Author: ImmatureLittleGirl Email: immaturelittlegirl@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Joss Whedon and maybe other people, I'm not sure I just know that I don't own them...
Summary: Dawn goes to live with her father in LA and has to learn to live without her sister. Strange coincidences lead her to meet an interesting person. Dawn/Connor
Rating: PG-13 I guess.
AN: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Thanks for being patient, though. Sorry if I confused anyone, I fudged the timelines a little bit to make it work. It's somewhere in Season 6 of Buffy and Season 4 of Angel, I think.
PART 9
I awoke slowly, finding difficulty focusing on the sights and sounds around me. Everything still looked very blurry, and the voices I could hear were mumbled and unclear, but my condition was improving and soon I was able to distinguish my surroundings. I was lying on a couch, in a room with very high ceilings, and a woman was sitting beside me, pressing a cold cloth to my face. I immediately tried to sit up, but found that I could barely move, my entire body felt drained of all its strength.
"Relax Dawn, don't try to get up," I heard a vaguely familiar voice say to me. I looked at the woman speaking to me and tried to focus on her face. After a moment, it occurred to me who she was.
"Cordelia?" I asked, again trying to sit up, this time managing to prop myself up on my elbow.
"Yeah. How are you feeling?" she asked, smiling sweetly. I began to second-guess myself: since when was Cordelia so pleasant?
"Fine. A little tired, though," I replied, looking around the room. I was surprised to see a demon, with green skin and horns sitting across from me. "Where am I?" I asked sucking in a breath.
"This is the Hyperion, where we run Angel Investigations. And this is Lorne," Cordelia explained. I paused as I looked over the demon, and his neon green suit.
"Uh, hi," I greeted, uneasily.
"Hi there, Sweet Cheeks. Can I get you something to drink, perhaps?" Lorne suggested, smiling smoothly.
"No, I'm good," I answered, struggling to pull myself into a sitting position. Cordelia placed a hand on my back to help ease me up.
"I'll go tell Angel she's awake," Lorne offered, giving me another friendly smile before disappearing somewhere behind me.
I felt my neck, remembering where the vampire had bitten me, but all I could feel were bandages. Looking down at my bloodstained shirt and arms, I felt as though I were trapped in a dream; my head still felt very cloudy.
"Where's Connor?" I asked abruptly, remembering he and Angel's strange behavior before I passed out. They had been speaking to each other as if they knew one another.
"He's with Angel, in his office. They've been in there arguing since they brought you back here," Cordelia replied, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
"Do they know each other?" I asked still feeling confused.
Cordelia smiled with apparent amusement as she answered, "Something like that."
Angel strode into the room a moment later, preventing me from questioning Cordelia any further. Connor was walking just a few paces behind him, and found his seat in a chair a few feet away from the couch I was on. Angel came to stand in front of me.
"Dawn, are you feeling better?" Angel asked with concern.
"I'm fine," I answered again, looking over to Connor who was sitting back, calmly watching everyone. Angel looked to Cordelia for confirmation of my response and she nodded.
"She should probably get some rest," Cordelia suggested quietly to Angel.
"I'll take her home," Connor offered standing up behind Angel.
"I don't think so. You are going to stay here. I'll take her home," Angel insisted, glaring at Connor.
"I'm not staying here!" Connor snapped, returning Angel's glare. "And I'm not letting you take her home alone."
"Well, I'm certainly not allowing you to take her home alone. God knows what would have happened if I hadn't shown up when I did!" Angel shouted. I groaned grabbing my head, which was beginning to hurt from the shouting and the confusion.
"She probably still would have passed out from the loss of blood," Cordelia answered logically. "The both of you can take her home and chaperone each other," she added after a moment. Angel and Connor glared at each other for another long minute before agreeing reluctantly.
I stood slowly, wobbling slightly, but Angel put an arm on my shoulder to stabilize me. "Maybe you should rest a little longer," Angel suggested, carefully watching to make sure I didn't fall over or pass out again.
"No, I'll be okay. I just want to go home," I responded. I sounded pathetic even to myself, but I didn't care; I was exhausted and cold and I wanted to go home to bed.
"Okay, I'll be right back," Angel told us before going back towards his office. I waited patiently, trying to ignore the fact that Connor was practically gawking at me.
"What?" I snapped irritably.
"You fight vampires?" Connor finally asked, clearly surprised.
"Umm…" I looked at Cordelia, wondering if it was all right to answer that question for him.
"She's not supposed too," Cordelia responded smirking. "If Buffy were to find out what happened tonight, I believe she would probably kill you herself, if she is even remotely as overprotective of you as she used to be. So Dawn, I suppose it's a good thing Angel wasn't able to get a hold of your sister tonight, wasn't it?"
"Yes, I guess. You're not really going to tell her, are you?" I asked worriedly.
"Angel intends too, but I'll see if I can persuade him not to mention it," Cordelia assured me.
"Buffy, your sister, she's the slayer?" Connor asked quietly.
I glanced at Cordelia quickly to see if it was okay to answer this question as well, but Cordelia simply rolled her eyes at Connor's question. "Yep, Buffy the big, bad, slayer," Cordelia muttered.
Connor continued staring at me, waiting for my response, as if he hadn't heard Cordelia's answer.
"Yes," I replied, before Angel returned a moment later.
"Gunn and Fred need to use the car for an assignment that requires a quick get away, so I won't be able to drive you home. Do you have enough energy to walk?" Angel asked.
"Yeah, I'll be okay. Where's my bag?" I asked, looking around the lobby for my weapons. I hoped they hadn't left my stuff behind; I had just started to accumulate a nice collection.
Connor lifted up the bag that was sitting on the floor on the other side of his chair. I reached out to take the bag from him, noticing how much heavier it felt now than it had earlier that night. I opened it and looked through it for the bottle of water I had thrown in before leaving for patrol. Uncapping the bottle and taking a drink, I noticed something very important missing.
"Where's my crossbow?" I practically shouted, as I rummaged frantically through the bag, although it was obviously not in there.
"We didn't see it when we left, it must not have been with the rest of your things," Angel explained, looking over my shoulder into my bag.
"You mean it's gone?" I asked, my eyes widening sadly with disappointment.
"On the way back from taking you home, I'll stop by the cemetery to look for it. If I can't find it, I'll try to get you a new one. Come on, let's get you home before your father gets angry," Angel suggested as he started toward the front entrance.
"I doubt he's even home to notice I'm not," I remarked as I followed Angel and Connor up the stairs. Angel and Cordelia seemed to have missed the bitterness in my voice, but Connor shot me a sympathetic look, as he waited to hold the door for me.
As I passed where Connor stood, he took my duffel bag and tossed it over his shoulder. Under normal circumstances, I would have insisted on carrying it myself, but at that moment, I hadn't the energy to argue, never mind carry the bag all the way home; I could just barely carry myself.
Angel led the way down the sidewalk a few paces in front of where Connor and I followed side by side. The night was eerily silent, and I noticed that both Connor and Angel appeared to be on edge for some reason.
"So, you two know each other?" I asked quietly, unsure if I was supposed to talk, since it looked as though Connor had been listening for something.
Angel and Connor both stopped walking for a moment after hearing my question, and Angel fell back to walk closer to us before trying to answer my question.
"Connor is my son," Angel clarified, casting Connor a cautious look.
"Huh?" I asked loudly, stopping dead in my tracks, my eyes darting back and forth between Connor who was concentrating on the sidewalk and Angel who appeared to be looking for an easier explanation.
"He's my son," Angel repeated more slowly this time.
"But how? Why wouldn't you have told us this before? Why didn't we meet him before? And… and… how?" I asked, trying to voice some of the dozens of questions that were swarming around in my head.
"It's a very complicated story. Connor was born last year but was kidnapped and taken to another dimension where time moved differently. He was gone for less than a month here, but Connor aged about eighteen years in the other dimension before he found a way back. I hadn't really gotten the opportunity to tell Buffy about the situation yet," Angel explained quietly.
I stared at the both of them dumbly for a moment or so, wondering if they were being serious. Looking over Connor I could see that he did bare quite a resemblance to Angel and suddenly I was surprised I had missed it before now. I took a moment to think of some way to respond, but I was completely floored. Connor was Angel's son; I had a crush on my sister's ex-boyfriend's kid. My world was askew.
"But then who is your mother?" I asked, looking Connor over again, trying to see if I recognized anyone else's features in him. Connor looked to Angel and waited for him to answer the question rather than do so himself.
"Darla," Angel responded, wincing slightly.
"Darla?" I scoffed, looking at Angel incredulously. "I thought she was dead!"
"She is dead. Again," Angel clarified.
"But… What about your soul?" I asked, still trying to make sense of the confusion.
"I didn't… Darla and I… we weren't in love. So… it wasn't perfect happiness," Angel stuttered, obviously uncomfortable discussing the events with me.
"Oh," I mumbled, as I began to really absorb everything they were saying, or more specifically Angel was saying. Connor was simply standing quietly, looking down the street or at the ground, desperately trying to avoid eye contact. I remembered that from what I had understood, Connor and his father did not get along, and I began to wonder why that was.
Before I was given the chance to ask anything else, a group of vampires, wearing dark purple cloaks and carrying the same long gold swords, surrounded us.
"Key," one of vampires hissed at me. Connor and Angel both took a few steps closer to me as they quickly surveyed the enemies. Not taking his eyes off the vampires as they began to close in on us, Connor quickly unzipped my bag and grabbed for a weapon. He pulled out one of my daggers and dropped the bag on the ground.
"That's not going to kill them," I whispered, my voice bearing an edge of panic as I nervously stepped closer to Connor.
"It doesn't have to. Just get her out of here. Now!" Angel whispered back to Connor, before rushing toward the vampires, trying to take out as many as possible.
Connor grabbed my arm harshly and began to run, trying to pull me along with him. "Wait!" I shouted watching as Angel tried to take on six or seven vampires at once. "We can't leave him! He's out numbered!" I frantically tried to pull my arm away from Connor who still held strong to it.
"He can take care of himself. We have to go!" Connor practically ripped my arm from its socket as he began to pull me in the opposite direction. Unable to put up much of a fight, I finally conceded to follow Connor. We only got halfway down the block before one of the cloaked vampires caught up to us.
"Give me the key," the vampire snarled, eyeing me from only a few feet away. Connor quickly gave me a suspicious look before stepping in front of me protectively. I gulped thickly, believing we were done for, for the second time that night.
The vampire swung his sword in an arc that was meant to split Connor down the center, but Connor was able to stop the sword as it came down, stabbing the vampire through the wrist. Connor caught the sword's handle skillfully as it fell from the vampire's grasp and decapitating the vampire, all in the same movement. He again grabbed my hand, pulling me along a little less forcefully this time. I followed him for a few blocks, aware that we were not heading in the right direction toward my house, but too scared to question anything.
"Where are we going?" I finally asked a good fifteen minutes after the last time either of us had said anything.
"I'm taking you home," Connor answered distractedly. His eyes darted everywhere as he quickly strode down the street, his hand still firmly clasping mine.
"I don't think this is the way to my house," I commented uneasily. I looked for anything familiar to try and hint at where we were, but in the dark I couldn't see anything I recognized.
"We're taking the long way," Connor replied, still not looking at me as he answered.
"Oh, ok," I said, still searching for something familiar. "Why?" I asked, wondering why he would want to take the scenic route when dangerous vampires were stalking us.
"We're taking the route that they won't be expecting. We won't walk into a trap," Connor explained, stealing a quick glance at me before returning his concentration to his surroundings. I nodded, agreeing that seemed logical enough and continued to follow him.
As the minutes passed by, I began to disagree with Connor's idea to take the long way home. My legs were growing tired of walking, my head felt horribly dizzy, and the night was getting progressively cooler. I could just feel the whine from the exhaustion building in my throat. I refused to give in just yet; but I knew I didn't have much longer before I just collapsed. A few more quick paces and I stumbled forward tripping over my own feet. Connor grabbed my upper arm to keep me from falling.
"Sorry," I mumbled, standing up straight and withdrawing my arm from him. He sighed looking around quickly before again staring at me blankly. I could tell from the tension, his irritation with me was growing. "Can we stop for a minute and take a break, or just slow down a bit?" I asked, taking a deep breath as I tried to focus my eyes on something without my vision blurring.
"Okay," Connor answered reluctantly, looking around again, and then returning his attention to me. He leaned the sword he was carrying against the wall beside us and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he stared at me. I almost expected him to start tapping his foot.
"Look, I can find my way home from here. Why don't you go on without me?" I offered, desperately trying to keep calm. The last thing I wanted was to be lost, unarmed, injured, and stranded alone when there were evil vampires chasing me, but I honestly couldn't keep up with Connor much longer without passing out again.
"You don't know where we are," Connor replied, crossing his arms over his chest in a manner very similar to Angel.
"I need to slow down. Please," I begged, hoping Connor would be more cooperative.
"You're neighborhood is a block and a half that way," Connor informed me, pointing his hand somewhere to the right. "We're almost there."
"Fine," I whimpered, following as he grabbed his sword and started down another gross, dark, alleyway. He was walking at a slightly slower pace, but I was still having quite a bit of difficulty keeping up. "Almost there, almost there," I began whispering under my breath.
I continued repeating my mantra as I followed Connor until I noticed that my surroundings were suddenly very familiar. I realized we weren't five minutes from my house, and a wide smile spread across my face as I began to fantasize about crawling into my bed and passing out for hours straight. Hell, I was even considering remaining unconscious for the entire weekend. A nice safe, peaceful slumber; I mean what was safer than sleeping? I had never been injured while I was sleeping. Well, except for that one time I accidentally almost suffocated myself under my pillow, but I had only been four at the time. So that didn't count, right?
"We're almost there!" I stated excitedly, speeding up my pace considerably. I knew I could find my way home from where we were and so I ran ahead using up what little energy I had left to catch up with Connor.
"Yeah," he replied distractedly. Looking up at him I could see that he was concentrating on something else, and I doubted he had even heard what I said. I rolled my eyes, thinking how typically Connor it was to be on edge when we were merely yards away from safety. Ignoring Connor's obvious mistrust of the situation, I hurried ahead of him in the direction of my house. As I turned the corner my house was located on, I felt Connor grab my arm and spin me around to face him.
"What now?" I asked with exasperation. Connor answered by simply holding his finger to my lips and then pointing around the corner in the direction of my house. Peering around the corner I could see that my house was surrounded by dozens of the vampires wearing purple cloaks. I wanted to burst into tears at that very moment. "No! What do we do now?" I whined quietly. Connor shook his head and watched the vampires for a moment before grabbing my hand and dragging me back the way we came.
"Come on," Connor whispered quietly. I wanted more than anything to refuse to walk anymore, but I knew that wasn't an option if I wanted to make it through the night. Although, by this point, I was beginning to seriously consider death as a promising alternative to sleep.
"Where are we going now?" I whispered once we were a safe distance from the house.
"Somewhere where you'll be safe," Connor answered, looking me in the eye.
"Who are those guys? And why are they looking for me?" I questioned, hoping Connor would have some idea what was really going on.
"You tell me," Connor stated harshly, narrowing his eyes at me suspiciously.
"How would I know?" I asked, not understanding his sudden change in demeanor.
"What are you?" Connor asked letting go of my hand and stopping to glare at me.
"What am I?"
"A key?" Connor took a step closer, looking me up and down suspiciously.
"Well, sort of…" I tried to think of a way to explain myself simply, which was, of course, no small task.
"Sort of?"
"I'm a mystical energy that has the power of opening dimensions, incased in the body of a teenage girl. Can we go now?" I recited hurriedly.
"You're a mystical energy?" Connor repeated, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"Technically," I answered uneasily. "I'm still human though! Just not in the strictly traditional sense," I trailed off, looking down at the ground to avoid seeing a look of revulsion on Connor's face.
"I can relate," I heard Connor admit quietly. I chanced a look up at him and was surprised to see that he didn't appear to be angry or overly suspicious.
"You can?"
Connor shrugged his shoulders, but remained silent for a moment. "Let's go," he said, taking my hand again and continuing down the sidewalk. Connor walked at a much slower pace, so I took advantage of the opportunity to stand as close to him as I could, trying to steal some of his body warmth. "Cold?" he asked, obviously noticing my close proximity.
"Just a little," I answered, blushing as I backed off. Connor stopped for a moment to take off his black sweatshirt and handed it to me.
"Put this on. It'll help disguise your smell, if they're out looking for us," Connor stated watching as I pulled the sweatshirt over my head.
"Thanks," I replied, truly thankful for the warmth. Connor nodded and waited for me to adjust the sweatshirt, before he began to cut through my neighbor's lawn. "Wait, where are you going?" I asked trying to catch up again.
"Short cut," Connor replied, looking back to make sure I wasn't far behind.
"Oh," was my only response as I followed behind him through the bushes and trees in my neighbors' back yard.
On the other side of the thicket, we found another person's back yard. As Connor and I crossed the yard, a strong gust of wind blew through, causing the swings on a nearby swing-set to sway. The shrill whining noise that came from the swings caused Connor to halt immediately, drawing his sword defensively.
"Relax Connor, it's just a swing-set," I explained, placing my hand on his arm to calm him.
"What?" he questioned looking at me but remaining in his defensive stance.
"A swing-set," I repeated, waiting for recognition to dawn in his eyes, but he continued to watch me, waiting for further explanation. "It's a children's toy!" I was shocked that he didn't even know what a swing-set was and began to wonder what other little things he had missed out on in his childhood.
"Strange contraption," Connor commented, before allowing his sword to drop down by his side and moving on through the yard.
"You do know where you're going, right?" I asked following a few paces behind him.
"Yeah," he answered, not stopping to elaborate.
"Sure wish I did," I muttered under my breath.
We continued walking for about ten more minutes, before we began to approach a graveyard. The entire cemetery was fenced in by a stonewall, about three feet high that had a metal gate made up of four foot long metal posts on top of it. Connor climbed up and over the fence quickly without difficulty, and turned to wait for me to do the same.
"Are you kidding? I can't do that!" I exclaimed, eyeing the fence that came to well above my head.
Connor sighed looking around, but the entrance to the graveyard was well out of our way. "Can you squeeze through the bars?" Connor asked eventually.
"Yeah maybe," I remarked sarcastically. Connor examined the fence silently.
Suddenly, he placed a hand on two of the bars and began to pull them apart. To my absolute astonishment, he was actually able to bend the bars and make a wider opening. "What about now?" he asked casually.
"Holy shit! How did you do that?" I asked, testing the other bars to see if they were flexible, but I was unable to budge them.
Connor shrugged nonchalantly, and waited for me to crawl through. It took me a moment to get up on the stonewall and then slip through the bars. "So you have, like, super strength?" I questioned as I brushed myself off and began to look around.
"Yeah," Connor answered as he began to head off in a new direction.
"Geez, do you ever slow down to take in the scenery? Every time I ask you something, you walk away," I commented, trying to catch up with him again.
"Sorry," Connor replied, still not stopping. Taking a look around, I recognized the cemetery as the one we had been in earlier that night. I scanned the graveyard, looking for the tree I had collapsed near, hoping I would be able to find my lost crossbow. I noticed the tree dead ahead of us, and smiled to myself happily, or as happily as one can smile under such circumstances.
I skipped ahead as we approached the tree and began to search for my crossbow, hoping to find it before Connor rushed me on. I spotted it near the tree where I must have dropped it when I kicked Connor. I cringed at the memory, immediately feeling guilty again. I glanced at the headstone where he had hit his head and noticed there was a little blood on it.
"Sorry about before. Ya know, when I kicked you," I told him, as I picked up my crossbow and began to inspect it for damage.
"I'm fine," Connor stated dryly. "Let's keep going. We're almost there."
"Almost where?" I asked, but got no response. Instead I followed as Connor made his way out of the graveyard, this time choosing to use one of the entrance gates rather than climbing over the fence, or through in my case.
We exited the cemetery in a more developed side of town. Most of the stores and shops were closed at this hour, which I guessed to be in the early hours of the morning. The streets were mostly deserted, with the exception of a few people walking around aimlessly, and the occasional group of people loitering on the corner of streets.
"Want anything?" Connor asked, nodding in the direction of a convenient store that appeared to be open on the corner of the street opposite of us.
"Uh, no." My stomach growled quietly at the thought of food, but the sketchy group of people hanging around outside the store persuaded me to ignore my hunger. We continued down the sidewalk a few more paces, before Connor suddenly ducked into the entrance of a run down building.
"Come on," Connor said, holding the door open for me. I hesitated a moment, looking up at the old worn building. Many of the windows were smashed in and it looked as though some of the bricks had fallen out of the side of the building. One of the top corners of the building was boarded up and the bricks were blackened where there had obviously been a fire where the damage had yet to be repaired.
"Where are we?" I asked, stepping inside the building uneasily.
"Where I live," Connor answered as he began to climb the stairs. I stood for a moment, my mouth hanging open wide with shock. I couldn't imagine anyone living in such horrible conditions. I heard the noise of something scurrying around on the floor nearby, and hurried to catch up with Connor. "Don't touch the banister," Connor warned, and I immediately retracted my hand nervously.
We climbed two flights of stairs, before Connor lead me down a dark and dirty hallway. He stopped in front of a door that was covered in peeling, white, paint and slid a key into the lock. He opened the door to reveal a very tiny room and waited for me to step inside so he could shut the door and slide on all the locks. I backed up a bit to give him more room, but immediately walked into something I guessed to be a chair.
"Careful," Connor commented quietly, as he walked over to a corner in the room and turned on a lamp. The light revealed, what appeared to be, a very tiny kitchen. There were a few cabinets, a tiny refrigerator, a stove that had to have been at least three times as old as I was, and a big gap in the counter, which I assumed, at one time, had been meant for a dishwasher. In the center of the room, there was an old end table that, I guessed, served as the kitchen table and two mismatched chairs that appeared to be falling apart.
"Umm, it's… nice," I commented, looking around the room, desperately trying not to grimace. "We're safe here?"
"Safer than our other options for tonight," Connor answered with a shrug.
"Isn't that comforting," I remarked sarcastically, placing my crossbow down on the table.
"Nothing is going to harm you here," Connor stated firmly, taking a few steps closer to stand in front of me.
"Good," I replied quietly, staring up at him nervously.
"This place is kind of small, but you can lay down in there and get some sleep," Connor offered, nodding in the direction of the dark doorframe on the other side of the table.
"Okay," I said walking toward the door he indicated.
I peered into the room carefully, but it was too dark to see anything, except for the small glowing, red, numbers on the digital clock, sitting on the floor. I noticed it was already three o'clock in the morning and I began to wonder how I made it so long without giving up and just going to sleep on the sidewalk. I felt around for a light switch, but when I eventually found it, it didn't work. Sighing, I turned around to ask Connor where the light was, but he was no longer there. I could see a little light glowing under the door of what I had previously assumed to be a closet but now guessed to be a bathroom.
"If I were a lamp, where would I be?" I asked myself aloud as I walked into the room, feeling around to keep from bumping into something. After a few steps, I almost tripped, feeling something springy beneath my feet. Kneeling down, I realized the springy something was a mattress, and so I crawled up the mattress until I was beside the digital clock I had seen before. Reaching around near the clock, I found a small lamp and turned it on, lighting the room.
Once the room was lit, I was surprised to see how small it actually was. The room was bare except for the mattress, the lamp, the clock, and a door on the right wall. Yet considering how little the room contained, it was very cramped, the mattress taking up most of the floor space. Looking around the room uneasily, I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into.
With a sigh, I pulled Connor's sweatshirt off and tossed it to the side. I pulled my tank top away from skin for a second, noticing how sticky and uncomfortable it was, clinging to my skin, covered in my dry blood.
"Here," Connor said as he walked over to the door in the corner of the room and pulled a t-shirt from his closet. "That might be more comfortable," he offered, tossing the shirt on the mattress beside me.
"Thanks," I mumbled looking it over for a moment. I pulled his shirt on over mine and took my tank top off underneath. Once the bloodied garment was removed, I realized it was ruined for good. For a second, I contemplated which would be better to wear home in front of my father, after I had gone missing for a night: a blood soaked shirt or a boy's, but it was obvious that I was going to be screwed either way. That is, if my father even noticed I was gone, of course.
Connor pulled off his shirt and sat down on the corner of the bed, fiddling with the clock. I bit my lip nervously and slid under the blanket moving to the other corner of the mattress, hoping to hide from the inevitable awkwardness. Once Connor was finished fixing his clock, he slid up the bed and leaned his back against the wall. I waited a minute, expecting him to lie down beside me, but he instead remained sitting.
"Aren't you going to lie down and sleep?" I asked looking up at him.
"No," he shook his head.
"You can if you want. I mean, I wouldn't mind if you did." I pulled myself into a sitting position beside him. "I mean, unless, you would mind, in which case, I could stay up, it is your home. You should get some rest," I explained nervously.
"I'm fine," Connor stated. "Go to sleep."
"No, I'm fine too then." I leaned back against the wall, my shoulder touching his.
A few minutes of silence passed before I began to lose the battle against sleep. I slipped out of consciousness for a second and my head fell forward and bounced back up again, jolting me awake. I blinked a few times, trying to keep my eyes open, and prevent myself from falling back to sleep, but I didn't expect myself to last much longer.
"If I lie down, will you go to sleep?" Connor asked with a sigh.
"Uh huh," I agreed thankfully.
I quickly climbed back under his blanket, and watched to make sure Connor was going to get some rest, as well. Shaking his head, he lay down beside me on the bed, resting his head on his arm and staring up at the ceiling. I yawned as my exhaustion finally hit me full force, and I fell asleep seconds later.
***
TBC…