"You're scared."

Olivia exhaled.
She turned for the hundredth time to her other side as more clips of what had happened earlier kept on playing in her head. She could remember every detail every time she closed her eyes so much so that it was getting really hard for her to sleep. She could remember the hungry look in his eyes and his breath, his minty breath on her skin. His long hands as he rested them right on the wall beside her face. Thinking about it was making her heart race a lot.

Why?
Why on earth were memories of this man haunting her? Why was she thinking about him? Why now?

Olivia jumped up from her bed.

"Pathetic?" She asked herself "Me? Pathetic?"
She scoffed out loudly.

She had had enough of his arrogance, especially since it wasn't for her benefit all she wanted was to show how grateful she was to him for saving her life twice but he was making it really hard fit her. It couldn't go on. She wasn't going to let him keep disrespecting her like that. She had to let him know enough was enough, it was time for her to finally slay her demons one after the other. No more weaknesses, no more of people taking advantage of her choice to remain silent.

Maybe if she just confronted him, maybe if she just told him how terrified and uncomfortable he made her feel, just maybe, she could have a good night's rest then again, what was she going to say?

She had no idea. Something had to eventually come up once she was standing right there. Olivia got up from her bed. His room was literally a door away from hers. She put on her slippers as fast as she could and hurried to the door.

Olivia looked to her left and then to her right.
Was there really no one besides the both of them awake? She knew she had to make sure right before she got out, she closed the door gently. She could see it from where she stood, the brown door. She made her way towards it, still looking around to make sure no one was watching. She got to the door, took a deep breath shaking her hands two times.

This was it. There was no backing out now.
She knocked on the door gently.

One, two, three seconds

No one made a sound. She waited an extra two seconds, still nothing. Was he asleep already?

She exhaled loudly.

How dare he sleep after he had made her lose sleep? No way. They needed to talk and they needed to talk now.

She knocked again and this time, she heard a crack sound on the door. It was at that point she had noticed it was slightly open.

That was weird.

His door was always closed. Rafael was the kind of man that didn't really like it when people walked in and out of his room when they liked so he always made sure it was shut.

She gave it a tiny push and then it opened.

Dang her curiosity.

What was wrong with her and walking into the lion's den every time? Olivia hesitated, trying to hold herself back from taking another step. Did she really have to? Did she really want to? What if he saw her and got upset again?

The room was warm, too warm.
There was no AC to greet her at the door like before. She always used to wonder how a man could live so comfortably in such a cold room and never get sick. What was his deal? Was he a vampire?

But that night, something felt too different, so different. There were no lights either. Olivia could see just darkness as she took a step inside. Was he not in?

"Mr Rafael?" She called his name just to make sure. She walked further inside when no one answered. "Mr Rafael are you in here?" She called again "I'm sorry for coming at such a late hour but I need us to talk about something really important."

She stopped walking when he didn't say a word and took a deep breath. No one was there. Did he leave the house right after calling her pathetic for coming in late?

Talk about hypocrisy.

She scoffed. It was no use, there was no use talking to him anymore, it wasn't even worth it. She turned to leave. She took a step to the door when she heard a tiny cough coming from the bed. She froze.

Olivia waited, not taking another step then she heard another one. Someone was there. She hurried to get the light. Olivia turned the light switch on as fast as She could and turned quickly to the bed.

Her eyes widened in surprise as she gasped loudly.

"Mr Rafael!" She rushed to the tiny stairs where Rafael was sitting, looking as pale as ever while he tried to adjust his eyes to the sudden brightness in the room.

Olivia paused when she noticed the spilled water from the bottle on the floor, that was the bottle she saw him leave the kitchen with. What exactly was wrong with him? How long had he been like this? He looked fine an hour ago.

She watched him hold on tight to his arm just as she squatted quickly right in front of him.

"W-what's wrong?" She asked him, her voice shaking tremendously. He couldn't speak. He just kept on breathing fast, trying to keep his eyes on her but they felt so heavy. Olivia turned to his bandaid. He was bleeding again.

What was happening? What was she going to do?
She let out an exasperated sigh.

"Do you have first aid?" She asked him.

"What?" He managed to ask. His lips were pale, was he even listening to her? It didn't matter. Olivia got up quickly. There had to be one somewhere, she was going to look for it herself. There was only one out of three places she could think of. She hurried to the bathroom.

She could hear Rafael's moans from where he was just as she rushed out a few seconds later with a box. She hurried to him, dropping the box beside her as she knelt down in front to him. Olivia gently reached for his arm, and then his band aid. He stopped her, grabbing her hand tight with his. He glared at her, his eyes looked so weak like they were going to shut on their own.

"What do you think you're doing?" He could barely talk without sounding like he had np energy left. He sounded so exhausted, his hands were so cold.

"I think it's contaminated." She looked at him, worry evident in her eyes . "I used to be in the Red Cross back at the university, I can help you."

She narrowed her eyes again to his wound and tired to open it, he tightened his grip on her.

"I don't need your help." He told her
Olivia exhaled.

"Are you really going to do this now?" She asked him, almost raising her voice "Are you going to be stubborn till the end?"

He pulled his arm from her and looked away.

"Leave." He told her. "Get out."

Olivia scoffed. She couldn't believe it. Here she was trying to help this man when she didn't have to and he was just being arrogant again.

"I can't." She told him. He glared at her. Was she really talking back at him now?

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" He asked her, his frown worsening as his lips trembled from the cold.

"I did hear you," She told him. "I've just chosen to ignore you."

"What?" He almost raised his voice this time.

"You can shout and glare at me all you want. I'm not leaving this room until I clean this wound and give you some antibiotics. Your wound is contaminated don't you understand?" She was glaring at him now. "If I leave you like this, you might actually lose your arm or even worse!" She raised her voice right back. "And it's going to be my fault because you foolishly jumped into that bullet to save my life. Do you think I'd ever be able to live with myself?!"

Rafael couldn't believe it. Just how much did he fuel this woman's guts? How much did he have to stand her?

"I'm not doing this for you." She continued "I'm doing this for me so stop resisting and let me help you. Please."

She was almost in tears. For some reason, Rafael was speechless. For the first time, he didn't know how to react or what to say to this woman. He couldn't even get upset with her. He slowly looked at the bandaid. It was almost soaked and it hurt a lot. Maybe accepting her help wasn't a big deal after all.

He slowly let go of her hand and looked away.

"Be gentle." He told her.

Olivia exhaled and then pushed forward to gently take off the bandaid. Rafael inhaled sharply the moment the mentholated spirit came in contact with the wound.

Olivia took her time.

He slowly turned to watch her at some point, right from when she cleaned his wound, being as gentle and careful as she could and blowing air from her mouth on it at intervals.

Thirty minutes had passed and Olivia had covered his wound back.

He watched her rush into the room again, this time with another bottle of water. She took out some antibiotics and painkillers from the box and gave them to him, she gave him the water too.

Rafael took them. He hurriedly threw the drugs into his mouth and took the glass of water from Olivia.

Olivia dropped the cup quickly and helped him up to his bed gently. From one stair to the next, holding him so he wouldn't fall. He was really heavy. She helped him get in bed. She raised his duvet to tuck him in, he was shivering. Olivia hurried to the windows, she closed them one after the other just so she could keep the cold air out and keep him warm. She made sure the room was warm enough. She hurried back to the bed.

It didn't make any difference, he was still shaking. she exhaled. What was she going to do? Olivia was really shaken. She was under so much duress, the blankets weren't working either.

Olivia got into the bed with him and then went under the duvet. This was the only way left. She raised herself up and pulled him close to her. She wrapped her hands around him, not like they could cover but he was beginning to feel so much better. He had a fever.
She pushed herself closer to him, rubbing his arms to create heat. He grabbed on tight to her and held on to her, trying to make himself comfortable. She was so warm, he was beginning to not shake anymore.

He wasn't breathing fast anymore. He was warm now.

"Constance." He whispered.
Olivia paused. She turned slowly to him.

Was he hallucinating just now?

"Constance."

She drew a deep breath as a sudden sadness swept through her skin and there it was, the moment she had seen his weakness, the moment she was beginning to see the man in her arms for who he truly was, the moment she was beginning to understand his pain and hurt.

Just like her he was also a victim of his past, a horrible past, a past that had haunted him for a while, a past that had broken him.

"Constance."

He breathed into her, embracing her warmth as he held on tight to her.

Now she couldn't look back. Something in her really wanted to know this man. She wanted to really know him for who he was, for who he truly was.

She wanted to know him.