Help comes in different forms

Chapter 9~ Questions

     I've been walking for a good 30 minutes or so and I FINALLY made it to the firehouse. Since I was alone with no transportation, I had to walk the whole way. My anxiety would NOT let me ask a random stranger for a ride back. Nuh-uh, I wish.

     I walked to the garage door opening the door slightly and peeking through it first. No one was there. I slowly opened the door the rest of the way trying not to make the door creak. I slipped in and as I was closing the door I heard loud footsteps, more like bangs since they were so loud, and some shuffling over by the T.V's direction. I grabbed a crowbar that was against the wall by the door and cautiously walked towards the sound.

     I got against the wall and waited for a moment before I jumped out in a fighting stance with the crowbar in the air. Cody was in front of me and he squeaked when I jumped out. I sighed in relief. "Sorry Codes. I didn't mean to scare you." I said relaxing a little.

"I-It's fine." He replied nervously. I looked up and saw that the helicopter and the bulldozer bot were standing beside the couch. They had their visors down and had a blank expression. I shivered a little. 'Creepy.'

"So these bots like to watch T.V, huh?" I teased pointing at them. "O-oh, that! Sort of, it helps their um- A.I system thingy learn more about human stuff." He said and then chuckled nervously.

"Mhm, ok. You sure it wasn't because you wanted a T.V buddy." I said as I plopped down on their red sofa.

"Nah. I- " He was stopped as I yawned. "You ok? You seem pretty tired." He asked sitting down right next to me.

"Yea, I'm fine. I just couldn't sleep well. That's all." I replied.

"Yea, right. What's really going on?" He asked looking a little concerned.

"Nothing much, really."

     I got up and was about to walk away when Cody suddenly got up in front of me blocking my way, "Talia, you know you can trust me, right? I can help." He said. He looked at me with pleading eyes as if he was trying to pry the answer out of my soul. I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Yes, I trust you. I do. But I don't think you can help either way." I said bending down so I could be at eye-level with him.

"Try me." He challenged. I scoffed. "Fine, fine, I'll tell you. Just promise that this stays between us and us only, ok?" I said.

"Promise." He said eagerly. We both sat back down on the sofa.

     I explained to him that I kept having nightmares about my "little" traumatic experience and thanks to them I couldn't sleep well.

"Oh. I'm sorry." He replied.

"It's fine. I just *yawn* need to keep myself awake until I figure how to sleep without them interrupting me." I said tiredly. "I also need to find some answers too," I muttered.

"What was that?" Cody asked.

"Nothing!"

     After we chatted a little longer, I left to take a quick cold shower to keep me awake for the rest of the day. I quickly changed and patched my hand back up. 'Just about 3 more days until I can take this stupid thing off my hand. It's a freaking nuisance having to patch it up every once in a while.'

     I then ran down the stairs and slid down the fire pole. By the time I was showering, the others were waking up and began their daily morning routine.

*Graham's POV*

     My dad, Kade, the bots and I were all talking about the hologram project and how we were going to make Boulder "Brad".