Slowly my eyes flutter open to meet closed eyes. I bite my bottom lip gently as a smile spreads onto my lips looking at a sleeping Alycia. I couldn't move now, besides I didn't want too. Not if it meant waking her up and not seeing her rest. It's been a long week for all of us. A good rest is always needed and I'm surprised I even got any. No nightmares. Just sleep.
I break from my thoughts when I feel the bed move and hear tiny noises escapes from Alycia before I see her eyes fluttering open. My smile remains admiring her as her eyes peak open then close again, a small smile beginning to spread on her lips.
"Are you watching me sleep?" She asks, her voice hoarse and a whisper.
I bite my lip and shrug. "Maybe," I respond back in a whisper seeing her smile grow a bit more. My smile does too as her eyes begin to open up. There I'm met with her beautiful green colored eyes. "Hey."
"Hey..." her voice trails and she gently shakes her head. "You going to watch me sleep all the time or?"
A soft chuckle escapes my lips as I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know. Probably not-" I pause a moment moving a bit then continuing. "I just so happened to wake up and you were right there, sleeping peacefully. I didn't want to wake you."
"Hm fair enough." Silence fills the air, but it's a comfortable silence. A good silence as I watch Alycia's eyes look back and forth between mine. That's when I feel my arm raise and my hand reach up, gently cupping her cheek in my hand, allowing my thumb to soothingly rub back and forth. "We should probably get up."
I nod my head up and down but neither of us move for a moment. Both of our eyes stay locked on one another till I feel her hand reach up and wrap around my wrist beginning to pull my hand off of her cheek gently. I nod and watch as she goes to get up, that's when my eyes look past her and to the clock. I shake my head and swiftly reach over wrapping my arm around her pulling her back hearing a chuckle escape her lips.
"Y/N-"
"Lay back down," I say as she glances over her shoulder. "It's only 7. No one has to know we're awake yet." Alycia tilts her head and looks down at me. I look up to her, a smile on my lips feeling every ounce of my body in pain and shaking from the amount of anxiety I had right now.
"Really?" Alycia's voice goes low and I nod my head up and down, looking back and forth between her eyes. Alycia bites her bottom lip and slides down into the bed. I lift my arm up a bit and Alycia faces away from me, but gently scoot's back, her body up against mine. I close my eyes and pull myself a bit closer, placing my arm back around her. Her arm lays there against mine and I open up my eyes feeling her fingers interlock with my own. "Is this okay?" The girl breathes out and I bite my lip gently.
"Yeah..." I let my voice trail. "Is this okay for you?" I see her head nod up and down slowly. "If anything was bothering you or anything you know you can talk to me right?"
There's a small silence that fills the room, till I feel the girl move and she turns over. My arm rests against her stomach, our hands still locked however our eyes now locked. I flick my eyes back and forth between her own.
"I know. Why do you say that?" Her eyes swiftly look back and forth between mine and I shake my head.
"I just wanted you to know. I know you coming here in the first place was never the plan and the events that's played out haven't been the best-"
"Hey, hey, hey," Alycia says cutting me off and completely turning over. I remove my arm from her as both of her hands cup my face. I pick my head up off of the pillow a bit as she gives me a small smile. "You're right. Coming here was nothing I planned and not everything has been great, but meeting everyone here has been. Getting to know everyone here has been. Getting to meet you has been one of the best things."
A small smile begins inching its way back to my lips. "You mean that?"
Alycia rolls her eyes, giggling a bit then nodding her head. "Yeah, I mean it-" She pauses briefly then continues. "You're special to me Y/N and you've opened up a lot. You've come a long way since I first met you."
"I think I know someone's who's helped me out with that."
"Is that so?" A small smirk inches to Alycia's lips and I nod my head up and down slowly. "It was Rovvie wasn't it? Damn."
A chuckle escapes my lips as I roll my eyes and push myself up a bit so I'm on my side, both Alycia's hands dropping from my cheeks as I reach over, taking a strand out of her face and tucking it gently behind her ear before cupping her cheek in my hand.
"He wishes it was him, but no. It's you-" I pause and lean over and down, locking our lips. My eyes close and I could see her eyes close too, feeling her kiss me back as we do. I tilt my head a bit feeling her hand crawl to my back, however we both pull away. I open my eyes and see her open hers too. Our eyes lock and I tilt my head to the side. Both of us sharing this type of look but neither of us said anything. And there's a silence that grows, that same comfortable silence however it's cut off short by my radio. My eyes slightly tear from Alycia's as I feel her hand slowly drop from my back. I look over to the desk to see the radio.
"Y/N, you awake?" Billy's voice speaks through, causing me to tilt my head. "If you can hear me you might want to get to the conference room. We've got a problem." My head goes wild at his words and I quickly look to Alycia, who's giving me questioning eyes. I clench my jaw and shake my head, removing my hand from her cheek. She slides out of the bed and I follow, flinching as I do. When I get to my feet I slowly make my way to the desk feeling Alycia's eyes on me, but I grab the radio and pick it up seeing the radio on the one channel no one goes on.
A low sigh escapes my lips but I shake my head and look to Alycia. "Let's go," I say as she nods her head slowly, but concern covered her face.
<<<<>>>>
"Why were you hiding this?" Rovvie's voice shouts, echoing as Alycia and I walked into the room. I got in and seen Rovvie slam something on the table as Billy stands with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Billy, you can't just hide something like this!" Ducky shouts next and I let go of Alycia's hand walking over as fast as I could. I get close and Rovvie looks to me.
"You know about this?" Rovvie asks, picking up the file he had slammed down and held it out to me. I eyed him before glancing to Billy before finally looking to the file and taking a hold of it. I open it up, clenching my jaw briefly. When I opened the file my eyes scanned the piece of paper Billy had given me yesterday. I lick my lips and nod my head up and down slowly shutting the file.
"You knew?" Ducky asks, her voice low. I nod my head slowly and look to everyone. Disbelief on almost all of their faces.
"Billy came to me and I told him to keep it quiet for a little till we knew more," I explain, looking to everyone except at Alycia who was I believe behind me.
"This isn't something to keep quiet Y/N!" Rovvie shouts slamming his hands down on the table. I look to him nodding, agreeing somewhat.
"I know-"
"If you know then why the hell keep quiet about it?" Rovvie cuts me off and I take a step back.
"Hey she did it because she wanted to know more before giving us the whole story!" Billy speaks up stepping in front of Rovvie. "She did it because she's done it ever since we started this place!"
"This is different," Rovvie said, looking past Billy and to me, but I shake my head.
"It's not though-" I pause and look around to everyone, spotting Alycia standing off to my left by Lily. I tear my eyes from her and to everyone else, taking a deep breathe.
"How is this not different?" Ducky questions. My eyes go to her swiftly as her arms are crossed over her chest, her eyes squinted. "We're on their list Y/N. The list Gale made to put us in the ground. This is dangerous."
"I agree with Ducky. You keeping this from us, isn't right," Cherry speaks up. I nod my head looking between them. "I mean seriously. Gale killed Daisy because she was one of the founders of this place. She knew too much and knew she could expose him and his plans. Their plans. And you keep this piece of information from us because you need to know more?"
"Yes!" I raise my voice closing my eyes a moment. The room growing eerily silent. I wait a moment slowly opening my eyes and tossing the file down to the ground. "I kept it a secret. It's not like it was though. You all saw that video I did yesterday. You knew small private places like this was on their hit list. You knew celebrities were on the hit list. I kept it secret because I wanted to figure out more that way I could spill all the information out and put it on the table to help us for when we take their operation down. I did it to protect this place. To protect Alycia, to protect Lily, to protect you Ducky, to protect you Cherry, to protect you Rovvie, you Billy, you Tessa, you Rae, and you Jax. And for Daisy. I did it for all of us. That is what I do. Protect us and if you want to be upset with me because I kept a small secret, then so be it. But it's not going to help us bring our city, our state our whatever back. We have to stick together or we're just as vulnerable as we were when Gale slipped right through all of our noses."
A heavy silence filled the air as my eyes scanned the room. But it's not long before I drop my head and shake it from side to side. "Daisy told me once that we don't chose our family, they choose us-" I pause a moment and pick up my head looking back to everyone. "She said, family can be messy. They fight, they laugh, they cry, repeat. But at the end of the day, they're all still going to be there for each other. They're going to fight for one another, they're going to laugh with one another, and they're going to cry together. And I'd be damned to let this family fall apart over one little thing. I won't keep anything from you, that wasn't my intention. Never."
"We know," Lily speaks up out of everyone. My head turns to her as she takes a step forward away from Alycia. I look at the young teen as her eyes tear from mine and to everyone in the room. "Y/N's right. Everything she's done, she does it for us. We knew we were a target. We're on a list and so is Alycia. We protect her and we protect this place, that's what we do. But we have to come together to take this threat down."
A small smile spreads to my lips looking at Lily. her eyes slowly make their way back to me and I nod briefly at her as she nods back before I hear Rovvie clear his throat. My eyes tears from Lily and go to him as he stands up tall, nodding his head.
"Okay. I'm sorry," he says looking directly at me.
"You don't need to apologize, but we need to get to work," I say shaking my head. "We've got things to figure out and us standing here isn't going to help a much bigger threat out there go away."
"Let's roll people!" Jax speaks up and everyone in the room disbands, beginning to go into sections working. I lick my lips briefly before biting my bottom lip and looking to find Ducky coming towards me. I tilt my head and feel her hand grab mine pulling me away from everyone. We go over to the door and stand. The girl looks around before looks back to my eyes, tilting her head.
"What else are you not telling us?" She asks causing me to tilt my head and raise a brow. "Don't do that. There's something else. I can feel it."
"Ducky, there's nothing-"
"Don't bullshit me," she cuts me off raising her voice a bit. I look down to the ground as she looks around. I pick up my head moments later meeting her eyes. "What is it?"
I look back and forth between her eyes and shake my head, slowly pulling out a piece of folded up paper before slowly holding it out to her in secret like a drug dealer. Her eyes look from me and down to the folded paper before swiftly taking it and opening it up. I watch as her eyes scan it before she quickly picks up her head and locks our eyes, concern rising in them.
"Y/N..."
I shake my head. "I found it in my file that Gale kept on me."
Ducky's eyes widen and she shakes her head. A sad, concerned look spreading worse than it already was. I shake my head looking to her.
"Ducky, no one can know."
"Y/N we just got through-"
"This is completely different. It doesn't concern the group. It's only to do with me and my past." Ducky shakes her head and looks around again, before her eyes linger behind me. I slowly glance over my shoulder noticing Alycia standing with Lily and Tessa. Her hands remain on a file however her eyes were on us. I tear my eyes away feeling Ducky take my hand and pull me out the door. I follow quickly and we get out, off to the side of the door.
"This concerns all of us Y/N," Ducky says her voice still hushed. "You have a bounty over your damn head."
"Ducky, we can't. If this gets out to the group, they're not going to look at me the same just like you aren't now."
"No. No-" Ducky pauses getting flustered. "You're worried what she'll think. Yeah us too, but mostly Alycia."
"I'm scared of what all of you think Ducky. He shouldn't know that. Most of that damn file he should not have. And now I have a bounty over my head because of something I did. I didn't even-" I turn and place my hands on my hips shaking my head. "Ducky please."
"Fine...But truth is going to come out sooner or later. And it might come out in a way you don't want it too." I pick my head up and look to Ducky who walks up to me, holding out the paper. I take it and fold it back up as she passes me and back into the room, leaving me in the hall alone.