her.  Someone had to pay for this.  When the soap
bubbles had washed clear he turned off the water again and wrapped her once
more in a towel.

“I think we need to get a nurse to attend to those
bandages” they were heavy with water and Carrie nodded again.  “Thank you
Nico, I think I had a bit of a wobble there, I don’t know what happened to me”

“You were bound to get upset Carrie, it’s
understandable I’m just surprised that it took until this morning.”  He
helped her to get dry and into her own pyjamas.  Nothing slinky or sexy
just a pair of plain cotton blue and white stripped.  Her hair she quickly
dried with the help of Nico.  Nico left her to change his top and call a
nurse.  He must have explained what happened as the nurse asked very
little questions on how the bandages were so wet.

They had to leave the needle in the back of her hand
as she needed another bag of fluids as she was still vomiting.  The nurse
gently explained that the needle had to stay in for fluids but they would
continue to monitor her hydration levels.  Again she nodded.  They
declined her request for coffee but brought her a tray of toast, cereal and
orange juice.  None of it held any appeal but she forced a slice of toast
and the juice.  She was never a great fan of cereal. 

“Nico, thank you for staying with me and helping me
but you have a business to run.  You have taken too much time away from
it.  I know you need to get back to LA.”

“Okay, now that I’ve seen you naked again are you
trying to get rid of me?” He joked,

“Very funny, Mr Devanti but now that you have had
the pleasure of seeing my naked body, in all its colourful glory that thought
should be enough for the rest of the day!”

“The images are burned into my mind,”

“Well you can erase the ones of my breakdown, thank
you very much”

“You didn’t have a breakdown Carrie, stop chastising
yourself.  I will leave once you have seen the doctor but not for LA, my
Dad left last night.”

“I thought you said your Dad wasn’t so hands on
anymore?”

“I asked him to go in my place, now stop asking
questions and eat your breakfast!”

A short while later the Dr Petersen returned and
Carrie vaguely remembered him from the day before.  They were happy with
how she had responded and would continue to monitor her.  After giving her
some painkillers for her headache this seemed enough to pacify Nico to leave
her.  “Belle will be here this afternoon and I will be back later. 
Do you need anything, apart from coffee!  Remember I have one of the
security team here with you, he’s a great guy and will keep an eye out
here.”  He kissed her on the cheek avoiding her bruised forehead and
cut.  “I think Belle brought everything I need maybe some pyjamas but I
will ask her to check for me,” It wasn’t a passionate kiss goodbye but tender
and the room immediately felt so empty without him.  It was too early to
contact home even though her call would have been answered without
question.  She would wait until lunchtime which would be early morning
back home.  The oblivion of sleep welcomed her but she dreamed of being
chased through the car park at the diner and woke trembling.  It was
almost 8am back home.  Time enough to make some calls. 

“Hello Mum,” her voice soft as she tried not to get
upset.  She didn’t want to alarm her mother.  “I feel okay, my head
is sore but that’s to be expected so they tell me,” She told her mother that
she slept the night through but didn’t include that Nico had stayed by her
side. 

“I don’t know how long they are keeping me in, the
doctor said a few days at least,”

Belle had called her Mum last night and gave them
more of an update on her condition. 

“What aren’t you telling us Carrie?  What else
is wrong?”

“Oh Mum, I never could keep anything from you, I hurt
my hands when I fell, they are a little cut up and I’ve sprained my wrist they
said, that’s all”  she didn’t include that most of this occurred during a
tug of war over her hand bag.  This her mother would think foolish.

“Oh Carrie darling, I am so glad your Auntie Belle
is with you, at least she can keep an eye on you,”

“Mmm Auntie Belle keep an eye on me!  More like
the other way around Mum,” she tried to joke.

“I’m going to call Claire, but if I don’t call later
I will make sure Belle updates you all, okay?”

They said their goodbyes and much to Carrie’s relief
one of the staff took pity on her and brought her a coffee.

“Hey sis, so tell me what’s been happening back
home?  Have I missed anything?”  She joked.

“Carrie Reynolds-Davies I have been so worried about
you,”

Claire explained that she had been texting Carrie
without any response the day before which set off alarm bells.  She had
contacted Belle who at that time also didn’t know where Carrie was only that
she had gone out for a drive.  Once Belle received the call from the
hospital she had contacted the family. 

“I’m sorry Claire, I won’t be home for your
birthday, they want to keep me in for a few days but when I said about my
flight home on Thursday the doc said no,”

“Carrie your health is more important than some
silly birthday; it’s not as if we can go out on the town!”

“I know but I wanted to show you that this year
would be different, I was even going to bake some red velvet cakes,”

“We can do that when you get home, promise,”

“Okay, tell me some normal stuff, please.  Does
Harry have any new words?”

“His new word is car.  He is obsessed with
playing with the toy car you bought him.  He loves it.  I was bathing
him last night and he wanted car.  He has just had breakfast and wants to
play in the car.”

“Aw bless him; I think he is trying to saying to say
Carrie not car!  Give him a big kiss from his Auntie and I will be home
soon.”  Carrie flicked through the multitude of tv channels but settled on
BBC world news not that anything on the screen resonated with her.  She
just needed some background noise.  Her phone beeped.  A text from
Nico.

“Hello you, how are you?”

“I’m okay, called my mum and sister; I’ve been
sleeping then sleeping again”

“Should be with you in a couple of hours”

She put her phone back on the table and the
screensaver popped back on.  Rob’s goofy smiling face.  It still made
her ache to look at.  Pressing a few buttons she changed it to a default
factory picture of a palm tree and white beach.  She wasn’t forgetting him
but it hurt too much to look at and try to get through her hospital stay. 
What would Rob think of her now?  She could imagine him shaking his head
as she explained another escapade.  It was bittersweet.  She changed
the screensaver back. 

Lunch had arrived but the tray left mostly uneaten,
she explained to the nurse that she still felt nauseous hence her lack of
food.  They gave her some more medication to settle the dizzy and sickness
feeling.  Beep her phone, this time Auntie Belle en-route with some coffee
and supplies. 

The supplies consisted of a stack of magazines, a
bag of haribo and a coffee.  All gratefully accepted.  More visitors,
this time in the form of Monique and Tansie.

“Oh My God!” Monique exclaimed from the
doorway.  “What on Gods good earth has happened to you?”

She pulled Carrie into a gentle hug and proceeded to
talk away giving Carrie very little chance to interject.  She made the
introductions to Belle as Monique had not met her Aunt. 

“You can tell the family resemblance.  Oh you
do look alike Carrie, your Aunt is a fine looking woman!”

“Well thank you Monique, I will take that has a
compliment”

“When I got the call from Tansie, I said no! 
Not our Carrie, no way, what was she doing out by that diner?  No No No!”

“Well it was Yes, Yes, Yes Monique; I stopped for a
coffee, that’s all”

After running through every one of Carries injuries
Monique produced a drawing from her bag.  “Tami made you this get well
soon card”  

“Oh thank you Monique,” she took the card. 

Lots of kisses on the card and a large sun in the
corner of the page.   It had lots of shards of sunlight and the stick
figure of Carrie lying in a bed with Tami at her side. 

“I know you will be missing these from the Inn so I
brought you some,” Tansie gave her a jar of cookies as her sweet tooth was well
known.  “It’s your favourites white chocolate blondies with cranberries
and walnuts”

“Thank you so much” Carrie was touched by the
thoughtfulness of the gesture and the handmade card.

“Belle brought me some magazines; I’m not up to
touch on all the celebs over here. You will need to keep me right on the gossip
columns” she joked.

Monique picked up one of the glossies, “Oh where do
I start?” 

“I usually like the best and worst dressed, and then
I see if I agreed with the marks of out ten”

“Oh I do that too Carrie”

They all debated the outfits of choice and who
deserved to sack the stylist. 

“Well they must thank the lord for tit tape that’s
all I can say!  Some of those dresses, it’s not just gravity that keeps
them up” 

Carrie couldn’t stop laughing at Tansie’s comments.

“Laughter, it’s the best medicine darling, well next
to champagne” Belle said handing Carrie a handkerchief.

The next glossy magazine had an exclusive interview
with Lea.  The cover a black and white picture of her perfectly arched
body on a ruffled bed.  She was posing in a two piece swimsuit or
lingerie.  Carrie couldn’t tell which.  The headline ‘My Life with My
Playboy Lover!”

“Remember Carrie, these articles are written months
in advance, I wouldn’t read much into it, whatever she is trying to tell
them”  Belle tried to take the magazine back.

“No, it’s okay Belle, I will read it later,” she put
it aside not wanting her friends to witness any potential embarrassment. 

The nurse interrupted their chat advising that
Carrie was going for some tests.  Monique promising to return the
following day and Carrie told her she wanted an update on Ted.  Tansie
wouldn’t make it as the Inn was starting its preparation for the weekend nuptials. 
She would need to find out when she could go home as the Inn was fully booked
from Friday or she would ask Terri to recommend somewhere to stay. 

As soon as they left the room her hand was drawn to
the magazine.  She found the article.  Turned the pages with her
bandaged hands.  Lea wore the same black two pieces as the front cover, it
was lingerie.  Agent provocateur were given the credit.  The same
shot from the cover, lying on a bed, the sheets ruffled. 

“I’m madly in love with Nico,” was one of the sub titles. 
She described their jet set lifestyle that enabled her to carry out fashion
shoots wherever they were.   It gave a brief bio of their
romance.  Nico the billionaire playboy and head of Devanti Group.  A
small insert picture of them hand and hand at some event. 

Was that jealousy she was feeling?  But she
continued to read the story.

“Everyone has to grow up sometimes, and that time is
now for us,”

Flick of the paper as she turned the page. 
Another lingerie shot but this time Lea was posing on a desk.  The bra and
panties covered up with a man’s shirt the monogram NVD.  Nico’s
initials.  A large old fashioned calendar to one side and a lamp to the
other.  The interviewer had asked what did Nico think of the racy poses
for today’s shoot.

“Nico loves me for me and it will be fun to look
back at these pictures when we have a baby and we can remember I had a hot
body”

A baby?  Hot body?  Madly in love
together?

Carrie closed the magazine and flung it to the
side.  What had her aunt said the article was probably written months
ago?  Well she would be asking Nico for his opinion later.