For the Love of Justice

Chapter Twenty Six | The Drainpipe or the Closet?

When Indy woke, she had almost forgotten about the night before. Her sleep had been so deep, it took her a few seconds to orientate herself to her surroundings. The familiar colour of her curtains, pulled but not keeping out the morning light, her laptop sitting open but blank screened on her desk, the decor of her bedroom all comforting to her mind, the male arms wrapped around her body-

Gasping, Indy looked over her shoulder, memories from what had happened flooding back as she took in Marley's slumbering face. 

The game. The run in with Samson. Falling asleep almost instantly as soon as Marley had crawled into her bed. 

A slow blush started creeping up her body, from my toes until it filled her cheeks. Marley was practically naked beside her, as close as he'd ever been, his body heat merged with Indy's, skin sticking to hers that wasn't clad in pajamas. 

Now this was how to wake up in a good mood. 

His eyes fluttered, a small frown passing over his face as his arms momentarily tightened around her waist, pulling her ever closer again. Slowly, those lids lifted, showing her those storm filled eyes. 

"Hi," Indy whispered, too afraid to talk loudly in case it broke this spell. 

He grinned a little. "Hi."

"Did you sleep good?"

"Best sleep I've had all year." He didn't even look like he was teasing. "Until you started snoring." 

She had spoken too soon. 

Scoffing, Indy rolled so that they could be face to face, settling back down onto her pillow. "I don't snore. It's true. Spencer, on the other hand-"

"Lucky I crawled into the right bed last night then, huh?" He said back quietly, causing a small smile to appear on Indy's face. "Imagine your poor sisters face waking up next to me." 

Indy giggled a little, one of those silly little girl giggles that usually would have made her ashamed of herself. But right at this moment? With Marley's tanned forearm resting heavily over her waist, his nose almost touching hers, eyes so deep with emotion that it was all she could concentrate on, Indy just couldn't find it in herself to feel even the slightest bit embarrassed. 

"How are you feeling? Like, really feeling?" She whispered, because using anything with more volume almost seemed too intrusive in the early hours of her bedroom. Marley's eyes flickered a little, and she was beginning to see it as a sign that he was struggling with something internally. 

But he did something different this time. 

Instead of keeping it bottled, instead of him shutting off and blocking her out with his impenetrable walls of false pretense and iron will to protect his own emotions, he changed. 

He let it out. 

"I feel like I've failed him, Indy. I feel like if I could just go back to that night, if I could just take the keys-" he stopped, closing his eyes briefly. "If I could just have changed the course of that night, then everything would be different. So, so, different." 

Indy ached for him at that moment. The what ifs he had lived with for so long were finally beginning to get their own voice, and at that moment, the pain that he must have had to have lived with she was truly, really, beginning to only just understand. 

"You did all you could. You know that deep down, don't you?" Indy replied gently, inching closer, thinking maybe physical comfort might help. For both of them. He sighed, his eyes twitching with indecision all over again. 

"Can I tell you about when dad found me in the hospital?" He looked tense for a second, like Indy would say she didn't want to hear. She nodded before he could even think of backing out.