Everything inside Thunder rebelled at that idea, but what choice did they have? What they were doing wasn't working so far, and it had been almost twenty-four hours since they arrived back at the mansion with the woman.
As badly as he wanted to keep her there, keep her close, he had to acknowledge that this might not be the best place for her. If she would give them a chance, if she’d just try to listen to what he was saying, he knew this could be a place where she could heal and learn to live again.
But every time she woke, it was in a panic.
The determination to get out was the only thing she seemed to be able to focus on.
It didn’t matter how many times he assured her that she was safe, that nobody was going to hurt her, that she wasn'ta prisoner, she didn't hear him. It didn’t matter how strong a soothing tone he tried to force into his words, she wasn't registering a single one of them. Her single-minded focus was on escaping.
Maybe if it wasn't winter, he’d just let her run. The freedom of feeling like she had some control over herself and what happened to her might be what she needed. But in her weakened condition, there was no way she could survive long out there. And what would happen if she actually made it to a road? A town? There was no way she could communicate with anyone in her current condition.
Since he was absolutely one hundred percent adamant about not restraining her in any manner, that only left them with one other option to keep her subdued enough that she didn't wind up hurting herself. That was sedating her.
Every time she woke up and attempted to throw herself out of the bed, he did his best to talk her down. Issued the same assurances over and over again. Promised her that no one here wanted to hurt her in any way.
She never heard him.
She was lost to her panic and her determination to save herself.
Something for which he felt immense pride. However lost she was in her own head, she wasn't so far gone that she didn't still want to live. Or possibly die. But he chose to focus on the fact that she hadn't given up, that she wanted to reclaim her own agency.
After all, he couldn’t disagree with her that death was preferable over the life she’d been living. If he were in her position, he’d feel the same way. When hehadbeen in her position, kept locked in a glass cage for three long years, hehadfelt the same way. Death had been a blessing he could only hope for.
But she didn't have to hope for death anymore. Now she could hope for life, all she had to do was accept that she was safe.
Only he had no idea how to make her believe it.
“Please, babydoll,” he murmured as he perched in an armchair at the side of the bed, his hand cradling the woman’s like it was something precious, like it was a lifeline, like by continuously holding onto her, he could anchor her in the present.
Anchor her in reality.
Then slowly drag her back, out of the depths of her mind, and back into the real world.
“Fight for me, babydoll,” he continued. “I know you're terrified, I know you're doing what you think is the best thing for you, but you are safe now, please try to believe that. I need you to try to listen to me when you wake up next.”
Reality was, they couldn’t give this more than a few more hours to try to get through to her. If they couldn’t, they would have to fly her to a psychiatric facility and allow professionals to try to reach her.
If he hadn't been so unsettled by the idea of letting her go, that’s probably what they would have done all along. Eagle Oswald, founder and CEO of Prey Security, would have arranged for someone from Prey to stay with her, to be there when she finally became lucid and could offer intel.
Only Thunder cared more about her mental state improving than he did about getting any intel she may have. She was a human being, one who had been used and abused for a long time now, it didn't seem right to care about her for purely selfish purposes.
“How’s she doing?”
The sudden voice startled him, and he realized he’d been so lost in thought that he’d almost forgotten that the others were all home, popping in and out of the room where they’d set upthe woman. If there had been any doubt that she would be accepted immediately by all of them, it had been quickly erased. Rose, Cassandra, Whitney, and Indigo hadn't hesitated to start treating her as though she was one of them.
Somehow, they all sensed his connection to the woman and accepted it more readily than he did.
“She’s the same, still out,” he answered Rose’s question. Maybe things should be awkward between Rose and the rest of them, given that she’d first been taken there as a prisoner they intended to use as bait to lure in her deranged brother. But it wasn't. She’d met them fire for fire in those early days, behaving in a way they never could have expected, and now he and all the others respected the hell out of Rose Gardner.
Crossing the room, Rose sat on the edge of the bed beside the unconscious woman, her gaze moving from their joined hands to the woman’s face. “Don’t give up on her.”
“Don’t plan on it.”
“I mean it, Thunder. Don’t give up on her.”
“Don’t plan on it,” he repeated. If worst came to worst and they needed to send the woman to a more specialized facility with people trained to help someone like her, then he wasn't abandoning her.
Just because he didn't understand this thing drawing him to her, it didn't mean he was just going to walk away.
