Page 88 of Her Braun
"Doctor..."
She nodded, smiling at Charles. "You know I asked you to call me, Kay, right?"
"Kay," he drew in a breath and while it hitched in his chest, he didn't cough up blood or anything like it, "I'm... I'm sorry-"
"Let's just make sure that you're going to pull through this and-"
"Okay, stop! You saw him!"
Kay felt a hand clamp down on her shoulder and she bit down to keep herself from crying out.
"Let's go."
She shrugged his hand off somehow and turned so she was sitting on her hip. "I'm not leaving. Your dad needs help!"
"I'll call 911 and let them know. They'll send him help and we can leave."
"Where... where will you go?"
Kay laid her hand on Charle's shoulder, trying to settle him, but Charles was glaring at his son.
"Where do you think you'll go where they won't find you and put you in jail?"
"Jail?" Chuck touched her again, putting his hand on her arm and lifting it up like a doll. "Why would they do that? She loves me! She's going with me."
"I'm not going anywhere until I know your dad is on his way to the hospital. He could die if he's not taken to an ER for surgery!"
Kay tried to pull her hand free, but Chuck only clamped down harder.
"You think I care? He told me that he did want us together."
"I told you," Charles, tried to lift his arm, but couldn't quite get it off of the floor, "it's not right to do this. A woman has to be with you because she wants you, not because she's afraid of what you're going to do if she doesn't agree."
Chuck's grasp on her arm went a blinding pain through her arm and into her shoulder. "You agree, right?"
Kay was still gasping from the pain, she couldn't utter a word.
"Tell him you agree!"
When she didn't speak, he yanked her up off of the ground and dragged a scream from her mouth.
Kay knew he was very close to dislocating her arm from its socket.
"You're... you're hurting her, Chuck. Let her go."
Chuck turned to look at his father. "I don't want to hear from you."
"Chuck, please." Kay felt tears rolling down her cheeks. "Please, stop."
He looked down at her and for a moment she saw the anger bleeding from his eyes and what was left was what she'd seen before. What she'd seen that day that he came to the door when Gibson was there with her, that earnest youth concerned for her. "Kay, I just want you to be with me."
The plea in his voice was real, but she just couldn't care for him the way he wanted.
"Let me help your father. We can... we can talk about the rest later."
She'd never thought of herself as much of an actress. Goodness knows she was never cast in school productions, but she had inspiration here.
She wanted to try and save Charles and hopefully herself.
