Chapter 88: Remembrance

It's a short one, but I had a hard time writing it. :/

Ty's POV

I knew I should have demanded he not kiss me, or at the very least make him take a step back. My mind knows this, but my body is numb; partly because all the memories are coming back. And the only thing associated with these memories is pain.

First off, it's painful because with his lips connected to mine, I find my lips responding to his even against my biggest attempts to stop. This makes me think of all the good times we had; and there were a lot. Way more in number in comparison to the bad ones. The thing is, when things got bad they got atrocious. And for that? I'll always blame him.

I tried to move away, tried to get him out of my mind and tried to move on with my life, but as his lips move against mine I realize that I've been foolish. He's always going to be my weakness, and I should have realized that I'd never be able to overcome him.

Geno's POV

Her movements are timid at first, and this I expect. It's not that I had anticipated kissing her, but with the proximity between us I just couldn't help myself. In this instance, I'm going to use the excuse that I was just drawn to her, because I don't have any other explanation for my actions.

What I don't expect is for her to deepen the kiss and pull my body roughly against hers. My leg slams against the exam table and I wince, because I expect it to hurt but my body is in a stage of shock and I don't feel anything expect for her lips against mine. I move my kisses down to her neck, my hands hungrily reaching for the buttons on her pants. Together, we discard of her shoes, socks, and pants and when I reach for the hem of her shirt I feel raised skin on her rib cage as I'm lifting it over her head. As soon as I get it off, my eyes fall on a particular piece of body art I don't remember.

I trace my fingers over the raised skin, an outline of a heart with angel wings that has a date scrawled in the middle of it, and get a good look of it for the first time. I look up into her eyes and feel immediately associated with this particular tattoo deep in my chest, making it hard for me to breath. I tried so hard to forget about the child we lost together, but this has every single memory of it rushing back into my mind. I look up into her eyes, silent tears streaming down her eyes and I know that I've let her down beyond epic proportions. I lean down, placing a long, hard kiss in the middle of the heart as I hear the first sob escape from her mouth.

When I raise my head, I look up at her as she shakes her head, taking her hand up to her face to cover her mouth as she continues to cry. She reaches down and grabs me behind the neck, bringing my head back up to her face roughly and then reaching down and stripping me of my shorts.

I bury myself deep inside of her as more memories flash into my mind, memories I'm trying viciously to erase from the visions in my mind as the tears start to slide from my eyes as well. I try to hide it, but the quake in my shoulders is evident. She pulls my head up so that her eyes bore into mine, and I know that in this moment, I can't hide from her.

Chapter 87: "Don't what?"

Ty's POV

It's just my luck that Kyle's wife goes into labor and I'm stuck to finish out Geno's assessment by myself. While I've been waiting on the x-rays, all the other guys have mingled out of the locker room, leaving me and Geno alone. He's been very quiet, but I can feel him watching my every move. I grab the x-ray, putting it up on the screen before closely looking it over. While I'm in the process of doing so, I hear him slide off the exam table, coming up behind me to get a look at the x-ray himself.

"Of course a doctor will need to look at this to confirm it," I start out, "but I don't see any serious damage. You've got yourself one nasty looking bruise forming from the impact of the hit, but your ACL and tendons look good."

"So what does that mean?" He asks, and I know exactly what he's talking about. He wants to know what that means in terms of him getting to play.

"I'd expect to be really sore and stiff for a while, and I don't imagine you'll be playing for maybe a little longer than two weeks, but aside from that it should be a fairly low key injury." I turn around and look at him, and I mean really look at him for the first time since I've been back and my heart begins to ache. I don't know how or even why, but after all we've been through.. after all he's put me through, I still love this man. "Can you go ahead and get back up on the table? I need to massage it and ice it before sending you home."

He nods his head mutely before hobbling back over toward the exam table and sliding up onto it. I follow him over there, lightly pressing down on the area around his knee cap and I automatically feel that electric current; the one I always felt anytime his skin touched mine and it makes my knees weak and my heart flutter. I try to remind myself that he dumped me, that he's the one that doesn't want me, but that doesn't do anything to suppress the feelings floating around inside of my head. I continue prodding around on his knee, apologizing quietly whenever I hit a tender spot and he curses or winces. After about 2 or so minutes, he speaks up.

Geno's POV

"So how have you been?" I ask tentatively, knowing that this could open a whole new can of worms. She looks up at me, almost trying to gauge my mood before smiling slightly, but it doesn't reach her eyes. The only thing I see when I look into the green pools is pain; a pain I know I've caused.

"I've been okay," she offers while shrugging her shoulders as she goes back to her work on my knee. Just when I think she's not going to tell me anything more she continues. "They caught the guy," she states quietly. When I don't answer she looks up at me to see if I'm following or not. When she sees I'm not she presses on even more. "The car driver from that night," she adds while adverting her gaze from mine again.

I don't know how to process the information she's just told me. Is she just stating it as a piece of general conversation or is she trying to make a point? Is she trying to tell me I have no reason to avoid her anymore or am I just completely over thinking everything?

She walks out of the room, leaving me alone to my thoughts for a brief second before she comes back in with ice packs for my knees. She places them in their proper places before I reach down for her hand out of habit. She freezes and it's then that I have the first chance to look at her and notice the tears forming in her eyes. She tries to pull away, but I don't let her.

"Geno," she whispers while once again trying to pull away from me. "Don't," she adds while looking up into my eyes, but when she does I can automatically tell she's fighting a battle within herself. I don't know what has come over me, but I don't know if I could retract my hand from hers if my life depended on it.

"Don't what?" I question before slowing bringing her lips to mine.