Too close, dear children. Too. Close.

Surprise after surprise

It was all a strange clean-air smelling blur, going through the hospital. They shone lights in her eyes and ears and mouth, took her pulse, took some blood, and asked her questions which she answered in a daze. Behind a closed curtain nearby, Beck was swearing, a lot. A ridiculous amount in fact.

 "Sorry if this is hurting." One of the doctors said.

"If? IF!?"

 "I will apologize no further."

Octavia almost laughed at the sass of the doctor. She, from then on, told Beck to 'shut up or she'd disturb her precious Tove'. It worked for some reason.
Then they left. Tove, still exhausted but awake. Octavia, filled with questions but willing to save them for another time. Vihaan, being as strange as usual and...well that was about it. And Beck, her mouth twisted in discomfort and a bandage wrapped around her shoulder.
The carrier entered an area where the lights dimmed. There were no windows on the carrier, but Octavia noticed the change. Tove saw her notice.

"Our sleep time is from about 3 in the morning to midday. It's the least active time for what we go after."

"But it's way past three now." Octavia responded.

 "It's been a hectic time recently." Beck said from where she had sloped into the seat of the carrier. "Normal schedule has been off the rails." This fact was emphasized when she passed a hand over her face with a sigh.

"I thought you had early nights?" Octavia asked, not realising that these explanations were more complicated than she hoped.
Beck sighed again. "You know that black box?"

 "Yeah."

"That emitted something which made you hallucinate before you went to sleep and if you woke up in the night. It cast the same image every time, me asleep on my mattress. Every time you got dressed for bed I turned it on and went out through the window." She paused to let out a long breath. "It was also the thing that detected any not-normal magic or supernatural activity in the area. It's how we knew the Transparent and Teleporter were coming our way."

 "Oh. Cool."

Beck nodded solemnly.
Octavia stared at her. Beck was strange, but this was stranger.

 "Are you okay?" She asked. Beck nodded and raised her eyebrows, with her arms crossed across her belly and staring at the floor.

"Just tired girly. Needing more sleep than usual is all."
The use of Octavia's nickname was at least a small comfort, and she put her head on Beck's shoulder. "Did I cause all this."

Beck chuckled. "Don't start giving yourself so much credit. You were on minor security. We had to put Derek what's-his-name on so much security he noticed on the third day and we had to snatch him a week early."

"The only thing we can do now is get some sleep and then put you into the system." Tove said quietly, sitting on the opposite side of Beck and like Octavia, was resting her head on the sharp shoulders.

 "Mmmmm, sleep..." Beck replied, and Octavia felt her relax further.

"I'll need some rest too." Vihaan added, sounding strangely childish.

 "Shut up Vihaan." Beck and Tove said together. Octavia smiled, and waited once more for the next part of the puzzle.

For the next few minutes she felt the bump and rock of the carrier and she was rocked slowly into a new reality, never knowing which was dream or imagination or insanity or all of them combined. Or what if reality was a twisted and unrealistic as it was now appearing, like as a child you had seen the truths and things like logic had destroyed the knowledge. Like the magic was trying to protect itself by denying its own existence. New possibilities, realities, denials, people, non-people! Each one a colour that molded beside her, never creating an image but a simple flow that was hiding behind every black and white perfect square picture of the expectant world-

 Octavia woke up with a start, and immediately scrunched her face up in confusion at her own thoughts.

"Come on girly, we're at our stop." Beck said, rubbing her eyes after removing her hand from Octavia's shoulder. Octavia nodded and they went inside.

 The room wasn't lush. It was only small and basic like a hotel room in the Westminster London. There was a door either side of it though, one that led to the carpeted corridor of the housing dorm which then curved to the kitchens. Everyone made their own food, Beck explained, but instructed Octavia that for the first few days she should come to her before she needed to go anywhere like the kitchen, just to help her get used to the place.

And in those moments of the comment Octavia realized that she really would be here for a while. A long, very long, while.

 And again she felt scared.

But Beck dropped her off to the room, which had the other door on the other side, which Tove explained led to Becks, and Beck's connected to Tove's which connected to their Housing room. On the other side was where Corso, Kane and Vihaan were housed.

 As Beck did a tiny tour of the room she said, "And don't be afraid to ask for help with some stuff, even if I'm asleep. I'll probably hear your distressing movements anyway so you might as well wake me."

Octavia smiled a little bit and nodded.

 "Alright, see you in the morning girly."

And with that Beck and Tove made their way along the corridor to make the long way around to their rooms.

 Octavia blinked, then looked around the simple room. There were some draws, and she opened them, praying there would be spare clothes.

There was.

 And they were her clothes. She recognized some of the shorts and shirts, even one of the cutie-pie beanies. Too tired to try and understand, she just changed into some clothes which could classify as lazy pajamas and made her way into the bed.

Then she heard voices. Again? Seriously? Octavia rolled her eyes and crawled out of the surprisingly comfy bed. The voices were coming from Beck's room, quiet but serious.
Octavia opened the door a crack to peer in and listen.

 "...- Going to hit her pretty soon that she's landed in serious danger." That was Tove.

"I know, and she's gonna be terrified, just like we were but we can't let it hit her just yet. Everything will be easier in the morning."

 "You do realize you're the only one who feels good in the morning right?" Tove said, and Octavia had to smile in agreement.

Her smile dropped in surprise however when Tove gave Beck a light kiss, and then went to her room without saying anything further.

Okay. Well...that just happened. No judging, no judging, you'd suspected it before. Octavia thought as she went back to bed. The surprise was a little...surprising but, well, sometimes you just can't see everything coming.

Octavia went to bed a little more confused the second time then she had the previous attempt.