His comment surprised me. I expected he was going to get right to the point and yell at me for getting hurt. Not that he had before. None of them got mad at me for things out of my control. It was more their worry that made them snap.
I went along with the change of topic. “We'll need a laundry soon. Or I'll be turning my panties inside out. I could always buy new clothes in Corfu, I suppose.”
He began pulling out one item after another. I had rolled most of it in order to fit more in the bag. He found a pair of billowy pants and a shirt from a band I wasn't sure existed. “Will this do?”
I nodded. He dug a little deeper and found a pair of underwear. After laying out each piece, he gripped the sides of the sink before facing me.
“Let me help you.” He reached for the hem of my sweater but waited for my permission.
I nodded, lifted my arms, and let him pull it over my head. Once I was out of it, I glanced at my arms, wanting to see what he would so I could mitigate how upset he would be. Light yellow bruises, almost the color of my freckles and only slightly darker than my skin, spotted a line down both of my arms.
“These look like fingerprints,” he said.
I glimpsed a twitch of muscle in his cheek. He was clenching his teeth, speaking through them and barely moving his lips.
“Something happened in the time between when I hit my head and stood up,” I said, watching his face for the signs of impending freak-out.
“I guessed as much.” He placed one hand on my arm, fingers fitting perfectly against every spot. When he lifted his hand, though, they were gone. Smoothing his fingers down my arm, he studied my skin. “Healed?” He pressed lightly.
“It doesn't hurt at all anymore.”
He lifted both hands to my hair, diving between the locks to smooth against my skull to the back of my head. “Does it hurt here?”
“No,” I answered.
He nodded. “What happened?” His fingers stayed in place for a moment, then trailed down to my neck and back to my shoulders.
My bra and pants were wet, and I bet my underwear was too. Pollux let me go to dig through my bag again. “I don't see an extra bra. Can you go without one?”
I could, but the thought of walking around the ship without one made me uncomfortable. “I'm fine,” I replied. “It'll dry soon enough.”
He was wet, too, but it didn't seem to bother him. Goosebumps covered my skin, and when I glanced in the mirror, I found my lips were more purple and less pink.
Pollux put all his focus on helping me change.
Without him staring at me, or studying me, it was easier for me to start. “I spoke to your brother.”
He had my shirt over my head and waited for me to put my arms through the sleeves. “You spoke to Castor?”
“Yes.”
Sliding the T-shirt into place, he suddenly shook his head. “It's getting your shirt all wet. It will have to come off. You can wear a jacket, and we'll put it over the heater back in the berth.”
It took me a second to realize he was talking about my bra. Tucking my arms back through the sleeves, I took it off the same way I got changed in the locker rooms at gyms—by sliding my arms through the straps and then yanking it through an armhole.
Pollux spent a long moment staring at my chest, then knelt at my feet. Clearing his throat, he finally offered, “Lift your foot. Your shoes are squishing. What did he say?”
“He wanted to know who I was and who was with you, here.”
He pulled off my boots, my socks, then unbuttoned my jeans. Sliding them down my legs, he eased the material off my body. “Are you sure it was him?”
“He was in a place where there was nothing. He said he didn't eat or sleep. He said you were the only one he ever saw there.”
He took the pants off the counter and helped me into them before standing. “Leo.” Moving fast, he wrapped his arms around me and buried his face against my neck. “Why do you do this? Why don't you let me protect you? I feel like I'm always a step behind or a second too late.”
It wasn't like I knew I was about to get whisked into another plane of existence. “I think talking about it, then hitting my head—it jolted something. I told him we were together.”
Pulling back, he flashed a look at me I couldn't decipher. “You did?”