Chapter Text
When Hen arrives on shift she looks around for Maddie, wanting to see how she is, Chimney having updated her and Eddie on what happened last shift. However Hen doesn’t see either Maddie or Doug, obviously they haven’t arrived yet.
But Hen does see Marty, along with a replacement ladder truck. She has a brief conversation with him before going and getting changed into her uniform. When she emerges after getting changed Hen sees that Maddie and Doug have arrived. Maddie is staring at the ground and Doug has a hand around her arm as he drags her into his office. The door shuts behind them and everyone stares at it, all of them worried for Maddie.
Maddie stares at her lap as she sits on the couch in Doug's office. He ignores her. She knows that is better than the alternative but she still hates it so much. Doug focuses on paperwork, however at one stage he swears and bangs the table causing Maddie to jump. Soon a few pens go flying, a couple of them hitting her. Maddie tries to pretend that nothing is happening.
More minutes of silence pass before Doug swears again. This time he stands up and advances towards her and Maddie’s insides freeze. Just as Doug is about to reach her the bells go off, flooding Maddie with relief.
Maddie hurries out of the office, Doug right behind her. Jumping into the ambulance next to Chimney and far away from Doug feels like freedom.
Maddie can see that Chimney is concerned. She asks him about the plot of Mission Impossible. Chimney gives her a grin and launches into a hilarious explanation and soon Maddie is laughing and she is able to forget about her problems, if only for a few minutes.
Her laughter dies down once they reach their call. This time they are at a bank. Maddie thinks it is the first time she has ever responded to a call at a bank. When they get out of the ambulance Doug lets them know that dispatch has said that someone has collapsed although they don’t know the cause of the collapse. Doug tells Maddie and Chimney to stay right behind him as all of them then make their way inside the bank.
A woman runs out guiding them where to go so they are quick to follow her there. Once they see their patient Chimney is quick to start assessing. He checks that her airways are clear and confirms that he can’t see a medical bracelet and that her jaw isn’t clenched and her tongue is neutral.
Doug tells Chimney to start the patient on O2 and then turns to the woman who guided them where to go. “You said there was a second patient?” he asks.
The woman nods and guides them inside a bank vault where they see a man down on the ground, making gagging sounds. Doug shoves Maddie and she lands in a heap at the guys side. She is quick to ignore her pain as she starts checking the guy's vitals.
“Doug, his pupils are dilated,” Maddie says.
She hears uncertainty in Doug’s voice. “I don’t know what I’m looking at here,” he says.
Maddie gulps as she starts running through all the possibilities in her head. Doug hates uncertainty so she needs to figure this out immediately.
Just then Eddie enters the vault. “It could be a nerve agent,” he says.
Maddie feels herself freeze.
“You’ve seen that before?” Doug asks, with worry in his voice.
Eddie nods. “I’ve been trained for it. The symptoms all line up, the fact that we have multiple people down. I can’t say for sure until we run some tests.”
“Maddie, back away,” Doug orders.
It feels like it is going against everything within her to do so. But she remembers what happened after she didn’t back away from Sonia. So feeling like a terrible selfish person she listens to Doug and backs away from her patient.
Doug then marches out of the room and all of them quickly follow him. “Everyone stop what you are doing right now,” Doug announces. “Step away from the patient in here. We have reason to believe it might be a nerve agent so we are now preparing for a possible chemical exposure incident. So nobody comes in and nobody comes out. We can’t risk spreading whatever may be present.”
As Doug finishes speaking they hear the vault door starting to close. Maddie looks up in time to see the patient inside the vault start convulsing. And suddenly she doesn’t care about Doug’s orders or the risk of a nerve agent. That is her patient and she needs to help them. Maddie makes a run for the vault door, noticing that Hen is just behind her, doing the same thing.
“MADDIE!!!” Doug yells.
Maddie ignores him and gets into the vault to check on their patient. Everyone runs after them but the door closes before anyone else can get in leaving just Maddie and their patient inside.
The patient sees Maddie above him as she checks to see if he is alright. He reaches for her with his hands. Maddie flinches and tries to back away but he grabs her face before she can. She yanks harder and manages to get out of his grip.
“Maddie, you copy?” Doug asks through the radio.
Maddie shakes, hearing the level of rage in his voice. “Yes,” she whispers.
“Well that was an idiot move!” Doug snaps. “What were you thinking?”
Maddie trembles. “I’m sorry Doug. I was worried about the patient.”
Doug scoffs. “Well maybe you need to focus on yourself and remember your priorities. You should have listened to me.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
She hears Doug laugh. “Well I just asked one of the staff members how to open the vault. It’s on a time lock, it won’t open until morning. I’m sure you’ll be fine. I know how much comfort it brings you to be locked in a small space.”
Doug laughs over the radio and Maddie winces and pulls the radio further away from her ear. She tries to ignore Doug and the panic that fills her at the thought of being trapped in this room for that long.
She makes her way back to check on her patient. But suddenly she feels weird. Soon everything gets a bit dizzy and she slumps onto the floor as everything goes dark.
____
Annoyance fills Doug. Maddie just had to get herself trapped in there. Why is she always causing him problems?
Still, it will do her some good to be trapped in there. He wants to just enjoy that fact but he is still working so he knows he has to focus on that. He asks the bank lady if there are any other ways to get the vault open. She tells him about a number that can be called so Doug tells Lucy that she is to sort that out. Lucy gives a nod and follows the bank lady.
And then he looks at the vault camera and sees Maddie collapse. He groans in annoyance but he also feels a bit of worry. He needs his Maddie. He can’t have a nerve agent take her out. He can’t function without her.
Doug updates dispatch and soon reinforcements are coming in and the scene gets taken out of his hands as the people with more authority arrive. With the other people taking over most of the scene Doug turns to his team. “Do any of you know any way we can get in that vault to get Maddie out? Or do you know anyone who would?”
He sees them all exchange looks before he sees Hen’s eyes light up and it is clear she has thought of something.
‘What is it Hen?” he asks.
He can tell she doesn’t want to share the information with him but she looks at the vault camera and at Maddie before sighing.
“One of my friend’s has an ex husband who is an architect. He might be able to access the bank's blueprints which could give us more of an idea of what we are looking at.”
Eddie realises Hen is referring to Michael.
Doug nods. “Call him.”
Michael pulls through for them and soon they are looking at the blueprints. Chimney is the one who verbalises what they all can see, the bank vault is built into the wall of the bank.
So they make their way out of the bank and soon they are breaking the wall. As they do so Doug feels a bit of his anger evaporate. Hitting and destroying things always does help calm him down.
Partway through he realises they should probably make sure they aren’t endangering either Maddie or their patient with their efforts to get into the vault so he gets Chimney to go back inside and watch the vault camera.
They crash into the wall and climb into the vault just in time so see the vault door swinging open. Doug growls. Really?
After that the call is just wrapping things up. Everyone has to get decontimated and then Maddie has to go to the hospital to check that she is alright after being exposed to whatever caused her to go down so Doug goes with her, telling Eddie he is in charge for the rest of their shift.
When they get to the hospital they see the other patient, the one that didn’t get trapped in the bank vault, crashing which alarms Doug as he looks down at Maddie. Thankfully she looks alright. Her hand reaches for his and he gives it a gentle squeeze. With his other hand he gently brushes her hair. “You’re alright Maddie. You will have to face consequences for disobeying me. But you’re alright.”
Maddie smiles up at him although her smile wavers a bit. But he doesn’t care.
____
The rest of them arrive back at the 118. Only for heaps of police cars to appear and all of them are told to step away from the vehicles. Confusion fills them as they obey. A few cops come up and take out the gear bags stashed on the ladder truck. They then empty them and all of the 118 stare in surprise as cash notes rain down onto the ground.
Soon they are all being told they have to go to the police station to be questioned.
____
Doug gets Maddie discharged and he is leading her out of the hospital when a cop approaches them. Rage fills Doug and he grips onto Maddie tightly, however when he looks down at her he sees that she looks confused.
“Captain Kendall, Maddie Kendall,” the cop greets them. “We discovered $300, 000 of missing money from the bank in your ladder truck. So all of the 118 including the two of you are being taken in for questioning.”
Rage fills Doug. Fear and worry fill Maddie.
Soon they find themselves at the police station. They see most of the 118 all sitting in the waiting room, with a cop standing over them, reminding them that they can’t talk to each other at all.
Hen isn’t in the room so Maddie assumes that she is the one currently being interviewed.
They may not be allowed to talk but Doug still positions himself next to Maddie and maintains a tight painful hold around her waist. Maddie closes her eyes and tries to mentally get away from this situation.
Eventually they hear footsteps and then Maddie hears her name. Doug gives her a warning squeeze before Maddie is then getting up and reluctantly following the two detectives to the interview room.
Her stomach drops when she sees it. It is a small concrete room. She has to remind herself to not panic. She did nothing wrong. She has nothing to do with the stolen money. The detectives are just trying to find out what happened, that is all. But no matter what she tries to tell herself nothing reduces her fear.
“Sit down there,” one of the detectives says, gesturing to a chair.
Shaking, Maddie makes her way there and sits down, staring at the table.
“You seem very nervous there Maddie. So why don’t you just tell us the plan and we will go easy on you.”
Maddie stares at the table, feeling very weak and vulnerable. “I didn’t do anything,” she says quietly.
“Well you don’t sound very believable. Why aren’t you looking at us? People without anything to hide can make eye contact with us.”
Maddie starts shaking and it takes all her strength to force herself to look up and make eye contact with them. When she does she can see they believe she is guilty which makes her tremble. How is she supposed to convince them of her innocence? She can never convince Doug of her innocence when he is accusing her of things. And she is familiar with Doug, she has a few tricks to navigate situations with him that sometimes help. But these detectives are strangers and their job is getting things out of people and finding things out. She finds herself starting to panic.
“Why did you run into the vault?”
“To try and save our patient. He was convulsing and I needed to get to him,” she says softly.
‘You disobeyed a direct order from your captain. Is that something you do a lot?”
Maddie flinches before shaking her head. “I know I shouldn’t have disobeyed him. I’m sorry.”
She starts shaking even more and she pulls her legs up onto the chair, wrapping her arms around them, automatically making herself as small as possible.
“Why did you disobey him?” they ask, this time their voices less accusatory although Maddie is too panicked to pick up on that.
Maddie shakes all over and buries her head in her legs. “I don’t know. I just wanted to help our patient. But I shouldn’t have disobeyed Doug. I know the consequences.”
“What are the consequences?”
Maddie flinches. And then horror fills her. No, no, no, no, no. Doug can read her like a book, he will know she made them suspicious. She starts crying and she tries desperately to wipe away all her tears.
“Do you do whatever he tells you?”
Maddie nods, not looking up at them.
“We need a verbal answer. Do you do whatever he tells you?”
“Yes,” Maddie whispers.
“You need to be loud enough that we can hear you.”
“Yes,” Maddie stammers out.
“So if Doug told you to go into the vault to provide a distraction so he could go and steal the money would you do that?”
Maddie trembles. She hates herself when she realises what the answer is. “I would. But he didn’t tell me to, I promise I’m telling the truth.”
“Is there a chance he would tell you to be a distraction without telling you why? A chance he knew you would want to help the person regardless of what he said so he was counting on you disobeying him so that he could go and steal the money?”
Maddie is quick to shake her head. “He would never expect me to dare disobey him. He wouldn’t come up with a plan that relied on that.”
“Ok, well do you think he would be capable of stealing that money?”
Tears flood down her face as she shakes even more. After a silence when she realises they are waiting on an answer she finally gets one out. “I don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“Thank you for speaking to us Maddie. You can go now.”
Maddie stares up at them in shock. “I can? Am I cleared of suspicion?”
They both nod. “You are,” one of them assures her. “Before you go, do you need any help?”
Maddie’s eyes go wide and she looks at them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The detective's voice is gentle when he talks to her. “You said you always obey him, you sounded scared of the consequences of disobeying him and basically admitted you are so scared of him that you will do whatever he asks. Is he hurting you?’’
“You said I can go?” Maddie confirms.
They nod.
Maddie looks at the door and hurries out, ignoring the sound of them calling her name. She knows she should wait for Doug to have his interview. But all of her just needs to get out of the building.
As she rushes out the building she bumps into Athena. Maddie stares at her wide eyed.
“Do you need a ride?” Athena asks.
Maddie knows she shouldn’t accept. But she just wants to get home. So she nods.
She doesn’t talk to Athena at all on the drive home although Athena asks her a few questions. It is only when she arrives home that Maddie speaks, thanking Athena for the ride.
When Maddie steps into the house she sees Genevieve, Claribelle and Cassandra. She gives Genevieve a massive hug. She knows she should make the most of any available time she has with her daughter. But she is seconds away from losing it so she knows she can’t. She gives Cassandra a look and thankfully Cassandra can tell what she is asking without Maddie having to say a word.
Soon Maddie has the house to herself. She collapses onto the bed and bursts into tears, feeling emotionally wrung out. Eventually she cries herself to sleep.
A slap to her face wakes her up. Maddie blinks and opens her eyes. Standing above her is Doug and he looks absolutely furious. He grabs her hair and pulls her out of the bed, Maddie landing on the floor with a painful thump.
He doesn’t say a word as he drags her downstairs to the basement, Maddie crying in pain and fear as he does so.
He pulls her to the center of the basement before shoving her onto the floor. The contact with the hard concrete jars her body.
Doug then drags a couple of chairs over. “Take your clothes off and then stand on one of the chairs,” he orders.
Shaking, Maddie quickly obeys.
Doug then grabs the metal cuffs and stands up on the chair next to her. Maddie starts shaking even more, remembering how useless her arms were after the last time. “Please Doug, I’m sorry.”
Doug slaps her in the face and she only just manages to not fall off the chair.
‘What did you tell the detectives, Maddie? It was clear by their questions that you spoke badly about me.”
Maddie shudders. “I didn’t mention you.”
Doug scoffs and punches her in the stomach. He then grabs her throat and leans towards her face. “Tell me the truth.”
She trembles and stares at the ground. “They asked me why I disobeyed you and I said that I shouldn’t have done that. They then asked if I always listen to you and I said I did so they asked if I would listen if you told me to create a distraction. I told them the truth.”
When she dares to look up she sees the tiniest amount of his anger has gone. But there is still a lot of anger remaining.
Doug cuffs her right wrist and then throws the chain over the pole above them before then connecting the other cuff to her left wrist. He then gets off the chair he is standing on and Maddie tenses, trying to brace herself for the pain she knows is coming.
But instead of kicking away her chair like she was expecting, he goes to the corner and grabs a piece of cloth. Maddie trembles even more when she realises what it is for. Soon a piece of cloth is tied tightly around her eyes making her feel even more vulnerable than she already does.
Suddenly the chair gets kicked away and Maddie’s body drops. The pain is instant and Maddie had forgotten just how much this hurt. Her body starts swinging, desperately trying to find solid ground. Her mind knows it is pointless but her body doesn’t. She hears Doug laughing at the way she is flailing around which just adds to her pain.
The sound of a belt moving through the air doesn’t give her enough warning before suddenly Doug’s belt is attacking her and her screams fill the air.
Normally he only uses the belt on her back but this time she can hear him moving around and from the angles the belt comes it is clear he is walking in slow circles, attacking her from every direction.
Maddie screams even louder with each lash of the belt, her pain intensifying to unbearable levels.
Her head slumps a few times as she goes in and out of consciousness, Doug's hits with the belt continuing throughout all of it.
Eventually he finally stops hitting her with the belt. Maddie’s entire body is in agony. Tears are streaming down her face and it feels like her entire body is wet with blood. How much is she bleeding? Fear fills her, worried that she is bleeding too much.
She hears Doug’s footsteps move before they then come closer to her.
“I have a new toy,” he announces, pure glee and excitement in his voice.
Maddie tenses. She can tell whatever it is will be bad.
“Don’t you want to know what it is?” he asks, his voice teasing.
Maddie shudders, sure that she doesn’t want to know. Although knowing will at least allow her to try and brace for the pain.
‘What is it?” she asks, her voice shaking with every word.
There is pure joy in Doug’s voice when he replies. “A blow torch.”
Maddie wets herself. Doug’s laughter fills the room.
“Please Doug. I’m so so sorry. I’ll never disobey you again. I’ll do whatever you want, I’ll be the most obedient wife in the history of the world. Please Doug. Please don’t do this.”
“You are saying all the right things,” Doug starts and Maddie tenses knowing there is a but coming. “But I spent all this money on this toy. Do you want me wasting my money?”
Maddie gulps. “No. I’m sorry.”
“I knew you’d understand,” Doug says.
She hears Doug get onto the chair next to her and all of her freezes in pure terror. No, no, no, no, no.
And then fire is on her. She screams and screams and screams. Fire is burning her breasts. She needs him to stop.
She feels the fire moving, spreading the pain even more. As Doug inflicts unbearable pain upon her he also talks. “Can you recognise what I’m writing with the blow torch? You should be able to considering that I once carved the same thing into your stomach?”
Maddie is going to be sick. “Your name,” she says, before screaming and screaming and screaming.
“Correct,” Doug says, happiness in his voice.
By the time Doug has finally finished Maddie is a whimpering pathetic mess. Her entire body feels wet. Wet with blood. Wet with tears. Wet with sweat. And wet from where she lost control of her bladder.
“I love you Maddie,” Doug says as he steps down from the chair. “If you obey me then things will be easier for you. Have a good night.”
She hears Doug disappear and then she bursts into tears. It hurts so much and the pain consumes her. She goes in and out of consciousness and she finds herself begging it to take her. Her arms are aching, her entire body is filled with the sharp stinging pain from the belt. But by far the worst of all is the pain from the blow torch. She has no clue what degree the burns are. She won’t know until she can see them. But based on the pain she would guess they are at least a second degree burn.
It is a restless night. The only sleep she gets is when she loses consciousness as when she is awake she is in too much pain - both physical and emotional - to manage to fall asleep.
___
In the middle of the night Hen wakes up with a realisation about the bank call. She lets Athena know and soon they have figured more things out.
But then in the morning cops arrive to search her house. She groans in annoyance, she was ready for this whole mess to be over.
___
Doug wakes up and whistles happily as he makes his way through the house. He considers letting Maddie out so that she can make him breakfast. But he remembers she could barely lift her arms after last time so he decides there is no point. She’ll just be useless. And he can cook a few things.
So he makes himself some scrambled eggs and then eats them in front of the tv. He has just finished eating when there is a knock on the door. He opens it and his good mood evaporates. The cops show him the warrant and then push past him. Panic fills him. He should have let Maddie out earlier, he can’t have the cops finding her like that. He runs to the basement door but they stop him before he can get any further.
One of them takes him outside and Doug can’t do anything as they go through his house.
____
Maddie hears the door opening and she tenses, terrified that Doug will still be mad.
“I’m so sorry Doug. I love you so much. I promise,” she begs.
She hears a gasp of horror. And it is not Doug. Pure fear fills her. If someone else is here then how on earth is she supposed to explain her current state? She starts shaking and crying again.
“You’re safe now. We’ll get you down,” a voice says.
Seconds later a chair is underneath her and Maddie feels some relief that the strain has been taken off her arms. The blindfold is taken off her face and then Maddie is looking at the eyes of a worried looking cop.
“Is there anyone we can call for you?” they ask.
Maddie is confused by the question but says the first name that pops into her mind even though she knows saying it is a mistake. “Sergeant Athena Grant.”
The cop nods and soon they are radioing for backup, asking for Athena and for an ambulance.
“Do you know where the keys for the cuffs are?”the cop asks her.
Maddie shakes her head.
“We’ll find them,” the cop promises before saying something to someone else.
“Why are you here?” Maddie asks.
“We got search warrants for all of the 118, to see if we could find anything related to the bank robbery.” The cop sighs and her voice sounds sad. “Doug tried to stop us going into the basement which made us more convinced he was involved in the bank robbery. I would never have imagined the real reason he didn’t want us coming down here.”
Maddie hangs her head, feeling shame run through her.
Soon there are more sounds coming from the basement door. Maddie looks up and sees Athena. Relief floods through her. All of Maddie wants to just crumble into a ball. But they haven’t found the key yet so her arms are still above her head, still aching and so so sore.
And then another cop comes in. “I have the key.”
Athena nods and takes it from them and then asks all the other cops to leave, saying to let her know when the paramedics arrive but that Athena is in charge of who is allowed into the basement. The other cops all nod before leaving.
Athena then gets up on the chair next to Maddie and unlocks the cuffs. Maddie collapses into Athena’s arms and Athena gently lowers her down.
Athena looks sad but Maddie is just so relieved to have someone there for her.
“Is there any progress on getting Cassandra and Claribelle documented?” Maddie asks desperately.
Even more sadness crosses Athena’s face. “The laws are getting harsher and harder. I will keep trying and will do everything I can. But it is looking less likely.”
Maddie bursts into tears.
Some voices come through over the radio but Maddie doesn’t bother hearing the individual words. Soon two paramedics enter the basement, carrying a stretcher. One of them also has a blanket which Athena helps Maddie loosely wrap around herself.
Whilst having just a blanket feels way more vulnerable than if she was wearing her clothes Maddie is relieved for it as her clothes are too tight and she knows they would just make everything hurt even worse.
Soon she is getting loaded into the ambulance. Thankfully Doug is nowhere in sight when she is taken there. Athena gets in as well which fills Maddie with relief.
Maddie answers the paramedics questions but she mainly focuses on Athena. “You can’t press charges against him for this. You can’t. Has he been arrested?”
Athena sighs. “He has. But I could guess your worries so I have made sure he was told it is because of the bank robbery and everyone knows to not mention you.”
Maddie knows Doug will still blame her anyway so she just cries even harder.
When they reach the hospital Maddie tenses even more knowing that in order for them to treat her she is going to have to be incredibly exposed due to having wounds all over her body.
She gives Athena a pleading look. Athena holds onto her hand and promises she will be there the entire time.
Some photos are taken which Maddie hates. So she looks at Athena.
They have to dress and then bandage the burns on her breasts. Maddie really really really hates that they have to touch her there. She knows it is necessary but she hates it so much. She tries to forget that it is happening so she focuses on the feel of Athena’s hand in hers.
They have to clean and bandage every one of the cuts from the belt. And there are hundreds of them, the cuts on almost every part of her. Each one stings and hurts even more when it is taken care of. Maddie closes her eyes and squeezes Athena’s hand, whimpering from the pain.
Once they have finished tending to all her wounds Maddie knows she doesn’t have another option. She has to discharge herself.
The nurses try fighting it and Maddie gives Athena a pleading look. She can see from her face that Athena doesn’t like that idea but Athena still battles the nurses for her, saving Maddie from having to do it herself.
Once they leave the hospital Athena tells Maddie that Doug won’t be released for a few hours so offers to take her to her and Bobby’s house for a meal. The idea of that does sound nice but Maddie knows there is a chance her brother could be there and she can’t cope with him seeing her like this. Athena seems to know what Maddie is thinking as she promises that she will make sure that everyone is out of the house.
When they arrive there is a meal ready for them, that Bobby prepared. As Maddie expected she isn’t able to move her arms at all. She feels a bit of shame when Athena has to lift the food to her mouth for her. But Athena is so kind about it and focuses the conversation on other things which helps decrease some of Maddie’s shame.
Afterwards Athena drives her home. Maddie is reluctant to say bye to Athena but she knows she doesn’t have another choice.
She sees that everything is neat and tidy which is a slight surprise. When she was being led to the ambulance the house was a whirlwind, from the cops turning it upside down.
Still, she is relieved the house is tidy. If it wasn’t then she would have to clean it before Doug gets home. And she can barely lift her arms so that would have been close to impossible.
She sits in a chair near the door, waiting for him. She is terrified for his return. But she knows she needs to be on his side, to give her the best chance of things being alright.
When she hears his key in the door she tenses but forces a smile on her face. And then the door opens.
“I love you,” she is quick to say.
He looks annoyed but he softens when she says that. He picks her up and carries her to the bedroom before laying her on the bed. The pain from the weight on her belt cuts hurts so much but she manages to not let Doug see her reaction to the pain.
Doug pulls her pants down and Maddie wants to cry. But she forces herself to smile.
Soon Doug is thrusting into her, taking even more of her. It feels like all he does is take away from her and make her feel smaller. She hates him. But she loves him. She hates that a part of her still loves him.
She is in so much pain and she just wants to sleep and forget about everything. But she smiles up at Doug and tells him how much she loves him.
When he is finished he is in a good mood which fills Maddie with relief.
They have the rest of the day off due to the investigation so Doug makes himself comfortable on the other side of the bed and turns on the tv.
Maddie is in so much pain and she wishes for privacy so she could break down. But it isn’t safe for her to do that so she forces herself to bury her emotions. Her parents may have been terrible but at least all the years of being forced to ignore Daniel’s existence and ignore her grief allow her to have this skill mastered. Which is necessary. Pushing her emotions and feelings away keeps her safe.
So she pretends nothing happened. She is enjoying her day off watching tv with her husband. And that is all.