For the next week, Alex dozed off and on during the movies, but if Gabe turned off the TV and tried to shoo his brothers out before midnight, she woke up and objected.
This might not have bothered him so much if she had told him that she liked noise and company, that silence and solitude were the enemies.
But since Alex didn't tell Gabe what she thought, and he kept a tight lid on his emotions, neither understood the other.
All Alex knew was that Gabe was retreating behind his brick wall and it made her chest crush with fear. Gabe unhappy meant that something terrible would happen to her. She refused to touch what that might be, so she leaned against him and watched.
It was Cale's job to hustle Rile out of the bedroom once Alex was deeply asleep. Cale was always careful to time the movies so that the credits were rolling a little after midnight.
Gabe assumed that Rile was his usual brash, unobservant self that had to be hustled out until the following day.
***
The brothers were watching TV in the living room while Alex took a shower.
"Cale: twenty minutes." Rile didn't look away from the TV.
Obediently, Cale stood up and walked to the kitchen sink. He turned on the water, felt it, and announced, "Cold."
Rile flicked his gaze at his middle brother, who then walked into Alex's bedroom at the unspoken command. They could hear him knock on the bathroom door, but not what he said or what she answered.
"She said she'll be out in a minute," Cale told them and sat back on the couch.
Rile hauled himself to his feet, strode into Alex's bedroom, and banged on the bathroom door. "Hurry up, Alex! I'm starving!"
His shout rang through the carriage house but no one saw the relief on his face when the water stopped. Rile strode back to the couch and plopped down.
"What was that about?" Gabe asked, looking astonished by the whole scene.
"Do you think hot water is endless?" Rile bit off the 'idiot' at the end of the sentence.
"No, but—"
"Alex is a bit obsessive with her showers after Morgan," Cale Said. "We have to remind her to come out before she freezes."
***
Over the next few weeks, they all slept in during the mornings. Some afternoons were doctor appointments of different kinds. Dr. Dewey and sometimes Mary, depending on the appointment type, took her to the doctor's office.
The brothers wanted to come into the doctor's office, but they had to admit it was ill-advised. As a compromise, they patrolled the exterior of the medical buildings. No one was going anywhere with Alex without them knowing it.
They noticed that some doctor's visits Alex breezed out of, while others she came out pale and shaken.
Mary pursed her lips and shook her head when they asked about these visits, since she was the only one who attended those.
Cale understood, for he had apprenticed with the clan's healers before they were slaughtered, but he had no inclination to enlighten his brothers.
This particular appointment was an easy one and Alex could now walk without imparting pain to those who watched her.
Upon returning to the carriage house, she looked, really looked, at her living room. The brothers tensed at her sigh.
"This place looks like...looks like..." Alex's smile eased them all. "Like three bachelors have been living here."
She eased onto the couch and propped her feet on the coffee table. "I only ask that all the old food containers be thrown outside. They attract roaches."
Alex hated roaches. She killed silverfish, wasps, and ants with aplomb but called the brothers when a roach made an appearance.
Gabe and Cale had wisely hid their amusement when she had shrieked over a flying roach, but Rile hadn't, and Alex still bore him a grudge.
Alex started to collect the detritus of fast food containers. "How many hundreds of dollars did you rack up on Grange's credit card with all this?"
"Who cares?" Rile found a garbage sack and flapped it open with a deft flick of his wrist.
"He said the agency owes you quite a bit in back pay, including hazard pay," Gabe said with dignity. "I instructed him to tell us before we reached the limit so we wouldn't owe him anything. Now sit down and my brothers and I will clean this area."
Alex held up her hands. "Hey, you want to clean, I won't interfere."
She watched with interest as the brothers picked up, although only Cale wiped off surfaces with a cleaning rag. She smiled as Cale retrieved a bucket and mop and scrubbed down the yellowed linoleum floor.
"There was a book called 'Porn for Women' that was a collection of pictures of men cleaning house, fixing stuff, and saying stuff like they liked shopping," Alex told him. At the brothers' alarmed looks, she added, "The men all had their clothing on. It was a book-long joke."
Gabe dropped the last of the garbage into the bag and deftly tied it off. "Now I'll order more food. Soup for you, Alex. I'll order sandwiches for us."
Alex sighed but said, "Whatever you think, Gabe."
Rile, eyes narrowed, evaluated Alex shrewdly before glaring at Gabe. "Let Alex order what she wants. I want the Croque Monsieur from Streetcar Sandwiches. The humans who thought of coating and deep-frying a ham and cheese sandwich are genius."
Alex waved a hand lazily. "If Gabe thinks I need soup, that's fine with me."
Cale started clacking his tortured claws as Gabe smiled in smug defiance at Rile's glare.
Alex sat up straighter. "Stop, you two, please. Think of Cale and look at his poor claws. Here, Cale, please bring me my manicure case. It's the black and white fake leather case in the top drawer of my dresser."
He trotted into her bedroom and came out so quickly that Alex asked with a small smile to defuse her words, "Do you know where all my stuff is?"
"I didn't mean to snoop," Cale said. "But I did organize your bedroom. The clutter was driving me crazy."
Alex patted the couch seat next to her. "Thank you, then. Sit here, please."
Cale sat next to her and Alex unzipped the manicure kit. She pulled out a metal file.
"I'll use my diamond file. It worked last time on alien humanoid dragon claws." She took his hand and examined it before setting to work on the newly cracked claws.
"Cale, I'll order Chicken Parisien sandwiches for us, Croque Monsieur for Rile, and country baked potato soup of Alex." Gabe pulled out his phone and typed in the order.
Rile plopped down on Alex's other side and watched her file Cale's claws into shape. "I want a turn," he said at length.
"Sure," Alex replied.
"No," Gabe said at the same time.
"I'll do yours as well," Alex said "Please don't be jealous."
"I am not jealous," Gabe declared. "Rile, pick up the food. That credit card is like magic. It's even stored on the restaurant's 'website' for easy payment."
"Use a delivery service," Rile said. He touched the neatly filed edge of one of Cale's claws.
"I am. It's called you. Now hurry up or your sandwich will grow cold and I know you hate that."
A muscle twitched in Rile's jaw as he clenched it. "Only because Alex's soup will grow cold as well."
He huffed and walked to the door. Once there, however, he turned his head and watched as Gabe sat next to Alex. She examined his claws and nodded. She wielded the file on one of his nails and Rile slammed the door on the way out.
****
While they finished eating at Alex's battered table, Rile stretched and said, "Time to escort Dr. Dewey back from night class. C'mon Alex, let's go."
Alex blanched and shrank back in her chair. "Uhm..."
Rile leaned across the table. "Oh, it'll be easy. We're not even patrolling. Quick walk to Tulane and back."
"She is not able," Gabe said. "Leave her lie."
"Not able to walk?" Rile scoffed. "Maybe she should eat something more than soup."
Gabe slapped his hand on the table and Alex jumped.
Gabe hissed, "Shut. Up."
"Please don't fight." Alex touched her hand to her temple.
"This isn't helping anyone," Cale said, anxiously clacking his claws.
Rile stood up from the table. "There are lots of things not helping anyone. Why don't you point those other things out, Cale?"
Alex clutched her head and Gabe stroked her shoulder, eye-ridges knit together in worry.
"Walk with me, Rile." Cale also stood, looking resolute and he stopped clacking his claws. "We shall speak as we walk to Tulane."
"Yes we shall." Rile flicked his tongue out at Cale and flung open the apartment door.
**
Rile slammed open the door when he returned with Cale. His middle brother's posture spoke of defeat, with slumped shoulders, head hanging, and claws clacking.
Alex, who had been lying down with her head in Gabe's lap, jumped up. When Gabe stood and hiss-growled, Alex turned to him and patted his chest.
"Food of junk and movie marathon," Rile said. "Let it begin." He flopped on the couch, grabbed the remote, and turned on the TV.
**
They watched the first movie in the living room, although by the end of it, Alex had slid down and was lying with her head on Gabe's lap again.
He stroked her hair, a favorite activity for both of them. Gabe always looked amazed at the novelty of the thick, straight hair flowing through his fingers like so much silk, watching it closely as he gently turned it this way and that.
For Alex, it was the one touch never associated with pain and she could enjoy it. She was asleep when the movie credits scrolled across the screen and, to everyone's surprise and relief, glowed slightly. Her body had been too consumed with healing to spare any energy until now.
Rile watched the glow, a smile creeping across his face. Then he looked at Gabe, his eyes narrowed, and his hands tightened into fists. Cale tapped his forearm with nervous claws.
"What are you thinking?" Cale whispered.
"Time for my plan," Rile whispered back.
Cale clacked his neatly filed claws. "What is it?"
"As the humans say: that's need to know. And you don't need to know." Rile stared down his more submissive middle brother.
***
A/N
The head hopping and telling parts of this chapter drove me crazy, and I fixed some,but I'm stymied. Are they obvious?
(One year and two books later it still drives me crazy and I'm still stumped-aargh)
Dedicated to expert reader authors [if Wattpad lets me list them all]