Disclaimer: I don't own the Night World
A/N: Just like to make a shout-out to the mysterious Guest as well as Cami Ivashkov who comments on every single one of my chapters: I love reading both your guy's reviews; they make my smile and encourage me to keep writing when I'm feeling down. And thanks to anyone who reads and/or reviews, I do appreciate it greatly.
Cheaters
Someone cleared their throat loudly, waking both Emerald and Storm simultaneously. Emerald pushed herself up slightly, from having been resting her head on his chest just as Storm lifted his own head.
They locked eyes.
Then it came flooding back to her. To both of them.
She was at the hospital because Storm had gotten hurt last night, badly, and Emerald had taken him to the hospital. How she had ended up sleeping in his bed, with her head resting on his chest, arms around him, his arms around her, she couldn't quite remember at the moment.
As quick as lightning, Emerald turned to her left, nimbly rolled off the bed and landed on the floor, her heels clicking as they hit the tile floors. Storm sat up as she had rolled off the bed, too, intending to stand up, nearly forgetting he had wires and tubes hooked up to him.
"No you don't." a nurse told him sternly before he could do anything further than sit up before going over to check his vitals.
Standing on the right side of the Storm's bed was Valerie and she did not look happy. Her arms were crossed, her face a hard mask, and her foot tapping annoyingly and impatiently on the floor. Emerald ignored her as Storm apologized to her, grabbing her coat that was hanging over the back of a chair and throwing it over her arm. She quickly headed to the door but Valerie stopped her half-way through the door.
"Don't. You. Dare." she hissed, stopping her infernal tapping and turning her head to glare at Emerald who had slowly backed into the room and softly shut the door. There was a moment of tense, awkward silence as Valerie glared at Emerald, Emerald averted her gaze to the tile floors, and Storm sat there looking back and forth between Emerald and Valerie as the nurse finished checking his vitals.
As he headed out he glanced between the two women, looked at Storm with sympathy in his eyes, and swiftly exited the room. Emerald walked to the other side of Storm's bed to face Valerie.
"Listen, I'm really sorry, Valerie. I don't know what happened—" Storm started but she interrupted him, keeping her not-so-warm-anymore cornflower blue eyes trained strictly on Emerald.
"I'm not mad at you," she spat, speaking to Storm, her eyes still on Emerald, before addressing her. "I don't like getting mad at people, and I was trying to be nice to you, but this has gone too far! How do you expect me to act if, first, I find out my boyfriend's in the hospital and then I come in and find you, his ex, sleeping with him? Why didn't you call me, his girlfriend?"
"Storm's father said that it'd be better if we didn't wake you." Emerald answered in an emotionless, detached voice.
"Oh, so now it's Adrian's fault that you slept with Storm?"
"You said it, not me."
Valerie's eyes flared and she gritted her teeth.
Emerald didn't register the slap until about a second after, when she blinked and found herself staring slightly to her right side, and her cheek stung. Her hands balled into fists but she restrained herself from hitting Valerie, that wouldn't do her any good right now. Besides, there was some justice behind that slap. Emerald and Storm weren't going out and Emerald had just slept with Storm (but not in that way, the literal sleeping way).
Valerie didn't notice this, however, because she was too mad.
Emerald slowly turned her head back to face Valerie again.
"Nothing happened," Emerald strained to keep her voice emotionless. Her eyes flickered to Storm. "Storm's too good to let anything like that happen." She looked back at Valerie who wasn't buying it.
"The hell nothing happened!" She snapped slapping Emerald again, who, this time, had to put both her hands behind her back and dig her nails into her arms, drawing blood, to keep herself from jumping over the bed and attacking Valerie.
Storm put a gentle hand on Valerie's arm, "Valerie," he warned. She turned her head to look at him momentarily and seemed to calm down just a tad bit. Taking a deep breath she looked at Emerald again.
"Am I going to have to monitor you two now? How I can trust you two to even be in a room together?" she asked.
Emerald dropped her one free hand, bringing the other arm with her jacket slung over it back in front of her.
"There's no need." she said bitterly not caring if they saw her self-inflicted wounds, or heard the bitterness in her voice, unwanted tears forming in her eyes. "Nothing happened between me and him. End of story."
Valerie opened her mouth to speak but Emerald spoke before she could, "You don't have to worry about anything anymore, Valerie," her words were harsh and cold and cutting. "You won't have to see me or hear from me or interact with me ever again. You'll get to keep your precious boyfriend all to yourself." With those last words, she turned and headed out of the room without a hitch.
On her way out of the hospital, though, she blinked as she stepped outside, not realizing how bright, though overcast, it was. The unshed tears spilled over. Emerald quickly reached up to wipe them away as she continued down the street back to the Marriott.
When she got into her suite, though, instead of going into her bedroom and drowning in her miseries like she had originally wanted to, she was greeted with Sky and Carter. They stood up and appeared at the entrance of the hallway, having been sitting in her small living room area, as she entered.
Emerald slowly closed the door and made her way down the hall following them into the living room.
"How's Storm?" Sky asked sitting back down once Emerald and Carter had sat down too. She sat across from them, who were on the loveseat.
"He's fine right now. Better than last night." Emerald informed them in a dead voice.
Carter looked at her friend carefully. "Did something happen… last night?" she asked. "Have you been crying?" She leaned forward, squinting her eyes.
Emerald bit her lip and looked away, unconsciously reaching up to wipe her eyes again.
"No, I have not." she answered forcing a smile, looking back over at them.
Carter gave her a look calling Emerald on her lie. And then the words just came spilling out: "I slept with Storm."
Sky's eyes nearly popped out of his head and Carter's mouth dropped to the floor.
"Not—not in that way!" Emerald exclaimed sitting forward, hands flying up, palms facing out as she shook them like she was waving hi, only much faster. "I mean… in the-the literal way, like-like… actually sleeping with him. We didn't—I mean, we didn't—" She broke off unable to say it with Sky there. It was just too awkward.
Carter looked expectantly at Sky. He didn't get it at first but when he did, he jumped like he'd been shocked and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
He tapped a few buttons and pretended to read something.
"Uh-oh, I just got an urgent text… I-I'm late for the-the… thing at the… place." he said shoving his phone back into his pocket and standing up. "I'm glad to hear Storm is doing better. Call or text me if anything changes." He bowed slightly before swiftly heading to the door.
Carter stood too. "I'll walk you out." She followed.
"Call when you're done and I'll come pick you up." Sky said when they'd reached the door. "Be safe."
"You be safe." Carter paused. "And… thanks." she said in a barely audible whisper.
Sky smiled. "Love you."
"Love you, too."
There was a moment of silence as they exchanged a kiss and then Sky headed out to go do… whatever until Carter needed him to come pick her back up.
Carter headed back into the living room and sat down on the loveseat. Emerald stared at her cautiously. She smiled and patted the seat next to her. She continued to look at Carter for another minute or so before giving up and going to sit next to her. She stared down at her hands; Carter stared at her, waiting patiently.
Emerald rubbed the back of her neck before bringing it back down into her lap. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to remember what happened last night that had led up to this morning.
"I guess… I should start from the beginning," she mumbled sitting back, staring at the wall across from both of them as she started to tell Carter every detail she could remember of what happened last night.
She'd gone out hunting. Somehow she'd managed to get back into the Lancers. She wasn't all that welcome partly because she was a vampire and partly because of what she'd done to Hal (who used to be the head of the Lancers here in Manhattan that Emerald had regrettably tortured and killed when she'd gone on a bad streak with her father). They were still wary and cold toward her, but after a few trips with a whole group of hunters proving herself she gained some of their trust.
That might have also been because she used to be, and still was in a way, the Vigilante.
She still hunted with three or four hunters every night to monitor her, but it wasn't as bad as the five to eight that used to hunt with her. And she stuck to the streets, only killing those who fed off and killed innocent humans, like usual.
Tonight she was with Cathy, Brian, and William. She was dressed as she normally was during these hunting nights, with her navy blue spaghetti-strap tank top, jean skirt, and stiletto black boots that stopped just below her knees, the fabric, thin and velvet. Over this was her signature black pea jacket stretching down to mid-calf and one of her masks, circling her eyes that was the stick-on/peel-off kind. The color tonight was a shocking gold color. She no longer wore color contacts or a wig, because her mask—despite changing color—stayed the same and that way if a vampire saw her she was utterly recognizable as the Vigilante.
However she did start putting her hair back in different ways each night, it easier to fight without hair flying in her face while she fought. Tonight it was in a twisted up-do, with a strand of hair on her right side hanging out.
Emerald walked a few paces ahead of the three, on high alert, listening for any sounds of vampires as well as the three behind her. They were murmuring about her.
"If you're going to talk to me, I'd appreciate it if you said it to my face, thank you very much." Emerald said, stopping but not facing them.
The three exchanged looks right before Emerald turned around. None of them said anything.
"I'm waiting." Emerald said crossing her arms.
"Why do you go out and hunt your own kind? Isn't that… kind of like turning your back on your own race, or something?" Cathy asked, though Emerald was only asking for Brian who didn't trust Emerald at all, but always volunteered to go with her hunting. Probably to kill her himself if she ever slipped up, even once.
Her eyes flashed silver and she smiled, the points of her fangs pushing down on her bottom lip slightly. "Would you like me to hunt you, instead?" she asked as the three of them bristled in front of her, holding up their weapons. Emerald let her face turn human again and spun around continuing her walk as if nothing happened. "And it's not like humans kill each other all the time?" She answered.
The rest of the night had gone well, killing five vampires. Usually on these nights, Emerald watched as they fought and only helped when absolutely needed. Most of the Lancers were only out there because they were looking for revenge and why get in the way of that? They parted ways at about two in the morning, Emerald leaving her mask on. She just always liked to keep up the act until she got home. Not that she needed to, but old habits died hard.
Per usual she took the quiet, but more dangerous route home and as she was exiting and alley she came across a scene with four people, all in their early twenties. Before they could spot her she jumped behind the wall and peeked out. They weren't vampires, none of them. But the three were definitely picking on the fourth who was already bleeding from nearly everywhere on his body. Knife wounds could be seen very clearly. One long slash on each of his legs, two on each of his arms, several on his torso, and several on his face as well, though those were shallow cuts. It didn't look like they'd stabbed him just yet, but the leader, Emerald assumed, was holding the knife about ready to.
Emerald pulled back, peeled off her mask and put it into her coat pocket before taking her coat off, slinging it over her shoulder and undoing her hair, letting it tumbled down her back and around her face.
Taking a deep breath, she really didn't need because these guys were human, she stepped out and cleared her throat.
"Hey boys," she called right before it looked like the leader was going to deliver the killing blow.
All three of them looked at her, appraised her, looking for any sort of weapon or possibly any sign that she was a cop. When they had decided that she wasn't, the one wielding the knife shoved it into his belt and walked over to her, smiling a wicked gleam in his eye.
Emerald returned the smile.
"What's a little lady like yourself doing here, all alone?" the man, with dark eyes and dark brown hair, asked stopping about a foot in front her, one hand on his knife, one hand on his hip, his eyes roaming from bottom to top of Emerald.
Emerald shrugged. "Just… going for a stroll." she told him lightly, letting her eyes stray to two other members of his little gang and the victim in between them, being held against the wall by them. Emerald made sure to monitor his heartbeat.
Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome looked over his shoulder at the scene and turned back to Emerald, his eyes hardening, taking a step closer to her.
"You didn't see anything." He warned, his hand now gripping the hilt of his six-inch-long knife. "Walk away now or things are going to get real ugly."
"Are you… threatening me?" she asked.
He narrowed his eyes before taking yet another step closer. Emerald could smell the smoke and alcohol roiling off of him and did her best not to cringe away. "I don't know, you tell me." He pulled the knife out of his belt, but let his hand hang at his side.
"I'm afraid I can't." Emerald told him, dropping her hands from loosely crossed to one hand covering the other, arms hanging in front of her.
"Then we," Tall, Dark and Handsome started bringing forward his knife and gently running it across her cheek, "have a problem." He brushed some of her hair out of her face with the blade then. "I'd hate to hurt such a pretty face."
"Then don't." Emerald suggested, shrugging, meeting his eyes.
He stared at her for a moment, before looking back at his buddies for another moment. He turned to face her again when he'd made his decision. "You're right. I won't." he said right before he threw his knife into his right hand and brought it down, the blade lodging and sinking into the base of Emerald's neck, right behind her left collar bone.
She gasped and let out a small cry of pain, for Tall, Dark, and Handsome's sake, and veered away from him, knife and all. She stumbled over to the wall, leaning heavily against it, gasping and breathing heavily, letting her hair fall over the knife as she did so.
Emerald looked back over at Tall, Dark and Handsome, who seemed to be pleased with himself, smiling maliciously, liking the pain she was in. Not for long.
"Are you crazy!" she gasped, furthering the act, sliding down to a sitting position, looking up at him. He shrugged.
"I didn't say I'd hate to hurt anything else."
Emerald narrowed her eyes at him and fought the urge to say touché. Then she quickly turned back to the knife, the sensation now becoming annoying. She reached up and pulled all her hair covering the hilt over her left shoulder before reaching up, grasping the hilt, and slowly pulling it out of her neck, enjoying how Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open as he watched in disbelief as Emerald's wound healed and closed up, leaving nothing to show he'd stabbed her, not even a hint of a scar.
Tall, Dark and Handsome stumbled back as Emerald stood, smiling, leaving her coat sitting on the ground—she'd just get it later.
"W-who… what-what are you?" he stuttered.
Still smiling, Emerald jammed the knife into the wall, creating sparks and slowly walked toward him, letting the silver flood her eyes and her canines elongate.
"You're worst nightmare." she said menacingly.
"You didn't kill them, did you?" Carter interrupted, eyes wide.
Emerald shook her head. "Of course not. I simply knocked them out."
"But they saw your face. They could report you."
She shook her head again. "The powers of being a vampire. I repressed any memory of that night. They won't remember what happened or know who I am…. But I think if they see me they might have this overwhelming fear they can't explain." Emerald mused.
Carter rolled her eyes. Sometimes she couldn't understand how Emerald could like that people were afraid of her. She was a sweet, caring person with feelings and a soul it just didn't seem that way because of all the things she'd been through, which was totally understandable to Carter. Emerald had to have some to way to cope, right?
"Okay, so what does this have to do with Storm and you and the hospital bed and the sleeping, literally, with each other?" Carter wondered.
"Very specific there." Emerald muttered, hating being reminded of what happened. Carter shrugged. "Did I forget to tell you? Storm was those three guys' victim." Carter's mouth dropped at this news. "Yeah, sorry, I guess I forgot to mention that." Emerald continued with her story.
After erasing the third and final guy's memory she turned toward Storm who was now slumped against the ground, still bleeding. Worry washed over Emerald and she instantly regretted her decision to "play with her food." It was just a hard temptation to ignore. A guilty pleasure of hers.
She quickly went over to him and knelt over him, his heart beat was… okay, but getting weaker and his breath was coming out in ragged gasps. The state of his body was horrendous; the true definition of bloody murder, only Storm was still hanging on.
"Can you hear me?" Emerald asked, one of her hands brushing some blood-coated hair out of Storm's eyes.
"Emerald?" Storm asked in a hoarse voice.
"Do you have your cell phone?" she asked, planning on calling 911.
"No, they… took it. Smashed it." he answered a shaking, bloodied hand lifting slightly pointing somewhere behind Emerald. She looked and sure enough there was a pile of what used to be his cell phone.
Emerald didn't have hers either because it seemed unnecessary when she hunted.
She let out a sigh. "We need to get you to the hospital." She stood, grabbed her coat, and went back to Storm. "May I?"
"Go for it."
Carefully and as gently as she could, she took Storm's wrist and put his arm around her shoulders, slowly lifting him up, at his pace to make sure that he was in the least amount of pain. Every now and again Storm would tense, his teeth would clench and a small groan or yelp of pain would come out of his mouth, but they finally managed to stand.
As they started forward, Emerald pushing Storm to go just a tad bit faster because she was deathly afraid he wouldn't make it to the hospital before he bled out, Storm started to make conversation, "You know, I don't think I've ever seen you act like that before."
Emerald rolled her eyes. "You don't remember the time I totally turned evil with my father?" she asked.
"Yes, I do, but I mean, that was different. These guys were human—"
"You're… human."
"That's beside the point. I've never seen you so scary before in front of humans. I didn't think you had it in you." He paused. "It's kind of a turn on."
Emerald froze and looked over at him trying to decide if he was being serious or not. She finally concluded that it was because of the lack of blood to his brain.
"We need to get you to the hospital." She repeated, pushing him just a tiny bit harder.
"I totally thought he was going to attack you." Storm continued, unashamed by his previous comment, confirming Emerald's theory of lack of blood to the brain.
"He did attack me." Emerald stated dryly.
Storm chuckled. "I didn't mean in that way." Emerald looked over at him again and he winked. Her mouth dropped open and she turned back to face the front.
"Oh my God, Storm."
"No, seriously. I don't think you realize just how tempting you look, tonight. If I were him, I don't think I'd be able to help myself."
Emerald stopped short and looked at him again, shocked more than ever, questioning how badly hurt he was.
He just smiled at her.
"We really need to get you to the hospital." she muttered pushing onward.
"He really said that?" Carter half-squealed, half-laughed.
Emerald nodded, repressing a smile. It was pretty funny, thinking about it. And now that she was talking about memories of last night flooded back, crystal clear in her mind, separate and concise. No longer a blur and a jumble of distorted memories.
When they arrived at the hospital Storm was practically dead on his feet. Nurses rushed in to help him as soon as she entered, begging for their assistance. There was a bunch of talk and the next thing Emerald knew Storm was being rolled away on a gurney with five nurses surrounding him, two pushing with the third holding a breathing mask over his mouth and nose and other two trying to stop the bleeding.
Emerald let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in, before taking a big, shaky breath in. Now she had to wait. For how long, she wasn't sure because she knew that those lacerations were deep enough for stitches. And this was confirmed when she heard a nurse calling to get him to the OR stat as the doors that unauthorized personnel were never allowed to enter swung shut.
She warily took a seat in the waiting room, feeling exhausted but it lasted for only a little while before she was up and pacing. Finally a doctor came out, searching the area. She quickly walked up to her.
"Storm Kallahan?" she asked to make sure.
"Yes, are you the one who brought him in?" the doctor asked.
She nodded. "How is he?" Her throat tightened as she waited.
"He's in stable condition. He needed a lot of stitches and a transfusion but he'll be just fine. The wounds, however, are bad enough that we'd like to keep him overnight and make sure there won't be any other complications that might pop up." she answered to Emerald's complete and utter relief.
"May I go see him?"
"Of course, but I'd like to warn you he's sleeping, so do be quiet, please." With that she turned and led Emerald to Storm's room. The first thing that assaulted Emerald was the smell, the smell of different people's blood mixed together in one body. It wasn't very pleasant.
"Thank you," she told the doctor quietly who nodded and bowed out, closing the door softly as she did so. Breathing shallowly, Emerald made her way over to the side of Storm's bed, making sure to keep the click of her shoes quiet.
The color hadn't quite come back. There was a heart-rate monitor hooked up to him as well as an IV drip and then another tube or wire that Emerald didn't know also hooked up to him as well. His arms were wrapped in gauze with a line of red spotting through. And though she couldn't see it because of the hospital gown, she guessed that his whole torso had also been wrapped in gauze, and his legs possibly, too.
There were two butterfly band-aids on a cut right above Storm's left eyebrow but the other cuts—two on his right cheek, one on his left—were bandaged up.
Emerald reached out and stroked the back of Storm's hand.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her eyes getting misty, hating seeing him like this. But that was the price to being human, being susceptible to these kinds of things.
Storm's hand twitched and his eyelids fluttered. Emerald jumped and quickly removed her hand from his just as Storm mumbled her name. This made Emerald's heart jump in her chest, but she quickly shook it off and quietly exited the room. She needed to call Storm's dad and his girlfriend. They'd want to know, for sure.
"Aww, that's so cute!" Carter said. Emerald looked at her. "Oh, sorry." She composed her face to a really serious one, with her eyebrows furrowed slightly. "Totally not cute at all. What a jerk." Emerald rolled her eyes.
"This isn't supposed to cute or funny," Emerald reminded her, though Carter providing some sort of comedic relief in Emerald's life was helping her cope with the pain of still knowing that Storm didn't want her and that she basically told both him and Valerie off.
Adrian and Echo arrived about a half hour after Emerald had called.
"Where is he? Is he okay?" Adrian asked, breathless like he'd ran all the way here.
"He's fine. The doctor said he's in stable condition but they're holding him overnight. But he'll be fine. He's sleeping right now." Emerald informed both of them before Adrian and Echo went inside, Emerald staying outside to let them have their privacy.
They came out about twenty minutes later.
"Have you called Valerie?" Emerald asked, the question burning like acid in her mouth.
"No, we just wanted to see Storm, first." Echo answered.
"I should go do that soon, then."
Echo and Adrian exchanged a glance.
"Actually, she'll probably be sleeping right now. There's really no reason to disturb her so late at night." Adrian answered.
"Storm's pretty beat up and if I were his… girlfriend still… I'd probably want to know regardless of the time."
"Sweetie," Echo said gently, taking a step forward and putting a hand on Emerald's shoulder. "He's asking for you, specifically."
"He… he was talking in his sleep earlier. He's probably still just a little delirious from all that's happened tonight… or his pain meds or something." Emerald shook her head, not wanting to have her get her hopes up only to have them crushed cruelly.
Echo looked back at Adrian and they exchanged another glance.
"He… looked… pretty awake to me." Adrian said slowly.
Emerald chewed her lip, uncertain. "I don't know…" She trailed off, warily looking at Storm's closed door.
"Well, whatever you choose, we have to be going now. Work tomorrow. Need all the sleep we can get." Adrian finally said.
"Oh, yes, of course."
"Thank you for calling us." Echo stepped forward then pulling Emerald in for a short hug. It was such a sudden gesture that Emerald didn't even have time to hug Echo back before she pulled away.
"It was nothing." Emerald murmured before turning and shaking Adrian's hand. "Have a good night. I'll be sure to call you if anything changes."
With that Adrian and Echo left, leaving Emerald with a big decision. She walked up to the door and peeked through the small window. Storm had fallen asleep, so she really didn't need to go in there, but… but she really wanted to. She wanted to stay with him all night, to make sure that nothing happened and if something did happen she'd be the first to know, not only that, but she'd be able to tell everyone she'd promised to tell if anything happened.
Decided, Emerald took a deep breath and quietly opened the door and slipped in, pulling up a chair to sit by Storm's bedside. He looked so peaceful in his sleep and his breathing seemed to be much stronger now. The color had come back into his face, and he finally seemed at ease after such a long night.
A wistful smile on her face, and without really thinking about it, she reached up and gently stroked his cheek with the back of her index finger. Storm stirred and his eyelids fluttered. She started and quickly pulled her hand back, standing up, readying to leave. However, Storm grabbed her hand before she could. Chewing her lip, she slowly sat back down. Storm's hand still held hers and he gazed at her with those piercing electric blue eyes of his, even when they were half-closed.
"Thank you," he said quietly, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.
"It was nothing," she mumbled quickly pulling her hand out of his. This was bad. She should've just left. She couldn't let her hopes be lifted. Not now, of all times. They were both in relationships. "You're… you're my friend. I wouldn't just leave you there to die."
Storm then reached up and caressed Emerald's face. She closed her eyes, taking in a sharp breath, her heart stopping for a moment, her stomach tightening at his touch. She reached up with both of her hands putting one of her hands over his the other hovering over his wrist, soaking in this moment as much and as fast as she could before she softly pulled his hand away from her face, but still keeping it in both of her hands, playing with his fingers, not meeting his eyes.
A moment passed and Storm pulled his hand out of her grasp, reached up again, but this time catching one of Emerald's tears that had formed unbeknownst to her and squeezed its way out of her eye. Emerald kept her gaze down.
"Why are you crying?" he asked.
Emerald turned her head away then, taking control of her emotions. She squeezed her eyes shut tight pushing her tears back, turning her tear ducts off, pressing her lips together, holding her breath as she did so. Once sure she got hold of her emotions, she turned back to face Storm with a small smile.
"You should sleep. You've been through a lot." Her voice came out in a whisper, as much as she didn't want it to.
"Emerald—" Storm tried but she stood and stepped away from the bed.
"I have to step out for a moment." she said a little louder, forcing herself not to make a mad dash to the door and instead walk slowly and at normal pace to the door. Once outside she leaned heavily against the door, taking deep breaths that were on the verge of gasps. More tears started to form in her eyes, but she fought to hold them back by taking deeper breaths, and reaching up to squeeze the bridge of her nose, her eyes shut tight.
Emerald wasn't sure how long she stood out there but when she felt she had control of her emotions she turned around to peek through the window to Storm's room, he was fast asleep.
Letting out a breath, she quietly stepped in. She didn't know why, but something always made her go back in. Maybe she was a masochist and couldn't help herself, because just being with Storm a little while longer was the only thing on her mind and not the repercussions that would come afterward when her fantasy was shattered when Valerie showed up.
Emerald took a seat next to his bed again but this time resisting the urge to reach out and stroke his cheek or take his hand because he seemed to be such a light sleeper. She didn't want to wake him because he needed his rest and also because they might both get into more trouble than both of them really needed.
So, she sat there, watching him sleep. She watched his chest gently rise and fall, his peaceful face. She listened to his heartbeat, his human heartbeat, drowning out the heart-rate monitor. It was very melodic and Emerald found herself dozing off. Without thinking, she scooted her chair forward and rested her head on the very edge of the bed, making sure to keep a good distance away from Storm. As soon as her eyes closed, she was out.
I'm sorry guys, last week and this week was a really rough time for me. Now I have a horrible writer's block. Thankfully I remembered that I had prewritten this as a future idea, so I could get some kind of chapter to you—and two pages longer than my usual—because you deserve that much.
The good news is I do have a week off for Thanksgiving, so hopefully, when I'm fully rested and restored my writer's block will disappear and you'll get the next chapter much sooner than the two weeks I've been making you wait for the past month.
thank-you-for-everything
~ See you at the Millennium!