#new content

Window was open, fresh air, soft night rain. It was pretty peaceful. The perfect weather to fall asleep to. Hell, you dozed off because of it. Your eyes were only closed for a moment and you opened them to darkness. Wait, were you awake at all?

Wait, you were awake. Why was it dark? Damn breaker. You really needed to call someone in to fix it. Just had to make sure the mechanic didn’t get too nosey.

You turned your phones flashlight on and went to your bedroom to go flip it. To your horror, the switch was down. Someone had turned the power off.

You flipped it back up and immediately closed the window in your bedroom. Instinctive over actually productive. Whoever turned the power off was clearly in your home. You felt stupid now. Dammit.

You got into your bedside drawer and pulled out your pistol. You’ve never had to use it, so you were pretty uncertain on how to use it. Just pull the trigger. Simple, right? You hope. Someone was in your home and that someone had some sort of awareness to the layout.

You would peak your head around the corner, and strained your ear to try and hear for something. All that reached you was rain and the cars outside. You couldn’t hear any creaks. Guess you could only filter through the home. Couldn’t imagine someone breaking in to just turn your lights off and leave.

Each door would open and be closed. The bathroom, the master bathroom, under your bed, the guest room, the kitchen, the……

Of course.

The closet by your front door.

You raised your gun up and aimed it at the door. The intruder had to be in there. No where else could they be. It made your skin crawl to imagine you had this attacker possibly watching you in the dark. Maybe was just inches from death, but you woke up before they could do anything.

“I’m armed, so unless you are someone I know you are about to get shot!”

You felt a need to give a warning. On the most thinnest of chances it was someone you knew. You just couldn’t risk hurting someone you loved. Curse your big heart. The attacker took that threat seriously and busted through the door.

You screamed, and fired, but being untrained with a gun made you unknowingly to how strong a recoil can be.

You were pinned to the ground by the masked intruder. You tried to hit the attacker with your gun, and you managed to nail them in the side of the head. A chunk of metal sure can disorient someone. Even if they are wearing a mask.

They would tumble to the side, and you made an attempt to get up as well. Unfortunately they grabbed your leg and stabbed their knife into the back of your calf. You screamed out in bloody murder from the pain, and now you were wounded elk that couldn’t run back to the herd.

“Boss didn’t say I had to bring you unwounded.” Your aggressor would grumble, as they sat on your back and knocked the gun from your hand. Didn’t mean you stopped thrashing. You kept screaming. Screaming out ‘fire’ to try and get people’s attention. Your attacker was biting off more than they could chew. Either keep your arms pinned and leave you screaming, or cover your mouth and have you wail.

They were biting off more than they could chew. This wasn’t some movie. This was real life.

They grabbed the back of your head and slammed your face into the floor. It was your turn to be disoriented. You could feel blood running out of your nose as you tried to recollect your thoughts. Gave them enough time to start duct taping your arms behind you.

You tried to scream out again, but your mouth was covered by the tape.

“Now let’s get you ou-“

Silence.

You furrowed your brows to only see your attacker now slumped next to you. Eyes were rolled back and a needle was in their neck.

“I know people like to get crazy on a Saturday, but this is a bit extreme.” The voice said, as they removed the needle from their neck. Now you were being cut free.

“Good thing I had forgotten my keys it seems. Imagine if I hadn’t come back home. How would you get out of this one?” He laughed, as he would flip you over before hoisting you to the couch.

Tanner.

It was Tanner.

“Oh, lemme just-“ You gave a whine as the tape was removed. “Sorry about that. My oh my. Nasty little wound hm? Oh you are always getting into trouble. Aren’t you?”

“Mmm….Head…..”

“Oh my, nasty cut.” He would agree.

He would casually step over the knocked out body before going to grab his specific med kit. He would take his seat on the coffee table before getting to work.

“Don’t fall asleep on me now. If you fall asleep you may never wake up!” He almost laughed, as he dealt with your face and head first. Since the knife was still in your leg the wound wasn’t gushing. He will focus on that after he is sure you don’t die from blood filling your brain.

Careful hands would wipe away the blood and he would shine a flashlight into your eyes. See how your pupils reacted before applying a cold press to your head to reduce inflammation.

“Poor thing. Doesn’t seem you have any kind of immediate brain damage. Always knew you had a thick skull.”

“Har har.”

With that immediate problem dealt with he would finally work on your leg. That wasn’t fun, but at least he knew what he was doing. He was able to safely remove it and tend to the wound without you becoming a stabbed juice box. The wound was deep, but it was still small in size. He figured stuffing the wound and wrapping it first would be wise compared to immediately stitching it.

Now your leg was propped up, hurting like hell, and he was administering pain killers to help you handle it. You were stabbed after all.

Unlike your attacker, Tanner would take your arm and be gentle with administering the medication. You didn’t even feel the needle. Then again you’ve been stabbed by them so many times you’ve grown immune really. He was your personal doctor of sorts. Why take it in pill form when injections are faster and stronger?

“There we go. You rest your pretty little head while I deal with the body. I think I might have given the sap an overdose. I tried to remain calm, but seeing you attacked just made me panic a little.”

He looked over the couch and gave a distressed expression.

“Oh that’s foam…..Oh that’s foaming at the mouth-“

“What?”

“Nothing! Just rest up sweetie.”

Tanner would scitter over and dragged the body away to the guest room. Honestly you were in too much pain right now to care. Even with the pain killers. He still wanted to make sure you were coherent. A head injury can be pretty lethal.

You did your best to stay awake as he did god knows what in the other room. Your head was throbbing, your leg was on fire, your nose was stuffed, this was hell. People always trying to kidnap you because you dug up their secrets. Oh what a joy.

But DAMN was the pay good.

Had dental!

“They won’t bother you anymore now.” Tanner confidently said, before he hung up his coat and sat back on the coffee table. He would wipe away your sweat and helped you with drinking some cold water.

“Poor thing. All banged up. Like a little doll. Don’t worry. I’ll stitch you right up.” He mused, with that ever uncanny smile. Used to creep you out, but honestly there was a charm to it. As unnatural as it was it was natural to him. That’s his smile.

“My savior.” You sarcastically remarked, as he kept wiping away the sweat from pain. Same for the water that dripped from the cold cloth on your head. Well, now warm. He could tell. So, he took it off and went to run it under cold water again.

“Your one and only~!” He sung from the kitchen.

You would think people would stop trying to mess with you when so many always left empty handed. If they left at all. Guess it made you more hypnotic. They all wanted to be the one who finally got you.

Not when Tanner was around.

Wild to think it all started because of you digging up someone’s file.

Now look where you are.

“Slight fever, but expected. Nearly hit you in a place you would never recover from. Missed your tendons by a hair.” He would explain to you, as he placed the cold cloth back over your head. Gentle little monitoring over your fresh wounds and conditions. Your private little doctor.

“I’ve survived worse.” You tried to brush off, as he tsked at you.

“Yes, but needless it all was. Just because I am trained doesn’t mean you are safe from death forever. You’ve made so many enemies, sweetie…..You’ve made a lot….”

“And you haven’t?”

“Don’t drag me into this now.”

“But what makes it so different?”

You got him there. Suppose you had the ability to say you were doing it for a good cause. Call him Victor Frankenstein for what he’s doing if all for.

“Rest, sweetie. Rest.” He would gently hush, with a gentle kiss to your forehead. Could still feel it through the cloth.

Suppose this was one way to spend a Saturday. Your boyfriend tending to your every want and need, as you survived another attempted kidnapping. Good thing your job is remote work. How would you explain this to the boss?

That’s for morning you to worry about. Right now you focused on staying awake and letting your boyfriend be your little nurse.

Who knew a man so terrifying could be just as gentle and kind?

Only you. Only ever you.