.

.

.

There.

I did it.

I tucked her in.

She's alive.

I didn't wander back and forth with her.

I shuffled over the pillows to the edge of the bed. Watching Ixie and Zephyr circling below. Tails languidly wagging as they walked.

Ixie glanced up. Stared for nine seconds and let out a small bark. Her tail a blur behind her. Zephyr sat down, looked up and cocked his head to the side in question.

I turned back to Valeriy. Checked her pulse.

Still alive.

'This is...'

If she rolled too far in any direction....

I yanked off the duvet, heard her grumble, and pulled her to me. Her and the pillow she clung onto. Jumped off the bed. Blocked Zephyr's paws from landing on her.

He kept his front paws on my back, waddling along behind me while we all made our way out of the cold room. Had to shrink and slow my strides so he wouldn't slip and fall.

"That bed's too soft for you. The next one's too hard for her. A bit reversed but neither of us are one to care."

I frowned, staring down at Valeriy tucked in the futon, as the A.I. ghost called it. The one I found in the brother's closet my first night here. It didn't make me feel as if I was about to be swallowed.

It's definitely harder than her bed.

'It's softer than a binder....'

With a sigh, I picked her up again and headed to her room. Couldn't bring myself to jump back onto that unsafe bed of hers, and I naturally wandered back to the only other bed.

I couldn't leave her alone on the floor. Not with Zephyr around trying to sit on her face and Valeriy reacting with the biting.

At every turn I made, irritation spread within me. I wasn't proving the A.I. ghost wrong. I was doing exactly as she said. Wandering back and forth. Over and over. Again and again.

Even ended up on the couches. In a pile.

Ixie and Zephyr asleep on my legs.

Valeriy had been buried under the pillows and blankets I raided from her bed.

Only took her six minutes to worm her way behind me. Curled up against my back. An arm around my waist instead of her pillows. Her mouth against my left side. Her breath brushing over my skin through the fabric of my shirt.

Exactly as predicted.

Except for where I was getting bit. Rather sure it wouldn't be my arm.

It also left me as the only person awake to watch the sun peek over the mountains to the east. Bathing the green and gray in the morning light.

Maybe the A.I. ghost was enjoying the stars flicker out as the skies brighten.

Not a word exchanged between us. Only the tune of Valeriy's pulse filled the air.

Still, I couldn't help but occasionally check for her pulse.

.

. ** .

.

'Why...? Why I can't I understand this?'

It's in English. It's clearly in English. I understand English. I should understand English....

'Take a break,' I told myself.

Maybe it'd make some sense after. Shouldn't stress over this. Don't want to trigger anything.

Used the break to check Valeriy's pulse. Ignoring the steady thumps playing around the room.

553 minutes since I pulled the dart from her skin.

'Alive. She's alive.... Okay. Back to the problem.'

I understood every word of this paragraph. Simple enough. No big words. But together... I couldn't make heads or tails of it.

I had no idea what this mathematics question was asking for.

'What the hell do I even do with the numb –!'

The body behind me stopped the relaxed breathing. She wasn't breathing. Not a muscle moved.

The muscles of my torso braced. Ready for a bite. A hit. A stab. Pain. Any sort of pain.

Cautiously, I glanced down at her face.

Under the guise of sleep, she was thinking. The slight shift in her brow.

Those gray eyes snapped open, and almost instantly, locked onto mine. For a fleeting second.

A smile broke on her face. The tension draining out of the air. Both of us breathing again. Her arm wrapping tighter around me.

"You can't be any bit comfy like this...."

"He's not any bit comfortable. His muscles are cramped up. My guess would be his legs and maybe some abs."

"I'm fine," I grumbled.

Even if the pins and needles felt like a bunch of grabby hands on my legs. Nothing I couldn't handle. Nothing I wasn't used to.

"Keep telling yourself that."

With the tiniest of sighs, I looped my fingers around the slim wrist of Valeriy's injured hand. The hand she kept dropping on the side of her head. Over her ear.

"Why... why is my heartbeat everywhere?" she asked. "...That's not in my head, right? You hear it too, right? It sounds like I have a massive headache. Doesn't quite feel like my headache should be this loud...?"

"It's in your head."

"It's not," I countered. Shuffling what I could with Ixie and Zephyr still asleep. Twisting my back so I could face her. Move the metal arm further away from her.

Carefully, I plucked the little earbud from her right ear before covering her ear with my hand. Blocking out the noise or muffling it.

"It's not in your head."

"Oh.... Eve, why the fuck are you blasting my heartbeat all over the bloody place?"

"I do wonder why I would."

Tucking a lock of long hair behind her ear, I asked, "How bad is your heada – How did you –?"

"While you were smiling down at me," Valeriy grinned.

That was the dart revolver in her hand. The one I had tucked away in a holster from one of the boxes in the motel room. The one I shot her with.

Even twitching, her fingers easily opened up the dart chamber of the revolver. She knocked it against the stone of the couch. Wincing away from the filled darts dropping all onto her face.

"Seventy seconds. Tad slower than I hoped. But passable."

.

.

.

Author's Note:

If you enjoyed this part, please consider leaving a vote. They're very much appreciated. ^^

And a big thank you to TinselA/Bunny Carrot (https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7591081/) and the Anonymous Fifth Beta for Beta-ing this chapter.