his words cause a tightening in her stomach, and she feels like jumping into his arms at that moment and forgetting everything else, even if it was just for a little while and hugging him… because she knew him, and she knew how much it had taken him to actually be able to say those words out loud, and to her no less.. but she couldn’t do that, not right now; not in her current situation. not after she had been used to torment Skulduggery by the very men they had been looking for, not when she’d been so slow and allowed herself to be caught, not when she had put him in DANGER, or more danger than he’d been facing before anyway.. but most of all, she couldn’t get up and hug him like she so wanted to do, because the doctors at the sanctuary had banned her from moving… something about a leg broken in two places– though she really didn’t see why it meant she couldn’t move, she had a second, perfectly not broken leg to hobble about on.. but they were strict, and she could see one of the doctors watching her closely from the other side of the lab; ready to kick Skulduggery out if Valkyrie tried to get up..
so instead she’d taken to asking questions to distract herself from her sentence of lying on a bed forever.. and she’d carelessly thrown out one ‘why didn’t you leave me there? why didn’t you pretend not to care?’ and she hadn’t expected that answer from him, she’d never seen that answer coming.. she hadn’t even expected any kind of genuine answer; she’d expected to be met with SARCASM… instead… she didn’t know how to react to that without moving..
i can’t not care about you there’s a part of her that said he could have pretended, he could have gotten out and not put himself in danger, he could have stopped himself from being an idiot; but instead he’d jumped right in to save her. if she was an author she’d have said it was because he was trying to save the woman he loved– or perhaps the piece to a puzzle, a person who knew something.. but she knew neither of them were true… even if she wished they were. ❝ SKULDUGGERY. ❞ his name’s out of her mouth as her gaze quickly flicks towards him; and she carefully, slowly, lifts both her arms, keeping an eye on the doctor that would kick Skulduggery out as soon as she could ( she wasn’t going to give her a chance to kick out her partner ), her hands make a grabbing motion at him before pausing. ❝ come hug me. ❞ because she can’t get up and start the hug herself– and really if he refused, she’d look like an idiot..