6 - Ignoring Protocol

"It's really over, " Maisey realized as she woke up safe in Brett's house, her new friend was asleep in a chair near the bed. Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks, she was free.

Brett shifted and came immediately awake, "you're ok," he soothed, "I'll protect you."

Maisey smiled, "I know." She didn't feel the same apprehension she did before, she'd realized no one could hurt her anymore. Her ex was not going to be a problem and she could take self defense classes to learn to protect herself. "I feel a lot better."

"You look better, " Anna said coming back into the room. "Good color in your cheeks, and according to the machine your heart rate, pulse and oxygen are good." She smiled and sent Brett to make some broth. "Andy will want to see you, but you gave us all a scare," the nurse told her, "it's been a month, but Brett would not let us move you."

"A month?!" Maisey was startled.

"No burden," Ned called from the kitchen, "but we're glad you're awake anyway, your cooking is better than Brett's."

"Old Ned sat and read to you every night while Brett did the evening chores." Anna said conspiratorially, "being unconscious gave your body a good time to heal, " she said more seriously, "I sponge bathed and changed you regularly but you'll want a proper shower now you're awake."

Maisey nodded and sat patiently while Anna moved her legs so she was in a sitting position, "Brett helped me with stretching your arms and legs so the muscles didn't atrophy. You will still be weak though so go slow."

Brett came back into the room to be there while Maisey tried to stand, ready to catch her if she fell. Before she put her feet down, she looked at the both with a smile, "Thank you for looking after me. I was a stranger and you treated me like family." they just nodded and braced for her to stand and shuffle into the kitchen. She sat at the table and laughed, "I'm not sure I'll make it to the shower yet."

The others laughed, "Brett could carry you," Anna told her, "I could try but Mr Muscles was hauling bales of hay last week so he's your better choice."

"Anna," Maisey mocked, "Are you insinuating that I weigh as much as a bale of hay?" Maisey realized how good it felt to laugh as the woman scrambled to backtrack what she'd said. She'd known these people for such a short amount of time and already felt comfortable with them. "I think I'll just sit for now. Yes, I'm sure," she met Brett's concerned eyes.

She looked around the kitchen and saw evidence of changes since she'd last been in the room: one of the chairs was sitting upside down on a counter, sandpaper on the bottom of the seat. Someone had been sanding off the old paint. Ned excused himself to go back to the barns while Anna called Andy to let him know the good news. Brett made himself busy making a snack for everyone, putting things away as Anna told him they wouldn't be good for Maisey and adding things she said would. Maisey just sat and took it all in, feeling better than she'd felt in years.

She munched on the snacks, realizing how hungry she was, listening to Anna and Brett chat about the ranch and people they knew. It was homey, a feeling she hadn't known for many years. She didn't know what had changed while she was out this time, but something felt different, she felt different. The fear was there but it didn't seem to consume her; she wondered if she should tell Brett but decided against it, there was no way Luke could have followed her there, she hadn't planned on staying and hadn't used a cell phone recently or payment type other than cash in months.

"I think I need to go lay down," Maisey said reluctantly after an hour, "I am sleepy."

Both Brett and Anna rose to help her back to the room, "We'll try for a shower again later," Anna told her, "Right now I should get back to my other work." Maisey agreed and shooed Brett back to work, determined to rest for a while.

"You can stay as long as you need," Brett told her, "6 months, 6 years, 60 years, there's no rush for you to feel like you need to move along, so take your time." She chuckled and closed her eyes as she heard him say to Anna, "I know, I know, do not let her overdo things."

Brett looked in on Maisey one last time and followed Anna out the door, "When do you think I should tell her that the Sheriff filled me in?" he asked his long time friend.

"Tonight," Anna told him, "I'll come up before dinner to help her shower, but after dinner you need to tell her." She leaned heavily on the rail, "There's a long road to recovery for that little lady, Brett, you may know her story but you have no idea what kind of trauma she will live with for the rest of her life. She may never recover."

"I'll look after her," Brett told his friend, "for 6 months or 60 years."

"That's what I was worried you would say," Anna sighed, "Brett, do not pine after a broken and damaged woman, you don't want that baggage."

Brett waved his hat at Anna dismissively and moved toward the barns and his waiting horse. "I'm serious Brett, care for her but do not stop living your life, she may never be able to care for you without thinking of him."

Brett rode the fence line, when the sheriff had told him about what had happened it was the first time in the young cowboy's life that he'd ever wanted to kill a man. He couldn't imagine the hell she'd been through, the feeling of being locked up and treated like she had been. The sheriff said the courts had issued the divorce but her ex had not been happy about it. The most recent damage had come after the divorce was finalized and a restraining order put in place. Brett thought of all the men in his life and was again grateful to his uncle Ned.

Maisey would heal now, Anna had said, it would take time but she would. Brett couldn't help but wonder if the woman he'd come to feel responsible for would leave and realized he didn't want her to. A loose wire on the fence drew his attention back to his job.

When Maisey woke up from her nap she could hear the hum of the fridge and the drip of the coffee machine and knew that she was alone in the house. She scooted herself up to sit and carefully swung her legs over the edge of the bed, 'come on Mace,' she scolded herself, 'a month is plenty long enough.' With her legs hanging over the side she felt her stomach and realized that her bruises must have healed and her ribs been healed. With a lot of effort she got to her feet and using a chair that she figured Nurse Anna must have left near, she tossed some clean clothes on it and shuffled to through the kitchen to the bathroom. Carefully she started the shower, striped down and showered.

As she stood under the water Maisey let the stream take her sorrow, her fear and her pain and ran it down the drain. She lathered her hair, scrubbing her fingers through it, relishing that she didn't feel scabs or bruising. She felt truly clean for the first time in longer than she could remember. She felt strength coming back into her legs as she toweled dry. Wrapping her hair in a towel and dressing she realized that she was going to have to address the fact that she was imposing on complete strangers.

She wondered how much Brett knew. She wondered if he understood how big of a deal it was that she had let him take her from her truck. She drew a comb through her long blond hair and braided it over her shoulder: it was something she wanted gone but was not going to give in to the fear to get rid of it. As a child she'd loved the idea of long hair, now it was a reminder of something terrible. She dressed slower than she ever remember dressing before, taking care when she had to balance to step into her clean pants. She wondered how long until the Doctor would clear her to drive, she knew she couldn't keep staying with Brett and his uncle, she needed to move on and make a new life for herself.

Maybe she would go back to school. Or maybe she should travel. When she left Vancouver the idea had been to drive until she couldn't drive anymore and then find somewhere as far away as possible. Alberta didn't seem far enough but she'd never been any further east before. School might be a thought, she remembered loving to write, loving to learn and remembered the writing she'd been doing in secret and wondered what had happened to her laptop. Hanging the towel on the rack behind the bathroom door and feeling more stable Maisey took the chair back to her room and started going through her things that had been brought in.

She found her clothes in the dresser and hanging in the closet and blushed at the thought that Uncle Ned or Brett had done her laundry for her. The hiking bag that had contained her clothes stood empty in the closet, but none of the totes were there. Used to looking after herself and not waiting for others to help, she found her keys and made her way to the yard. She stopped suddenly as she stepped out on the porch: the view took her breath away.

Thick white clouds hung heavy with rain over fields that seemed to go on forever. It wasn't like the farm she remembered from her childhood. With the farm there were fences and cows, big tractors, chicken pens and rows and rows of calves. With the ranch the only fences she could see were around the garden and along the roads. There was nothing blocking the horizon, no trees and no buildings blocking the view. It wasn't raining yet but she could smell rain in the air. She wondered if it would be a lightning storm too and wondered what a storm like that could look like with nothing to stop it.