Wake Up ||ONC 2021|| GxG

13. Just Let Me Sleep

Parked outside of her small townhome, Esme began to worry over how she was going to discreetly drag two unconscious people inside. The sun wasn't exactly being helpful. A thunderstorm would have been lovely just about then, perhaps a stretcher too. She thought she could drag Nevaeh in with enough willpower, but her bleeding leg wouldn't support a full-grown man after.

Esme looked between them one more time and groaned. Maybe she could just leave them here and go inside for a nap. When she woke up, they'd be gone, and this would all be a dream. If she told herself that enough times, it had to make it true.

But first, what she needed was to hear a familiar voice. Esme reached back and grabbed the phone Paula had left behind. The number she dialed without even thinking about it, she knew it by heart. Even after she'd loaded every number into her phone and given herself permission to forget them, she hadn't done that with her mother's number.

The line rang a few times before a soft voice answered. The only problem was that it most definitely wasn't her mother's voice. It wasn't the low-pitched melodic voice she knew, but a high nasally one. It was wrong... but it calmed every frazzled nerve with just one little 'hello'.

Esme's hand shook and she quickly hung up, tossing the phone away as if it had made the mistake instead of her. Her head nodded forward, and she shook herself, trying to keep her eyes open. It was a battle she was slowly losing.

She could see Teebs sitting in the window, stretched out in a puddle of sun. The normalcy of it made her laugh. Any minute he'd doze off and his back foot would start twitching. "It would be a shame to disturb him," Esme sighed. She stretched her arms over her head and yawned. "Thirty-minute cat nap, me and you, highness."

Her eyes had only just closed when Nevaeh started shaking her. "Esme, hey, you gotta get up," she urged her.

Esme fought with the lead weights dragging her eyelids down only to discover they had spread across her body and held her captive. She looked at Navaeh through the narrow slits she'd managed to open her eyes to. The woman looked frantic, almost enough to push Esme into motion. The white bandage circling her head made the corner of her mouth twitch up into an almost smile. She looked like she belonged in a badly made action movie.

"You look like you got hit by a car," Esme said.

"You're an idiot," Nevaeh sighed. She slipped out of the car and around to the driver's side to help Esme out. "Can you stand?"

Esme ground the balls of her feet into the ground, slowly shifting her weight out of the seat and onto her feet. Pain flared up her right leg, making her grip the door for support. She waved away Nevaeh's hand and nodded to the back seat. "Let's get him inside."

Between the two of them, it only took five minutes to get Easton inside. They would have made it faster if Esme hadn't tripped over her own feet so many times. They dropped him on the floor by the couch and shoved a pillow under his head.

"What happened while I was out?" Nevaeh asked. She held her hands out for the first aid kit Esme had dug out from under the sink.

"Paula went crazy." Esme helped find and remove the chunk of metal stuck in Easton's side and bandage it after. Hopefully, they wouldn't need to use up her entire kit by the end of the day. People got suspicious when someone bought piles of gauze at a time.

"Paula? Really? Do you mean the same Paula who avoid confrontation like the plague?" Nevaeh looked at her doubtfully as she cut through the side of Esme's pant leg.

"Yeah, it surprised me too. But I got a pretty good look at her when she shot at me," Esme muttered, trying to sound lighthearted about the entire ordeal. Thankfully, the bullet had only grazed her. The gash was still deep enough for concern and the singed skin around her had been rubbed raw further by her blood-soaked pants. She scrunched up her nose as Nevaeh cleaned it up.

"You're weirdly calm about all this," Esme said. "Which side are you working for?"

"The design department," Nevaeh replied, sounding almost uncertain about her answer. Her brow furrowed as she looked up at Esme.

"You're not working for some super-secret agency? It's alright if you are. At this point I'd go with you if you asked." Esme nestled back against the couch; her eyes half closed. Teebs had jumped up and pushed himself behind her back, making a warm spot that radiated out like a soothing balm. "But you'll at least tell me what you want me for right?"

"Yeah, sure," Nevaeh laughed. Her hand ghosted over Esme's cheek before she leaned her head on her shoulder. "I'll tell you after I rest."

"Deal," Esme grunted. She laughed, just an amused sigh but it was better than the screaming she'd wanted to do earlier.

"You guys are so sickeningly sweet, it's making me dizzy" Easton complained from his position on the floor. They both jumped to lean forward to see him. "Though, that may be at least partially due to the blood loss."

"It could be because you're jealous," Esme mused. She reached out a hand to help him sit up. When his hand wrapped around hers, a wave of unease passed over her, making her cling tighter to him.

"Easy there Essie, you're going to break my hand," he joked. One look at her wide eyes and pale cheeks wiped the grin off his face. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Esme shook her head and pulled her hand to her chest. "Nothing I guess, just a feeling. I think I was... worried about you."

"And that made you panic? Do you have that much of a problem having emotions towards me?" He rolled his eyes and got slowly to his feet. "We need to get going anyway, we shouldn't be here." Easton scratched the top of Teebs head, finding the spot behind his left ear that made the cat flop on his side.

"Is it just me that you try to bite?" Esme hissed at the cat.

"Let's go ladies," Easton said, sounding more impatient by the minute. He wobbled on his feet but managed to move towards the front door steadily enough.

"We're already here, we may as well rest and get cleaned up," Nevaeh suggested.

"And maybe have a nice chat full of answers," Esme added.

"No, none of that, we should just..." Easton trailed off looking at the still slightly open door. One foot was still half raised as if he planned to take the last step forward to the outside world.

"Easton?" Esme called. She pulled herself to her feet, one hand reaching back to grab Nevaeh's wrist.

"Grab the cat, get to the back door," Easton ordered. He turned on his heel to face them, already picking up speed as he moved. "Essie now!" He grabbed onto Nevaeh's hand as he ran, and Esme barely had time to adjust Teebs in her arms before the first explosion took out the front door.