For the prompts: Kerry/Susan Angst #30 or General #31 💞
Angst #30 - “I risked my life for you.”
Without a word, Kerry slams the door to her room and puts her crutch away hastily before sitting on the edge of her bed. Everything around her is blurry as she tries to comprehend the events of today, anger still lingering all over her. She takes a deep breath, trying to let herself relax, but the harder she tries the more her vexation grows, and by the look of things she is not going to get any rest tonight.
All of a sudden, she hears the door being opened and she looks up to see Susan standing in the doorway, her right hand hand on her hip and her expression bewildered. Kerry’s eyes immediately travel to Susan’s left arm, the bandage wrapped around it catching the redhead’s attention first and foremost.
“How much longer are you going to ignore me?” Susan asks calmly despite the clearly annoyed look on her face.
Kerry lets out a sigh. “I don’t want to talk about this now. I’m tired, and I don’t need…this on top of what happened today—” she says while trying to avoid Susan’s gaze.
“So we’re going to pretend that today never happened? Is that what you want?” Susan presses, her annoyance growing by the second though she somehow manages not to take another step closer inside the bedroom.
“Look—what do you want, Susan?” Kerry puts her hands up, frustration evident in her tone. “You nearly got yourself killed, and you expect me to be okay about it? Seriously?”
“I risked my life for you,” Susan responds through gritted teeth. “That patient had a knife and what did you expect me to do? Did you expect me to just stand by and watch him come at you?”
Kerry scoffs. “You want me to thank you? Fine, thank you very much,” she blurts out. “Doesn’t mean I have to change my mind about how reckless you were.”
Susan brings her right hand to her injured arm as a red patch on the bandage grows more prominent, her pained expression not unnoticed by Kerry. Against her better judgment, Kerry looks away, and Susan somehow manages not to gasp at the gesture, instead opting to focus on applying pressure on the injury.
“Kerry, please,” the younger woman pleads, her gaze still fixated at Kerry—which the latter is trying hard to avoid. “Talk to me. You know there’s nothing else I would’ve done, seeing you in that situation. Did you seriously expect me to stand by and do nothing? Fuck, Ker, I’m your wife. What else would I have done when you were in danger?”
For a few seconds, total silence fills the room, tension brewing even more as Kerry tries hard to comprehend everything Susan has said—on top of everything that happened earlier in the day. Her mind keeps replaying that afternoon in the ER, Susan’s voice calling her name as that rowdy patient was coming toward her with a knife, that exact second when she turned around only to see Susan on the floor with blood gushing from her arm…
Still looking down at her lap, Kerry feels tears starting to run down her face, and as much as she tries to hide it she knows there is no way Susan fails to notice. Her hands gripping the side of the bed, Kerry takes another deep breath while fighting the urge to lose the last bit of control she has.
“You are my wife,” Kerry murmurs. “Which means all the more reason for me not to lose you.”
