Talkin' in my Sleep
Finally, time to close, Sarah thought to herself as she locked up at Wienerlicious for the night. It had been a long day. Chuck had had three flashes on Buy More customers, two on street signs, and six about the pictures on Casey's coffee mug. And that was just the ones from before lunch. All three of them were tired. Sarah had heard that Chuck was going over to Morgan's to play video games, and Casey was going to review audio recordings from Chuck's room. She had a long night planned out of paperwork- and staring at the wall because she didn't want to do paperwork- alone. What fun.
As Sarah drove home, she got a call on her cell from Casey.
"Agent Walker, I can't take it any more!" Casey yelled in to the phone. Sarah held the phone back a bit from her ear.
"What?"
"These tapes! Morgan came over yesterday, and he and Chuck talked about sandwiches for hours! Again! Could you do me a favor?" Casey sounded desperate.
"Sure, Casey. What?" Sarah asked.
"I need to run some errands anyway, so could you come over and just listen to the recording until he stops talking with his nutcase friend about sandwiches? Just make sure Chuck didn't compromise the Intersect, and hit 'stop' when lunchmeats are not the main topic of conversation. I'll take it from there."
"Sure, why not?" Sarah said. She turned and drove towards Casey's place.
Knock. Knock.
Casey opened the door and dragged Sarah in to the house.
"Okay, here's the headphones, hit play, and don't go crazy," Casey said. "I should be back in about an hour. There's a new weapon cleaner I want to try out."
"Take your time," Sarah said.
She sat down and placed the headphones over her ears. Soon she was having difficulty sitting still. No wonder Casey had wanted to escape. The sandwich conversation was the perfect cure for insomnia! She felt her mind turning to mush and boredom seeping from every pore in her body. How could Chuck and Morgan go on and on like this? They were not only talking about something so insignificant that the subject alone was dull as watching paint dry, but they kept repeating their earlier points. Each and every thing they said was brought back up and discussed again a few minutes later.
Finally, after forty- four minutes of torture, Morgan said that he needed to get home. On the tape, Sarah could hear Chuck brushing his teeth and changing in to his pajamas for bed. Chuck's recorded breathing quickly evened out and she knew he was asleep. She was about to stop the tape and leave it for Casey to finish when she heard Chuck say something. It was quiet, and not very clear, but she thought someone might have been in the room and he was talking to them. She turned up the volume and paid more attention, all boredom gone.
"Why? Why can't you understand?" she heard him murmur.
Who is he talking to? What don't they understand? Sarah wondered.
"I guess I'm just not good at figuring people out."
Sarah edged the volume up so carefully she could feel the small dial click slightly as it turned.
"Or maybe you can't figure me out. Don't you get it? I love-"
A rustling cut in and the rest of Chuck's sentence was muffled. Sarah rewound the tape and turned it up, her head starting to hurt from how loud the white noise on the tape was.
"Don't you get it? I love you, Sarah."
She sat there, stunned. She had assumed he just had a silly crush that would pass in time. But if even his subconscious said it, then maybe…
Now, Sarah was pretty thoroughly convinced that she could not be startled. Not her. She was a super- secret- spy- agent- person- lady! With a gun! Instead, Sarah found that if she was in deep emotional turmoil blasting the sounds of someone breathing after her mind had been fried by sandwich talk, she was rather easily startled. A hand on Sarah's shoulder jolted her from listening. She hit stop on the quiet night noises and rhythm of Chuck's breathing and turned quickly to see Casey, drawing her gun in the process.
"Bit jumpy?" Casey asked.
"Sorry, the tape was all quiet and I guess I just wasn't paying attention," Sarah said, not sure she was making sense.
"Well, thanks for doing this for me. Did the sandwich talk end?" Casey asked.
"Yeah, he had just fallen asleep when I hit stop," Sarah said.
"I usually fast-forward when he's asleep and listen to see if he woke up to talk to anyone. He says some weird things in his sleep," Casey said.
"Yeah, I guess he does," Sarah said, her mind still tumbling over what she had heard.
"Well, see you tomorrow," Casey said.
Sarah wandered out to her car and just sat, thinking. Did he really love her? Did he know he sleep talks? Should she tell him she had heard that? Did she love him?
Did she love him?
Yes.
The sudden answer silenced all other thoughts jumping around in her mind. She leaned her head back on the headrest and turned on the car to hear the radio drown out her quiet mind.
She had been over this. Even if they liked each other, it would never work. Never.
Now, despite her earlier encounter with Casey making her jump out of her skin, Sarah still was pretty sure that she was hard to startle. Maybe she was just too secure in her own car with the radio blasting.
"Hi, Sarah! What are you doing here? Okay! Hi! Let's point the gun somewhere other than at my head!"
"Oh, Chuck, I am so sorry. I don't know what's gotten in to me today," Sarah said, putting her gun back.
You know what's gotten in to you, her mind told her. You love him and it's making you crazy.
"No, my fault, I should have knocked on the window or something."
That smile. It took her a few seconds to recover from that.
"Well, it doesn't matter. What's up?" she asked.
"Nothing, I was just kinda wondering why you were here. I saw your car. Well, obviously, since I'm now sitting in it."
"Casey needed some help with some of his work."
"Oh. Cool…"
They sat in awkward silence for a minute, and Sarah's mind started racing. Should she tell him about the tape? Should she tell him she liked him, too? Did he mean what he said in his sleep?
"Hey, Sarah?"
"Hm?"
"You wanna go get a sandwich or something?"
"Sure," Sarah said.