"I could stay here and help out, just sleep on the couch or something?" She said eyeing him as he came down the stairs.
"Emma, you know I couldn't ask you to do that I-"
"You didn't, I offered." She smiled despite the circumstances, Dylan couldn't handle this all by himself and although he would never admit it, Emma could tell he was pretty shaken up, they all know Norma's a "bit" irrational sometimes, but this was new, she had never walked out before. Plus she was happy to help Dylan out, they had grown a lot closer over the last few months due to Norman's more frequent episodes, and it was not like she minded spending time with Dylan.
"Once you get past the tough exterior, he's a really sweet guy." She thought to herself.
"Thank you so much Emma, as long as you don't mind." He came the rest of the way down the stairs, and headed towards the kitchen with Emma following in-suit with her "pet". He honestly didn't know what he would do without her support with Norman especially when Norma ran off like she did just then..
"Of course I don't mind Dylan, to be honest.." she paused to stand up her oxygen tank up next to the table and sit down at the end of the table. From above they both heard footsteps walking around where Norman's room was.
"Shit." They said in unison.
Emma got up from her seat and started heading towards the stairs to see what was waiting for them at the top, Dylan followed her until they reached the base. "Hey, Emma, let me go first just incase… you know, just follow me." He knew how dangerous Norman could be when he got mad, he thought about one of the first times when he showed up in White Pine Bay and Norman took a few swings at him, that's not something he was willing to let Emma take the brunt for.
She nodded silently and let him cut in front of her, they both headed up the stairs to Norman's room. He motioned for her to move against the wall incase he ran out or something. 'He's so goddamn unpredictable, thanks Norma.' Emma watched as Dylan opened the door, she silently shuffled closer to the doorway as Dylan stepped into Norman's room.
"Hey Emma, can you come in here for a second?" She peaked her head around to see Dylan a few paces behind Norman who stood unmoving at the window. She moved over to where Dylan was.
"I think he's sleepwalking, look at his eyes, see." She pointed to his dead stare unblinking at the window, Dylan nodded. Although she could hear Norman mumbling something, she looked up to Dylan.
"I don't know, he's always has a dead stare like that." Dylan smirked. Emma stifled a laugh that made Dylan smile even harder.
"Oh, come on that's not nice!" She tried to pull of a serious demeanor, but with Dylan's shoulders starting to shake with silent laughter she knew she couldn't keep it up, she cracked up. It took a minute, but they stopped long enough for Emma to suggest that they should put him in Norma's room. " I think he would feel safer in there, don't you?"
"Yeah, you're right, but let me do it, I don't want him freaking out and smacking you or anything." He smiled down to her before he stepped closer to a sleep-standing Norman. Emma obliged and stepped out into the hallway and listened for Dylan and Norman approaching the doorway. She looked around, some people would call this house spooky considering it did kind of look like one out of a 50's horror movie, Emma found it captivating, all the character it had, she liked to think of the families that had lived there before the Bates moved in, of course the owner who lived in previously was a terrible man, that did not deter her from thinking some truly great memories were encapsulated in this house. A tapping on her shoulder quite literally snapped her into reality, the jump caused her to breathe in too quickly and set off her coughing.
Dylan's eyes widened as he backed up, "Oh god, Emma, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She continued to cough gripping his sleeve as she half doubled over. 'I am a damn idiot' he thought helpless to he coughing.
In between breaths she gained her posture and looked up at Dylan, he looked so worried, this wasn't his fault. "Hey, hey, it's not your fault, it's these crappy lungs." She pointed to her chest and smiled, this caused him to ease up. "This has nothing to do with you, and usually it's my dad who gets the honour of helping me out with it, but all this crap builds up in my lungs and gets stuck to the sides and it won't come out on its own. I know it's a lot to ask but do you mind banging on my chest?" In her eighteen and a half years, she had never felt so awkward, but even before the coughing she had started to feel it in her lungs. She braced for a some sort of disgusted face from Dylan, who could blame him, it's gross.
"Sure Emma." Instead of a grimace, his face was soft, not like he pitied her, but he understood that she needed him. "What do I need to do?" He asked balling his hands up into fists. She couldn't help but laugh at him.
"Not here, let me lay on the floor in the bathroom. I'll talk you through it." Emma led him to the bathroom where she layed down on the floor. It was funny to see Dylan towered so high above her.
He watched as she got to the floor. He felt awkward as hell just standing above her like this, although it really didn't bother him helping her out, the more time he spent with her, the more comfortable he was around, not that he wasn't before.. 'Snap out of it Massett.' he reminded himself. "What do I do now?" He smirked kneeling down next to her.
"Okay, it's simple, you're gonna cup your hands like this," she cupped her hands and he mirrored her, how strange she must look to him, "and then- this is where it gets interesting- you're gonna bang on my chest like this." She hit her chest with her hands how she needed him to.
"Okay, so like this?" He awkwardly placed his hands over her chest and hit where she had told him. He had a hard time hitting right where she had told him, "Emma, do you mind if I-" he gestured his head to the side, thankfully Emma got what he meant.
"Yeah, go for it." He could hear her wheezing below him as he placed his legs on either side of her, careful not to sit on her. He began hitting her chest gently until she started coughing again and turned on her side. Dylan backed up and let her continue to cough, he began to wonder if he'd done something wrong.
Her hair covered most of her face, but she worried he'd see her cough up the green phlegm that resided in her lungs. She tried to reach for the toilet roll that was on the counter next to where she was laying.
"Let me." She heard Dylan say from behind her. She felt a wad of tissues being pushed into her hands.
"Thank you Dylan, I'm so sorry, it's disgusting, I know." She quickly wiped up the floor and her mouth. Regaining her breathing after doing this was always a struggle for her.
"Hey, you have nothing to be sorry about." He couldn't believe how strong Emma was, having lived with this almost her whole life and she acts like it's nothing. He cautiously reached his hand out to her back and softly rubbed circles over the dark purple fabric of her sweater. "You don't have to be embarrassed around me Emma, ever." He meant it, she meant a great deal to him, having known her for two years and all, it's hard not to like Emma.
She sat up and kneeled next to him, he continued to run his hand over her back unconsciously, "Thank you Dylan, this really means alot to me." She smiled to him, he meant a great deal to her, 'I mean, I know I've always kind of liked Dylan, but something is definitely different.. focus please Emma.' she realized she was still kind of staring at him, he gave her a questioning look.
"What?" He chuckled she looked lost, and he realized he was still running his hand over her back, "Oh! Sorry, my bad." He pulled his hand from her back. 'God what the hell am I doing. Emma is my brothers ex-girlfriend... ' he thought how they never really "went out" but still he definitely realized something was different between them, but he couldn't let her know what was going through his head, so smiled and stood up. "Here, let me help you up." He offered both of his hands to her to get off the ground.
"Thank you, again Dylan, really I'm sorry you had to do... that." Emma continued to feel bad about what had happened earlier. Dylan had helped her down the stairs to get some coffee, it was evident that regardless whether or not Norman was sleeping soundly or not, just the excitement of the night caused both Emma and Dylan to be wired.
"For the last time Emma, it was my pleasure." He passed her a mug, no hinted sarcasm at all. Do you want to watch the TV or something, play the piano, take all the books off the shelf, I don't know.." He was trying to be cool, really. 'When did I turn into Norman with my social skills?'
Rarely was Emma ever at the house without Norma or Norman in her immediate company, and when they dated,'If you can even call it that..' She and Norman mostly just studied, "Actually, I do have something I want to show you, but I don't want it to wake Norman up."
"It's a big house, I don't think he'll hear you, plus he sleeps like the dead." He laughed, his heart quickened, what did Emma wanted to show him? She turned from him and walked over to the piano, he thought she was heading for the bookshelf, but then she sat at the bench where he had seen Norma sit and play with Norman a few times before. He walked over to lean against the couch diagonal from where Emma was. Her hands were poised hesitantly above the keys, and then she softly struck down.
Only her father had heard her play, though she rarely got the chance to have an audience. Emma had began playing right around the time she was diagnosed with CF, her father thought it would be good to focus her energies, and well at first she didn't take, she grew to really enjoy playing, it had gotten her through a lot of rough times. She remembered when her father surprised her with their piano when she was nine, a beautiful wooden piano that she still kept in her room.
She knew exactly what she would play, she was nervous, even though it was only Dylan, well, rather because it was only Dylan that she was playing for. She started playing softly at first, slowly, this song was not meant to be rushed. It felt nice to play, since she had gotten sicker, she hadn't found herself as drawn to paying, and she realized that she missed it. It wasn't until she heard a quiet voice behind her, singing along. "Why she had to go I don't know she wouldn't say. I did something wrong, now I long for yesterday…" he faded out.
"Oh, don't stop." She stopped playing to look at him, his face was tinged pink.
"No, no, you should hear you play, oh my god you're good." He smiled, and walked over. She smiled up at him.
"Would you like to sit?" She scooted over to make room, it was a large bench, surely they could both fit. Anything she could do to try to get Dylan to sing again.
"Uh, sure." He slid next to her, "I mean it, you play beautifully, what else do you know?" He turned to face her, and she took it as a small chance to play through some of the things she knew.
"Well there's these, I guess." She played through little snippets of different songs she'd learned over the years, finishing with one of her personal favourites, Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton.
"Wow. You're amazing Emma, how come I never knew you could play?" Dylan had watched in wonderment as Emma's hands gracefully floated over the keys.
"Well, this is Norma's, I don't usually play for the general public, mostly my dad, well only my dad until now." She laughed, Dylan was still smiling though he was now looking at the keys. "Do you want me to teach you something?" She asked, almost a little too eagerly, she liked this, and she liked how she felt playing next to Dylan.
"Uh, I can't play at all, I'd mess it up." He laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.
"Oh, Dylan, you won't," she bumped him with her shoulder, "and if you hate it we don't ever have to do it again." He smiled at that.
"Fine." He caved, whatever he could do to get Emma to be nearer to him would be great.
"You've seen Big, right." He nodded, "Okay, remember the scene with the big floor piano?" again he nodded, "perfect, I'm gonna teach you the little duet from that, sound good?" She figured she couldn't go wrong with that, a little duet about hearts and souls couldn't do any harm, she smirked to herself. "Just repeat after me."
It took only about five minutes and Dylan had gotten it down, he felt so proud to have learned it, though he would never let on. He had always been a little envious of Norma and Norman when they would play together, but now he had someone to teach him, and it wasn't Norma, which was an outstanding plus to the situation. Emma never yelled.
"Wow, yeah, that's perfect!" she positioned her hands lower on the piano. "Okay, so you're gonna play that over and over again, while I play this," she quickly played through the accompaniment, " and yeah!". Dylan smiled at this, she seemed to be having as much fun as he was. "Ready?" she asked.
"Let's do it." This time it was him who bumped her shoulder, and they started to play.
Once Emma started yawning, Dylan knew he should let her sleep, she was too nice to say that she was tired, but he knew, and after some grumbling she agreed to take his room instead of the couch. "I honestly don't mind sleeping on the couch Dylan honestly!" She grumbled, but in the end he won.
"Emma, here, it would make me mad if you didn't take my room, after all you've done for me.. for us tonight." He said from the doorway, "I don't know if this will help any but I've got some extra clothes in here you can sleep in if you want." He grabbed a faded blue shirt and the one pair of flannel pants he owned and passed them to her, luckily Norma had just done the laundry, and his room was clean.
"Thank you Dylan." She grabbed the clothes from him, and before she decided against it, wrapped her arms around his middle. At first he tensed up, but almost immediately relaxed and reciprocated the hug. "It's all going to be okay Dylan, with your mother, and Norman."
He rubbed his hand over her shoulder blades, "Yeah, I know." Dylan smiled at her words. "Now promise me you'll get some sleep okay?"
"Yeah, I will. You too." He let go, and turned once to look back, she stood still looking at him "Night Dylan."
"Goodnight Emma." He turned and walked downstairs replaying the events of the night over in his head, given the circumstances, the night had gone well. Only, despite being 2:30 a.m, the night was still young for Dylan Massett who had began to feel drowsy himself when he heard a series of noises from the kitchen.