The Will To Live✔️

Chapter 23: Sidetracked

Greg came awake to a world of almost perfect silence.

Faintly, he heard the hum of power. More closely, he heard the soft, rhythmic sound of quiet respiration, and it was a wonderfully soothing sound. He'd spent a lot of nights alone before coming to Wintermute, and he had forgotten the great comfort that came from sharing a bed with a lover. But that silence, he realized, meant that the storm had passed. Or, at the very least, there was a lull. But he heard no winds at all. It was pitch black in the bedroom, given that they'd activated the window seal last night and there was nothing, not even a clock on the bedside table, on in the room. That was fine with Greg, though, at least for a little while.

He laid there, listening to Izzy breathe softly beside him, feeling their shared warmth that had accumulated beneath the blankets all night, and the occasional tiny shift she made in her sleep. He really liked what he had going with her. He could already see some problems, though. Namely anger. In the beginning of the relationship, it was much rarer to argue, because you weren't as comfortable with the person yet.

It was the people you were most comfortable with you yelled the loudest at, he'd noticed.

But he trusted Izzy. Based on everything he'd learned about her over the past several months, he thought that she would put in reasonable effort to keep her anger under control and not lash out at him. At least, not too often.

In the darkness, he frowned. No, right now, he was more worried about himself. These were stressful times, far more stressful than what he was used to, although the breaks he'd been getting were helping keep him out of the red. But he could tell that he was still trying to figure out how to cope with not just the stress of the situation, but the Flood. They were...horrifying. He knew that he'd had nightmares at some point last night, and that they'd involved the Flood, and that they had been extremely intense, and he rarely had nightmares anymore. He'd freaked out before in his life, and ultimately, when that moment came, it felt like a coin-flip.

Either he'd be able to handle himself, or he wouldn't.

And if he couldn't handle it, then it was a coin-flip whether or not someone else would be there to cover his ass while he got his shit together.

Or maybe he was wrong, maybe he wouldn't freak out, maybe he had a better handle on this situation than he thought he did.

But he didn't think that was the case.

Beside him, Izzy took in a deep breath and came awake.

"Hey," he said softly.

"Hey," she murmured sleepily. It was weird not being able to see anything at all. "We good?"

"Yeah, far as I know. I've only been awake for a few minutes. Storm's over, I think."

"Good."

He began to get up. "We should get up, there's work to do."

He felt her move, and her hand found his wrist in the darkness, gripping it tightly. "Uh-uh. I think we can spare ten minutes."

"Yeah," Greg said, twisting around to face her, "I think we can."

* * *

Half an hour later, after some fun, a shower, and a check of the perimeter, Izzy was bringing the galley back online, Larsen was waking up, and Greg was in the radio room atop the tower again. He looked out the windows lining the walls there and saw that yes, indeed, the storm had passed. Everything was covered in a fresh layer of snow and the skies were clear. The winds seemed to have disappeared, too, which was particularly nice. It could be cold out, bitterly cold even, but that wind gave the chill sharp teeth.