Lost and Found

6

Elyse opened her eyes, inhaling sharply when a sudden, pounding, headache hit her like a ton of bricks. She started to remember the events of last night, and what had caused the headache in the first place.

She looked to her right and noticed Desmond was sat on the floor beside her small bed, sleeping with his head against the side of the mattress. She smiled lightly to herself, taking note of how peaceful he looked, she found herself not wanting to disturb him.

She then lost her smile when she examined his battered face and his black eye, feeling shame and regret that Dean had done it to him, all because of her.

She slowly sat up, examining her arms and the bruises peppered along them, and then noticed everything seemed a bit... muffled? She realized there were earplugs in her ears and pulled them out one at a time. Did Desmond put them in, she wondered.

"Ah, good to see you're alright sleepin beauty."

Desmond spoke from the floor beside her, rubbing his sleepy eyes before letting out a yawn.

"I- did you give me ear plugs?"

She asked abruptly, feeling silly as she knew the mysterious ear plugs were the least of their worries.

"Aye. There's endless packs of em here so that you'd be able to sleep through the alarms."

He explained, staring off in the distance while he seemed to still be waking up.

"Ya know, I basically never had a partner to swap shifts with so, never really needed them."

He added with a lazy chuckle before standing to his feet and reaching for Elyse' hand.

She took it hesitantly, knowing that the blood rush would cause her head to pound even more once she stood, and slowly made her way up to her feet.

"Wait, did you fix the computer? Are those walls still down?"

She asked him just as the blood rush hit and she winced in pain, reaching up for her head while Desmond did the same.

"Aye, computer is fixed. The walls are still down in the front and back exit, I think they'll go up soon but I can't say for sure."

He explained while he examined her head with an intense stare.

"I'm not gonna lie, I was worried you had a concussion or somethin and I'd be trapped in here with a dead body."

He told her with a playful grin, trying to lighten the mood.

"Aye"

She mocked him, feeling on top of the world at the fact that he'd been so worried about her.

"And is that why you slept on the floor beside my bed?"

She continued, grinning ear to ear up at him, feeling overly impressed with her teasing abilities when he threw his head back and let out a loud chuckle, pulling the smile lines up around his eyes.

"Ya know, I don't seem to remember when my bed turned into yours. Ya must've really hit your head there."

He poked back at her, ruffling his wild brown hair casually before turning on his heel and walking over to the kitchen.

Elyse took notice of the large t shirt she still had on from last night, Desmond's t shirt. She ran her fingers through her frizzy, slept-in waves, feeling surprised when they hardly got stuck, and she was met with smooth tresses instead of the sticky, sandy, mess she'd gotten used to.

"Are ya hungry? We've got cereal and pop tarts and pretty much anythin that could be made shelf stable."

Desmond told her, prompting her to follow him into the kitchen and snap out of her daze.