Log:Promise of a World Without Fear

2015/07/10 Malcolm Grimm 1

Things are still the same in Gabrielle's hospital room. She's been sleeping off her ordeal. On the occasion, her brow knits as she starts to have bad dreams, but all it takes is a squeeze of her hand from Malcolm to put her back at ease and help her sleep soundly. No more scratching under the bed, or disobedient pugoblins creeping about.

It's been a number of tedious hours, but finally, Gabrielle wakes up again with a brief fluttering of her eyelashes before she fully awakens and looks about to get her bearings again.

When Grimm finally awakens, Malcolm is more or less unconscious at her bedside. His upper body is draped over her bed's side rail, hands wrapped around one of her own. Malcolm may or may not be drooling on her sheets as he lingers in the twilight between wakefulness and sleep. It's also worth noting he is still wearing the same grease-stained, rumpled clothing he was wearing when last she was conscious. Could he have not left?

Grimm isn't exactly sure what time it is, but it felt like a very long, restful nap. She smiles softly and strokes his head lovingly with her free hand, trying not to wake him. He looks like he's earned some rest. There's a few blinks of surprise and a feeling of guilt when she recognizes Malcolm wearing the same clothes.

A faint groan escapes Malcolm somewhere along the way when Grimm is stroking his head. Eventually a cable snakes out of his shirt to flick and swat at the air over his head, as though trying to get rid of a persistent fly before it slithers back under his rumpled grey-blue t-shirt. Malcolm offers a grunt and shifts his weight, twisting his head to the opposite heading as he starts to stir.

Grimm withdraws her hand as the cable swats at it endearingly. With a slight jerk, she withdraws her hand quickly after the swat and winces as she feels a pain in her chest. The morphine's finally wearing off and she's feeling less doped up. Which means she's starting to feel like she can control her powers again. She flexes her fingers experimentally, and a faint graying shadow surrounds the tips. Well, it's something. Not nearly the full effect she wanted. She places that darkening hand lightly on her chest and focuses quietly on trying to pull herself together while Malcolm slumbers.

Malcolm groans again, shifting his weight unevenly as the world starts to filter back into his head. Hands grip at the hospital's bed sheets and his muscles flex as he seems to paw at the bed alongside Grimm. "Mrrfflllgggglfffnnnn," he opines somewhere in the middle of Grimm trying to pull herself together.

"I hope you got some rest, Handsome. Good morning. Or, uh, evening," Gabrielle says as her concentration is lost and the power fades. At least she's sounding and feeling a little better and stronger now. She glances towards the window to check the relative time, then looks back to Malcolm as he paws at the bed.

Malcolm lifts his head, blearily staring at Grimm's face. It takes him an inordinately long time to transition from semi-conscious non-recognition to fully conscious recognition, but the transition does happen. He leans in close, wrapping his arms very gently around Grimm - possibly afraid of further wounding her - and giving her hug.

"It's evening by now, Gabrielle. You slept most of the day... Probably for the best, between the morphine and the stab wound."

"Mmmmm," Gabrielle vocalizes happily as he hugs her. She tries her best to hug him back. With how her strength is, it's more like she's just resting her arms around him. "Prob'ly. I'm glad you got some rest. You look like you haven't even been home yet..." she mentions out of concern.

"Sure I have. I was home three hours before I got the call from the hospital," refutes Malcolm. He slowly sinks back into his chair, letting out a little groan as he realizes just what a horrible sleeping position he was in. Malcolm proceeds to pop all of the kinks out of his back with some slow stretching/twisting exercises.

"I'm sorry, Handsome." Gabrielle feels bad that Malcolm is suffering on her account. "You could go home and take a nap in a real bed. It's okay."

"I'll go home when you go home, beautiful," replies Malcolm, tone serious, "Or when they kick me out because I smell."

Grimm chuckles weakly into the hug, then coughs from the exertion on her lungs. After the coughing passes, she murmurs, "Maybe we can work on the getting home bit..."

"You need to work on getting your strength back, Gabrielle. Once you've got that back, we can work on getting you home," replies Malcolm, smiling gently as he gives her another gentle squeeze in the hug.

Grimm rests her head on his shoulder and lets out a soft sigh. "I'll have to work on that extra hard for you. Thanks for staying with me and keeping me safe." She turns her head to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I feel better knowing you're watching over me."

Gently Malcolm strokes the back of Grimm's head as she kisses his cheek. The tall man offers a warm smile and kisses her cheek back as he replies, "You're very important to me, Gabrielle. Keeping you safe is what matters to me."

"You're...important to me too, Mal. Very important." There is a brief pause as she decides her answer, as if having to consult something before she said something. It's an odd hesistancy for Gabrielle.

"Something on your mind, beautiful?" inquires Malcolm, still gently stroking the back of Grimm's head. He watches her quietly, a curious expression written across his face.

"Yeah. I mean, no...yes...uh." Gabrielle can't seem to make up her mind on what's on her mind. "You -are- very important to me," she says with complete certainty. She just wanted to be sure that she was sure. She's only just realized that she's felt that way for a long time.

Malcolm slowly releases Grimm from the hug, sitting back in his seat. He can tell this is going to be one of "those" talks. Shifting uneasily in the chair, Malcolm quirks an eyebrow and reaches out to gently grip one of Grimm's hands with his own. "You're very important to me, Gabrielle. Just... Let me in on what's on your mind?"

"It's just...there's some things I haven't told you," Gabrielle says nervously. "I just...I wanted things to be simple and good with us. And now some of the bad things are catching up more and more. Stuff I thought I left behind when I left Seattle." She grasps Malcolm's hand in return reflexively. "So, my ex...the one that did this to me...he's been hunting me for a while now."

Malcolm holds Grimm's hand gently in both of his, a calm expression spread over his features. Canting his head to one side, Malcolm seems to be listening quite intently as he replies, "You should've told me this guy was hunting you, Gabrielle. I could have helped. I would've helped."

Pausing, Malcolm seems to reconsider his words. Gently he squeezes Grimm's hand and smiles a thin, apologetic smile.

"I just want to help you, Gabrielle. Your past is your past, I can't change that. I won't change that. But if you want... If you need to bury things from your past? I'd help you with that. In less than a heartbeat."

"I...I know I should've," Gabrielle appears pained at having kept it from him. But that his reaction is supportive and calm helps to ease some of her fears. "But...he's dangerous. And I know you would want to help. I just felt like it was a lot to ask."

She closes her eyes at the talk of her past. "Part of me wishes you -could- change my past. Change what Price did to me so I wouldn't be so...broken..." she says with difficulty.

Malcolm holds Grimm's hand tight, his grey eyes fixed on her as he listens. Faint smiles peek out from time to time, almost like he finds her fears, her concerns, about unloading her past on him comical. Giving Grimm's hand a squeeze and a pat with his own hands, Malcolm leans forward so his face is practically in hers when she next opens her eyes.

"Even if you and I weren't us, Gabrielle, even if we were just friends... Or acquaintances... I'd want to help you. You've had more than your share on your plate for as long as I've known you. Helping you is the least I could do for you. Helping is the least I can do for anyone in the community around me."

Pausing a moment, Malcolm lets his answer settle in. That it also gives him a chance to consider Grimm's follow up is merely a bonus. He plants a kiss on Grimm's knuckles before speaking again.

"I wouldn't change your past, even if I could, Gabrielle. If I changed the events that have shaped your life, I'd change who you are. I'd probably change whether or not we ever met. Color me the most selfish bastard in the world, Gabrielle, but I couldn't do that. I couldn't live my life without having ever met you... Without having had you in my life like you have been."

Gabrielle opens her eyes, which are glistening more than normal. She's taken aback when she sees Malcolm so close and pulls her head back a half inch just out of surprise of not expecting him there. As his answers and comments sink in, she just stares at him in dumbfounded awe as her cheeks pinken. At least those blood transfusions have helped, because before, she was looking very pale and colorless.

Gabrielle is quiet as she has one of those revelation moments. All the terrible things from her past still haunt and hurt her, but if not for them, she probably wouldn't have found Mal. "If it meant not meeting you...I wouldn't change it, either."

With a tiny exhale that could almost be called a grunt, she leans forward with arduous effort so that she bridge the gap between them and rest her forehead against his. She closes her eyes and pauses a few moments to regain her strength after such a simple effort. "Everything I went through was worth it if it meant finding you," she finally manages to get out.

There's a word that betrayed her once. A tiny, four-letter word that led her blindly down a dark path. One that she's been afraid to use again for fear that it would betray her again. But it's also the best way to describe her feelings for Malcolm. She opens her eyes slowly as she draws her head back just far enough so her eyes can focus on his, apprehensive for a moment. "I...I love you," she says softly. And for such a small statement, it's a very big deal to her. "And I don't want to think about how my life would've been if I never met you."

Malcolm's steel grey eyes are locked on Gabrielle, from well inside of her usual sphere of personal space. He watches her, squeezes her hand, encourages her, cheers for her every display of strength, of life, of effort. Even so, Malcolm moves one hand from Grimm's hook around her back and support her after that display of strength when she leans forward to rest her forehead against his own.

"Easy, beautiful. You're still recovering," he whispers, almost conspiratorially.

There is a long pause as Gabrielle builds up the strength to speak again. Malcolm can sense some sort of epiphany going on inside of Gabrielle, his eyes fixing harder on her own. When, at long last, Gabrielle actually gets the words out, Malcolm's other hand abandons hers. It reaches up, instead, to gently stroke her cheek as he replies, "I love you too, Gabrielle. You make me feel whole."

Lightly, Malcolm leans in close to plant a kiss on Grimm.

Grimm closes her eyes and leans into the kiss as well. Her strained heart manages a happy flutter, and the heart monitor's beeping picks up tempo at the rush of feelings. It may very well have been steadily increasing as she sorted out her feelings.

Gabrielle is too busy feeling that wonderful floaty feeling of being in love without fear or reservation to notice the change in the monitor. She lets her lips linger on his for a time. When she finally ends the kiss, it's to catch her breath and lean her head in again so she can rest. "You make me feel complete. You make me want to be a better person." Not broken or damaged like how she often saw herself. She never feels like that when she's around him.

The heart monitor starts to gradually slow down as she calms down, but it's still elevated from where it was before. "Thank you for everything. For being awesome and being you. And for always offering to help and being willing to forgive me. I'm sorry I didn't talk about much of my past before, but...I trust you, Mal. If there's anything you want to ask, I'll answer."

Malcolm is aware of the beeping, though he's rather wrapped up in the kiss to really understand the change in tempo. When it ends, he lets out a little puff of breath that isn't quite a sigh, but isn't quite anything else either. It simply is and that's good enough for Malcolm just this moment.

Cradling Grimm in his arms, Malcolm smiles at the Tenebrator of his Heart. After long moments of just staring into Gabrielle's eyes, Malcolm gently eases her back into the hospital bed and he sinks back on his chair. He smiles brightly at Grimm, keeping his hands in easy reach of her nearer hand as he considers her words.

"I guess... Catch me up on what you think I need to know, Gabrielle."

Grimm nods softly as she tries to settle as comfortably as she can in the bed, breathing in slowly and letting it out. She's smiling, even though the efforting of sitting up took a bit out of her.

Her head leans back against her pillow and she turns her head so she can watch Malcolm. Her hand slides over the sheets so she can brush her fingers against his. Her fingers just gently stroke his for now without lifting her hand as her demeanor becomes a little more serious. "Well...I guess for right now...you already know that Price is in town, and that he's my ex. But I never really talked about him before."

"He was my last boyfriend. And...after what he did...I thought he'd be my last." Of course she's young and would think of things in such permanent extremes. Her hand slides further to cover Malcolm's. "I'm glad I was wrong," she flashes a bright smile at him before becoming a little more somber again.

"He and I went to college together. We fell in love. Well...-I- fell in love. He just made me think he was in love with me. We weren't together long before he revealed what he really was."

Malcolm listens in silent contemplation, nodding only occasionally to reassure Grimm that he understands what she's said. His expression is cool, calm, and collected, a mask of reassurance to help Grimm through what is clearly a difficult tale. Quirking an eyebrow, Malcolm inquires, "What, uh, what was he really?"

Grimm stares down at her lap a moment, her eyes narrowing slightly. "He was a member of DEMON. And he was just toying with my feelings, trying to get me prepared as a sacrifice for some ritual to make himself more powerful," she says with some bitterness. "He took me out on what he said would be a special date. And then he led me into a trap to perform a ritual to unlock the power of some magical item."

"Some other cultists showed up. They grabbed me, held me down, and started chanting. I...I kept thinking it was some horrible prank. That he was just trying to scare me for fun. And I just got more and more scared when he didn't listen and brought out the knife." She clenches her eyes shut as she remembers. "Then he stabbed me. That...monster...stabbed me right through the heart and had the gall to say he loved me and it hurt him to have to sacrifice me." She opens her eyes, which are watery from the painfulness of the memory and the hatred caused by it. "All I really remember was reaching for the artifact he was trying to unlock and grabbing it with the last bit of strength I had left. Then...everything went black. I don't know what happened...except I woke up on that spot weeks later, alone, and with these powers. I only found out later I had disrupted the ritual and stole the power meant for him. He's been after me ever since to reclaim what belongs to him."

Malcolm listens quietly, his expression gentle and encouraging. He stays quiet for a long time after Grimm finishes her tale of woe, lips pursing once or twice before he actually manages to find words.

"Bull. Shick," growls out Malcolm, "Those powers don't belong to him."

It takes Malcolm a few moments to actually focus on the other important parts of the story. He flexes his hands a few times, leaning forward in his seat again to offer a hand to Grimm as he regards her seriously. Taking a deep breath, Malcolm starts again in a much cooler tone of voice.

"I can see why you wouldn't want to talk about that, Gabrielle. That's just... That's a horrible way for you to experience first love. On behalf of men everywhere, Gabrielle, I am going to spend every day of the rest of my life with you trying to make up for what that half-wit did to you."

"No, they don't. But that hasn't stopped him and every other member of DEMON from trying to tear them from me or use me for their own purposes." Malcolm's already seen what some members of DEMON did when they caught Gabrielle, using her as some sort of magical power source to fuel their base and serve them.

Gabrielle's hand stretches to Malcolm's, her fingers curling around his hand. She intakes some air, holds it in her lungs, and lets it out slowly along with the stress of thinking about the past. She just lets his presence soothe her.

When Malcolm makes his announcement, she's momentarily overwhelmed by his words. She moves her other hand so that she can clasp Malcolm's hand between both of hers. "You don't have anything to make up for. Especially for the things he did. You've never hurt me, Mal," she says sweetly as she gazes into his striking gray eyes.

There's a momentary tickle in the back of her mind. She doesn't quite understand what's triggering it. Just a delayed reaction to some of what he said. Did he just say the rest of his life? With her...?

Malcolm does not realize what he said. There's just something terribly, completely, genuinely honest and earnest about his bearing at the moment. He means to make up for Jonathon Price being a complete and utter scoundrel, rake, and - dare he say? - rapscallion, even if it takes him the rest of time.

Keeping his grey eyes focused on Grimm's eyes, Malcolm smiles warmly at her. He squeezes both of her hands with just one of his as he leans in just enough to have his head clear of the side rail on Grimm's bed. Studying her face, Malcolm quietly intones, "I don't want to ever hurt you, Gabrielle, but I do want to show you something."

Breathing in deep, Malcolm fixes his gaze on Grimm's eyes again.

"I want to show you a world where you don't have to fear for your safety. A world where you don't have to be afraid to love. I want to show you a world that deserves you in it, that's as beautiful as you are because you're safe in it."

Grimm's brows prick up slightly in wonder of what it is he wants to show her. She continues to gaze into his eyes, at a loss for words at first. Because his beautiful words are still sinking in. Her eyes express some doubt at first that there's a world where she doesn't have to be afraid. But Malcolm's bearing soon causes that doubt to be replaced with something else. Hope.

"I've never had anyone say things like that to me before. A world without fear...?" The question is something she asks herself more than him. "I'd...I'd like to see that world," she replies with growing faith in the world Malcolm wants to show her.

Malcolm holds Grimm's hands with both of his, a warm smile on his face. He tips his head down and plants a kiss on her knuckles before looking back up into her eyes. The tall man keeps that warm, gentle smile on his face as he stares into her eyes.

"Then that's my life's mission, Gabrielle, all for you."

There goes that heart monitor again, speeding up in tempo as Gabrielle is overwhelmed by Malcolm's gesture and words. It gives away how she feels if her awed expression didn't. There's just this look of flattered disbelief. "How...how're you so...amazing? I thought chivalry and knights in shining armor didn't actually exist."

Right now, Malcolm's wearing his shining armor on the inside. Literally and figuratively. "I love you," she says again. That's twice she's managed to say it! But this time it comes much more naturally, more freely, than the first time she dared to use the words. "I just hope to be worth all that," she says shyly, hoping she's up for the task. "You're a way better person than I am. So...I guess I need to work extra hard if I want to hope to be even half as good a person as you are," she smiles softly.

A wry smirk crosses Malcolm's face at the question. He squeezes Grimm's hands again and he teasingly replies, "Can't help it, beautiful, I think it comes with growing shining armor on demand."

Malcolm's cheeks flush at this second, smoother, more confident declaration of love. His grey eyes flicker away from staring into Grimm's own eyes. Instead he takes a moment or three to study the various monitors hooked up to Gabrielle. Wow, look at that heart monitor go...

Wait, did it just beat a heart-shape?

Blinking once or twice, Malcolm squints at the monitor. Nope, no heart-shape there. Must've been a trick of the artist drawing this issue.

Looking back at Gabrielle, Malcolm looks taken aback at her words. He squeezes her hands tightly and leans in further, staring her dead in the eyes. It might be momentarily uncomfortable as Malcolm tries to find just the right positioning of his body relative to her own.

"You're worth all that and more, Gabrielle. I love you and making you feel happy and safe and loved is all that matters to me. Making sure you feel that, understand that? Whatever I have to do to accomplish it is the biggest bargain I could ever get."

Those artists and their easter eggs! At least it's not disney artists. Who knows what they would've hitten in the backdrop.

Gabrielle's heart, meanwhile, can't get a break from the loving feels as she's struck again by Malcolm's return mention of loving her. Wait, okay that time while they weren't looking, that was maybe probably definitely a heart-shape that flashed on the monitor. This time snuck in by the issue's inker.

"I think you're doing a good enough job of making me feel all that already," Gabrielle replies amorously as she's entranced by his words, reaching up a hand to cup his cheek. She offers up a loving smile to demonstrate how he's progressing so far on his new mission.

"I love you, Gabrielle," is Malcolm's only reply. He tips his head and plants a kiss on the palm of the hand she was cupping his cheek with. The tall man sighs softly and smiles at Grimm, the expression warm and loving and more than a little hopelessly smitten.

Grimm could risk wearing out her injured heart with all the smitten exchanges. The monitor might even skip one of its beeps as he professes his love again and brushes his lips against her hand in a kiss. She looks happy. And relaxed. And behind that adoring smile and expression of wonderment over the wonderfulness that is Malcolm, there is the signs of sleepiness from the toll everything has taken on her body.

With a sleepy, smitten grin, Gabrielle is commited to fighting off the exhaustion to stay awake. Even though the doctor's orders were to rest. And even though it's a losing battle. "Doc said...I could go home soon..."

Malcolm rises from his chair and leans over the bed. Gently he moves Grimm's hands to her sides and gives her an awkward little hug. "I know, Gabrielle. For now, you just need to rest," he murmurs affectionately, planting a warm kiss on her lips.

Grimm smiles up at Malcolm, then closes her eyes and kissing him back with tender affection. She lingers in the moment for a little bit before pulling back and resting her head down on the pillow. "You should get some rest, too, Handsome."