Pippa woke up to the other side of her bed being empty. She took a few deep breaths, trying to keep herself from panicking. "You're okay." Lin's voice played through the back of her head. She nodded to herself and started around the corner. Sure enough, there Lin was, pacing a line in the floor of her kitchen, running his hands through his hair. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?"
"Please don't be mad at me..." Lin started.
"Mad at you? Why would I be mad at you?" Pippa's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "Hey." She gently tapped his shoulder as he started pacing again. "Talk to me, why would I be mad at you?"
"Okay, I kind of, sort of, maybe, possibly told the crisis people what you've been going through." Lin anxiously awaited her response.
"You did what?!" Pippa shouted.
"Pip--"
"No, no, no, no, no, you did what?!" All of her "no's" slurred together, she was speaking so quickly.
"I told the crisis center here at school that I wake up to you shaking and sobbing, and how you can't let anyone get close to you, and about the handprint on your waist, and how you can't breathe right because he hit you so hard, and how your heart races at even the sound of a door opening, and how you've spent an absurd amount of money on makeup to cover your scars up, so that you can even leave this room!"
"Lin..." Pippa whispered, almost breathlessly.
"I'm not done yet!" Lin held his hand up, and Pippa jumped back a bit. "I told them because you're not safe, and in all honesty, I'm not all too safe either, but you are paranoid, Pippa. You can't tell me I'm wrong on that."
"Well, what are they supposed to do about it, anyway?!" Pippa turned her back to Lin.
"They're going to help you, Pip. More than I am able to. Sure, they might not help you on the emotions side, that's my job, but they're going to help you not be so paranoid. You're terrified about leaving this room, I know you are." Lin rubbed her shoulder. Pippa's back was still facing Lin, but he could see her breath shake through her back. "But here's the thing...they want you to go up there, and they just want to talk to you."
"But Lin, it's Saturday, I already am behind on all my work, and--"
"Pippa, you have to." Lin laid his head on Pippa's shoulder.
"I don't want to." Pippa's voice cracked. "I don't want to." She repeated as she pulled away from Lin.
"I know you don't want to, but Pip..." Lin sighed, she wasn't going to give up.
"I have so much work to do." Pippa mumbled, retreating back to her room. Lin followed her and leaned up against her doorframe, watching as she started working away at the work she missed those three days.
"You can't do this to yourself, Love."
"Yes I can, I'll be alright." Pippa muttered. "Hey, could you help me with something real fast?"
"Sure, what's up?"
"Could you play this character and read scene three for me. I just need to see if it sounds good." Pippa handed him a printed out packet and pointed out the character by the name of, Beck, that she had written.
"My Lord, Pippa, when did you get all this done?!" Lin ran his finger through the pages and pages of the script.
"Doesn't matter." Pippa brushed the comment off. "Okay, so I'll be, Rac--"
"Woah, slow down, it does matter. It more than matters." Lin set the packet down on her mattress. "When did you do all of this? There aren't enough hours in the day, and you didn't even have a start last night. And I slept here last night!"
"Woke up from a nightmare and was too scared to go back to sleep, so I just got out my laptop and did that." Pippa muttered.
"My Goodness, Pip, when did you go back to sleep?"
"You tell me, I just woke up." She chuckled.
"You finished this in the middle of the night, huh? Well, you've got to be exhausted."
"I am, but I have all of this--" Pippa started to hand the script back to Lin.
"Why don't you take a nap? We can postpone going to the crisis center until later."
"Can't sleep." Pippa looked down. "I'll have the same nightmares. It's not worth even trying."
"Come here." Lin gestured his hand to lead Pippa toward him. He wrapped his arms around Pippa. "Will you try to sleep, for me? Just an hour? Maybe just forty five minutes?"
Pippa relaxed into his arms, finding something calming about Lin's steady heartbeat. "Will you lay with me?" Pippa swallowed a yawn.
"Of course, and, My Love, you are falling asleep right here." Lin chuckled. Pippa nodded and cleared her throat. Lin picked her up bridal style and laid her down on her bed, pulling the covers over her as she started falling asleep already. He laid down next to her, and reached his hand out to her's, a gentle reminder that he was there.
