Page 100 of Unraveling Connections

Jensen and Cash both nod, and Jensen answers, “Yeah, I think it’s thrown her slightly hearing Hunt talk about Amelia like he did but she was okay with it.”

Cash nods and adds, “I think it’s most likely all going to come out over the next couple of days, and it’s more likely to be what she’s going to do about the funeral.”

“Yeah, she meant what she said when she told you guys, she would think about it later. She didn’t mention it at all,” Jensen adds.

Atlas nods, “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me, she doesn’t really like talking about Amelia and the job was a good distraction.”

“Exactly,” Cash replies. “She’ll figure it out in her way like she usually does.”

“And all we need to do is just be there for her when she needs to voice everything that she’s got going on in her head,” Luc adds with a fond smile.

“It’ll be pretty obvious she’s thinking about it; she’ll most likely grab loads of snacks and tune everyone out,” Pete smirks.

“Yep,” I reply. Then I change the subject, “We will take it easy tomorrow unless Alaric calls at any point. There is no rush to get anything done, and we are pretty much in limbo until he calls anyway.”

Cash yawns, “Thank fuck for that. I need sleep, and a lot of it. For some reason, even though I was sleeping during the day, it didn’t really feel like sleep.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Rafe replies, “there’s no point in me trying to nap during the day because I end up just waking up and feeling more tired.”

Cash nods in agreement and then adds, “Speaking of tired, I’m going to bed, night guys.”

“Yeah, I’m heading up too,” Riot adds, “this one was more worrying than the others that you guys have been on. I didn’t like Ever being that close to Hunt.”

“Me neither,” Rage replies, “I think I probably slept less than you guys did.”

“I hate my brain; it keeps making me dream of Ever being taken and you guys being killed,” Luc frowns.

“Same,” I admit.

“We’re back now, we’re fine, and we don’t need to go back near Hunt until we’re ready to kill him,” Cash says, as he stands up and stretches.

“That’s true,” I reply. “Alright, let’s leave it for now; it can all be dealt with tomorrow. For now, let’s get some sleep.”

No one argues with me, and everyone quickly clears the table and makes sure that everything is clean, and the dishwashers are both on before making their way to their bedrooms.

Once I am in my room, I sit on my bed for a moment, taking a deep breath and centering myself. I hated that. I just kept thinking about when Blake took Ever and how Hunt is so much fucking worse than Blake, I think I have probably only managed to get an hour or so sleep each night. We usually handle splittingup much better, but knowing that Hunt was looking for Ever, even if he didn’t realize that she was who he was looking for, we definitely didn’t handle that very well at all.

The situation is just a bit too similar to what happened with Blake or at least it could be and none of us can live with that again. I get up, shaking off the bad thoughts, they are all home now and that is what we were worried about, time to get some proper sleep.

It’s not until I have showered and gotten into bed that I remember that I didn’t tell Jensen, Cash and Ever about the storm that we have been preparing for. It’s not supposed to hit for a couple of days though so I will be able to tell them about it tomorrow.

Sleep drags me under into the deep and restful sleep that I desperately need.

**********

Ever

The house is quiet; everyone is still fast asleep, but I am awake. Mostly because I had enough sleep and this is when I woke up, but I'm also up because my mind is spinning in circles thinking about or rather trying to avoid thinking about my mother, the funeral and what Hunt said. I finally decide that I have had enough, and I really need to process all of this before I spiral. The best way that I know how to do that is to take Tank out. Something about the wind rushingpast me or just gently meandering through the surrounding woods means that I can go through each emotion and thought process. It helps me work through it all, and Tank never judges. I can tell him, and he will listen intently.

Yeah, that is exactly what I need; I need to go out on Tank.

My room is empty; I know someone came in with me last night, but they are not here now, so I guess I was wrong about everyone still being asleep. I want to go without being asked questions or anything like that, but I also don’t want them to panic about where I have gone, so I will leave them a note and stick it to the fridge.

If I am being honest, they are most likely expecting me to do something like this; they have gotten very used to me and my coping mechanisms. Still, I would never just disappear on them. That would be a dick move, and if they did it to me, I would sure as hell have something to say about it. I push the covers off me and head to the window to see what the weather is like so I can dress accordingly.

Well, it’s not perfect weather, it’s overcast and windy, but it matches my mood perfectly, so I decide that I am still going to go. If it takes a turn, then I can come back. It's not a big deal and I will take my phone with me anyway. I'm not stupid.

Moving over to my closet I pull out some warm clothes, and quickly throw them on, my boots and jacket are by the door, so I can slip them on before I take the four-wheeler up to the stables to get Tank. Once that’s done, I quickly braid my hair since I hate having it whip around me while I am riding and then rummage through my desk to find a pen and paper, before scribbling a note to pin on the fridge.

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