Her

Chapter 2

Alex woke up to Norma in his arms. He watched the steady rise and fall of her chest wondering what she was dreaming about, he hoped it was something happy, she needed something happy in her life, even if it was just in a dream. His eyes moved to her face, the face that he fell in love with, the one he could never seem to look away from.
Alex knew that even though they shared many moments together the previous night, this bliss wouldn't last forever. He wanted her and for once he felt like she wanted him but there were too many complications, to many road blocks in the path leading to their happiness. Right now he had things to take care of, to make sure that she wasn't in danger. He wanted her in his arms, but he needed her to be safe, whether that meant she was his or not. He looked up at the clock, it read 7:38 , usually he would wake up a few times in the night. He always believed he had some form of insomnia but never went to get it checked out , he knew he had his father and the life he put him through as a child to thank for that, no need for a doctor to tell him the emotional toll living like he did takes on a person.
Alex didn't want to wake Norma, she looked so happy in her sleep and he wanted to keep it that way, she needed her sleep, he'd known her long enough to know that she never got any. Instead he played over the events of night before in his head, wondering just how he ended up on the couch in Norma Bates' living room. Alex remembered the night very clearly....He had went to the dock where he knew he would find him, he knew Bob would make a stupid decision on how to get away and he wanted to be the one to stop him. He hadn't planned on killing him, he wanted to reason with him and..... He honestly didn't know what he was going to do after that but he didn't plan on shooting one of his only friends as a child. Bob Paris was mean, he knew that, when he was only 10 years old Bob would pick on him but they had an odd relationship and he never thought it would graduate to what the man had become, if Alex would even call him a man. It was only when he mentioned her name, ten letters , three syllables, but enough to make his blood boil and heart rate skyrocket. Bob said he wouldn't tell anyone the things he knew about her, but from knowing him for almost his whole life Alex knew it was a lie, just like all the ones he told him as a kid. Bob's mentioning of Norma did make Alex angry, there was no doubt about that, but it wasn't till he said he was turning into his father, that he had already become him in many ways did he decide to pull the trigger. He watched as bullets pierced Bob's throat, blood spilling all over the expensive boat no one would ever set foot on again after that night, or so Alex hoped. He heard the gunshots ring through the air, three to be exact, three bullets to the throat of man who deserved to be dead yet who no one had the audacity to kill. Alex wished Bob Paris dead plenty of times in his life, cursed at him under his breath, but never did he expect that he would be the one to do it, to kill one of the most powerful figures in White Pine Bay. After he cleaned up the scene, dragging he body to a different place on the boat and bringing it as far into the water as his exhaustion would allow he sunk the ship, hoping that no one would ever see it again, the ship itself and of course Bob. He made his way back to the dock on a much smaller safety boat and got back into his SUV returning home to rest. The day had been long and he wanted nothing more than to go home and take a steaming hot shower to rinse all of the guilt away. After showering and downing half a bottle of scotch he went to bed. He couldn't fall asleep though, his mind was all over the place thinking about what he was going to do, surely the DEA would be asking questions and so would the town, everyone hated Bob but that doesn't mean they wouldn't ask where he is, what he's up to this time whether he's too busy planning one of his sex parties or just wasted somewhere on a big boat filled with girls who Alex felt all too sorry for. When his mind finally calmed and he began to drift off to sleep he heard the ringing of his phone. He sighed and rolled over to pick it up when he saw the name of who was calling across the screen, sheer panic running through his veins.
"Shit." He totally forgot about what he was going to say to Norma , of course she was going to find out somehow but he had no clue how to tell her himself.
"Norma?" He asked trying to sound as close to his usual self as possible and to his advantage it worked.
"Alex?" He heard the hoarse whisper through his phone, immediately sitting up, he didn't need to see her face to know that she had been crying.
"What's wrong? What happened, are you okay ?" He asked, his voice laced with concern.
" It's..... Its Norman" he didn't really need her to say that, whenever she called at this hour he automatically assumed that it was Norman." He's...... He's gone... I ..I don't know where he went..... It's.... Alex please I don't know what to do..." He pulled the phone away from his ear, her cries always felt like a stab to the gut, he glanced at the time reading 10:34. He put the phone back against his ear wincing slightly as he heard her cry.
       "I'll be over in ten." Normally he would say goodbye or hold out their conversation for as long as he could , never knowing when he would hear her voice again but instead he hung up the phone and jumped out of bed. Alex ran to the living room and grabbed his leather jacket and keys, quickly making his way over to and inside the SUV. He figured that at this hour he wouldn't need the lights to speed to her house, most people in White Pine Bay weren't out this late and he sadly knew that no one really went on the road leading to the Bates Motel. He sped  his way to her, thinking about where he could search for Norman, he'd done this before he realized , gone out and searched for Norman because poor Norma had no idea where her son could be.
    When Alex pulled into the motel driveway, gravel crunching under the weight of the large car he saw Norma fling down the long stairs and run up to his car. He opened the door, hopping out and before he could speak a word she flew into him, her arms tightly holding his body, needing comfort and warmth from someone who could help her.
     He pulled her in closer, his muscular arms easily making their way around her small fragile person, and when she started to cry he moved his hand to the back of her head, stroking her hair hoping to soothe her giving her the signal that she could cry all she wants , that he wouldon't push her off of him because she was staining his leather jacket with the streams of tears flowing from her eyes.
      They searched for Norman for half an hour until giving up and pulling into a deserted parking lot somewhere along the main road.
     "I think we should go back to the motel...... I mean we've looked everywhere , we can try again in the morning when we can see better.....and it's warmer." He said his breath coming out in a white cloud, he shivered a bit, he had given Norma his jacket at the first sign of her being cold. Her response would have been a yell he realized , he'd argued with her enough times to know that it would have been but she was to exhausted to even raise her voice.
   Norma sighed and turned in her seat to look at him, " I can't just stop looking for him, there are plenty of people who don't like me right now and would..... Oh my god , Alex.... What if Bob has Norman? What if he.... Oh my god Alex we... We have to find him right now." He had hoped she wouldn't think of that possibility, he hated it when she worried, which Norma being Norma was all the time.
      "Norma , trust me when I tell you this, Bob does not have Norman, he isn't going to hurt him or you anymore, okay ?" He worded his response carefully not wanting to reveal the whole truth. She looked at him, clearly not convinced in the slightest.
      "Okay how in the world would you know that? Huh? The man is crazy, for God sakes look at the huge hole he dug in front of my motel for a "pool" , he watched as her hands went up in air quotes," he's crazy and he's dangerous and I can't leave my son out here....wherever the hell he is with the possibility that that man can hurt him! I won't let it happen. So if you want to leave you can, I'll get out right now and I can walk home, I just need to find Norman before another bad thing happens to him."
    "Norma please....." Alex tried to reason with her but as usual his attempt failed.
     "Oh don't you Norma me! It's my son were looking for , not yours! It's my son that could be in trouble or worse he could be...." Alex cut her off before she could finish her sentence.
      "Norma , you're not hearing me, Bob won't hurt you anymore, he can't hurt you anymore....." Alex looked at her, his eyes pleading that she listen to what he was trying so hard to tell her.
       "Okay, Alex , the only way Bob Paris wouldn't come after me or Norman is if he was dead, we both know that." Norma looked at him, confident in being right. As soon as he heard the words "Bob Paris" and "dead" mixed in one sentence he turned away, looking down at his foot that still rested on the gas petal.
       "Norma, that's because Bob Paris is dead, he's dead, Bob's dead and I killed him. He turned his face back towards her, if she thought he was a monster he wanted to know now, even though he knew it would kill him, but when he looked up at her, she was expressionless. She opened her mouth to speak but turned away and didn't say anything. Alex felt in the moment that it would be best for him to just drop her off and go back home, so he drove back to the motel and walked her up to the house to make sure she was safe. She opened the door and he turned to leave , expecting this to be the last time he set foot on the Bates property but he turned when he heard her voice.
    "Alex," he looked into her eyes and saw her blue orbs filled with gratitude, "Thank You, thank you so much." Before he could speak his mind she was pulling him into a hug, her loving arms wrapping around his broad shoulders. He heard her sniffle and pulled her in closer , breathing in the flowery perfume of her hair and neck.
      The next thing he knew he was inside, not sitting or standing but dancing. He stood in the middle of Norma's  living room swaying back and forth with her melted into his arms. He loved the way it felt, to have her so close....
       Alex looked back away from the clock to see Norma still sleeping on him, he really didn't want to wake her up but he needed to get to work or people would get suspicious.
      He took the backside of his hand and gently stroked her cheek, moving the curly strands of hair from her face.
      "Norma?" He whispered, trying desperately to wake her up as gently as he could, he really didn't want to remove her from her state of peacefulness. Alex watched as her eyelids fluttered for a moment and then opened, revealing the eyes that he loved so much. He smiled at the sight of her grogginess, moving his head down to hers, placing a soft, simple kiss onto her temple. She looked back up at him , her eyes rimmed with sleep.
        "I have to go to work , you know with everything that happened last night, the DEA..... they're gonna come and ask questions and if I'm not there when they do they'll get suspicious."
     "Okay...." She said innocently. She stared at him for a moment clearly confused as to why he was still sitting. He looked down at her body on top of him and awkwardly murmured
    "Uhh , I uh.... I have to get up......" It took her a minute to realize what he as saying.
     "Oh crap sorry, totally forgot I was.... Sorry." She sat up, freeing him from his position on the small couch. " what time do you think you'll
be back to look for Norman, I texted Dylan last night about everything and he's been out looking for him, but I  haven't heard anything from him so...." Alex had totally forgot about Norman in the midst of the beautiful night and slightly awkward morning. He walked over to the door , Norma in tail.
      He turned around opening the first door and stepping into the small room. He could see by the look on her face that she was worried, of course she was worried her child was missing and she didn't know if he was dead somewhere in a ditch or just looking for some more dead animals to cut open. Alex mentally slapped himself in the head for being so ignorant.
     "I'll be back soon, okay? I promise everything is going to be fine, text Dylan and ask him to fill you in and then let me know what he says. I wish I didn't have to go to work and we could just go now but I have to stop by to make sure no one from the DEA is lurking around asking questions....Atleast not yet."
    Alex opened the second door and stepped out onto the porch, her following. He was about to turn down the stairs but her hand on his arm stopped him from moving at all.
      "Alex?" His eyes moved up to her face and watched a small innocent smile creep across her lips " thank you again..... For everything.... For last night for...... just thank you." she said before giving him a hug, he pulled her in tighter, never wanting to let go but hoping that someone wouldn't catch them in an embrace, people in this town really enjoyed gossip. She let go and so did he, Alex turned and made his way down the long flight of stairs and before jumping into the SUV looked back up at the woman of his dreams, the one who caused half of his problems but solved the other half, she was essential he realized, he needed to find a way to be with her , for her to be his. He looked back down and hopped into the seat , putting the keys into the ignition and laughing slightly at himself, Norma Bates, he realized , was all but his.