Come back to me

Chapter 8

After the two had started to fall asleep inside Chip's house, with Dale on the couch while Chip was in his own bed on the other side of the room, things started to turn quiet and calm for both,

Until several hours later, when Chip suddenly begun to have visions of what seemed to be his own memories.

They were vivid, blurry and somewhat highly emotional in its scenery.

And at the time, he couldn't understand what they meant or why he was in this intense state.

But it must have been too significant for him to easily slide past these images from his mind.

The dream was swirled with beautiful light watercolors in shades of blue.

As if he was sad but at the same time, genuine.

"You know the morning I first met you, when were just kids at the cafeteria......"

"I never told you this, but I begged my mom to let me stay after school because I didn't have any friends...."

"I was so scared and so lost...just like you...."

"And I knew from there that it's because I needed you more than you needed me......."

All of which were his own words, told to a very special person.

Someone like.....

To which, a hidden face in the murky vision was about to surface into view....

Until all of a sudden, Chip's eyes popped open awake as he slowly sits up from his bed and rubbed his aching head that had been pounding vigorously from the severe concussion of the incident.

His heart has also been rapidly beating as he wiped his face away with his hand and notices how much sweat and tears his body had been enduring during his dream.

Man...if only I could remember......

How much I have actually missed him.

Chip thought sadly while getting up off of his bed and walked over to the kitchen to grab some water.

When he got to the fridge, he opened it up slowly and attempted to quietly grab a water bottle without disturbing him.

But it was already too late.

As Dale immediately turns over and stirred himself awake.

"Mmm. Chip? What are you still doing up?" Dale asked while rubbing his eyes open with a small yawn.

"I couldn't sleep." Chip said with a small shrug before chugging down some water while Dale's facial expression quickly turns into concern.

"Oh. What happened? Is everything okay?" Dale asked, worried as he stands up from the couch and walks over to him.

Chip, however, didn't want tell him what really went through his mind.

Fearing that Dale's constant worrying would only keep him from knowing the truth about the incident that had caused him to be forgetful in the first place.

So, he started to laugh and brush it off like it wasn't anything important.

"Pfft. Oh yeah, it's nothing special. Just an ole classic case of insomnia, that's all. He he. You know how it is these days. All that hard work out there can really get the best out of us." Chip said with a chuckle hoping that Dale would join in on the fun.

Except that Dale wasn't even laughing at all, not one bit.

With his face more serious and unmoving in expression.

"Uh Huh." Dale said, not believing in any of his his excuses.

You're lying....

Why can't you tell me what's really going through your mind right now?

Dale thought as tries to decipher what was the cause of the dream. 

It could have been the stress that he had to undergo from the incident and the hospital visit.

Or it might have been about his memories that were starting to click into place again.

Or maybe.....it could have been about him caring enough for him to not work at all in their case.

Either ways though, he realized that he had been particularly harsh at Chip on the whole subject matter earlier at the pizza place and decided to apologize for his lashing out.

Should I....

Dale thought shortly before telling him about his thoughts.

"Look, about earlier at the pizza place....I just wanted to apologize for how I was acting towards you. It wasn't right for me to ban you completely from a case that we have both been investigating together and..." Dale was going to finish until Chip cut him off.

"No Dale it was my fault, I shouldn't have worried you too much. Because the truth is, I still can't remember anything about that day and I thought that if I could stay into the investigation a bit more, then I would be able to find out who I am and what happened to me in that alleyway. So, if you really trust me, then I would like to be your partner again." Chip offered as Dale slowly nod his head in agreement before directly glancing into his eyes with a firm look on his face.

"Okay, but you have to promise me that you'll always stick around near me and please don't run off on your own anymore, when I'm not there. The last thing I want, is for you to get hurt again." Dale said with a hint of more worry in his tone.

He was afraid that if this all goes very badly then there's a good chance that he could end up losing him again.

And didn't know how much his heart could take from all of its pain.

"I know. I promise, I'll be more careful this time and I won't do anything too drastic." Chip said while placing his hand on his shoulder.

Causing the two to blush quietly and looked away from each other for a small moment.

"H...hey Chip?" Dale asked, nervously.

"Yeah?" Chip replied with the same expression on his face, not noticing that his hand was still on Dale's shoulder.

"Do you think that maybe, it would be okay if I share the bed with you for the rest of the night?.....Kind of like we used to do as kids during our sleepovers." Dale stammered on with his face running a little hot from the embarrassing notion that he had been struggling to sleep just as much as Chip did.

"Sure." Chip said while he slowly released his hand from his shoulders before gripping onto his own arm with similar flushed gesture on his face. 

"Thanks." Dale said before the two awkwardly walked over to Chip's bed and got onto opposite edging sides of the mattress, with their backs facing towards each other and their arms tugging at the shared comforter.

Before falling deeply asleep in an uneasy but yet very peaceful silence.