The Mechanic

-Chapter Twenty-Two-

Location: Olympia, Washington, US

Lottie wakes up slowly, like the way waking up is supposed to be. With yawning mouths and lazy stretches, thoughts of strawberries and cream for breakfast, half-opened eyes, and sunlight stretched across white covers.

The smell of clean cotton and her shampoo stain the air.

"Mmm," she groans, stretching for the umpteenth time. "Foooooooood..." She rolls over.

And she falls off the bed in a heap of grumbling and white covers.

"So much for a perfect Sunday morning," she chuckles, sitting up. She rubs the sleep out of her eyes and hefts the comforter back onto her bed.

With a deep breath, she starts for the kitchen, smiling absently to herself. Last night... last night was amazing. She didn't ever think she'd see her characters interacting the way they were meant to ever again. She didn't think she'd ever see Paris so innocently happy again. So full of the future and the brightness of it.

Thinking about it makes her grin, completely overwhelmed with giddiness.

The thought that maybe thinking this way about "imaginary" people doesn't even cross her mind. She was over that years ago, a week at most after she met Paris and Femi.

She would use the word "met" very loosely.

"Ah..." she sighs, slicing a strawberry into bites. She slices another one into several pieces, and tosses them into a bowl.

Strawberries and cream. For Sunday breakfast? Lovely.

She sprinkles sugar over them when the bowl is mostly full, and pours a bit of cream in after that.

With her breakfast in hand, she starts back to her room to check up on the Software.

She sits down on the fluffy mattress and curls her legs up to set her laptop on them. Her mouth waters with the first bite of breakfast she opens the Software folder. It's set on Femi this particular morning.

The redheaded girl is all curled up in her bed of blankets, but her eyes are wide open. She blinks slowly, curling her limp hand into a loose fist.

"Femi, are you awake?" Elena pokes her head in through the curtains that separate Femi from the rest of the house.

"Yeah," she replies hoarsely, sitting up.

Elena smiles at her. "Do you want to come with us? Matt and I are taking Piper out to the park for a picnic."

"Is it noon already?"

"Nearly," Elena says, stepping into the little room. "Are you alright, lovely?"

She nods, pulling on a small smile. "I'm fine. Just exhausted. Catching up for years of lost sleep, I guess."

Elena smiles understandingly. "Alright, love. We'll be back in a couple hours. Get some rest."

Femi nods her head a little, flopping back down as Elena walks out of her curtained room. She looks tired, but she also looks like she's desperate.

For what, though? Lottie wonders.

Lottie sits there for a few minutes, watching Femi lie there, motionless, as the other people leave the house.

When they've been gone a while, she stands up, stretches her bare legs, and yawns. But it isn't one of the sleepy yawns, it's a nervous yawn, the cold kind that catches on a chatter you feel in your jaw toward the end.