June 2012: Univille, South Dakota, Leena's B&B/The Warehouse

[damncompass]

Looking back, Joshua realizes as he pulls into the B&B, he should have realized that he could have just gone through the bar for this move instead of travelling for the better part of a day. Hindsight is 20/20, though, and he's finally here now.

He leaves pretty much everything in the car, locks it (force of habit) and goes upstairs. Faced with a hallway of doors, he prays to whomever is listening that he remembers which door leads to which room. He doesn't really like the thought of waking up next to Pete, or worse, his sister.

Counting down the hall, he opens a door, and to his vast relief, walks into Helena's room.

Comments

[timelessinventor]

Helena has really not been sleeping well tonight. The rest of the week has been one thing, but tonight it's compounded by the fact that Joshua was supposed to be home hours ago, and hasn't contacted anyone to explain why. She's sure it's nothing to truly worry about (after all, he doesn't know everyone's Farnsworth channels of choice and his phone would do him little good in this country, for reasons Helena doesn't fully understand)... but try telling the darkest corners of her mind that.

So it's a hard-won, not terribly restful doze she's accomplished when Joshua comes in.

[damncompass]

He smiles for a moment, watching her sleep in a non-creepy, non-Edward Cullen way, then takes off his shirt and pants, dumping them in a corner. Helena will likely fuss at him later for that, but he's damn tired now.

Trying to be quiet, he slides into bed beside her.

[timelessinventor]

Unfortunately, that action is enough to startle her out of that doze; purely on reflex, Helena turns over and brings her hand around to connect with his face.

[damncompass]

"Ow!" Joshua winces as her hand connects with his face. Instinctively, he sits up and puts a hand on his eye. "Sheesh. Sorry. I'll... go sleep on the couch."

[timelessinventor]

"Oh! Oh, bollocks, darling, I'm sorry. And you most certainly will not." Now that he's here she'd quite like to get some proper sleep, thank you very much. "You might consider not sneaking into bed with someone who knows martial arts."

[damncompass]

"I didn't want to wake you and the rest of the house up!" He pauses. "Clearly that idea didn't work as well as I thought it might."

[timelessinventor]

"I wasn't sleeping all that soundly anyway." But she's attaching to him now that the opportunity's presented itself. "What on earth took you so long, and why didn't you try to reach anyone?"

[damncompass]

"Oh, Helena, I'm sorry." He pulls her close. "I got bumped off of the flight from Heathrow to New York, so I was stuck in London for a while. I couldn't call anyone because I'd left my phone in Switzerland, and I don't know anyone's Farnsworth frequencies. I didn't really think much of it. I'm really sorry."

[timelessinventor]

"It's all right. Claudia had assumed it was something like that." And Helena tried to believe her, she really did, but... well.

[damncompass]

"Hey." Joshua pets her hair. "Nothing's going to happen to me. I'm fine. Well, other than what's probably going to be one hell of a black eye in the morning..." Erg.

[timelessinventor]

"Well, I know how that got there, darling." Helena yawns. "Dare say we should both sleep." Goodness knows she's been running on a deficit all week.

[damncompass]

"Yeah. I've been travelling all fucking day." He lies back down and snuggles up next to her. "As long as you'll refrain from punching me in the face again."

[timelessinventor]

"Now that you're here, you won't have to worry about that." Honestly, it's half that she's not used to sharing a bed with someone in the first place.

And so they sleep.

[damncompass]

"certainly hope so." He smiles, and falls asleep in fairly short order.

[claudiometer]

Several hours later...
Knock knock.

Actually, more like knock knock knock knock knock knock knock knock she can do this all day, guys.

[damncompass]

"mmmmmf?" Joshua blinks. "wha'zzat?"

[claudiometer]

"Lunchtime. It's nearly noon, I'm allowed to be obnoxious now."
She did poke her head in earlier, just to see if Joshua had made it back, but they were both so thoroughly zonked out she didn't bother waking them up.

[damncompass]

"Crap. We'll be down in a bit, thanks." Joshua sits up a bit and gently shakes Helena. "Helena? It's almost lunchtime."

[timelessinventor]

"Is it? Bugger." Not that Helena sounds (or is) all that upset; she rather needed the sleep. "I suppose we'd best go and join the civilised world, then. No doubt Claudia will want to give you your present."

[damncompass]

"Yeah, probably." Joshua sighs, wrinkling his face, and winces. "Ugh. My face hurts." He's got a pretty decent-sized shiner on his right eye.

[timelessinventor]

"You'll likely want an ice pack for that." She did nail him pretty hard, didn't she? Oops.

[damncompass]

"Hopefully Leena's got one downstairs." Joshua gets out of bed, stretches and rummages on the floor. After he finds his bag, he pulls out a clean shirt and pants and dresses. He'll shower later.

[timelessinventor]

"I'm sure she does, darling." Helena fishes some clean clothes out of her closet and gets dressed herself. "We take enough beatings on this job that they're prudent to keep about."

[damncompass]

By the time she's done, Joshua is running a hand through his (extremely awful by this point) bedhead, trying to make himself look at least somewhat presentable.

[timelessinventor]

"No one's going to fault you if your hair's a bit of a mess, you realise." He probably does, but Helena feels obliged to point it out. "Shall we?"