Recovery Period

Chapter 14

Raina watched it all in silence: the dismissal of Mol, the shift in body language, the sudden aversion to the same contact she'd seemingly enjoyed the last several hours. The separation between the regressed and adult side of her was almost scary, like a wall slamming shut no matter what was liable to be crushed beneath it. It was like both Big and little Nico couldn't co-exist in her at the same time, only one could be running the show. Her ability to shift back and forth was impressive, but then Raina remembered how many sides of Nico she'd seen at the office. 

She could shut it down completely by becoming defensive, but the stress of the injury and everything thereafter had shown big cracks in her control. Raina wondered how deep those cracks went as she turned away from Nico and re-entered the house. Unable to help herself, she went through a 2nd doorway off the hall into the dining room, which also looked out onto the porch. Just as she saw a little maroon Camry roll up, she opened the window a few inches and hoped the slight scraping sound would be covered by the car's engine.

Nico sat on the porch steps, pausing her nervous nail-biting to give Kylie a half-hearted wave as she pulled up. She opened her mouth to greet her friend, although she had no idea what was going to come out, but she was cut off by a very huffy-faced Kylie who held her hand out angrily.

"What. The. Fuck. Nico," Kylie growled, crossing the distance between them much faster than Nico had anticipated.

Raina watched the exchange from where she hid below the window and hissed a quiet "oh shit" to herself. Kylie was tall, with long dark hair, sleeve tattoos up both arms, and had a very pretty, but angry face. Raina suddenly understood Nico's anxiety and bit back a smirk, knowing that all of Kylie's frustration was out of care for her friend's wellbeing.

Nico swallowed and shoved the fear back down. Every part of her that wasn't 25 wanted to curl into itself and sob. Keeping that urge at bay was drawing all her focus, so she simply remained silent. Kylie was suddenly right in front of her and Nico folded her arms, resolving suddenly to be defiant instead of melting into the wooden steps beneath her.

"What? Why are you here, Kylie?" Nico snapped.

"Why am I here? Nico, you're at a stranger's house. She was your doctor who stitched your leg or whatever and now you're at her house."

"We went to my house first," Nico replied.

"Is that supposed to be better? Now she knows where you live. What are you doing here? Why didn't you just stay at home?" Kylie groaned, sitting down next to Nico with a sigh.

"Dude, I can't walk on my foot for 10 days. My bathroom, my bedroom, everything is upstairs except my food. And-"

"You're staying here because you need someone to help you up and down stairs..." Kylie summarized with a judgemental tone while giving Nico a skeptical look.

Raina, from where she eavesdropped beneath the partially-open window, was insulted. Was she just a place to crash where someone would take care of her? Then she ran the same thought through again, confused by the mixture of feelings in her chest. Idiot. Isn't that why she is here? Because you want to take care of her and know she can't stay at her place...not that you'd want to stay there with her.

Raina couldn't argue with that, although she knew that wasn't the entire story. Obviously there was a sexual attraction that she wanted to explore further, but she couldn't pretend she didn't hope the two things overlapped a good bit. She shook the thoughts away and tuned back into the conversation, grumbling that her inner argument caused her to miss part of it.

"...into her. Like, I want to talk to her and learn more about her. You've gone home with people knowing way less." Nico's voice was defensive and Kylie glared a little too harshly for Raina's liking.