Getting back to "Normal" | Rhekker

Chapter 71- The art of sleep

"Ava"
"Ava" a shake on her shoulder as she tightened the blanket around herself.
"Ava wake up"
She rolled on her side away from the voice, slowly opening her eyes to let her gaze fall on the bedside clock.
"It's only been an hour" she whined, "let me sleep" Ava burrowed her face into the mattress.
"Ava it's been twenty-five hours" a chuckled came before a soft hand on her back.
"What?" Ava rolled onto her back and sat up suddenly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"You slept for twenty-five hours" Connor repeats.

"Oh, my god. I'm sorry, you should have woken me" she brushed the loose strands of hair from her face.
"You needed the sleep, you were exhausted. Any sleep you had been getting was hyper vigilant sleep, you needed the rest" Connor rubbed her shoulder.
Ava makes no move to respond, still waking up.
"You can go back to sleep, you just need to eat something and take your meds" he tells her.
"Okey" Ava swallowed the the saliva in her mouth and moved to get out of bed.
Connor came around to her side, offering an arm for support.
"I- I can do it" she held a hand in front of her, shuffling past Connor who followed closely behind her.

Connor stepped ahead of her, pulling out a bar stool for her to sit at.
"Thanks" Ava set herself down, perching on the edge of the seat. Connor returned to the stove, switching off the burners he turned back to Ava, placing a plate of avocado toast with a side of scrambled eggs, two toasted tomato slices and a glass of orange juice.
Ava started down at the familiar plate, her favourite breakfast.
Connor placed a silver knife and fork next to her plate, straightening them up as the knife slid askew.
"Thank you" Ava glanced up the meet his eye. Connor moved to the stove and took a second plate for himself, joining Ava at the breakfast bar. Connors plate was stacked with buttered toast, bacon, tomato's and two fried eggs. Connor joined her, taking a sip from his coffee.

They ate in silence, forks and knives clicking together quietly as they ate, Connor carefully watched Ava to see if she was eating. She took her last mouth full of egg and washed it down with some of her orange juice. Ava put her hands between her knees, suddenly unsure of what to do, but spotted the mug next to her.
"Can I, have some of your coffee?"
Connor looked up from his eggs and nodded, pushing the mug towards her.
"Only if I can have your last tomato" He raised his brow.
"Deal" Ava pushed her pate towards him, eargley taking the warm mug in her hands. Connor ate the sliced tomato before taking their plates away and retuning with a plastic box. Ava scowled at him, taking a sip of her hot drink.
"For a Doctor you never were very willing to take meds" he joked, sliding the pill box closer to her.
"I like being the Doctor not the patient" Ava popped open the window labelled Friday.
"When did you have time to do this?" She winced swallowing the meds with the last of the coffee. "I forgot how sweet you take your drinks"
"I had a lot of time with your extended nap" Connor took her empty mug to the sink.

///

Connor woke to a disturbing buzzing on his bedside locker. Quickly swatting his phone the buzzing stopped and Connor opened his eyes to the dark room. Connor glanced at the clock.
06.01am

He ran a hand through his hair, suddenly becoming aware of a weight on his chest. Connors eyes adjusted to the dark as he made out a figure on the bed with him. The smell of vanilla in the room filled his lungs as he took a deep breath.

Ava

With one hand still on her back he brought the other to the back of her head, burying his noise in her hair. Connor stroked her hair, smoothing the strands that had escaped her braid. "I'm going to protect you" he muttered, "I'm going to keep you safe".
Connor watched the sunrise over the Chicago skyline, the colours bleeding across the sky. Connor turned to his clock and took on last breath of vanilla body wash before slowly slipping out of bed.