Discoveries | TMR | Three

3:9

Fresh from the shower, with only a towel clinging to his hips, Nick jolts as Maggie bursts through the bathroom door, nearly ripping it off its hinges.

He had not anticipated her arrival, and his surprise deepens when he spots Matt and Alby standing just behind her. ''Maggie,'' he stutters, gripping the towel tighter to shield his modesty. ''Ever heard of knocking?''

''Ever heard of answering your radio?'' she shoots back, unfazed. ''Where the hell have you been? We've been trying to get a hold of you for ages!''

Fuck.

He completely overlooked the fact that Adeline had turned off his radio. In truth, the events of the entire day leading up to the last hour had slipped his mind entirely.

A faint, almost imperceptible hum escapes his throat as the memory washes over him. ''Sorry, I, uh,'' he stammers, scrambling for a reason to explain his hour-long silence. ''I switched it off before I got in the shower.''

"You basically screamed at me about what could be out here, sprinted from the fucking office to find Addy, leaving us all worrying," the blonde girl starts, clearly furious with him, "and this whole time we were trying to get in contact to make sure you were okay, and you were in the fucking shower?"

"Uh..." Nick mumbles. "Yea."

"For fuck sake, Nicky!" Maggie shouts. "You had us all terrified up in that office!"

"It's Nick, and you're right," he concedes. "I shouldn't of run off like that, and I shouldn't of shouted at you." He adjusts the towel on his hips when he feels it shifting. "I'm sorry."

Maggie stands tall - or as tall as she possibly can at her short height - with her hands confidently resting on her hips as she gives a single, decisive nod. ''Right. Okay, good,'' she declares. A frustrated sigh rumbles from her throat, dissipating her tension, and her eyes briefly flutter. ''I take it you found her then?''

Yes. I. Did.

"Yea, she's, uh-." Nick struggles to hide the smirk that threatens to invade his features. "She's in the Homestead."

"The what?"

"The Homestead," Alby repeats from behind her. "It's what we called our- it's what- sorry," he continues, his face contorting and head tilting as he looks at Nick, "did you just say you had a shower? As in, with water? Running water?"

"Yea," Nick responds. A breathy chuckle escapes him. "I didn't think it'd be possible either, but apparently this place still functions."

In the blink of an eye, Alby pushes past Maggie and makes his way to the stall, causing Nick to shift aside as well. Nick's right hand darts up to prevent the door from slamming against the wall, a gesture that Alby completely overlooks as he turns on the shower and thrusts his hand under the stream. However, his face quickly twists into a grimace. "It's freezing!" he grumbles.

"Nah, you can get warm water," the brunette boy tells him.

Alby's expression morphs into a deeper state of bewilderment, his head swivelling to look at him with a mix of curiosity and intrigue. "Then why did you have a cold one?''

Nick merely shrugs. "Needed it to cool down," he casually tells him.

"Weirdo," Alby mumbles.

Reaching across and turning the shower off, Nick gently ushers the boy from the cubicle. "Now, if you's don't mind, I'd like to get dressed," he declares. "So can you give me ten minutes."

Alby sends him a quizzical look, for in all the time they have known each other, Nick has never been one to shy away from getting dressed in front of him. "Uh, yea, sure." He loses that train of thought, however, when he remembers that Maggie and Matt are in the room. "Where did you say Addy was? The Homestead?"