There were circumstances where Natalie would've at least half smiled at that. But this wasn't it.

The lighting here was dim, but her skin was very pale, so when she rolled the hem of her t-shirt up some, and pulled the waist of her pajama bottoms down a little bit to expose a wide strip of skin, the bruises were obvious. One low on her stomach, a bigger one on her hip.

"They're just a little sore."