I did a huge eff up. I sorta skipped a chap so if you read nonbeliever first before this, I hope you forget about it like it never happened lol thank you so much to everyone who picked up on it and told me. You guys are the best! Xxx

chapter four: keeping in touch

"Seems like the rain stopped," Elizabeth observed, laid back against the wooden chair in the garden at Keaton's. The clear glass overlooking the not-so-distant town was spotted with raindrops, but the outpour was done. Probably.

Since the night was still young, probably not.

The lightning that struck above illuminated the dimly lit space. The garden was actually quite spacious. Based on Anna's scale of measurement, it was maybe thirty large steps in between each side of the walls. Maybe. Anna wasn't so sure. Her focus was not caught in how many steps it takes to get to the other side of the enclosed garden. No. Anna's eyes and thoughts circled the blonde woman in front of her, fingers jerking the fabric of her off shoulder higher.

"About time it did."

"It's not like it would be for long, though. It's always raining in Middleton."

"You ain't wrong there," Elizabeth chortled, the sound resonating in the air around the two. "But…"

Anna hummed inquisitively, waiting for her to finish. "But…?"

Her smile was dazzling, even if it wasn't directed at Anna, it was clear as it was bright. "But the mornin's are beautiful."

Anna's heart thudded. It's a sentiment she shared. It might have been a silly thing but the way the blonde said it made her heart skip a beat. Her face was light and airy with gaiety but her eyes were faraway, looking into the void of the night sky beyond the windows in front of them.

This woman was attracting Anna like a giant magnet. The way she slouched over her chair was different from the way she stood back rod straight earlier before dinner. And her voice, it lacked the gentle timbre as her swagger returned, bold and loud.

Elizabeth tugged at her blouse again. Anna raised an eyebrow. "You feeling cold?"

"Erm?" The blonde swivelled to her, puzzled. Tilting her head, Anna gestured to her.

"You've been fiddling with your clothes for a while now." Elizabeth stilled, hands shifting to the strands of platinum splayed in her shoulder. "And with your hair now, too."

"Pretty observant, aren't ya?" A blonde brow roused, lips taken between teeth. "I… uhm… yeah, it's a bit cold."

Anna wished she'd worn a jacket so that she could give it to the woman who was shuffling uncomfortably in her seat. She leaned back as she watched the blonde sigh, hands twitching in her leg as she tried to stop them from playing with anything.

"You didn't answer my question from earlier," Anna stated Her question had been easily forgotten earlier, replaced with a discord as the blonde became more assertive when it came to cats being better than dogs.

That was until now. Elizabeth looked at her with a guilty frown. "Umm… what question?"

Snickering, she said, "What do you for work?"

Again, the blonde had that look in her face where she appeared to dig herself for answers. Hesitating for a bit, Elizabeth clicked her tongue. "I'm a… singer, of sorts."

That's interesting. Anna's mouth dropped open. "Wait, really?"

"I guess?" Elizabeth replied, just as confused as she was.

Anna couldn't help but let out a laugh. Elizabeth was seriously adorable. "That's amazing! Is it professionally? Wait, of course, it is. I just asked what your work was but I wasn't expecting you to be a superstar." The redhead looked, actually stared at the woman's face, trying to put it to a voice on the radio or an image from the web. "Well, I mean, you're insanely gorgeous so I bet you are!"

Elizabeth wasn't given a chance to react as Anna took out her phone and stalled almost immediately, wary of making the wrong impression. The woman chuckled at her, "I don't think anyone would recognise me, though. If you want a pictur–"

"No!" Anna cut her off loudly before realising her volume and leaning closer to the blonde. "I mean… I want to hear your music and… I'm sorry I shouldn't be so excited about it."

And she didn't even ask if it was alright to listen to it! She didn't even know if the blonde was on the internet, either. Gosh, Anna was such a klutz. Wincing at herself, she was saved from wallowing in embarrassment as Elizabeth laughed at her. Actually laughed at her.

"Well, that's sweet." Her teasing tone was relieving. Anna gave her a stink eye. Holding both hands up, she continued, "I'll share you the link later."

Okay. Anna, calm down. You don't want to freak the lady out with your eagerness.

Her inner voice was annoying.

"Promise?"

Elizabeth winked. "Of course, babe, but it's not like I'm Ed Sheeran."

Anna didn't know being called babe could be such a thrilling experience. In fact, she hated people calling her that. Somehow it made her feel belittled, but the way Elizabeth said it sent a blush to her cheeks. "Okay."

But the upcoming questions in Anna's tongue didn't get spoken as a loud beeping commenced in the air. Elizabeth took her phone out, upon seeing the caller raised a hand up to excuse herself. Only she didn't move from her seat. The blonde greeted the person on the other line loudly. Anna couldn't avoid eavesdropping.

"Yep?"

Anna swore that greeting was the definition of nonchalance. Added with her thick accent, it didn't even sound like a word.

"It's seven."

Sounds like she was arranging a meetup time or something. Maybe she's got interviews or meetings. Maybe she was talking to a foreign star and Anna was none the wiser about it.

"Copy that," Elizabeth said as she hung up the phone and turned to Anna with a sad smile. "Looks like I have to go soon."

"Was that your management?" Anna quipped.

Elizabeth snorted and it was such an unexpected thing that Anna second guessed if it was really her who made that sound. "Sorta."

And their night came into an end.

Elizabeth walked Anna to her car. Once Anna had shut the door, her smile was inerasable. The blonde knocked on her window and she rolled it down at once. "Yeah?"

"It's such a good time hangin' out with you, Anna," Elizabeth said but a look of horror crossed her face. "Wait… we didn't get to talk about your shirt. I–"

"Guess you just have to make it up to me another time," Anna interrupted with a smirk. Elizabeth was dumbfounded for a second before she grinned widely.

"A'ight," she muttered, sending Anna one last wink for the night. "Take care."

The auburn-haired woman drove back to her apartment with her heart beating fast as she thought about blue eyes and a warm smile.

..

Her steps were lighter after that night.

Anna just finished putting her bag back to her locker when the awaiting stare of Cassandra startled her once she closed the door. "Jesus Christ! Cassandra!"

The brunette didn't react, just got herself up closer to Anna's face like a blind hawk. "You never get scared. You're always on your guard."

Anna rolled her eyes with a sigh. "Anyone would be scared seeing that face popping out of nowhere."

Cassandra only squinted her eyes. "Did you get laid from your date or something? Your smile is there even if you're not smiling."

Wait, what? Anna swallowed at that, relaxing her face muscles. She could feel the early stages of regret for sending Cassandra a text that Friday night to ensure she'd be found if she was murdered.

"You're trying your best not to smile."

She should've just texted Tiana.

"Whatever, Cass," Anna shrugged her off, turning on her heel and brushing past her friend.

"And now you're being secretive!" Cassandra muttered after her, catching up in long strides. "C'mon, tell me who's the lucky guy?"

Rolling her eyes for the second time that hour, Anna exhaled noisily, exasperated. "It's not a –"

"Who's the lucky girl then?"

Anna stopped walking in the middle of the hall. "I didn't get laid, Cass."

The teasing smirk on her face further infuriated – and scared – Anna. Bumping her in the shoulder, Cassandra said, "Our baby Anna is a grown-up already."

The resounding groan from the redhead could be heard from across the hall.

But Anna really was feeling jollier. Talking to Elizabeth via text was the highlight of Anna's day and even if that came out quite pathetic, she enjoyed seeing a new message pop up every so often. Conversations with her were always so easy and Anna looked forward to them.

Doing her rounds was a breeze and by the time she stopped by Mr. Wilde's room at 018, it was about time for breakfast.

"Mr. Wilde, how are you this morning?"

The man grinned at her, thankfully still in his clothes as the morning sun rises. "Quite well, Nurse Anna."

"How's your sleep?"

"Well. Thank you."

Anna smiled at him, listing down notes on her clipboard as she inquired more about his experiences the past days.

"Now you haven't been around for almost a week now," Mr. Wilde mumbled with a frown and he beckoned her closer. Anna complied. "And I can't tell the other nurses this because they'd just tell me to suck it up!"

Thinking about it, she asked with a frown. "What is it, Mr. Wilde? Is it urgent?"

"No, no. It's not." He shook his head before pointing to his groin, "But ever since Doc Aurora changed my medicine, I've been getting rashes here."

Rashes? Anna's eyes widened. "Can I see it?"

The man hiked his shirt up and pulled down his pants. True to what he said, there were formations of scattered red rashes on his skin. Anna pulled his shirt higher, inspecting the expanse of the reaction.

"Does it hurt?"

Mr. Wilde gave a shake of the head. "Not really, but it's real ugly though so maybe you could change it? I don't want to be pruned and red when I'm out of here."

Nodding at his joking smile, Anna took note of it with one of her own. "Don't worry, you won't. I'll tell Doctor Aurora about it and see what she thinks."

"You're the best," he answered as a nurse aide came in to serve him his food. "Now I don't know why I can't go back to eat outside yet."

"You've been very active these past days, Mr. Wilde. The nurse aides are already complaining," Anna jested. It was somewhat the truth – he really was active – but it was not the complaint of nurses and nurse aides that were keeping him from going out frequently.

Mr. Wilde took the joke good-naturedly as he chortled, letting her finish doing rounds as she came back to the nurse's station. Reporting every patient's status and Mr. Wilde's rashes, Anna moved on to her other duties until lunchtime.

She quickly evaded her nosy friends – gosh, even Tiana was smirking at her now! – and dashed to the locker room undetected. Opening her messages, Anna was excited as she saw a new one from Elizabeth sent a couple hours ago, most likely when she'd woken up.

'it's a little hard to sleep when the lights are on' the message read.

Anna giggled like a schoolgirl as she sat on the floor, her back to the cold metal doors of their storage. 'Why sleep with the lights on then?'

Not knowing why their conversation has turned to this but not complaining at all, Anna read back to their previous topic. It was about trivial things, stuff that didn't really matter but passionately said between the two. Anna read her own reply days ago about where rabbits go in winter and chuckled to herself.

She didn't really have an idea where their conversations were going but it was nice firing the blonde up with useless arguments. Truth be told, she just wanted Elizabeth to keep texting her.

It didn't matter if Anna had never taken a huge interest in taking too much time on her phone, she'd gladly risk radiation for this woman. Anna was about to put her phone away when she hadn't received an answer after a few minutes but as she was standing up, her phone dinged.

'some people might get scared'

':('

Aww. She's so cute. Anna bit her lip as she tapped on the grin to stop her full-blown grin.

'Who?'

Another long minute passed but the single worded answer was worth it. 'me'

Seriously, Elizabeth was getting into her heartstrings. At least ten seconds passed when the blonde sent a new text before she finished her reply, this time a YouTube link, followed by a smiley face. Anna wondered for a moment what it could be about when she clicked it.

It was a channel with… 8.6 million subscribers. How did Anna not know of this group? The profile name read 'mosaicxrecords' and the picture was of a vinyl disc spattered with paint.

Anna hummed, curiously playing the first recommended video in it. All Is Found. As it loaded, the views caught her attention. 53 million?

It was a lot. Especially since Anna hadn't heard of the channel, but maybe she had been too busy with everything happening in her life. Pulling her earphone from her locker as she paused it, the redhead concentrated intently on her screen.

The fishbowl greeted Anna as the screen brightened. A brick castle laid on the top of the sand, the water lacking any scaly inhabitants. It was on the left side of the screen, sitting on a wooden table of some sorts, the right side blurry and out-of-focus.

Silence, before someone – white platinum hair resting on her shoulders and a green guitar strapped on her front – sat on the what seemed to be a chair but the camera's focus didn't change, still on the forsaken castle inside the fishbowl.

Wait… is this Elizabeth?

It started with a few soft chords lasting a few seconds before an obviously familiar voice came in.

Where the north wind meets the sea
There's a river full of memory
Sleep, my darling, safe and sound

Anna felt chills climbing down her spine as Elizabeth's voice played in her ears. It was crisp, words pronounced clear as daylight but warm enough to evoke a melancholy Anna didn't know she could feel.

For in this river all is found
All is found
When all is lost, then all is found

Elizabeth might have been just in the background but Anna's sole attention was on her, her picking on the strings obvious enough even if she was hidden by the blurriness of the screen. She stared at her as if the pixels would suddenly clear up and Anna swore it did, maybe not in reality, but she could see how Elizabeth played the song and sung the words, her lips moving to give way to the sound.

In her waters, deep and true
Lie the answers and a path for you
Dive down deep into her sound
But not too far or you'll be drowned

It would be too far to call it alternative but had an indie vibe Anna knew well from bands and artists she listened to when growing up. Elizabeth sang strikingly, calmly, a lullaby stolen from the gods themselves as layers of her own voice joined the acoustic song, harmonising with herself as she carried the song peacefully to its end.

Anna didn't realise that it was over after getting so absorbed in it. She wasn't able to articulate the remaining verses but she was sure that her mouth was hanging open. Looking at the comments section, there was a lot of love for this artist, praises and compliments on her abundant in numbers.

The redhead returned to her messages, not knowing what to type. Elizabeth was obviously big, like bigger than her favourite indie artists if she was going to base it on the subscribers and views. Anna was a bit intimidated on how to approach her now.

Then decided to hell with it, as she wrote an emoji filled review of what she heard.

Elizabeth didn't reply immediately and Anna took the time to revisit the channel, scrolling through videos. mosaicxrecords had a mixture of original songs and a bunch of covers from different artists.

The most popular video yielded 189 million views, a feat Anna was still amazed about. Just how in the hell did she not know this artist? Who knew the girl with the butterfly on her hair eating a croissant was a superstar?!

Anna seemed to have lost her footing as she found out about this fact. Picking a song called Let It Go (the most popular one, she sighed to herself), Anna rested her head against the locker and listened carefully.

It was a piano this time around but the blonde was still blurry in the background. On the forefront of the video was a snow globe, a snowman experiencing winter standing alone as white flurried around the small frozen world.

Elizabeth was just done singing the first line of the song when Anna's phone was snatched from her hand.

Jolting in surprise as Cassandra pulled it further away from her, she let out a loud whine, "Cass! Give it back."

Cassandra's shit eating grin melted to a disappointed one as she looked upon the screen. "This is what's making you smile like an idiot?"

"Yes." Managing to steal it back from her friend, Anna quickly locked the screen and gave Cassandra a faux angry glare.

"What? You have a crush on the singer or something?" she lazily asked, seemingly entertained with the fake fire burning on green eyes. "I didn't know you like songs like that."

"What's wrong with songs like that?" Anna challenged, unreasonably wounded.

"Nothing, but I assumed you were a pop fan," Cassandra gave her a bored look. "I didn't know you like mosaic-ex-records, too."

"Is that how you pronounce it? Wait… do you like her, too?"

Chuckling, Cassandra shook her head no. "Tiana loves her. I'm surprised that she wasn't the one who introduced her to you." She clicked her tongue, "As for the pronunciation, it annoys the hell out of Ti, so I do it. For the billionth time according to her, it's mosaic records."

Anna smirked, "Without the ex?"

"Definitely not," Cassandra added, "But Ti flustered and mad is almost as good as you flustered and mad."

Her shit eating grin returned. Anna groaned. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I don't know, but seeing you avoid all my questions a while ago is my newest favourite thing."

"Fuck off, Cass," she mumbled as the girl laughed at her pout.

"C'mon, Anna banana, spill the tea."

"I don't drink tea, thank you very much." Anna stood up and packed her earphones away, giving Cassandra an irked expression. "And there's no tea around here to see."

Cassandra didn't believe her. She had no reason to believe her. With a mischievous smile, the short-haired woman tugged at her arms as she pulled Anna to the canteen.

..

'what's your facebook name?'

Anna waited as she dried her hair after getting a shower. Thankfully, her night shifts were done and she wouldn't have to worry about that for at least a month or two. Doctor Pablo was actually informing her of a new possible in-patient that would require a private nurse – just inside the hospital, of course – so maybe she'd be busier than she initially thought.

Along the completion of Middleton Psychiatrics' extension came a new barrage of admission requests and she heard from Mrs. Megara that they were probably in need of more nurses.

'I don't have a Facebook.'

Well that's a bummer. Anna wasn't actually surprised. Elizabeth was a celebrity by definition and she had more reasons to not make an account than reasons to.

mosaicxrecords wasn't really something they'd spoken about since the blonde sent the link to her. She felt too intimidated to bring it up to her and Elizabeth didn't say anything more because… Anna didn't know.

Seriously.

But Anna kinda, sorta wanted to talk to her in real time. Texting with the blonde had been a great addition to her days, even if they were not talking about anything too deep, but she was starting to miss her face. She was lacking the balls to ask for a next date, though, her confidence when they met the last time depleting like an open balloon, but really, Elizabeth had to like her at least as much as Anna did.

Okay, maybe not, but Anna wouldn't waste days texting someone if they don't fancy them even a bit.

What if she's just being nice? She did think she was responsible for my shirt.

A plausible thought but not one Anna wanted to entertain. 'why not?'

'I don't know how to use it.'

Smiling, she replied, 'I'll teach you if you want to.'

Anna was sure Elizabeth wouldn't reply when her hair was all but dried. Collapsing on her bed, the loud jingle of her ringtone startled her back up, eyebrows shooting up when she saw the caller ID.

"Hello?"

Her wish of talking to the blonde real time was answered by destiny as a gentle, definitely unaccented voice whispered over the phone. "Will you really help me?"

Anna's smile couldn't be stopped as her lips spread widely. "Of course."

Trying to help Elizabeth make an account was actually hard. The blonde, as Anna taught her what to do over the phone, wasn't the definition of tech savvy.

"I think I'm not clicking the right things."

But Anna was patient, taking her sweet time as she opened her own laptop and visited the website just so she could follow what Elizabeth was saying. After minutes – actually over an hour – of trial and error, the blonde finally sent her a friend request which Anna accepted as quickly as it came.

Clicking the video button, she waited for Elizabeth to answer. After ten seconds of waiting, the blonde said, "I think you're calling me."

"I am," Anna answered simply, not knowing why she was so giddy over this idiot. "Can you answer it?"

Elizabeth did. The first thing Anna noticed were the glasses perched on her nose. The grainy video showed the blonde in her black pullover, a throw pillow sitting on her lap. She seemed to be in a living room and Anna turned on her lights so Elizabeth could see her more clearly, slightly insecure with how the blonde in pyjamas looked a thousand times better than she did in her own.

"Hey!" Anna waved at the camera. Elizabeth was smiling back at her as she put the device she had closer to her face.

"Anna," she greeted, "I have a Facebook account now. Thank you."

Hanging up her call on her mobile, Anna laughed. "You're welcome, although I don't know why someone in this century didn't know how to use Facebook."

Elizabeth seemed to have a rebut to that but her smile faded for a while before nodding at her. "I don't really know either. Maybe I'm scared someone would find and kill me."

A justified fear, however irrational. Anna shook her head as she settled back into her bed. "As long as you don't have your location on, you're good."

"How do I know if it's on?" was the genuine question. Elizabeth was looking at her expectantly and the way she furrowed her eyebrows was endearing.

"If you didn't turn it off, there's a big chance it is."

But Elizabeth wasn't as paranoid as Anna thought she was. The woman shrugged at her, placing her laptop back to the place where it was before. "That's fine. You're the only one I'll friend anyways."

"What about your other friends?"

Elizabeth exhaled loudly, laughing at her soundlessly. "Don't have much of those."

"Well, what am I then?"

The smile she received was weaker this time. Anna was immediately guilty as Elizabeth said, "You're the only one."

Anna was curious. She wanted to ask more, but decency stopped her from opening her mouth further on the topic. Instead, she sputtered, "Do you live in Middleton? I don't think you've ever told me where you live."

"Why do you ask?" Elizabeth smirked, "Are you planning to give me a visit?"

"Who knows?"

Anna didn't know how they came from the blonde's address to their favourite item in Myer's Cups to playing twenty questions but she was not complaining. Talking to Elizabeth was easy, may it be via typed messages or a shy video call.

Talking to an almost complete stranger shouldn't be but even when they first went out in Keaton's Garden, Elizabeth talked to her like an old friend. There was no awkwardness as they spoke to one another. Of course, there were times when her new friend took too long to answer but Anna chalked it up to mindfulness of her words.

There was something about Elizabeth that just calmed Anna. She was a breath of fresh air from Tiana and Cassandra. Although there was nothing inherently wrong with the two – the redhead loved them to bits – they never quite got Anna like the blonde did.

She didn't know what made her think that, but as she watched the blonde nod her head as she rambled into the screen, that was what Anna felt like. Understood. It might have been because everything even in Elizabeth's smallest actions screamed understanding. Like she knew exactly what the redhead was talking about as she listened along to hastily spoken words.

Maybe it was the lovebug.

Or maybe it was because Anna, really, was curious. It wasn't even the pop-up accent that appeared and disappeared when they were talking but that was a huge component of it. Right now, Elizabeth was speaking quite naturally, no long vowels, no missing g's in her pronunciation. Her words were clear, relaxed, but Anna was sure that she had a way different accent when they first met and right to the last second when they were talking in the parking lot of the garden.

It might have also been because Elizabeth was a literal artist. Who sang. And got millions of views. Now Anna wasn't shallow (she thought) but there was bound to be a natural appeal to someone like that. Millions of people thought Elizabeth was interesting and who could fault Anna for feeling the same.

Or perhaps it was the blonde's smile directed unceasingly at her. Anna could stare at that smile for hours. And if it wasn't for her accidentally gazing to her clock, Anna wouldn't know that it was about midnight.

"What's the one thing you want to accomplish as soon as you can?"

Elizabeth was already laying down on the couch. If it wasn't her propping her head up by a pillow, Anna wouldn't know where her head was.

"Hmmm… tough question," Anna mumbled, thinking hard about her answer. "Maybe reconnect with old friends?"

"Have you lost contact with them?"

Anna never really kept friends. It wasn't like she didn't want to, but friends from previous hospitals, even college, tended to not take as much effort as she did in keeping in touch.

It used to hurt her but not as much now. Anna just learned to accept that people moved on from friendships. Plus, it was not like she was any better reaching out.

Anna sighed, watching the blonde from the screen await her answer.

Elizabeth somehow made her think of Elsa, the little girl from Sutterton who Anna forgot for so long, but not now. She was the one friend Anna wanted to see again, wanted to talk to again.

One she'd missed greatly.

"Yeah. Sometimes I don't think I'm meant for friendships."

But Elizabeth didn't have the context for that lament. The blonde tilted her head to her right, trying to scrutinise her from behind the screen. "Why do you say so?"

Anna didn't know why she said so herself. Instead, she gave a half shrug, "I just feel like it."

Elizabeth nodded at her the way she was doing for the last four hours they were talking, but still, there was no dismissal or judgement in her action, just that ever familiar understanding.

No. Actually, Anna realised it was acceptance.

"I don't think I'm made for friendships, too."

Surprised, it was Anna's turn to ask, "Why not?"

Immediately, Elizabeth opened her mouth, but she changed her mind in a split second as she raised both eyebrows. "No idea."

Anna laughed, the sound echoing in her empty apartment. It was such a stupid thing to hear now that it was not coming from her own mouth. Still, Elizabeth received a bantering grin in return.

"My turn." Anna thought over her next question rapidly. "If… you could do one impossible thing, like maybe be invisible at will or see through the future," the nurse grinned at her, "what would you do?"

A silly question compared to the previous one asked by Elizabeth, but the blonde had the courtesy to scrunch her forehead and wonder about the answer.

After a few seconds, Elizabeth looked head on into the camera and gave a very relaxed beam, as if she was a child dreaming right at that moment, or recalling a childhood memory. Either way, she looked beautiful in her dazzling smile.

"I'd fly."