A damsel in distress

Nathan’s POV

I’m rounding off my work for the day when the call that changes everything comes in on my phone. It is my assistant who is calling.

“Hello, Helen,” I say into the phone.

“Boss, boss! I’ve got some really big news.” Helen exclaims into the phone. I can hear the excitement in her voice, and it rubs off on me instantly, but I try my best to keep calm.

“Of course, what’s the news?” I ask.

“She’s the one, boss. The lady is the one we’ve been looking for. The sample you sent matches the DNA we’re working with perfectly. Boss, this is huge! Our search is finally over.” Helen exclaims excitedly.

“This is such wonderful news, Helen. You’ve just made my evening, and in fact, my entire month as well! Alright, I want you to find out where she is right now, and send me her location.”

“Sure, boss. I’ll get on it immediately.” She replies, and then we end the call.

I make quick work of rounding off my work in the office, and by the time I’m done, Helen has sent Lucy’s location.

I worked late today because of the time I spent at Lucy’s accident scene, and I lost track of time, so by the time I finally leave the office, it’s already dark and it's raining heavily as well.

I would have postponed meeting with Lucy until the next day, but something baffles me, and that is the fact that she’s not at her residence at that time of the night.

In fact, she’s in a somewhat shady part of town. I have to make sure that all is well with her, something I highly doubt, because of the state in which she was that morning when I left her, and the fact that her husband turned out to be a two-timing asshole.

It turns out that my instincts, which never fail me, are right this time as well. I find Lucy after a while, but she’s in bad shape.

She’s the only person on the street, which is obviously because it’s raining, and she’s pulling along a heavy-looking suitcase with her.

She’s also drenched from head to toe and looks a sorry sight.

“What on earth does she think she’s doing? She’s going to catch a cold and fall ill.” I mutter to myself.

She doesn’t seem to notice my car following her, so I park it and get out in the rain to walk up to her.

I get soaked to the skin in a matter of seconds immediately I get out of the car, because of how heavy the rain is, and I wonder to myself how long she must have been walking under it.

“Lucy! Lucy!” I call out her name several times, over the loud sound of the splattering rain.

Finally, she stops walking and turns around slowly to face me, looking as white as a ghost, with her hair plastered to her skull, and her eyes as round as saucers.

She looks incredibly frail, lost, and confused at that moment, and I feel so sorry for her. I’m also glad for her sake because of the wonderful news I have, but this is sure as hell not the time for that.

I open my mouth to say something, but right at that moment, her eyes roll up in her head. I spring forward as I realize what is about to happen, and manage to catch her at the last minute before she lands on the ground in a faint.

There’s only one course of action to take since I can’t leave her alone under the rain out here in this shady neighborhood.

So, I gather her up in my arms and take her to my car, where I settle her limp body in the backseat.

Then I go back for her suitcase and drop it in the trunk of my car before driving back to my hotel. On the way there, I call for a doctor who arrives a few minutes after we get to the hotel and examines her.

“She’ll be fine. She passed out from exhaustion, coupled with depression, I believe. All she needs is a lot of rest, and she’ll be good as new.” The woman tells me grimly after examining Lucy, stating what I already suspected was the case.

Not long after, the doctor leaves, and I’m left alone with Lucy. She’s still unconscious, which is good because I have a feeling that once she wakes up, the last thing she’ll want to do is rest, so it’s better that she gets enough rest now.

As I settle down to wait for her to wake up, I spy some official-looking documents hanging out of the handbag that she had on her shoulder when I found her.

The documents are soaking wet from the rain, so I remove them from the bag to lay them out on the table to dry properly, because I'm sure she doesn’t want them destroyed.

When I glance down at the documents, I see that they’re divorce agreements, and I’m surprised.

“That was quick …” I think to myself.

Her husband is even more of a douchebag than I originally thought if he’s divorcing her so soon, after embarrassing her the way he did that night.

My train of thought is interrupted when I hear a low moan come from the bed, where Lucy is lying.

I look back to see that she has sat up on the bed and is rubbing her eyes while trying to get her bearings. Her eyes widen when she sees me.

“Hello, Lucy. How are you feeling?” I ask her, but she continues to stare warily at me, as though she’s trying to remember who I am.

I can tell the second she remembers who I am, because her shoulders sag with relief, but she still looks cautious, as she should be.

“Hello, uh … Nathan, was it? Where am I? What am I doing here? The last thing I remember was walking down a road and trying to get a good shelter.” She says.

“Yes, I found you walking on the road, but you fainted and I brought you here. I also had a doctor examine you.  You fainted because you were exhausted, but thankfully, the doctor said you’ll be fine.”

“Oh … Ah, I think I remember now. I remember you walking up to meet me in the rain. Thank you for helping me for the second time today. I’d like to assure you that I'm not always a damsel that needs saving, but the past few days have been really rough on me.” She says, trying to smile, but failing miserably, and my heart goes out to her.

“You're welcome, and it’s a pleasure. Would you like something to eat? To drink?”

“Oh, no! I can't impose on you any more than I already have. I have to go.” She says, getting out of bed, and picking up her handbag.

Then she picks up her suitcase as well and heads for the door, which is locked.

“You can’t go, Lucy,” I tell her, making my voice as gentle as possible so as not to scare her.

She ignores me and turns the door handle, only to find it locked, then she turns to stare at me, her eyes as wide as saucers.

“Please come and open the door.”

“I can’t let you leave yet, Lucy,” I tell her, getting up from where I’m sitting and heading towards her, at which point she begins to panic.

“Why not? Oh, my goodness! Who exactly are you and what do you want from me? Oh, God! Did Austin and Amy hire you to kill me or something? Why don’t …”

“It’s nothing like that, Lucy. You can’t leave because I’ve been looking for you for so long …” I tell her.