OOC: There is a second part of this coming.. so anything else I post other than this happens after it and the second post.
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Alexandra didn't remember much after the EMTS removed her from the cross. She remembered looking up at Mystica as he hugged Eli. But when he looked at her, his eyes conveyed something else. Was it worry? Did he believe she wouldn't still care after this? She could barely hold her head up after that. That's when everything went fuzzy and the world seemed to fall down around her. Her head was spinning all she could think of was if Eli would harm Mystica for his actions. He had tried to protect her. Ally kept trying to break free from the EMTS. She wanted to know he was going to be okay. She tore from their arms, running towards the way another set of EMTS headed, no doubt with Mystica.

"Miss Callaway, we must insist that you stop."

"Like hell you'll stop me." She saw him, his hand was wrapped tightly like hers was currently, only it was opposite of hers. He was there with her, he was holding her. She ran over to him. "David, oh my dearest David. Why did you do that?"

He looked at her but still no words came out. She slowly wrapped her arms around him. She trembled feeling his closeness and him pressed against her. His heart raced, just as hers did. Adrenaline, maybe? No, it couldn't be that. Alexandra looked up at David who's gaze was only on her.

"Why David? Eli is going to be so furious with you."

Alexandra's eyes met his, not with a look of anger, but rather with one of concern and worry. She had more care at that moment for what might happen to him, rather than herself. She looked down at his hand, gently she took it in her good hand, bringing it to her lips and kissing it softly, before looking back up into his eyes. She held his gaze for a few moments, silence between them, not a word spoken.

"You tried to protect me David. You tried to stop it. I will owe you for the rest of my life. I... I.. Thank you David. I would still like to know why though?"

She looked up at him, hoping to get some kind of answer. Any inkling as to one, something to explain why he would want to save someone who his "leader" wanted to destroy. He raised his right hand to examine the bandages wrapped around his wound. The nail had gone right through the bone. But that wasn't the point. In that moment when he had protected Alexandra, he had overcome the voice in his head. Mystica had backed down and allowed him to place his hand in the way. And for now, the sleeping God stayed silent. David gave a weak smile.

"Why is one of those answerless questions. The kind that philosophers ponder over for their entire lives, but never reach an answer. I suppose I'll look to one of them for a proper explanation."

He lowered his head to eye level with Alexandra, examining the gentle curves of her face.

"When you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. I stare the abyss in the face every night and ask why, my dear. Truth being that I don't know. Don't figure I'll ever know. It's all reflex now. The trained mind. I do what is necessary."

In her pants pocket the nail remained, she remembered having scooped it up. She reached into her pocket with her good hand and held it out for him to see. Her eyes met his, before she placed it back into her pocket. She stood there, looking up at the man who had just risked himself and all he's known, for her. There had to be some purpose behind it. Alexandra's hand throbbed, but all she could focus on was David.

"Please David, let me go with you?"

She continued to hold her gaze as they tried to get him into the ambulance. Every thing she was feeling, even the words she couldn't say were obvious in her eyes. Fear, worry, concern, remorse and the last one, love... At least, that was the kind of feeling she was having. Alexandra stood next to him, awaiting his answer. Her eyes still pleading with him, as she longed to know what he was going through right now, knowing a battle had to be raging inside of him. She wanted to make sure he would be able to make it through the night without getting himself locked away from the world. She had to make sure Mystica couldn't come out, she had to stay close... to try and help David stay calm.

"If you must, then you must," David answered with that same weak smile, looking to the roof of the ambulance, blood still dripping from his palm. "Funny this. Like stigmata. Chosen by a god. Funny."

Alexandra was a bit taken back by his words, like she had just crossed a line and he did not want her there. She looked down at her hand, after climbing into the ambulance and it took off. Her finger went to where the blood pooled in the center of the bandage on both side. Then her eyes went back to the floor. His words seemed a bit cold to her. She kept her eyes on the floor as she began to speak.

"It seems that I too will bear that same scar." Her voice breaks the silence that had filled the back of the ambulance since he had spoken. "If you do not want me here, please tell me. I will tell them to let me out, and I will disappear into the night, and you will never have to look me in the eye again." She wondered which side of David she was talking too, him or Mystica. She sat there silently looking at the floor. Wondering what the hell had just happened. Why the sudden change in personality.

David shook his head blankly. His eyes looked rather fogged, trapped in a daze. He placed his good hand to his forehead, as if in illness. He sighed and looked to Alexandra.

"No, please don't go anywhere," he pleaded, looking down at her wound. "I don't figure I'll heal quite as well as I would with you here. You're like...a lucky charm, of sorts..."

He sighed once more, taking in as much air as he could on the intake thereafter.

"Listen, I'm sorry if I ruined everything for you back in the ring," he said with a genuine worry in his voice. "See, I just...I don't know how to go about this. Having friends. I haven't had a genuine friend in years, really. Just business friends. Those friends you like at work, but never hear from otherwise. Cubicle neighbors, collaborators, head editors...you don't get to know those people. But you...I want to know you. But it's been so long I fear I've forgotten how to..."

Alexandra looked at him. "Since you've forgotten how to what David?" She moved a bit closer, trying to catch his gaze. "I've had many friends, they've come and gone, each one of them still dear to my heart."

"I've forgotten how to be close to someone," he admitted, briefly catching her gaze, then quickly turning away, trying to hide the emotion behind his eyes. His pupils dilated, a bodily response to the hard feeling in his gut, like butterflies and moths engaged in bloody warfare in his stomach.

"There's a reason I never pursued that girl back in the village," David continued, studying the lights in the ceiling of the ambulance, if only to distract himself and keep his eyes from revealing too much. "There's events from my late adolescence that have emotionally deadened me. Pain that caused my mind to retreat from the notion of friendship, family, and love. I'd elaborate, but I doubt you'd want to hear it. It's long and silly and--"

He paused, smiling at his own foolishness. He was rambling again, purely out of lovely nervousness. Oh, dear muse, he thought, send me the words and strength.
Alexandra studied his movements, all of her years of acting, of theatre...none of them could compare to this. He had such movement, that you couldn't figure him out.

"You kind of have a captive audience." She motioned around to the ambulance they were in. "If you would like to share your story, you can. I wouldn't mind at all." She diverted her eyes to the windows on the back of the ambulance, trying to not keep a strong eye contact. She knew they were nearing the hospital, she could tell, by the sounds of the EMTS in the front of the truck.