Lee climbed the stairs behind Kristen, Jim following behind her. "Are you sure this is okay?" Lee asked. "Ed seemed pretty … Exhausted when he left."
"Edward insisted that it was alright," Kristen said uncertainly. "So long as we don't mind him sleeping in the next room …" She shook her head. "But I'm starting to suspect he's too considerate for his own good."
As Kristen opened the door, the bed appeared to be empty. "That's strange …" she frowned, going farther into the apartment, before she saw Edward sprawled on the floor on the other side of the bed, as if he had fallen out without waking up. She shook her head as she went over to him, shaking his shoulder gently. "Edward," she said. "You can't sleep on the floor like that." She glanced over at Lee. "Maybe we should do this another time," she started to say.
"Is he okay?" Lee asked stepping into the apartment with Jim behind her.
"I'm fine." Edward said groggily. "I just fell. Go play … I don't mind." He said waving his hand tiredly as he sat up. He ignored the three as he pulled himself back into bed and pulled the blankets over himself.
Kristen looked up at Lee. "What do you think?" she asked quietly.
Edward groaned. "I think you should go downstairs or stop talking." Edward grumbled into his pillow. Jim looked up at Kristen and smiled slightly.
"I think we should do what the man says." Jim said quietly. "Let's leave him be."
"Thank you." Edward mumbled, his eyes closed as Lee made her way to the trap door.
"Come on, Mario awaits!" Lee said before Ed started getting mad.
"Alright," Kristen conceded, smiling slightly at Edward's sleepy grumpiness, before heading to the trapdoor and down the stairs with Lee and Jim, setting up the console and tossing them each a controller.
*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz*
Edward groaned and hit the hang up button on his cell, turning over and falling asleep again easily.
*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz*
*bzz bzz*
Edward groaned and reached for his phone, he flipped it open and rolled onto his back. "What?" He mumbled.
"Edward." The word alone woke Edward to near full wakefulness.
"Captain Barnes." He said forcing himself to sit up. He'd never received a call from Barnes personally before.
"I need you to come in. We need to have a little chat." He said flatly. Edward flinched.
"Yes sir, may I ask in regards to what sir?" He asked.
"No. I expect you here asap." Barnes said hanging up before Edward could say anything further. He tossed his phone back onto the dresser and looked at the time. 5 PM. He'd slept maybe two hours … Two and a half at most. They were determined to kill him.
He got up and poured himself some coffee from the pot before heading downstairs. "Hey." He said tiredly sitting down in one of his chairs as he sipped his coffee.
"Why are you up?" Jim asked, "Shouldn't you be asleep. Kristen said you'd worked like … almost 40 hours, you should be sleeping."
"Barnes called me in. Said he wanted to have a meeting." He said downing half of his cup of coffee. "I'm going to take a shower and head back in. Hopefully it won't take long." He said watching Kristen's and Lee's character's bouncing around on the screen before the game was paused. "I didn't mean to interrupt, by all means keep going."
Kristen looked up at him, worried. "You said … Captain Barnes called you in?" She had a bad feeling about this, deep in the pit of her stomach.
"Mhmm." He said pushing his glasses up his nose. "Didn't say what it was about. Just said he wanted me in asap, and hung up on me." He said finishing off his coffee. "Which means I probably shouldn't keep him waiting." He said standing up to go and shower.
"Be careful," she said quietly. "Barnes was … he was starting to ask questions about your qualifications to help with M.E. duty." And it was her fault. Barnes was a hard ass, and had been sweeping through GCPD like a hurricane in his quest to clean things up … But he had never noticed Edward before Kristen had gone and brought him to his attention.
"Don't worry. I won't mention Lee authorized me." He said heading towards the stairs.
"Ed … Don't risk your job for me. If you need to drop my name, I can handle myself." Lee said watching him head to the stairs.
"I'll be fine."