Eliot brought her in and gently placed her on the couch. "How're you feelin?"

"Still very sore." She says with a sigh.

"If you don't mind, now that you're awake and aware, I'd like to do a better check and make sure there's not more damage than it seemed the first time around. I won't lie to you, it won't feel the greatest, but we should try to make certain you don't need a hospital." Eliot says in a calm, almost businesslike tone. He was concerned that there might be something more wrong than he'd been able to tell earlier. That check had been rushed and hadn't been very thorough mostly because he was sure she wouldn't have liked having an audience for it and there were other things that needed dealt with at the time. Now that they had the time, he'd like to make sure that she wasn't more damaged than she appeared.

Nica thought about it. It would be safer of course, she just wasn't over the moon for the idea of the pain that it was going to cause. Better to let Eliot check however, the longer she could avoid landing in a hospital, the better. "I suppose it would be wisest." She says with a small sigh. Eliot nodded, he could understand her reluctance. Were their situations reversed, he'd be about as thrilled as she seemed.

"So, how do we do this?" She inquires. "And how much clothing should I remove?"

Eliot blinked at her so quickly mentioning disrobing. "You don't need to be completely naked darlin'. But if you're comfortable enough, it would be easier with you in your bra and panties." He says in a strange tone. He was trying to keep his focus but it wasn't the easiest. Nica smiled a little at his discomfiture.

"I am not shy, Eliot." She says simply. "So, where would be best?"

"It'd probably be easier upstairs. The bed's bigger and there's nothin' to get in the way." Eliot explains.

Nica nods. "Then lead the way." She says as she carefully gets to her feet. Eliot turns and begins leading the way to the master bedroom. As sparse as what she'd seen of the rest of the house seemed, she was a little surprised by the bedroom. It was easy to see that this was his true haven - it showed from the carved wood king sized bed to the seemingly handmade furniture. It was impressive to say the least.

She moved over to the large bed and tried to pull off her shirt, however lifting her arms pulled at her ribs and not only did she noticeably wince, the gasp it pulled from her lips had Eliot's attention. She frowns. "It seems, I may need some help." She says in a slightly disgruntled tone, but then she smirks slightly as she looks to Eliot. "Pity I am wounded." She jokes, catching Eliot a bit off guard. She caught the look on his face and chuckled.

"I am not 17 anymore Eliot and I am not blind either. You are very attractive. Is it so wrong that I wish the situation were not due to unpleasant things?" She asks. Eliot dared to let himself think about that for a minute but no longer.

"I suppose not, darlin'. But best we not think about that at this particular time. At least not until after we make sure you don't need raced to the hospital for any reason." He says with a bit of a grin. He couldn't get started down that line of thought till after he made sure she was going to be okay here. Tempting though it might be, business had to come before anything else.

"Well let's get this over with then." Nica says as she watches him carefully. He had a look on his face she wasn't entirely certain how to read. He nods and closes the distance between them and just his proximity made Nica wish once more that she wasn't hurt. As gently as he could, Eliot began to help her get out of her shirt. It took a good deal of his training to keep his mind on task and not where her mind seemed to be. She did have a point though - damned shame this wasn't for fun.

He helped her as much as was needed. Once she was down to the damningly tempting bits of matching black silk and lace, he had to center himself for a moment before doing a much more thorough check of the damage Montrose's goon had done. Her torso had born the brunt of it, it was nearly a solid bruise but for some spaces here and there - there were even bruises on her back. Her arms and legs had some defensive marks on them. Add to that the black eye and split lip and you had one Eliot Spencer getting madder than hell as he took in the full picture. He could almost see everything that had been done to her in his mind's eye. He never liked to see a woman hurt, and one that he knew? That brought murder to his mind.

Despite the wincing and sounds of pain, Nica weathered the exam well for the pain she had to be in. If he hadn't noticed her white knuckle grip on the quilt he might have had to worry since she was doing pretty well at hiding her pain. "Well, so far as I can tell you're mostly just bruised. You have a few abrasions that should be cleaned up and wrapped to keep out infection, but as bad as it looks, it's not as bad as it could be. After I clean and bandage those scrapes, why don't you try to get a little bit of rest while I work on dinner. I'll check in on you from time to time and wake you when it's ready." Eliot says in a soft tone.

"Alright." Nica responds simply. She was still taking stock of the injuries his poking and prodding had brought her awareness back to. Eliot was not the only one unhappy with the situation.

"You feel any odd pains or anything starts to go strange you let me know."

"I will." She replies quietly. Eliot moved into the master bath and came back out with a very nice first aid kit. He focused on cleaning up the abraisions and even applied some sort of numbing cream to parts of the black eye and some of the worst bruises on her body. He applied an antibiotic to the scrapes and then wrapped them with clean gauze. When he was done, Eliot turned to slip from the bedroom, leaving Nica all alone. She sighed and tried to get as comfortable as her body would let her. She couldn't help but think how much this sucked.