A Hard Night's Rest [For Daaharu]

It was dawning on Carmen that this was all planned, and probably not even planned for her. There was no way Nadya could have known Carmen would come here, or that she would stay overnight, or even that she would be in this particular room. It must have been there before. And from the ease she was doing it, Carmen got the distinct impression this was something she was too comfortable with. Something she had practiced. Something she had done before...and gotten away with.

"Hel-" Carmen started to scream, but Nadya's blow silenced her before she could even get the full syllable out. The blow would have stung like blazes even if Carmen hadn't been through the ringer, but after the fight and the medication and the soreness? It was devastating. Her body went limp and her world went black for a precious moment. She opened her eyes, slow and groggy, as the smell of blood filled her nose.

Carmen turned her from side to side as she looked up at Nadya's deranged face, filling herself with as much defiance as she could muster. But she was on the brink. She couldn't find. She could barely move her mouth to talk. "Fucking bitch, get...get off me."

Nadyaâ€s punch had done the trick. Carmen, already weak, was sent for a loop when that fist crashed into her face. A small trickle of blood came out of her nose and poured down across her upper lip. The AFW fighter went limp beneath Nadya. “Oh, poor fucking bitch…” Nadya mocked, laughing as Carmen opened her eyes again and made her pathetic demand.

“Get off you? No. No, I vill stay on you…and I vill fuck you all night long, cunt,” Nadya replied sadistically, as she would reach down with one hand to yank Carmenâ€s hospital gown up…

Meanwhile, Lorenza couldnâ€t get to sleep. She had been restless even before the night shift nurse had opened her door to check on her, and after that, no matter how hard she tried, she seemed to be wide awake. She sighed, and sat up in her bed. She wasnâ€t going to get to sleep this way. She needed drugs. She reached over and pressed the intercom button to call the nurse. “Hello? Can you hear me?” Lorenza asked. She lifted her fingers off of the button and waited for a reply.

She kept waiting. No reply came. After a minute, she pressed the button again. “Hello? Are you there?” She paused. Still nothing. Where was that nurse? Lorenza and Carmen were the only two patients in this wing of the hospital, werenâ€t they? Was she helping Carmen? Why was it taking so long? “Hello?” Lorenza asked, one final time. Still no response. Well, that was very strange.

Knowing there was no sense in trying to get to sleep again without drugs, Lorenza thought she might go out there and try to find some sleeping aid herself. The nurse, wherever she was, could be a long time in returning. Maybe she had fallen asleep. Maybe she was taking a crap. Whatever the case, Lorenza didnâ€t want to wait for her medicine. Slowly, carefully, she would lower her feet to the cold tile floor and lifted herself up into a standing position.

Her back protested. Her legs wobbled. Lorenza grabbed onto a bedside table to steady herself, and then, after a minute, she would feel confident enough to make her way slowly to the door. She pushed it open and stepped out into the hallway. She looked to her right, where the hall opened up into a lobby, at the center of which stood the nurseâ€s station. The desk was empty. Where was that nurse? Lorenza took a step in that direction, but then, she heard a muffled yelp from inside of Carmenâ€s room.

“¿Quà chingados?” Lorenza asked. She turned around and faced Carmenâ€s door, slowly approaching it. She heard muffled words—words that she couldnâ€t quite make out.

But the cry that came next was loud enough for Lorenza to understand. It was Carmenâ€s voice, and it was a cry for help.

Lorenzaâ€s eyes widened, and her hand quickly went to the door handle. She tried to open it, but it didnâ€t move. She jostled it, but it still would not let her in. The door was locked. “Fuck!” Lorenza hissed. “Fuck. Fuck.” She let go of the handle and looked around, left and right. There was no one else there. The nurse was nowhere in sight. Whatever was happening to Carmen, Lorenza was the only one who was there to help. And, though she and Carmen had been beating each other to within an inch of each otherâ€s lives only a couple of hours earlier, Lorenza wouldnâ€t think twice before turning and jogging into the lobby, to the nurseâ€s station, enduring the pain in her legs as she moved, looking for the keys that would open the door…

Carmen decided in that moment that she had never, nor ever would, hate anyone quite as much as this woman.
Her head was like a fog. The world was hazy, warped, fading, but the same blow that had knocked the fight out of her body was also keeping her awake with the pain, and she wasn't even sure that was a good thing. She didn't want to be awake for this. She didn't want it to happen at all. What she wanted to do was knock that smile of the sick bitch's face. Pummel her until her fists hurt, harder than she'd ever hit anything before. Make her pay for the simple act of even thinking this was going to happen.

But she couldn't do that, or any of it. It was taking too much energy to move her body as weakly as she was. She was done. Her body simply had no more to give, and at the most inopportune time that she could think of. Running out of options, she did the only thing she could think of, something she hadn't earnestly done for at least ten solid years.

Carmen prayed.

She closed her eyes and let silent whispers pass over her lips, things that Nadya didn't even deserve to hear. She wasn't a woman of faith, she couldn't even remember the last time she'd stepped in a churchyard. She didn't know if there was anything to it, anything genuine, and right now, she didn't care. It made her feel better, just a little. She needed that.

Nadya didnâ€t hear the door handle jostling. She didnâ€t hear what words were passing through Carmenâ€s lips, either, but she could see the Puerto Ricanâ€s lips moving. She didnâ€t give a second thought to it. Whatever the AFW fighter was doing, it didnâ€t matter to her. All that mattered to her was getting what she wanted and savoring the fear that her actions caused in the women she fucked. “Take it like little bitch you are!” Nadya yelled, as she grabbed onto the bottom of Carmenâ€s gown and yanked it upwards.

It hadnâ€t taken Lorenza long to find the spare keys at the nurseâ€s station. She limped back into the hallway as fast as she could, reaching Carmenâ€s door just in time to hear Nadya yell, telling Carmen to take it like a little bitch. Lorenzaâ€s eyes widened. She didnâ€t recognize whose voice it was, but it obviously was not Carmenâ€s. Whatever was going on behind the door, it had just become deathly serious in Lorenzaâ€s mind. She looked from the keys to the door. If Carmen was being attacked, then she was unlikely to be able to overpower her rivalâ€s attacker. Even a glancing blow to her liver could immobilize her after the treatment that she had been given.

Lorenza hobbled back to the lobby, looking left and right, trying to find some sort of weapon. She knew time was of the essence, and she quickly decided upon her weapon of choice. One hand closed around the slender neck of the lamp, while the other hand yanked the cord out of its socket. She rushed back into the hallway, jammed the key into the lock, and turned the door handle, opening the door and hurrying inside, lamp raised above her head.

Nadya was shocked by the sound of the door opening. “Wha—!?” She rolled to her left, away from the door, getting off of Carmen and falling down to her hands and knees on the floor, the strap-on dragging across the tile. When she got up, Lorenza had already closed the gap between them, and she swung the lamp with all of her strength. The ceramic light fixture caught Nadya in the face, and it shattered into a hundred little pieces upon impact with a loud crunch of lamp and of jawbone. Nadya collapsed onto the floor. Lorenzaâ€s momentum following the swing caused her to lose her balance, and she fell down onto the bed, draped across Carmenâ€s legs, panting heavily.

It took Carmen a few seconds to even figure out what happened. She had to replay the events in her mind to even make sense of it.

Nadya - that bitch, that psychotic, twisted bitch had been all over her. Carmen hadn't given up in her mind, but she couldn't mentally get the psychopath off her. She needed her body for that. And her body simply was not doing as it was told. She closed her eyes, swallowed her pride, and prayed Nadya would get off her. And then...she did.

There was a loud crash, and the next thing Carmen knew, she felt something heavy fall down on her legs, a person. But it wasn't Nadya, she knew that without even opening her eyes. She knew Lorenza's body too well not to recognize it when it was pressed against her. "Saldano?"

She opened her eyes to see her blue-haired rival laying there, breathing hard, but no sign of Nadya. "What, where-" Her eyes finally caught the nurse on the floor, surrounded what was at one time a lamp, she guessed. Was she out? Carmen couldn't quite tell. But just having Lorenza here, just being saved and not having to deal with this alone...

She turned back to Lorenza as a few tears started welling up in her eyes, mouth agape, not even knowing what to say or how to say it.

Lorenza breathed heavily, not moving for a few seconds. She heard Carmen say her name, quietly. She grunted, and tried to nod as she sat up, one hand rubbing at her sore stomach. The excitement had aggravated her liver region.

She turned her head to look at Carmen. The first thing she noticed was the Puerto Rican boxerâ€s hospital gown, which had been pulled up to her waist by the sadistic Russian nurse, exposing her. Lorenza blushed red and quickly grabbed the gown, yanking it back down to cover Carmenâ€s modesty. “Guh, come on, Rodriguez, cover up…” she mumbled, but she could only halfheartedly tease her rival. She was relieved that Carmen was okay. Her own eyes were a little misty with emotion as she looked into Carmenâ€s, seeing the feeling of relief wash over her rival and feeling very relieved herself in turn.

But Nadya wasnâ€t quite out just yet. The hit to her face had splintered her jawbone, broken her nose, and cut open her lips and cheeks—one piece of the lamp had even got into her eye—but she was still conscious. She wasnâ€t much of a threat at this point. As resilient and powerful as she was—and Nadya was quite the formidable woman—taking a lamp to the face like that took the fight out of anyone. She writhed on the floor, starting to moan, in tremendous pain.

Lorenza heard the nurse moan and, with one more look at Carmen, stood up. She raised one foot above Nadyaâ€s head, waited for a second, then brought her heel down hard on top of the Russianâ€s skull, slamming her already ruined face into the tiled floor. Nadyaâ€s last moan died in her throat as she slipped into unconsciousness. Lorenza stomped on her one more time for good measure.

Carmen blinked, flabbergasted as Lorenza pulled her gown back down. She hadn't even noticed it was still up with everything that had happened. How close she'd been, how exposed she was for what Nadya was trying to do. If Lorenza hadn't come when she did, if she'd been a minute or even a few seconds too late, if she hadn't been here at all...no. No, she couldn't think about it.

Nadya was still awake, but just barely, hanging on the edge of consciousness. and Carmen was more than willing to tip her over. She started to roll off the bed for it. Even as weak as she was, it wouldn't take much effort and it would be infinitely pleasing. Carmen would have sold her right hand just to get one minute in the ring to beat Nadya with her left.

Fortunately, though, she didn't have to do that, didn't even have to get up. Lorenza took care of it, and had the beating happened to anyone else, she might have winced, with Nadya, she just watched.

"Crazy bitch..." She fell back at Lorenza brought her foot down again, sinking into the pillow. "Crazy bitch. Lorenza, I-" Her breathing got the better of her, she was hyperventilating. Calm down. Calm down. "Police. Call the police, please, I just..." She gulped in as much air she could, trying to force her heart to work properly.

"Thank you." She exhaled and looked Lorenza in the eyes. "Thank you."

Nadyaâ€s face was a bloody mess. Blood poured from her nose, her mouth, and cuts all across her face. Her nose stuck out at a very odd angle, and one eye was reddened, a shard of the ceramic lamp still stuck in it (whether or not she would be able to see out of it again was questionable, but frankly, Lorenza didnâ€t give a damn whether or not the sadistic nurseâ€s eye would ever fully heal). A pile of three or four teeth sat on the floor in the rapidly expanding pool of blood beneath her. The Russian would not be getting up again, at least for a long while. Lorenza turned to Carmen. “Do you…do you want to hit her?” Lorenza asked. She had noticed how Carmen moved to get up when Nadya had started moaning. It would only be fair for the brunette woman to get a chance to deal some damage to the woman who had almost raped her.

“There are…there are more lamps. Outside. In the, uh…in the lobby.” Lorenza made a small gesture with one hand towards the door. She was a little dazed herself. Everything had happened so quickly, it felt like a dream. She wobbled on her legs, and, before she could fall, she would grab onto the foot of Carmenâ€s bed and carefully pull herself down so she was seated beside Carmen. She looked over into her rivalâ€s eyes as she was thanked. “Anything for mi hermana,” Lorenza replied quietly. “Anything.”

Lorenza reached over Carmenâ€s body to grab the other boxerâ€s phone to call the police. She wondered what they would make of the scene.

Carmen did want to do that. She really, truly wanted to. But her body simply was not having it. It was all she could do to lie there and stay conscious, at this point.

She gulped and shook her head, looking down at Nadya. Bloody. Bruised. Beaten. "She's not worth the effort." From the looks of things, Nadya was about to spend a long time in a dark hole with bars. That would have to be enough.

Lorenza called the police and the came as quick as they could, securing the area and moving them both to a room down the hall. Nadya was even worse than she looked, and she looked terrible to start with. Ironically enough, she had to be taken care of in the very room she'd come after Carmen in. She hadn't asked too many questions, but speaking with them, it seemed like the police had come to similar conclusions: That this wasn't an isolated incident, that Nadya had planned this and done it many times, and that she was every bit as messed up as Carmen guessed, if not more.

Statements had to be taken. Papers had to be signed. The police were good enough to let Carmen and Lorenza stay at the hospital for now, but eventually they both would have to come down.

Carmen didn't care, really. It was over, Nadya was done, and that was all she needed to know.

It was a few hours before the two of the could have a moment to themselves, sitting in Carmen's new room while the police started to pack up outside. Carmen sat on the edge of the bed, finishing off a Coke to fight off the drowsiness. Still silent. Not sure what to really say, or if she should say anything at all.

The process of dealing with the police was long, boring, and often frustrating. The officers who responded to their call were generally helpful, but they had to do their duty, and their duty involved asking what seemed like dozens of ridiculous questions. The absence of any other hospital staff—other than a couple of nurses who had been on duty in other wings of the building—made things all the more difficult. Lorenza couldnâ€t remember the last time she had had to sign so many forms consecutively.

But, at last, it was all over. For Lorenza, the whole experience was incredibly bizarre. Three minutes of action, saving Carmen and severely beating the Russian nurse, followed by two hours of answering questions and making statements. All in the middle of a hospital stay that might last several more days. She didnâ€t think she had ever had an experience before that felt quite so surreal.

She and Carmen were sitting alone in the new room that the police had moved Carmen to. They had moved Lorenza, too, to the room across the hall from Carmenâ€s new room. Her other room was too close to the scene of the crime.

Right now, though, she was sitting with Carmen on the bed, a half-empty can of Coke in her hands, as well. They hadnâ€t really said anything to each other since the incident. They had only spoken to the police. Lorenza wasnâ€t quite sure where to begin. Talk about what had happened with Nadya? Or talk about what had happened earlier, in the ring?

She would lift her arm and move it a little to the left, tapping her Coke can into Carmenâ€s, their knuckles brushing together. She was hoping that Carmen would start the conversation, so that she wouldnâ€t have to.