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A few more weeks passed mostly uneventfully. Mel really started settling into a rhythm; she was still drinking more than she probably should've been, but she was also sleeping through the night mostly completely without nightmares with Joey's help. He'd spent every night since that first one in her bunk with her, just holding her and talking to her and comforting her if/when she needed it, and she was getting better sleep than she ever remembered getting.
As it turned out, having a warm body beside her constantly reminding her in one way or another that she really was safe was kind of all she'd needed for things to settle down just slightly in her brain.
Mick wasn't a huge fan of her and Joey's new sleeping arrangement, but when she'd explained to him that it was the only thing that kept her nightmares away and made it so that she didn't have to completely drink herself into oblivion just to fall asleep, he'd settled down about it a little. He still watched Joey like a hawk, always making sure he didn't cross some invisible line, but overall everything was seemingly going really well.
Mel felt like she was actually working through things, processing. She and Joey had spent countless nights talking everything through in her bunk, her baring her soul to him and conveying every dark thought she was having, and him listening patiently and sharing comfort and advice before telling her everything on his mind as well.
She wasn't sure she'd ever known someone on such a personal level or had someone know her as such. It was weird, different, but also nice. It was nice to know that he knew her, fully and completely. It made her relax somehow, like she didn't have to put on any sort of facade at all for him. She didn't have to pretend to be okay when she wasn't, didn't have to hide anything.
She wouldn't have admitted it out loud for a million dollars, but she was pretty sure she was falling for him. Past the physical attraction she'd always had for him, past friendship. Emotion panged deep within her every time his crystal gaze caught her, every time he tipped his mask up to smile at her during the band's sets, every time he hugged her warmly as he ran off stage after the show, every time his gentle face peeked around the curtain of her bunk before he climbed inside at night.
She'd been right when she'd assumed that everything would be different between the two of them after her telling him what happened to her. She'd just never imagined it would be good different, exciting different. She didn't know if he had any real feelings about her, didn't know if the way he looked at her was changing like the way she looked at him was. But it didn't matter. All that mattered to her was that she hadn't felt the familiar giddiness of falling for someone in a very long time and it was making her happier, more like her old self.
"Buzzy!"
Jim Root's happy voice singsonged the variation of her nickname and Mel slammed shut the journal she'd been scribbling in and shoved it down between the bunk mattress and the wall. She peeked her head out into the hallway of the bus to see Jim's tall frame standing there, waiting patiently for her with his hand outstretched and ready to help haul her out of the bunk.
