Brewing
Bailey sat in her Math class looking out the window of the portable. Early December meant that it was the wet and cold season, and this year was no exception. It had been raining for three days now but today the lightning and thunder had struck with a vengeance unlike anything she'd ever seen. It was standard practice for Bailey to wear a sweatshirt and have a jacket or sometimes even two with weather like this. Her dads were both working 24-hour shifts though so she was home alone for the night. They were both a bit nervous about leaving Bailey alone for the night. They trusted her explicitly, trust was not the issue, the issue was a mixture of the weather and the moderate unpredictability of Bailey's thermoregulatory dysfunction. Safe to say that even though she had promised her fathers that she'd be fine, Bailey was anxious about spending the night alone in the current weather conditions as well.
"Bailey." Somebody called.
Bailey looked to the front of the classroom where her teacher was looking at her expectantly.
"I'm sorry what?" She asked.
"The problem on the board, come and complete it please." Mrs. Daniels said.
"Oh, yeah, sorry." Bailey said, blinking out her daze and walking to the white board.
She was halfway through the problem when the wind picked up and they could hear things hitting the side of the portable, drawing her attention from the board. The portable was separate from the main school building, it was one of the few classrooms on campus while part of the main building was being renovated. Her phone started to vibrate in her back pocket and she furrowed her brow. It wasn't common for her to get notifications throughout the day and soon enough the vibrations quit. However, not even a minute later it was vibrating again. Something wasn't right, she pulled out her phone and saw that it was her dad calling her. Bailey put down the marker, her problem half completed and approached her teacher.
"Mrs. Daniels," She said, getting her teacher's attention. "My dad's calling me. He's on shift at the fire house and he never calls me while I'm at school if he can help it and I just...I need to take it."
Mrs. Daniels could see the anxiety on Bailey's face and nodded.
"Of course, head to the back of the room, I don't want you going outside in this weather." She said.
Bailey nodded and walked to the back of the room quickly before accepting the call.
"Dad, what's going on?" She asked, holding the phone up to her ear.
"Oh good," Her dad breathed a sigh of relief. "Bails listen, there are some serious high wind warnings coming through and I just want to make sure you're safe."
"Dad, I'm fine," Bailey looked outside again and then thought again. "Maybe a little anxious, but fine."
"Okay, I know you're supposed to be home alone tonight, are you still okay with that?" TK asked.
"Yeah," Bailey replied. "I'll be fine."
"Are you sure? Because I can call in or maybe you could stay with Noah and his family for the night-"
"Dad," Bailey said, interrupting her father's stream of worry. "I'll be fine."
She heard her dad take a deep breath on the other end of the line.
"Okay, as long you're sure." He said.
"I am." Bailey said.
"Alright sweetheart, go on back to class and papá and I will see you tomorrow morning." TK said.
"Okay," Bailey said. "I'll see you then."
"Love you kiddo." TK said.
"Love you too dad." Bailey replied.
After that phone call Bailey's anxiety was an ever-present flipping in her stomach. She played it off fairly well but Noah was far too observant to let it slide.
"Okay, what's going on?" He asked, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her into his side gently.
Bailey exhaled heavily.
"My dad called me and said that there were high wind warnings for tonight and I'm supposed to stay home alone tonight. So-"
"So, his concern is playing with your anxiety but you still told him that you were fine and not to worry." Noah finished for her.
Bailey chuckled.
"You catch on quick." She said.
Noah nodded.
"It just makes sense," He said. "I'm the same way. I don't want to worry my parents when they're working night shifts even if I'm worried about something so I just tell them I'm fine and brush it off."
Bailey was surprised. She had thought that since Noah had grown up with his father being in the force and his mother being a nurse that he was used to spending nights alone, now she could see that she was wrong.
"I didn't know you had a hard time too," She said. "I'm sorry for assuming, I shouldn't have."
Noah shrugged.
"It's okay." He said.
"No, it's not. I'm sorry." Bailey insisted.
Noah smiled.
"It's okay. But thank you for apologizing," He said. "Do you want me to hang out at yours for a bit after school? I'm gonna take you home so it's not a big deal."
Bailey shook her head.
"You and I both know that you're saying that now but in reality you'll stay really late and then go home and kick yourself because you've got your History project due on Monday and you haven't started it yet." She said.
Noah arched a brow.
"How do you know that I haven't started it? I could be almost done with it." He argued.
It was Bailey's time to arch her brow and Noah relented.
"Yeah, I know, I didn't believe that either." He laughed.
Bailey laughed.
"I do appreciate the ride home though," Bailey said. "I won't have to wear three jackets now."
Noah laughed and nodded.
"Of course, love." He said kissing the side of her head.
"Now we just have to make it through the rest of the day." Bailey sighed.
"Well, that should be interesting." Noah said.
The rest of the day was just that, interesting. Not because the topics that the teachers covered were interesting, but because there were just weird things were happening. Apparently as the weather grew gloomier, the moods of the students grew more eccentric, there were a group of boys who were in through for dousing the chemistry teacher's car in dish soap with the hope that it would rain before the end of the day and the car would be covered in suds. Why? No clue. But nobody ever said that high school boys made sense.
"You ready to go?" Noah asked, coming up behind Bailey as she leaned against the railing outside the front doors of the school watching the principal lecture these aforementioned boys till kingdom come.
"Yeah, I'm ready," Bailey said. Noah slipped his hand into hers and together they walked to Noah's car. "Noah?"
"Yeah?" Noah asked, reaching into his pocket for his car keys.
"Was that soap thing funny to you?" Bailey asked.
Noah stopped, looked back at the car and the boys and then back to Bailey.
"Yeah, a little?" He replied, cracking a smile.
Bailey blinked a couple times before simply walking around the car and climbing into the passenger side.
✵✵✵
After Noah dropped Bailey off at her house she dropped her backpack on the couch and immediately went straight out to her studio in the back. She connected her phone to the Bluetooth speaker on the shelf and started pulling out art supplies to jump into a painting. She was cut short however when there was a large crash outside of the door and Bailey stood frozen. She hit pause on her phone and the shed was thrown into silence.
"What the hell was that?" She muttered.
She moved quickly to the door and tried to open it, to no avail. She peeked out of the window and saw that a large branch had broken off of the nearby tree and fallen in front of the shed door.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me." She cried.
✵✵✵
Judd had offered to drive TK home since his car was under three feet of tree.
Bailey: Don't be mad.
When Bailey's text came through TK furrowed his brow.
TK: What are you talking about? Why would I be mad?
Bailey: Because something happened last night.
TK sat up straighter in his seat and stiffened.
"TK? What's going on?" Judd asked.
"I don't know, I'm trying to find out." TK said.
TK: What happened?
Bailey: You know how you warned me about the wind?
TK: Yeah
Bailey: Well, I kind of had a run in with a tree...
TK: You what?!
Bailey: I'm fine, I promise. I'm just a little stuck.
TK sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his nose and forefinger.
TK: Where?
Bailey: My art studio. A branch fell in front of the door and I can't get out.
TK: Well...I'm on my way home now and Judd's with me so we'll get you out when we get there.
Bailey: Okay. Love you.
TK chuckled.
TK: Love you too Bails.
Judd looked over at TK.
"So, what's going on exactly?" Judd asked.
"I think we're gonna have to see this before we believe it." TK groaned.
Judd cocked a brow but shrugged.
"Okay then," He said pulling the car up in front of TK and Carlos' home. "Let's see how bad this is."
TK chuckled and pulled his bag onto his shoulder before pushing the door open.
"What the fuck?" He muttered, stepping out of the car slowly and taking in the scene in front of him.
TK stood in his front yard, his jaw nearly on the ground.
"There is a tree through my daughter's bedroom window." He said.
"Shouldn't you be more worried about your daughter than the window." Judd said.
"Bailey's fine," TK breathed. "She texted me, she was in her art studio when the tree fell. She's trapped but fine."
"Trapped?" Judd asked.
TK nodded.
"Tree branch fell in front of the door. It's too heavy for her to push out of the way so she's just hanging out in there." He said.
"I'm glad that we reinforced that thing." Judd muttered.
"Tell me about it," TK muttered. "She'll be fine for a while, but I'd like to get her out of there as soon as we can."
Judd chuckled.
"That girl got really lucky this time." He said.
"Yeah, she did," TK mumbled. "I'm gonna walk around back and check on Bailey. Carlos should be home soon, but can you call the others and see if they can spare a couple of hours?"
"Of course," Judd said. "I'll see if Paul can scrounge up a couple chainsaws."
"Thanks Judd." TK said walking back to the side gate to head to the backyard.
When he made his way around the house he froze when he saw the destruction littering the backyard. Luckily the only real damage to the house and yard was a branch through Bailey's window and a bigger branch in front and partially on her art studio.
"Dear God," TK muttered making it to the door. "Bails, I'm here kiddo. Are you okay?"
Bailey appeared in the window a sheepish smile on her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just embarrassed and a little tired." She said.
"Did you even go to bed last night Bails? It's 7:30 in the morning, I didn't think you'd be up this early." TK said, assessing the limb that was trapping Bailey inside.
"I don't think you want me to answer that." Bailey said.
TK paused.
"Why?" He asked, Bailey didn't respond, instead she just sunk out of view of the window, and TK squeezed his eyes shut. "Bailey, you've been in there since last night haven't you."
"Uh, yeah." Bailey said.
"Bailey Hayden Reyes-Strand. Why didn't you call me when it happened?" TK said.
"I'm sorry. I didn't want you to think that I couldn't handle myself. Besides, I'm fine. I have food and water and I knew that you were gonna be home this morning and if you called and said that you were gonna be late then I would have told you." Bailey rambled.
TK sighed.
"Bailey, you know that I don't think that you can't handle yourself. I just worry, it's kind of my job." He said.
"I don't want you to though." Bailey said, her voice getting quieter.
TK sighed, and pulled himself up onto the branch, leaning against the outside wall of the shed.
"Bails, come back to the window." He said.
Bailey slowly moved to the un-opening window and sat on the stool under it. He could see that she was upset.
"Bailey, you know Carlos and I, we would do anything for you. We'll always worry about you. But it doesn't mean that we don't trust you and love you," TK said, catching Bailey's eyes. "You're our daughter Bailey, maybe not by blood but in every way that counts."
"I don't want to disappoint you." Bailey said, a tear rolling down her cheek.
What TK would give to hold her right now.
"You could never disappoint me, Bailey." He said.
"Really?" She asked.
"Really," TK agreed, a soft smile on his face. "Now, let's get you out of here so you can get some sleep."
"I slept a little bit." Bailey argued.
TK chuckled.
"Where, in your little hammock thing?" He asked.
"Yeah." Bailey laughed.
"You are such a dork." He laughed.
✵✵✵
It had taken a couple of hours and the majority of the 126 but they finally got Bailey out of the shed. TK had called Carlos while Judd had begun calling their teammates and Carlos had immediately booked it out of the station and was home in record time.
"She is such your daughter." He laughed looking over at TK.
TK mocked hurt but knew that Carlos' comment came from love. Judd pulled Bailey out of the shed, they'd had to pry the door off and cut it in half since the branch was far too large for them to remove in a short amount of time. Bailey stretched out once she was free and yawned wide, the exhaustion of the sleepless night before finally catching up to her. However, when she looked up and saw the branch through her window her shoulder sagged.
"You have got to be kidding me." She groaned.
Nobody could help the laughter that bubbled up after that.