The water was cold as it rushed over her body. It was just the way she liked it. Not frigid but not warm either. Sarina allowed the coolness to flow over her in the shower. It felt so good on her aching body. She had taken quite a beating from the demons and few exorcists she fought. The demons fought to kill, the exorcists not so much. But they still wanted to bring her in, so she had to take them out. Her fingers ran through her blood splattered hair. The black blood dripped off of her as the water diluted it, the watered down blood splashed across the whiteness of the tub.

It hurt when it touched her face for she had been whacked pretty hard by a massive demon arm at one point, but at the same time it soothed the rest of her wounds. “Mm…” Tears streamed down Sarina’s cheeks and it agitated her to no end. Although hardened by all of her experiences, there was still a young girl inside of Sarina that wanted so desperately for things to return to the way they were before everything. Before the change of Liam, before his capture, before they even ran away in the first place. He was haunted before yes, but things were so much easier back then. Liam was safer then… 

However, it no longer bothered her that she had to fight demons every night. Before it was to find Liam. She would interrogate whoever she could find lurking in the night, whoever else was searching for Liam. But now, her purpose was to protect him. Whoever came close to the hotel was destroyed, if it happened to be an exorcist they were merely beaten, not killed. The young girl refused to kill an exorcist because they were on the more just side of things. Even if it was their fault Liam was imprisoned in the first place. 

Sarina brought her hands to her face and covered her eyes. “What have I gotten myself into…” Was a question she often asked herself. It didn’t really matter anymore. She was a stone cold veteran, sworn to protect her best friend no matter what. As she was deep in thought the girl was scrubbing her body with her luffa that she had received from Jay a while back. He was always thinking of her and ever since she’d been coming home covered in blood it had been useful to her. 

Outside the door there was a soft voice, “I’m running to the store for some food, Liam is still sleeping so I’ll be right back.” It was the voice of her good friend and partner, Jay. 

“Alright.” She responded in an equally quiet town, just loud enough for him to hear her over the shower. “Hurry back.” Now that she had finished cleaning the blood off of her body she could focus on cleansing her hair. With her shampoo and conditioner combined into one bottle she washed her hair slowly, continuing to think on things. 

Would Liam ever be able to stand or to move again… to speak again? Would he ever be able to communicate to her with more than just a few blinks? These thoughts consumed her and more tears went down her cheeks. [i]Stop crying!![/i] She scolded herself in the back of her mind. At last she finished lathering and rinsing her hair and got out of the shower. Immediately she wrapped a clean towel around herself and headed out the door. “Jay, you better have returned, you said you’d be right…” Her voice trailed off as she saw something she was not expecting. There, standing before the mirror above the sink, was Liam. 

“Liam??” Without hesitation she ran into the back room to throw on grey sweatpants and an old, faded black t-shirt. After which she emerged from the back to stand across the room from Liam. “What are you doing out of bed? I thought you couldn’t move…?” Her eyes were wide and filled with tears of joy, water dripped down her back from her wet blonde hair which caused her to shiver a little. She was overwhelmed with emotion, mostly the joy of seeing him on his feet again. Sarina had been right, Liam was rather tall, at one point they had been the same height. “Does this mean… you can talk to me?” By now she was taking steps toward him until she was just a foot away from him. “Please say yes…”