The Aftermath of Getting Away With Murder

Oh, My Sarge

Pip groaned, dropping her head onto the cold counter. "I don't want to go back,"

"What?"

"I said -"

"No, I heard what you said. You don't want to go back to school?"

"College is hard," She complained, looking up at him with a pout, resting her head on his shoulder. "I wanna stay with you."

"I know. But you're just too smart to stay here with me. You need to go be smart at college."

She groaned again, long and dramatically as she pushed off of her seat.

Pip walked into Ravi's room, stood there, and turned back. "What am I doing?"

"Oh, poor girl. My poor Pip having her first bad hangover."

She rolled her eyes as he stood and followed her into his room. "Sit down and rest, I'll get your things packed."

"You're too good to me," she whispered to him, looking into his gentle eyes.

"I worry I'm not good enough to you." He replied softly, kissing her temple.

Her eyebrows furrowed. No, how could he think that? He was her best thing. He knew he was her best thing. Her lifeboat, her cornerstone. How could he think he wasn't good enough?

She sighed as she slipped under the comforter, pulling it over her head and finding comfort in the darkness, a mask of it falling over her face.

Only, no. When she thought about it like that, like a mask, she was lost again. All comfort was gone, and she was in that room again. That storeroom, with the vats of weed killer; one spilled, soaking into her leggings. The mask over her face, constricting her breathing - too fast, and only through her nostrils. Her arms bound at the wrists. Legs bound at the ankles. She was dead, there in that room, and here in this one.

"Pip, breathe." Ravi said, bringing her back down to earth and pulling the comforter off her head. "Here and now," he reminded her.

"Here and now." She echoed, pulling her knees to her chest. "Thank you."

"It's my job, Sarge."

She smiled at him, and he leaned down to kiss her, before going back to re-packing her bag.

"You know, you could stay with me for a few days. At the dorms,"

"Would you want that?"

"Um, I just suggested it. Obviously I would want that, Ravi."

"Then that's the plan. A few days, though, Pip? Have you met yourself?"

"A week?"

"Two weeks, how about. And then we'll see if you want me to stay longer, after."

Her lips curled into a smile as she tilted her head. "It's a date."

"Or it's a trial,"

"For what?"

"Us living together. To see how we do."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"We're going to work," Pip told him.

"Of course we are," he agreed. "We always have."

"We always will."

They smiled at each other, Pip standing and pressing her forehead to his, their noses just barely touching. "I love you, Sarge."

She kissed him, glowing inside - that feeling that she could live off of.