"You... You're sure you don't want to go to the hospital?" After a long while of silence, Judy finally asked while looking at Sam's neck.

She was going to explode on the inside, she almost couldn't believe that that b*tch Brittney had strangled Sam.

Sam's neck at that moment was bruised, they were just a few faint traces of it, but even with just that, she was able to somehow guess how terrible it must have been, and thinking about it made her burn and want to go and give that Brittney a taste of her own medicine.

That feeling only got worst after seeing how Sam was.

Since she entered, Sam was just sitting there without saying anything, just holding the cup of warm water she was given by Judy and spacing out.

She was in the worst shape Judy ever saw her in, Judy even saw her tracing the bruises on her neck absent-mindedly and as she did, Judy noticed that tears almost started falling down Sam's cheeks yet she stopped herself and hurriedly wiped them.

Then, noticing that Sam was going to turn her head towards her as if she wanted to know if she saw it, Judy lowered her head and acted as if she was busy and didn't notice anything.

Sam seemed as if she returned to her senses because of Judy's question, she forced a smile and said in a trembling voice:

"No... It's alright... I'm sure that she didn't mean it... She... She was drunk... You know how people can get when they are drunk... I'm sur..."

"PEOPLE DON'T STRANGLE THEIR LOVERS WHEN THEY ARE DRUNK." Judy couldn't even listen to all that Sam wanted to say, she shouted as loud as she could, not even caring about her neighbours who were be asleep at that hour of the night.

At that moment she was mad at Sam, how could she act like that even after all that happened to her? Judy couldn't understand it.

"Ju... Judy, I just..." Sam wanted to talk, to explain, but Judy didn't give her the chance.

"She did it, that's what's important, she strangled you, and from what I see, she hurt you a lot, I don't care if she was drunk, she did it, that's what important." Judy was so mad at that moment that she did even care about what she was saying.

If she was calm she would be overthinking about whether that was going to have an opposite effect, whether Sam could handle it or not, and whether it was the best thing to do.

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Sam opened her mouth trying to explain, but then she saw Judy's eyes, they were red and tears were starting to fell down her cheeks.

"I... I don't even know what I would have done if... If anything even worst happened to you... I would have never forgiven myself... Sob... Never..." Finishing her words, Judy pulled Sam into a strong hug while still crying.

Sam lifted her hands and hugged her back with her tears falling too.

A while later they finally separated and Judy let Sam go, she then looked at her straight in the eyes and said in a soft gentle voice:

"Sam, please she..." This time it was her turn to be stopped, she watched as Sam stopped her from talking, and with a bitter smile she said:

"I know that... What I meant is that I know she wasn't in the right state of mind... That she still loves me and... And that she would never really hurt me when she's sober... I know that..." Here she stopped for a bit and added after a short pause:

"I know all of that... But I... I also know that I can never look at her again without... Without remembering what happened tonight... What she did to me... How she was while she was... Was... I just can't look at her the same way again... Tonight I felt... Fear... Fear that I would die..."

Sam's voice was trembling and her expression was painful while talking... Her hands subconsciously went to her neck... Tracing the area where Brittney held her... As if she was still able to feel it, to feel her grip on her neck, feel the pain, powerlessness and despair she felt back then.

"I... I can't return to her... I already understand that..."

"Sam..."

Seeing Judy looking at her worriedly, Sam controlled herself and smiled as she shook her head:

"I'm alright... Don't worry..."

After a short while of silence, Judy finally asked:

"What are you going to do? What... What are your plans?"

"...I Don't know... I..." Sam was clearly troubled over that.

"You can stay here," Judy said in a serious confident voice, with no sign of hesitation.

"No how... How can I... You already did more than enough..." Sam said in frustration.

Seeing her like that, Judy held her hands and told her while looking at her straight to the eyes:

"Sam... I'm your friend right? So let me help you... Please..."

"But..." Sam was still struggling

"You have no saying in this, subject's closed, no need for you to say anything else."

While standing up she looked at the bruises on Sam's neck and said:

"Let's deal with those first, let's see if there's any way to deal with them."

It had already been more than five hours since she had been strangled, and the bruises were starting to appear.

Judy know that in more than half of the strangling cases no traces are left, she searched for things related to domestic violence after her talk with Dan that time, so she was a bit knowledgeable in that subject.

But even though she knew a bit she was still ignorant about things like dealing with bruises.

So she did what anyone in her place would have done... She used Google, she searched for a bit before turning to Sam.

After dealing with that, another problem hit her, one she didn't think about while making Sam stay with her... Where she was going to sleep.

Her house only had one bedroom which was her's, but she thought about that for only a bit before deciding on what to do.

"Come let go, time to sleep, also don't worry about work tomorrow, I will talk to the manager about it, I'm sure she will understand."

Judy would have loved to stay with Sam and take care of her, but she felt that both of them not going to work, especially with how they were in the same shift, with no prior notice wasn't going to be a good thing, so she decided to let Sam rest and go to work.

Not even giving her the chance to talk, because she knew that she would be just going against her, she pulled her to the bedroom, took out one of her spare pyjamas and put it on the bed.

"Here, I know that it's going to be bigger than you, but it's still better than what you're wearing right now, change and sleep."

"What... What about you? Where will you sleep?" Sam couldn't stop herself from asking.

"I will just sleep in the living room, don't worry the sofa is big and soft enough," Judy said with a smile before closing the door behind her.

Sam didn't even have the time to do anything, she just stood there with her mouth opened and her hand lifted.