DINNER & DIATRIBES. . . JACKSON AVERY!

chapter twenty-two: slow night, so long

"Get up!" Briar shouts in Alex's ear, shoving his shoulders when he groans and tries to pull a pillow over his head. She snatches it from him, standing over top of him and hitting him with it until he pushes her down. She lands with a loud oof, pouting up at the ceiling before kicking him in the side. "Alex, I'm not playing. Get your ass up!"

"We don't have work for another . . . five hours! Briar, what the fuck?" He complains loudly after looking at the clock, burrowing his head under the duvet. She wastes no time in yanking that from him, shoving herself out of his bed.

"Yeah, but we have places to be. Get dressed in clothes you don't mind getting dirty and be downstairs in ten minutes, I'm not joking. Do not make me come back up here." She warns him, taking the duvet with her and leaving the door open. A loud groan follows her out, and she grins smugly when she hears him getting out of bed a moment later.

One down, one to go.

Jackson is harder to wake up, although that's because he's in the middle of a nightmare when she cracks his door open. She assumes it's about the shooting considering the way he's calling Charles's name, and it makes her heart ache. For a moment she considers letting him get rest after waking him up, but she thinks he might need her plan more than anyone else.

Briar squares her shoulders and walks up to his bed, carefully sitting down on the side he isn't facing. Any other time, and she would be enjoying the sight of him shirtless, but she doesn't feel anything other than sympathy due to the stress on his features and the sweat covering his face. Right after she sits down, she has to duck away from his arm as he sweeps it out, his face contorting in fear.

"Jackson!" She calls out. "Jackson, hey, wake up!"

She isn't prepared for him to shout louder than she's ever heard him, and it makes her recoil for a moment before she leans in closer to him and carefully touches his shoulder. It takes a few minutes to wake him up, minutes that he spends shouting out for his best friend and flailing, and the panic in his eyes when he finally wakes up is heartbreaking.

"Hey, hey, it's just me." She quickly assures him, sitting back so that he can see her properly. He blinks rapidly, his eyebrows furrowing as he looks her up and down, looking confused. "It's just me. You're okay. It was just a nightmare."

She can see the exact second he realizes what happened, because he pulls away from her. She does her best not to take it personally, knowing that she wouldn't want him seeing her so vulnerable either. Instead, she moves off of his bed, giving him a smile as she moves over to the door.

"I was just trying to see if you would help me with something. It's up to you . . . If you can, meet me in my car in ten minutes."

Alex finds her just as she's finishing making two travel mugs of coffee, handing him the dark green one. He takes it with a grunt, still rubbing sleep from his eyes, and she waves him out the door. He tries to get in her passenger seat, looking surprised when he tries to move the duffle bag she propped up in there.

"Holy fuck, what'd you put in this thing?" He questions, going to lift it again before she stops him.

"Just get in the back. Oh come on, don't be a baby about it."

He grumbles the entire time he gets situated, before leaning forward and eyeing the duffle again.

"Seriously, though, what's in that thing? Oh my God, did you kill someone? Are we burying a body?"