RECOVERY
Abigail was taken to Cliff's place which he shared with his brothers. She was given a long hot bath while Cliff cleared his room and changed the sheets. He'd placed her overnight bag in his room and when she was ready to come out of the bath, he'd given her a couple of large towels and his own huge stripy dressing gown to use, slipped through the ajar bathroom door to maintain her privacy.
She quietly emerged a while later saying she felt better but whacked and he told her she could sleep in his bed: he would be using the "guest bed". Abigail was too tired to question this, and just managed to gulp down a glass of milk and wolf down a sandwich hastily made by Cliff, before retiring for the night.
She fished out her nightclothes from her bag and slipped them on in private before collapsing into his bed. Cliff came in shortly afterwards to tuck her in like a small child, giving her a tender kiss on her forehead, to which she was too exhausted to respond, before switching off the lights and leaving her alone to sleep.
He kept checking on her regularly, but in between these checks he took himself to the garage and inspected the "box" more carefully. He figured out how it all worked and even that the car battery someone has placed inside, was not the original power source. Cliff realised how completely and utterly helpless anyone installed properly in the box would be.
He was amazed at all the straps and belts, foam padding and locks, and the way the lid also had foam mouldings on the underside to press down onto the occupant. He was incredulous that Abigail had allowed herself to be strapped up tightly and shut up in the box, even if she thought it was only for a short time. Maybe she had been coerced or somehow forced into the box.
As he pondered what must have gone through her mind, all trapped in the dark, completely helpless, he felt a massive twinge of disappointed that it was not himself who had found her, instead of the gang.
Cliff wondered if Abigail would ever want to see the box again, let alone want to try it out herself another time. Cliff would of course make sure she would be completely safe, personally, 100% of the time. But he doubted she would want to have another go after her trauma today.
Later that evening, as it was getting dark, Cliff's brothers Stuart and Michael reappeared. First was Stuart having thanked all his work mates and disbanded the various volunteers.
"Cliff! Where are you?" he called out as soon as he was through the door carrying a several pizza boxes and other fast-food bags.
Cliff had just gone in to check that Abigail was OK, and, finding her sleeping soundly, was closing his bedroom door softly so as not to wake her.
"SSSShhhh Stu! Pipe down. Abigail's sleeping" he whispered loudly as he approached his brother, embracing him in a manly hug. "Listen thanks for all your help today in finding and freeing Abigail. We couldn't have done it without your crews and the muscle they brought."
"Hey, no problem Cliffy! If your girl's in trouble, of course we'll help. What are brothers for?" Stuart gave him a playful punch in the arm. Cliff didn't notice. "How is she doing? Is she gonna be OK?" he asked with concern.
Cliff glanced back to towards his room. "Yeah, she's doing OK so far. I think she's just exhausted and needs to sleep it off. But I'm worried that she's undergone a traumatic ordeal and she might wake up panicked or something. I want to be there when she wakes, in case she needs me." Cliff explained.
"Well she's a bit of a knockout, Bro! A real looker. I don't blame you for wanting to be 'by her bedside' when she wakes up" said Stuart, with a mischievous grin on his face. This time it was Cliff who punched Stuart in the arm playfully. Stuart reeled from the blow, but tried to hide it.
"That's the last thing that she'll need right now you idiot!" retorted Cliff. "She just needs to recover in her own time. And feel safe. She's alright staying here for a while isn't she?" Cliff was hoping Stuart wouldn't want to evict her in the morning.
"Yeah, no worries on that score Cliff. She can stay as long as she needs. I was only kidding" replied Stuart, rubbing his arm as he moved off to put the pizzas on the table.
"I know you were" said Cliff, moving to help his older brother with the food and drinks. The apartment layout was spacious and had an open kind of plan where the kitchen, dining and lounge areas were all one large open space, with the furniture dividing the room into sections.
A little later, as Stuart and Cliff were snacking on pizza, Michael came in, having taken a lot of the paperwork evidence gathered from the garage across to his own legal office downtown for safekeeping.
Cliff heard the key in the door and caught him as he came through it.
"Hey Michael, thanks for all your help today with Abigail" Cliff embraced his eldest brother, who returned the greeting with a good slap on Cliff's back.
"Well, hey 'little' brother. If you've got a damsel in distress in need of rescuing, then I wouldn't be much of a brother if I didn't help out" Michael reminded him. He had stressed the word 'little' as he and Stuart often did to tease Cliff, for while Cliff was the youngest of the three, he was definitely NOT the smallest in terms of build and height.
"That's what I told him earlier!" called Stuart from the kitchen table through a mouthful of pizza.
