Shark of Spades

Rely on Us

*from Jack's POV*

I looked at our intertwined hands and her sleeping face, and despite knowing that she was one of the strongest people I knew, she looked so small and fragile. For a creature as such to be burdened with such enormous pain for so many years...I had to hold back my anger. If it was up to me, her mom probably wouldn't exist anymore. But, chances were that doing such a thing wouldn't make her happy, so I  resisted. Instead, I pulled a cell phone out of my pocket and speed dialed 1 to place a call to the only stored contact on the phone.

I waited for Evan to pick while rubbing my thumb against the back of her hand. For means of communication, it had been decided that we would all get matching phones, but she claimed that she didn't trust them, what with geotagging and all, so we'd just decided to make sure one of us was always by her side, hence the apartment companion rotation plan. My thoughts trailed off for a moment, but Evan picked up and I snapped back to attention.

"Yes?" he asked, sounding tired but also a little bit wired, as though he'd been napping lightly and had seized the  phone as soon as it vibrated before fumbling to accept the call. "What's wrong?"

"She's-"

"Is she okay?" he asked immediately.

"Yeah. She's fine. It's just that she had a nightmare about her parents. Apparently, she went back to see them a few years ago, only her mom didn't recognize her. She's trying to act like she's okay, but...you can tell when a person's heart is scarred, you know?"

Evan was silent for a moment, processing. Finally, "Yeah." He sighed, sounding sad then  angry. "Why didn't she tell me? I'm her brother. I'm always there for her." Sounding slightly desperate, he repeated, "She should have been able to tell me."

"Yeah, like you're the picture of reliable. Dead on again, off again?" I replied sarcastically, angry for reasons  unbeknownst entirely to me, only that he'd failed in his role as a sibling and that bothered me. Before he started fighting with me, I continued, "What are we going to do?"

"What do you mean? Isn't it better for Card if we pretend like it never happened?"

"Normally, I'd agree with you, but this is her second nightmare in as many weeks.  What if it happens more frequently? When do we draw the line between not noticing and taking action?"

He paused, thinking over what I'd said, before he sighed. "All right. Can we meet somewhere?"

"Right now?" I asked, looking down at our intertwined hands.

"Yeah."

"Can't. Card might wake up and notice that I'm gone. We'll have to find a pocket of time tomorrow where he won't notice our absence," I said,  speaking more quietly in case she woke up and making sure to use the right pronoun (he instead of she) in case the line was insecure.

"Okay,"  he replied, his voice as serious as I had ever heard him. "I'll try to find an available time. Meanwhile...it would be weird if I came over...so just...watch over he- him - for me, okay? At least until  tomorrow."

"Yeah."

We both hung up, and I suddenly realized that the two of us, no matter our history, were far more similar than I'd  ever given thought to. Right now, we were both revolving around the identity of one person...I looked at Card's face, almost as expressionless as normal, and realized that without her existence, neither Evan nor I would have anywhere...anyone...to go back to. Card was home, for us.

I  leaned over and kissed her forehead, half expecting to hear the click of the safety, but she was still asleep. "I just wish that you'd rely on us more," I whispered into her ear before sitting back up and just  watching her face, not letting go of her hand. Probably not what Evan meant...

"I promise you, we're going to help you. Just rely on us."