Dark Shadows

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Harry's POV. 

I felt the utter confusion take over my features as Lauren pretty much towed me towards the back of the bus. Once we reached the bunks she came to a sudden halt and spun around to face me. 

"I'm losing it Harry! I've completely lost it!" she almost moaned, before sitting down on my bed and putting her head in her hands. Her  mahogany locks curtained around her, secluding her face from my view.

"Lost what?" I questioned, taking a seat beside her. I was getting more and more puzzled by the minute.

"My spark!" She said exasperatedly. "I'm losing whatever it is that made me able to be such a successful and feared and wanted spy!" She uttered a sigh, calming down slightly. "This is probably going to be my first failed mission. And then my career will plummet." Extreme sadness overtook her voice, and I felt an uncontrollable urge to hold her, protect her from whatever there was that made her feel that way. 

Instead, I put a hand lightly on her shoulder, thinking it was time to make something out of this nonsense.

"Lauren, what are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about Harry!" She growled.

"That, I do not." I said. She finally looked up from the ground to meet my searching eyes, the slightest trace of anger visible on hers.

She resembled an angry kitten. The thought made me smile. It took some time, but eventually she sighed and tentatively smiled back.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm a bit frustrated. I'm not used to failure."

"Hey, no need to apologise, sweetheart. I understand." I paused. "Growing up living with two older women you learn a thing or two about female hormones." She leaned away a little to lightly punch the arm of mine that was closest to her. 

"I'm not hormonal."

I grinned. "You sure?" She returned to her previous position beside me, her arm softly brushing mine as she leaned froward, shooting tingles through my skin.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure." The momentary humour was gone from her eyes.

I sighed, wondering how to begin.

"Listen, Lauren. You have your team now. You have found out quite a lot. What is happening now isn't even why you came here. You got an extra job to do while you were already busy with another one. It's only human of you to get frustrated or whatever, but that doesn't mean you're not the person you were when you first came here."

She continued looking down at the ground, fiddling with her fingers. "It's not just that Harry. I mean, it is, but not only that. I've missed stuff. That has never happened before. And it costed Michael his life." She sniffled. 

"What, the logo on his glasses? Nobody goes around trying to read the microscopic letters of people's sunglasses, Lauren." Was she giving up? Why couldn't she just realise how amazing she was, doing what she's been doing for so many years?

Instead of responding, she shuffled, turning her entire body to face me and crossing her legs in front of her.

"I didn't tell you guys everything," she mumbled. "I saw something before we went into the restaurant as well." 

I grabbed her hand, slowly tracing circles on the back of it with my hand. "Tell me."

She hesitated. "I did see a cloth of some kind with the same letters that Oscar's sunglasses had. That should have been alerted me, should have caught my attention." Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears.