On The Horizon.

4 (Eric)

My eyes pop open to the sound of my alarm going off next to my ear. 5:30 A.M. I hate my job sometimes. Nobody should have to get up at five-thirty on a Friday if it were up to me. That's when I heard the little whimpers coming from my room. Tailor... I forgot I had her stay in my room last night. Don't know how I could forget something like that. With that smart mouth attached to her that has some what of a filter and is quick to make some stupid statements. Another whimper from my room. The house has very thin walls apparently. I roll my eyes and turn off my alarm as I make my way up the stairs opening the door very slightly. "Tailor?"

It's silent now. The others went to get their breakfast and bring it back without somehow disturbing me while I was sleeping on the couch. "Tailor?" I knock kind of on the door. She mumbles something like a protest and I hear only the shifting on the bed as I stare down the hallway. Dammit, can't you just be a light sleeper and wake up? Stop having fucking dreams... I glare at her, but when I open the door I feel a pang of guilt for even being a little bit mean to this girl. She's tucked under the thrashed blankets with pillows on the floor and the comforter. Tai is curled up in a ball like a small child trying to hide from monsters in a closet with her face buried in the pillow mumbling about something. "Tailor come on wake up." I say and I feel like the biggest moron ever. I don't want to touch her, but that's the only way I will get her to wake up perhaps. I'm still standing in the door way, trying to bring myself to walk in. I mean it's not that big of a deal, is it?

I sigh and slowly walk over planting myself on the edge of the bed. Grasping her shoulder, I start nudging her a little bit. "Tailor, wake up. Time to get up." She tosses the other way hitting my arm pretty hard and throws the sheets mostly off. Still wearing the clothes from yesterday?  I shake my head. What the hell?  "Tai." I shake her a little and she bolts up grasping my arm tightly digging her nails into it.

When I look into her eyes that are bright and alert, I also see that she's frightened. A nightmare. I seethe feeling the pain start to sink in and she finally lets go a little bit with a looser grip, but never let's go fully. "Morning." I whisper and she just stares at me in bewilderment. "You're okay... It was just a nightmare."

Tailor sighs a little letting go, "Sorry." She rubs her eyes glancing at the clock and looks at me raising an eyebrow. "May I ask why you woke me up at five-thirty-five?"

"We all get up at five-thirty. You need to, too. It's standard procedure." My answer is curt and cold, but her expression shows something of more like being hurt a little. I don't understand this girl. "I'll let you get up and get ready..." I walk out and shut the door quickly.

Jeez... It's like talking to a lost puppy. Well she is kind of a lost puppy for many reasons and one start with is... That. Whatever just happened there. I don't know this is so dumb, why do we even have to take care of a kid who can't even handle herself. "Eric, how is she? Can I talk to her now?" Kristen is bouncing with excitement in front of me. I sigh shaking my head. "Why not?! She possibly has more injuries then you checked out on her! I am the doc--"

"Be quiet! She doesn't know anything... I would like to keep it that way... So she gets the hell out of my hair." Kristen looks taken aback by this. "What?" I snap.

"How can you be so fucking callous? She's just lost everything and you are seriously going to treat her like a rookie of some sorts?" Kristen rolls her eyes in anoyment. "I hope she knows how to fight..." I look at her cocking my head to the side. She answers my unspoken question in one nice sentence, "She has nobody Eric. Either we kick her to the curb and let her fend for herself or we have her join. That's not your choice by the way." Kristen sighs knocking on the door to my... Well, Tailor's room for right now.

The door opens with Tailor's head popping out in interest. Kristen is all smiles and very warmly greeting her. I see it now though when Tailor looks at my colleague, she's cold. Everything about her is distant; body language and the look that swept off the sleep in a matter of seconds. Wow, that's a different look. Even better than the one I saw as she stared at her dad ready to fuck him up in a matter of seconds. Tailor shakes her head and politely says no to Kristen as she shuts the door. Kristen turns back to me mouth dropping in amazement.

"What?" Obviously, I don't see what she does.

"She needs help, Eric. A bunch of it. She let you wrap the bandage around her leg and cast up her arm, but not me? I even explained that I have a fucking degree in it... Serious ass trust issues... "

"You know she just met you right? I'm pretty sure she's not used to bubbly people in the morning either." I grumble heading towards the stairs as my door opened again. Tailor stared at me as I realized we were nearly eye to eye with each other, I just being a bit taller then she is. She doesn't even have anything on her feet. "Morning..." I mumble.

She nods and steps out closing door behind her. Her hair has been brushed at least and her face was washed. "Did you take a shower?"

She shakes her head and scoffs, "I have no clothes to change into unless you want me wearing yours then I would barf I think from all the lavender sent coming off of it." Well, at least she can always go back to being a dick. That's fabulous. "Or naked. Which might scare even you, even though you say you aren't gay. Have you ever even had a girlfriend before?" Tailor heads to the stairs and I roll my eyes. I'm going to do something to that mouth of hers, I swear. I follow her down seeing the rest of my team filing in and stopping to take long looks at the "new girl". Ayisha watched for the longest, studying her, for what I don't know. I'll take a mental note to ask later. She needs help.... Yeah she needs something alright. That's probably what Ayisha would say. She glances at me then takes her seat at the breakfast bar.

Sora looks her over like he just found gold, which I don't know why, he's gay. He can't look at her like that. Right? "Hello chica..." He purrs, "I'm Sora."

"Cool..." She answers staring at him giving a cold expression again. Huh. Interesting. She's not remotely interested in the people surrounding her, just in her hands and fingers that are scrapping against each other in a nervous fashion.

Sora raises an eyebrow and shrugs it off going to grab a soda from the fridge.  I turn my gaze to her and she's looking at the rest of the team almost analyzing them for some reason. Then she turns to me. "You have questions for me right? Well let's get those done so I can be on my way." Bossy little thing she is.

"We do the questions on my time not yours. We have work to do. Sit." Tailor rolls her eyes plopping on the couch in the seat I normally sit in which is right of the tv. My team kind of wonders around making small chat and I know they are all wondering what was going to happen next to this brat. "Roll your eyes one more time and I will make sure nothing goes the way you want it, understand?"

"Yes... Sir." She snorts a little making herself have a teasing smirk that pulled at her lips as she looked at me.

I head towards the kitchen without another word to her. "Quite a pistol you got there, Eric." I turn looking at Sora who's grinning. "We need someone like her. She's not afraid of you. Btter yet, she knows how to get right underneath your skin."

"Look she's not staying, you can forget about it. We work fine together. I don't need fresh meat to look out for while we run a mission." I snap and he instantly looses that playful grin. Yes, I'm not fun, you should know this by now Sora. He nods a little and turns drinking his soda.

Ayisha sitting across from us over the island is now speaking up, "I don't know Eric. You might want to give her a shot. Are you really going to let the guy who killed her family do the same thing to her all because you don't want "fresh meat" on the team. This team knows how to do everything by the book and more and you're being irrational. The kid has nobody Eric..."

"Stop being so fucking callous." Kristen chimes in and staring at me with a death glare.

I sigh holding up my arms in surrender, "Fine, but if she fucks up... All bets are off. First let me go through questioning with her then see what Isaac thinks, if we should bring her on the team." I hate my job some days in dealing with the most pushy fucking people.