Adelaide glanced at Duke as he sat next to Jennifer, holding her hand, as she slowly came back from a memory retrieval exercise. She was able to narrate more of it this time than she had before when she and Adelaide had first done this exercise. It had been another memory from the six months she thought she had schizophrenia; counseling, pills, desperation, things he'd only known some of, everything else he'd guessed at. He'd kept his gaze fixed on Jennifer, holding her small hand in both of his, his concern etched into his features, and watching her face.
Adelaide carefully backed out of the room, clicking her tongue gently for Little John to follow after her, and closed the door behind them. They probably didn't want an audience.
Jennifer's eyes fluttered open as she turned her head towards her right and the person holding her hand. She opened her eyes wide enough to see that it was Duke holding her hand, she smiled tiredly at him, "Hey,"
He shifted closer, still holding her hand. He moved from the chair to his knees next to the bed, to be on her level, and whispered back, "Hey yourself. How do you feel? You okay?"
She nodded, yawning, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. Tired. But I guess remembering something you didn't know you forgot will do that. Or something."
Duke chuckled at her as her tone turned nervous, "Did I…did I do anything? Did I say anything?"
He shook his head, "No, I mean, you told us what you were seeing but…Adelaide told me what happened the first time. You didn't say anything like that."
She smiled tiredly at him as she nodded and yawned again, "Good. Figured that'd be a lot to throw at you at once."
He chuckled at her as he studied her, "Nah, it takes more than a girl talking in her sleep to get rid of me."
She laughed tiredly back at him, struggling to keep her eyes open. He wanted to reach out and smooth her hair away from her face or to kiss her fingers; he was desperate to do something that a year ago would be natural for them. Instead, he just squeezed her fingers, "I, uh, I should…I should go. You should get some sleep."
He stood to leave, but she tightened her grip on his fingers, entwining hers and his together, "No, don't…don't leave."
Duke froze, his heart leaping in his chest, as he turned back to her, daring to hope, "Do…do you want me to stay?"
She looked at their entwined fingers through half-lidded eyes, and bit her lip nervously before nodding, "Yes. Stay. Please."
Duke couldn't hide his relief and happiness, as he breathed out a laugh, "Okay. Okay, I'll stay."
She let go of his hand so that he could take off his jacket and kick off his shoes. She shifted to her left, towards the other side of the bed so that he could lie next to her. Once he was settled, she asked, as an unknown courage took her, if it would be okay to rest her head on his chest. He nodded eagerly, "Yeah. Yeah, that's fine."
She did, curling against him slightly and closing her eyes, as she let her hand find his on his stomach. He covered her hand with his and held it there, running his thumb against her fingers.
He wrapped his left arm around her shoulders to rest his hand on her head, "Is this okay?"
She nodded tiredly against his chest, "That feels nice."
Duke smiled slightly down at her as she said, shifting her head so her face was directed towards him, "You can play with my hair if you want; that usually knocks me right out."
Duke let out another breath of a laugh, "I can do that."
As he ran his fingers through her hair, earning contented noises from Jennifer, Duke tried to figure out some way of convincing himself that this was real, that this was happening. This was all so much. So much of her. But that was the strange thing; it felt like too much and not enough all at once. He wanted all of her right that second, but he also wanted this moment of just barely having her at all to stretch into eternity.
She shifted slightly against him, making him pause in his thoughts and in playing with her hair. He waited for her to give him a sign that she was okay, only for her to nuzzle slightly into his chest; just like she used to on the Rouge when he'd play with her hair and then stop for whatever reason. He'd forgotten, or more accurately he'd forced himself to forget, what her body felt next to his, what her skin felt like under his fingertips, even how soft her hair was. Jennifer wasn't the only one remembering things.
"Stars," she mumbled into his chest.
"Hm?" he said gently, slowing his hand in her hair but not stopping.
"You told me I have stars on my skin," she yawned back, "You…you drew constellations on me."
"Y-yeah. Yeah I did." Duke stammered out.
"Did they go away?" she asked quietly.
She sounded like she was on the verge of slipping into sleep, so Duke felt confident enough to risk placing a kiss on top of her head, "Of course not. I told you; They won't go away, I'll remember them."
