A Million Pieces | D.S

11

TW: stalker

Dan kept to his promise and returned to London at the end of the week. It took some time for him to build the guts up to knock on Rowan's door. His heart was pounding in his ears, nervous to see her beautiful smile again. Rowan takes her time to get to the door. When it is opened, Oscars head pokes out before Rowan looks out also. She beams at Dan, who signs hello.

"Please come in!" Rowan smiles, stepping out the way for Dan to come in. He hangs up his jacket and they make their way into the living room. "Tea? Coffee?"

"Coffee please." Dan replies, sitting down on the couch. His nerves have still not settled, he feels really anxious to be back in Rowans house. Oscar jumps up onto the chair beside Dan and settles himself, watching Dan with a close eye. "Hey bud." Dan mumbles, giving him a pet. Rowan soon comes back with Dan's coffee and sits beside him.

"How have you been?" Rowan asks, picking up her coffee and having a sip.

"Been better." Dan awkwardly laughs. "Yeah it was a lot to take in unfortunately." Dan takes a sip from his coffee, the room still feeling very very awkward. "I like you, a lot, Rowan. Which I think you know."

"I like you too Dan but I still somewhat stand with what I said. I don't think I could date you." Rowan replies awkwardly. Dan sighs quietly and looks down at the carpet.

"I understand where you're coming from." Dan whispers, his signing starting to become a bit hesitant. Dan's signing is still at a pretty basic level, he has not learned any new words recently. Before Dan gets the chance to continue, Rowan's arms wrap round him, tightly. Something he needed after the last couple of weeks. He can feel a couple of tears welling up in his eyes, before the light sobs come.

"Hey don't cry Dan." Rowan whispers, pulling back to look at his face. She places her hand up and lightly rubs the tears away. "Please don't cry." Dan slowly nods his head, wiping away the tears with his hoodie sleeve. "I think what we need to do is get back to where we were before all of this kicked off yeah?" Rowan smiles, trying to help the situation slightly. "Push all romantic feelings to the side for awhile and lets work on our friendship more than anything Dan." Dan nods his head, some tears still slipping from his eyes.

"I agree, I think that's best for just now." He replies, still sniffling a little bit. He pulls Rowan in for a tight hug. "I just don't know how I will manage it with these feelings." He whispers, Rowan unaware of the comment. They pull away from the hug and give each other a small smile.

"How about a movie? I reckon something good must be on! We can get pizza?" Rowan suggests, grabbing her phone and pulling up a Dominos menu.

"Sure!" Dan replies. "What are you thinking film wise?"

"You choose." Rowan smiles, pointing over to the DVD selection.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dan and Rowan are on their third film, it is nearly 1am. Dan hears a light knocking coming from a window. He pauses the film, to which Rowan looks up at him, a confused look on her face.

'Someone knocked the window'  Dan signs quietly. It happened again. Dan slowly gets up and slowly pulls away the curtain. His stomach dropped to see a man staring back at him, a smirk on his face. Dan quickly shuts the curtains and runs over to Rowan on the couch. He picks her up and takes her to the bathroom. 'Stay here. Lock the door and I will text when it's okay.' Dan signs. Rowan quickly starts to look scared. She knows something is very very wrong. The window knocking is starting to get more aggressive. Dan picks up his phone and dials in 999.

"Hi, Police please." Dan whispers, guarding the toilet.

"What's the emergency?" The person on the line asks.

"Someone is trying to break into my friends house. I am currently with her. She has been stalked before and I think it is the same guy. I don't know if he is armed but please hurry." Dan replies, listening to the knocking, which is more like bashing the window now. How the glass is holding up he does not know, but he hopes it stays that way. It takes another ten minutes before the police arrive. Dan watches the flashlights around the house, before a lot of shouts and silence. A knock at the door follows after another few minutes. Dan looks through the peep hole and it is a police officer.

"Hi sir, we just wanted to let you know we successfully caught the man that was outside the house. Can we take a statement from you?" The police officer asks.

"Can you give me two minutes, I need to make sure my friend is okay." Dan replies, texting Rowan to unlock the bathroom door. Dan opens the bathroom door to see Rowan at the door, shaking. Dan takes her hand and slowly walks with her to the living room. "Sit there, I will be two minutes." Dan signs, heading back towards the police officer.

~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Can you stay the night?" Rowan whispers, still shaken up about the whole thing.

"I can." Dan replies with a small smile. By the time the police had left and Dan had explained everything it was about 3am. The film was forgotten about after the whole ordeal, Rowan just wanted to go to bed.

"Can you sleep in my room." She adds on. "You don't have to, I know we have just started talking again but I am just really really scared."

"It is fine Rowan, I'll stay and sleep in your room, as long as you're okay with it." Dan smiles, giving her arm a little squeeze. They both get up and head towards Rowan's bedroom. It was tidy, with lots of photographs hanging around the walls. Dan spies one of them together above her desk, one of their record shopping days. He smiles slightly at the memory before watching Rowan grab some pajamas.

"I'll go get changed in the bathroom... you just uh... do your thing." Rowan whispers, slightly blushing. I nod, waiting for her to leave and awkwardly take off my t shirt and jeans, getting myself comfortable in Rowan's bed. After five minutes Rowan returns, avoiding eye contact. She slowly gets into bed, turning the side lamp off. There is an awkward silence, a small night light glowing in the corner of the room. Dan turns round to make sure Rowan is okay. She stares back at him, thinking about what move next. She shuffles forward towards Dan and slowly cuddles into his chest. Rowan looks up slowly, Dan meeting her gaze. "Thank you Dan, you mean so much to me." She whispers.

"You mean lots to me too." Dan replies, Rowan somewhat making out the words that Dan replied with.