No Strings Attached

Chapter Seven

In the days following Alex's move, life seemed to fall into a strained normalcy. There were cases to handle, paperwork to file, and a weight on his chest he couldn't shake.
He had only crossed paths with Norma once since his move, at Bob Paris' party of all places. Seeing her there had thrown him completely, even more so because of the black strapless gown she wore, which clung to her in ways that were hard to ignore.
But she was distracted, clearly distressed as she searched for a motel guest she insisted had gone missing and somehow had an invitation to the event. He pulled her out of there as quickly as he could, before she could attract any attention, especially from Bob.
After that night, though, it was as if she'd vanished from his life completely. Alex hadn't heard from her, no calls, no visits, and it was beginning to feel as though she'd already left him behind.
He tried to push it from his mind, telling himself that he was better off not being wrapped up in her troubles, but he could feel the disappointment and hurt begin to bubble in his chest at the thought.
Suddenly, there was a knock on his office door and Alex was quick to answer it, eager to have something to distract his mind. But he found his pulse quickening as he heard his deputy.
"Sheriff, there's a call about a dead body at the Bates Motel."
The words struck him like a blow, and he was out the door before he could think. His mind raced as he sped to the motel, a single thought blaring louder than the rest- Please, don't let it be Norma.
As he pulled up, relief flickered through him, only for a moment. There, lying in a pool of blood, was a young blonde woman. He recognized her immediately from Norma's description as Annika Johnson. A knot tightened in his stomach. He wanted desperately for this to just be another tragedy, random and unrelated, but this family seemed to draw chaos like a magnet.
"Where's Norma Bates?" he asked a deputy, barely able to keep the urgency out of his voice.
"In the office with the paramedics."
He walked in to see her sitting at the back desk, a blood pressure cuff on her arm, swatting away the paramedics' concern.
"I'm fine. I don't need this," Norma insisted, her sharp voice laced with an underlying tremor. The moment she saw Alex, she yanked off the cuff and tossed it at the paramedic, brushing past him to meet Alex with a defensive urgency.
"Norman was nowhere near her. He was asleep in bed," she blurted out before he could even speak, her gaze intense and yielding.
"Okay, Norma," he replied gently, though she didn't seem to hear him, already firing off her next plea.
"He's not feeling well, he doesn't need to see any of this." she says as she pushes past him to rush to Norman. She quickly guides him away from the scene, Norman walking in a dreamlike state as he mutters something that Alex couldn't quite make out.
Alex continued to stare in the doorway as Norma hands Norman off to Dylan who had just arrived at the scene, looking just as confused as Alex felt. Norma finally glanced back at Alex as soon as Norman was safely in his brother's care, her blue eyes filled with a quiet plea. There was something buried in that look, and he knew it well, the part of her that always seemed to be holding back.
Slowly, Alex moved closer, careful not to disrupt the brittle calm she'd managed to construct around herself.
"I think we should talk," he tells her, his voice a mix of concern and authority. Her eyes flickered with hesitation, but she nodded, resigned.
Inside, they settled at the kitchen table, now a place loaded with unspoken memories, and tonight, far too much distance. She took a slow breath, her hands wringing together as she began, her gaze dropping to her lap.
"I was in the office closing up and...Annika just drove in, stumbled over to me and...she fell." Her voice wavered, and Alex sensed the falter, a detail slipping away like sand through her fingers. Whether it was a lie or something else, he couldn't say, but he could feel the weight of what was left unsaid.
"I realized she'd been shot, so I called 911," she finished quickly, her words rushed, almost desperate. She shrugged, her gaze landing on a bloodstain on her sleeve, and forced out, "I know. It's...it's crazy. Doesn't make any sense."
"You've never seen that car before?" he asked, testing the waters of her guarded story.
"No," she said a bit too fast. "You towed the car. I don't know what that was. Can I...I need to get out of these clothes."
The image flashed before his eyes before he could stop it, a memory of the night they shared, but he quickly pushed it away and tried to focus again.  He wasn't ready to let her escape yet. "What was wrong with Norman when he came down?"
She tensed, then looked at him with a mix of exasperation and disbelief.
"Wrong with him?" she repeated, her tone defensive again. "You mean because he had a human reaction to finding a dead girl on our motel porch?"
The air grew tense as they stared at each other, taut with the push and pull between them. She'd always had walls, but this was something else. This was a resolve, a readiness to defend even if it tore them apart.
She scoffed, shaking her head as if he'd betrayed her. "You don't get to do this," she whispered fiercely. "Not after...everything."
Her mind flitted back to the night they never discussed, the silences they'd shared. He had been there for her, had held her secrets close, and yet here they were, with the same guarded distance.
"Norma," he started softly, searching her gaze for any sign of the woman he knew lay beneath the surface. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
Her eyes narrowed, a spark of defiance flickering before she looked away, retreating even further. She let out a humorless laugh. "What are you looking for, Sheriff?" Her challenge hung heavy in the air between them, the last word slipping off her tongue coldly.
"I want to believe you, but none of this is making any sense. Why would Annika, after being shot, drive here? Why?" He tried to keep his voice even but his own desperation crept into his tone. He needed to understand what it was that she wasn't saying. He could usually read people so well, but it was like she was a different language entirely.
He watched as her face softened with feigned helplessness, but he knew her well enough to see that there was more to what she was saying.
"I don't know, maybe she was close by, maybe she just wanted...someone." Her voice trailed off, her eyes darting away, searching for an escape.
A silence fell over them, both unwilling, or too stubborn, to bridge the gap.
He could feel the weight of everything left unsaid, everything she'd held back, everything he wanted to ask but wouldn't, knowing it might drive her even further  away.
But somehow, he couldn't help himself as his hands moved forward towards hers, his fingertips just barely brushing the knuckles of her tightly clasped hands.
"I...I am glad that you're okay," he says softly, as if revealing some secret. Her heart skipped a beat at his words while her skin vibrated at his touch.
She dared a glance up at him, his worried eyes boring into hers with a vulnerability she hadn't seen before.
She quickly rose from the table, brushing her palms against her skirt as if she could wipe away the tension that sizzled between them.
"I'm going to go check on Norman," she said softly, her tone holding the finality of an end to their conversation. "You can...see yourself out."
He didn't stop her as he walked away, but the ache in his chest grew heavier.
After all they'd been through, after everything he's done to protect her, she still kept him at arm's length. The silence settled around him as she disappeared down the hallway, and he felt the painful reminder that when it came to her son, she would never fully let him in.
He just couldn't figure out why.