So I've had this written for a while and just realized I never actually posted it? Unsure if anyone actually reads this story but I have almost all of it written so I will finish it at some point! Let me know what you think!

Cameron

"This is absolutely adorable, really." A voice squeals and Kirsten and I simultaneously groan. "I mean I knew you guys were having sleepovers every night, but in the same bed and all cuddled up? This is just absolutely precious."

"Kirsten doesn't cuddle." I correct, yawning and reaching to grab my glasses so that I can properly see my new house guest. I fix them on my face and give Camille a weak glare. She's leaning against my open door, smiling. "How the hell did you get into my apartment?"

"I picked the lock, duh." She says matter of factly.

"Please let me go back to sleep." Kirsten groans, into my neck, her lips tickling the sensitive area. I fight a smile and wrap my arm back around her, closing my eyes for just a second.

"Camille!" I squeak in surprise as she pulls back the covers and climbs in the bed on the other side of me.

"Kirsten is right, your bed is super comfy. Maybe we could all have sleepovers!" She suggests, flopping back on one of the pillows. "Hold up, are you not wearing pants, Dr. Goodkin?"

"I'm wearing boxers, get out of my bed." I snap and know I am turning a bright red. Camille laughs loudly and Kirsten finally pulls her head away from where she had buried it against my neck and props her chin up on my chest. "Oh my god, please tell me that's you, Kirsten, who is stroking my leg."

"Nope." Kirsten smirks. "Hi, Camille."

"So it's okay if Kirsten strokes your leg but when I do it, it's wrong?" Camille fake pouts. "What happened to equality for all?" Kirsten pats my cheek.
"Oh lighten up, Stud, there are worse situations you could find yourself in." Kirsten says, too cheerful for someone who was groaning about lack of sleep only seconds before.

"Dude." Linus states, walking into the room and munching on a box of Lucky Charms that Kirsten begged me to buy even though they are so bad for you and have not one bit of nutrition. But, hey, I'm a sucker for blondes. "I have totally had this dream before but Cameron was never in it."

"I swear to god, if you eat all the marshmallows I will kill you." Kirsten proclaims, sitting up and climbing out of bed. She's dressed like she always is at night, one of my t-shirts and just her underwear, my shirt stopping just after her butt.

"So Kirsten is the one with no pants on." Camille comments. "Hey!" She snaps at Linus who is staring shamelessly at Kirsten's legs. "Eyes over here." It's the only thing Camille has done this morning that I support. I follow Kirsten and climb out of the bed, immediately grabbing a shirt to cover up my scar. I know Camille and Linus have seen it but I don't want to remind them about the ugly mark. Kirsten shoots me a look but doesn't say anything. She grabs some clothes from the drawer I had cleared for her earlier this week and heads into the bathroom to change.

"I don't appreciate you guys breaking into my apartment." I say.

"Kirsten does it all the time." Camille points out, finally climbing out of my bed.

"Kirsten has a key." I respond, sorting through my drawers to find the clothes I want for the day. Everything in my apartment has become severely less organized since Kirsten basically moved in.

"Well why don't I have a key?" Camille asks, heading over towards Linus to get some Lucky Charms. He swings an arm lazily around her neck and tilts the box in her direction.

"Because your not—" I stop.

"Not what?" She asks innocently, picking just the marshmallows out of the box. Kirsten is not my girlfriend but she's also more than just a friend and I don't know how to explain that to Camille without sounding like a lovestruck fool. I give Linus a look as a silent plea to help me out.

"Sorry, I can't take you seriously with that whole Jimmy Neutron hairdo going on." Linus laughs. I reach up and try to pat my hair down. Kirsten comes out of the bathroom dressed in leggings and a white t-shirt with a blue zip-up sweatshirt of mine layered on top.

"Hey I was looking for that." I sigh but am already reaching for a gray one instead, deciding that dressing comfy for the day would probably be the best option. "And that's my toothbrush, again. Seriously, Stretch, yours is sitting right next to mine." She seems unfazed and instead runs a hand through my hair to stand it up again.

"You look fine." She says, though it's muffled since she's brushing her teeth. I roll my eyes and follow her back into the bathroom. She spits into the sink and continues brushing.

"You're in a good mood today." I observe, deciding that even though our peaceful sleep was interrupted by Camille and Linus, I'm happy if she's happy. She spits one last time and rinses out her mouth.

"Yeah." She muses. "I guess I am, you didn't snore last night."

"I do not snore! And please stop telling people that!" I gasp but she's already laughing like it's a joke I'm not in on. "If you didn't insist with sleeping with your face practically on top of mine, you wouldn't be able to hear me breathe and this wouldn't be a problem."

"Are mom and dad fighting?" Camille calls from the other room. We both ignore her.

"I'm kidding." She promises. "You don't snore, I just have way too much fun pestering you about it." I roll my eyes. "Just shower, I'll occupy the kids so you can have a few minutes Camille and Linus free."

"Thanks, Stretch."

I shut the door behind her and take a deep breath. It's bizarre how that whole situation and interaction this morning seemed relatively normal. I turn the shower on and pull the shirt I had just put on, off. It was stupid of me to do that. Camille and Linus don't care and if I can let the girl I am possibly madly in love with see my scar, what's wrong with my two best friends seeing it? I put my contacts in before stepping into the shower and let the warm water run over me.

I want so badly to ask Kirsten what is going on with us but I'm worried that it would ruin everything or worse, that she would make that confused face and ask what the hell I was talking about. I finish up in the shower and get out, drying off, brush my teeth, get dressed, and try to blow dry my hair a little so it looks more laid back and cool instead of like I was trying to copy Jimmy Neutron.

Before I even leave my bedroom, I can hear Camille laughing. Her and Linus are sitting at my breakfast bar while Kirsten stands in front of it, a spoonful of Nutella in her mouth.

"Uh oh, what's wrong?" I ask, draping an arm around Kirsten, she wraps her free arm around my waist and leans into my chest.

"They're being mean." She states. Camille is smiling happily, her eyes darting between the two of us. Linus is staring at Camille in a way I imagine I stare at Kirsten. He's playing with the ends of her hair and his other hand is doing something under the counter that I can't see and don't want to see.

"Why are you guys here?" I ask. "Maggie hasn't called us in yet."

"I was bored." Camille sighs as if that's reason enough to do anything she wants. "Can we go to that coffee place on Sepulveda?"

"Sure!" Linus exclaims, eager to please. I roll my eyes but glance down at Kirsten just as she finishes licking the spoon clean. She shrugs.

"I mean it won't be a kale smoothie made by you but…" She trails off with a smirk.

"Hey!" I banter back. "Those are very good for you. You need something to balance out all the Nutella you eat, this is the second jar this week!"

"Let me grab my shoes." She ducks from under my arm and heads to the foyer. She slides her feet into her still tied sneakers and forces them all the way in. I grab the jar of Nutella seal it back up as well as the nearly empty box of lucky charms and put them back in the cupboard. She heads back over towards us, holding my sneakers in one hand by the laces and the spoon in the other.

"Thanks." I take the shoes from her and lean against the counter to put them on my feet. Unlike Kirsten, I actually tie and untie my sneakers before putting them on or taking them off.

Opposites attract, right?

Kirsten

I settle into the stitching chair and take a deep breath.

Riley Donovan, thirty-two, found strangled to death in her apartment. Her husband, Ryan, had been away on business and discovered the body late last night when he returned home.

Camille's words echo in my head as Cameron goes through his check list to stitch.

"Princess?" He asks.

"Yup." I respond, shutting my eyes.

"Three, two, one…stitch." I can hear his voice clearly through the comm piece but I'm standing in an apartment. I glance around. Everything is extremely tidy.

"This apartment is even cleaner than yours, Cameron." I say.

"My apartments only messy when you're there." He responds. "What else do you see?"

"Riley. She's sitting at the computer." I explain, moving closer to her. "Ryan just walked in, this is before he left on his business trip, can you move me closer to the time of the murder?"

"On it." Linus says. I'm shifted to another memory.

"Riley is standing in front of an apartment, I'm not sure if it's her building or not. Apartment 1C?" I explain. Riley knocks on the door and a middle aged man with long hair opens the it.

"Hi! My name is Riley Donovan from 4B, my husbands out of town and there's something wrong with the faucet in our bathroom, do you think you can take a look?"

The guy looks her up and down and nods his head yes, saying he'll be right up.

"If it's her building then 1C is Jerry Delmar, the landlord." Camille calls out. "Kinda scummy looking, long hair?"

"That's him." I answer. The memory shifts a third time and I am back in the apartment.

"Thank you so much for coming up here so late, I really appreciate it."

"Well maybe we can work out a way for you to repay me?"

"I don't know what you mean…"

I watch as Jerry tries to lean in to kiss her. She pushes him away from her.

"Jerry just tried to kiss her and she's not interested…" I explain as I watch the situation unfold.

"I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, I'm married, I just needed the faucet fixed."

"Kirsten, you need to bounce, you're too close to—"

All of the sudden I can't breathe and I'm choking and completely frozen.

Jerry has his large hands wrapped tightly around Riley's throat and, like me, she is struggling to breathe.

"Kirsten!" I can hear Cameron's voice. I'm coughing and sputtering and trying to get some air into my lungs but I can't make myself breathe.

"Her heart rate is 115, cerebral temp 102.5!" Ayo yells from somewhere that is not the Donovan's apartment.

"Kirsten, Kirsten!" Cameron is repeating my name over and over and I can hear the panic in his voice. Camille and Linus are also saying my name and I hear Maggie mutter 'shit'.

"Can't. Breathe." I manage to gasp out, my lungs aching painfully. Suddenly I can feel a pressure on my face that is different from the iron grip around my lungs.

"Don't touch her!" That's Ayo again.

"You're not actually there, you're not actually being strangled, type in your pin code. Kirsten, you're in the lab, you're not actually getting strangled. You can breathe." I feel like I am going to pass out but try to focus on Cameron's voice instead and manage to move my fingers to type in my exit pin code. I open my eyes, sitting up in the fish tank and finally manage to get a gasp of breath in. It hurts my lungs. I yank the monitoring cords off of me and struggle to climb out of the tank, still trying to breathe.

"You're okay, you're okay." Cameron repeats, letting me fall into his arms. I claw my fingers at my throat trying to remove hands that were never there and feel for bruises that will never appear. Ayo is standing right over us with an oxygen mask in one hand. "Just breathe." He whispers and I remove my hands from my throat, instead wrapping them tight around him. Oxygen has never tasted so good.

"Do you want the oxygen mask?" Ayo asks.

"No." I shake my head, my voice sounding scratchy. She puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Let's go get you changed and check your temperature again." She suggests. Cameron keeps his arms around me and half drags me to the locker room. I'm happy to be away from everyone's watchful eyes. I don't want them thinking I am weak or incapable of handling myself in a stitch. Cameron forces me to unwrap my arms from him and sit on the metal bench in the center of the locker room. He crouches down in front of me and runs his fingers over my neck and jaw, checking for something, before settling his left hand to cradle my neck. He wordlessly holds his right hand out to Ayo who hands him the oxygen mask, connected to a small tank she's carried back here.

"I don't need—" I start, the words coming out in a painful gasp.

"Shut up, I won't tell anyone you took the oxygen." He snaps but I can tell he's not actually mad at me by the way his fingers lightly stroke my neck. He gently holds the oxygen mask in front of my face. I breathe deeply and let my eyes close. I understand why people go to oxygen bars now. The pureness of this oxygen fills my lungs and makes me feel like I'm coming back to life.

"Can I…" Ayo trails off and I open my eyes. She's waving the wand-like thermometer to indicate she wants to take my temperature. I nod my head but Cameron makes no move to back away from me. She reaches over him and rests the tip of the wand on a few different places on my forehead. "Your temp is lowering, 100.2, you should be fine, but I suggest you get changed."

"Okay." I say even though the mask is still blocking me and it comes out muffled. Already my throat doesn't feel as scratchy, but it still hurts. Cameron pulls the mask back and lets me get up. I walk over to my locker and pull out my clothes from this morning before heading into the stall to change.

"Thank you, Ayo." Cameron sighs. I pull my clothes on as quickly as I can and am just putting Cameron's sweatshirt on as I come out. I hang the cat suit in my locker and turn to face Cameron. He's now sitting on the metal bench I was on. He's leaning forward so his elbows rest on his knees and his face is buried in his hands.

"Hey, don't look so miserable, Stud. I'm fine." I say as cheerfully as I can, trying to hide how shaken up I actually am. I drape my arms over his shoulders and press my face into the side of his neck. He lets out a shaky breath and leans back, bringing his hands up to rest on my arms around his neck.

"You couldn't hear because Maggie took her comm unit off but she was telling me to pull you. We'd already passed the two minute mark but she was telling me to pull you anyway and when I wouldn't she was telling Camille to." He explains quietly. "God, I could have—you could have—"

"But you didn't I'm fine, really." I mumble into his neck, stifling the cough that threatens to come out. I pull away from him and straddle the bench he's sitting on, inching closer to him. He still looks miserable so I pull on his shoulder until he's closer to me and press my lips to his cheek, letting them linger for a few seconds. "Come on, this is the easiest case ever. There's no doubt in who the killer is, we'll be out of here before lunch and then we can go watch Netflix all day in bed."

"Okay." He finally responds. He's perked up a tiny bit but still looks on edge. I lace my fingers with his and pull him up. For once I let him lead the way and stick close to his side instead of dragging him with me.

"Oh my god, are you okay, Kirsten?" Camille asks. Her and Linus look absolutely stricken and had been whispering quietly at Linus's desk before they spotted us. Maggie is standing outside the conference room, leaning against the glass while Ayo speaks to her. She's nodding her head but staring right at Cameron and me.

"I'm fine." I respond in a monotone voice. "It happened, it's over, I'm fine."

"Kirsten." Linus says nervously, his eyes flittering over to Cameron's then back to mine. "I know you said you didn't want anyone to know but I had to tell Maggie because she wanted to understand how this happened and I'm so sorry Kirsten, I didn't think turning it up would cause that I swear."

"What are you talking about, Linus?" Cameron asks. I squeeze his hand tightly, he's going to be so mad at me.

"I asked Linus to turn up the feelings during the stitching." I say as neutral as I can but there is a slight wheeze in my voice that makes me sound more feeble and less in charge.

"You what?" Cameron all but yells. "What the hell, Kirsten!" He lowers his voice but the anger is still there.

"I was trying to understand emotions better and, when that nob is turned up, I do and it's easier for me to relate them to situations in real life." I try to explain calmly.

"Yeah, well thank god you'll know how to feel if you get choked to death in real life." He snaps sarcastically. I flinch and pull my hand out of his, crossing my arms.

"Cameron…" Camille says in warning but she's staring at the hurt I know is present on my face. I subconsciously reach up and rub my neck.

"And Linus," Cameron turns to take his anger out on his best friend. "How could you not tell me this! Stitching is dangerous enough. One wrong move and Kirsten's dead and you want to make the risks worse!" Cameron's whisper yelling which is almost worse than real yelling.

"Hey!" Linus defends. "I didn't know it could cause her to shut down! She told me she didn't know what it felt like to be happy and that this would help her, what was I supposed to say?"

"You say no or you say maybe we should check with Cameron."

"Hey—" Camille interrupts, putting one hand on each of their chests. "Cut it out boys. Kirsten's right, she's fine." She looks pointedly at Cameron when she says that. "But Linus is going to turn that emotions nob back down to normal." She glances to Linus who nods his head in defeat.

"Conference room." Maggie calls, pushing away from the spot she was leaning against. "Now." I push past all three of them and head up to the conference room, sitting in my usual seat. The other three file in and sit in their usual chairs as well. "What the hell were you thinking?" She directs the question at me and I can tell how mad she is but I think I can also detect worry in her voice. I don't answer, instead just cross my arms and wonder if it is as obvious to everyone else as it is to me that Cameron and I aren't holding hands.

"I'll turn the emotions back down immediately." Linus pipes up.

"Uh, yeah, you will." Cameron says, crossing his arms as well.

"So you weren't in on this little plan?" Maggie asks Cameron, sounding surprised.

"Of course not." He responds angrily. "I never would have okayed that."

"Okay." Maggie sighs, suddenly sounding calmer than she did just seconds before. "Is it safe to say Jerry Delmar killed Riley?" She directs the question at me.

"Yes." I answer, surprised at how out of breath I still sound and feel.

"How's your throat?" She asks.

"I'm fine." I snap, but start coughing at the end which ruins my answer. I'm very aware of Cameron and how his body is angled towards me with his right hand hovering over my arm but carefully not touching me and I wonder if he will ever forgive me for going behind his back.

"I think you should go home and get some rest, Kirsten." She says and then glances over at Cameron. "You can—"

"Yeah, I got it." He mutters. I get up and head out the door, feeling annoyed, Cameron following close behind me.

"You can just bring me home…to my house, I mean." I clarify, waiting for the elevator doors to open.

"Huh?" He asks, looking genuinely surprised.

"You don't have to babysit me." I snap, walking in to the elevator and clicking the ground floor button. He follows me in, right before the doors shut.

"I'm not babysitting you, Kirsten. I'm making sure you're okay and that you don't have any severe reactions to residual emotions." He sighs. The doors open and we leave out the side door of the Chinese restaurant. "We can just sit in bed and watch Netflix like you said."

"You…still want to do that?" I ask quietly. The tenseness that had been in my shoulders slowly dissipates and I feel like I can actually breathe better now. "Even though you're mad at me?"

"Of course." He responds. "Kirsten, people can be upset with each other and still…still care about each other." I pause mid-step at the edge of the sidewalk and turn to face him. He looks genuine and worried and the last of my irrational anger dissolves. I wrap my arms tightly around his middle and burry my face into his neck. He wraps his arms around me too and lets out a sigh.

"So you'll forgive me?" I ask.

"Of course, I'm not even really mad at you…I'm just…I'm sorry that happened, okay?" He answers. "How's your neck?"

"It hurts." I tell him truthfully. He presses his lips against the crook of my neck. It feels like a peace offering.

"How about we go make you some tea with honey and you can pick the Netflix show?" He suggests, pulling back a little to look at me. I lift my head off his shoulder.

"Or I can have hot chocolate with whip cream and I can still pick the Netflix show?" I suggest. He rolls his eyes but smiles anyway.

I cuddle up into Cameron's side later that night, content with knowing that even if he's mad, he's still fine with me being there. I know I have to just tell him but I'm worried he'll make fun of me. It's ridiculous, really, this is Cameron. He's not going to make fun of me.

"I don't want you to be mad at Linus." I start.

"I'm not mad— I mean, I am mad, just more so at the stitchers program in general and how dangerous it is for you." He sighs. His left arm that is wrapped around me pulls me little closer. "I just don't understand why you did it. I thought you hated feeling anything."

"It's not that I hate it…it's just that it's different and it takes some getting used to. I'm just trying to be…better." I try to explain, not even sure how to explain what I was trying to do.

"Better?" He asks.

"For…for you, Cameron." Once that's out, there's no confusion as I quickly try to explain my rational. "It's not fair for anyone, especially you, to have to deal with me when I can't process how anyone around me is feeling or even what I'm feeling."

"You process feelings just fine!" Cameron insists. "And I'll tell you if I'm feeling something you should know about." He noticeably swallows. "Please don't put yourself in anymore unnecessary danger. I don't…I don't know what I'd do if something happened to you." I nod my head in defeat.

"I'm sorry." I apologize. "Forgive me?"

"Of course." He sighs loudly. I feel like he wants to say something else but he doesn't and I don't want to ask what he's feeling.

So I just fall asleep