Charlie Nelson (charlie_chester) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2013-01-22 18:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | adam, adam and charlie, adam and wren, charlie, charlie and wren, day eleven, wren |
Sleepwalking
Characters: Adam, Charlie and Wren
Setting: Courtyard, before dawn
Wren stirred, making a small muffled sound before she sat up. Standing, she walked first toward the bed. Clipping the side of it, she kept walking, stopping in the middle of the floor. She kept standing there, for a few long moments, before back-pedalling quickly, toward the door. Hitting it, she fumbled behind herself with the doorknob, and somehow managed to get it open, starting out into the wee hours of the morning.
Charlie made a small grunting noise and turned over, opening his eyes. The jolt to the bed had woken him from his sleep and he looked up just in time to see Wren disappearing out of his room. “Wren?” he called, loudly enough that she would be able to hear him, but not loud enough to wake the neighbours. When he didn’t get a response, he headed out after her. It was the middle of the night - where was she going?
She was going out into the courtyard, stumbling slightly, bare feet in the grass. Stopping, she clearly flinched, arms coming up as if to protect herself. She gave a short little cry, before putting her arms up over her head and hunching down.
He ran over to her when she cried out, putting his arms around her shoulders and crouching down with her. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Little Bird?”
Her eyes were partially open, though no recognition hit when he touched her, she didn't even actually look in his direction. She flinched again, then stared down at her hands in confusion. "Please stop." she said, though it didn't seem directed at Charlie. Nothing did.
Whether it was directed at him or not, when she said that, he immediately let her go, rocking back on his heels. He was barely awake himself and sleep made him fuddled. “Wren?” he asked her, trying to work out what was going on.
She got up and ran a short distance away, circling around and looking frightened. "Stop! Don't--" she said, circling again and running another short distance toward the tool shed.
It took him a moment, but then Charlie clued into what was going on here. He had seen this before - she was sleepwalking. And clearly, whatever was happening in her dream, it wasn’t good. Charlie also, however, knew better than to wake her up. In the past, the best thing to do had been to follow her and make sure that she didn’t hurt herself. Which was what he did now, heading off after her.
She backpedaled a little, whirling around. Her arms came up defensively again, and she screamed this time. "Stop! You're going to hurt them, stop it!"
Charlie looked around - at this rate, she was going to wake someone up, and they weren’t going to understand what was going on with her. He stepped around her, trying to corral her back towards his room. At least if he could get her to run that way, she’d get some semblance of privacy.
She walked toward Charlie, and when she bumped into him she twitched, then turn and started out at a full tilt run in the opposite direction.
Charlie sprinted off after her, trying to get round her to make her go in another direction again. Clearly his idea worked in theory - if only she would head towards his damn room.
She turned while she ran, then pulled up short--a lucky thing since she was about to hit a bench. She stood there, looking around wildly. She then stopped and stood statue still, head tilting like she was listening.
Charlie took the opportunity to step around the other side of Wren, bringing his arms up around her, without actually touching her, just enough that whichever way she turned, she would move into him. And then he waited.
Adam was up, since he was usually up, but even more so after talking to Becka. If he’d wanted to sleep or consider it, that so was not happening right now. Instead, he was in the activity room, shooting zombies on some video game, letting himself think about that instead of everything else his mind wanted to think about. It was a mildly gruesome game for the middle of the night, which was part of why he had the sound as low as it would go, but all in all, monster blood splatter everywhere was less alarming than reliving memories of his own abuse.
At first he thought the screaming was the game. Though he didn’t really remember a female voice in the game, it sounded like it could have come from there. But then it was louder and didn’t match the gameplay and he realized it was something else altogether. Dropping the controller and not even bothering to hit pause, he left the activity room, looking down to spot Charlie and Wren in the courtyard.
His protective streak ran high, but given everything with Mazie and Becka, it was running even higher than usual. “What the hell did you do?” he demanded, loudly, eyes on Charlie as he started towards the closest stairs in a jog.
Wren gave another little scream, dropping down into a crouch as she curled in a ball, covering her head with her arms. "Stop stop stop!"
Charlie stood over her still, but looked up towards Adam. “I didn’t do anything!” he called out in a harsh whisper. Great - of all the people... It just had to be him didn’t it?
Adam wanted to call bull shit, but then he was ducking into the stairwell and getting to Wren was more important. “Except she’s screaming,” he said as he emerged again, slightly short of breath. Wren was on the ground obviously being attacked by something and Charlie was...It took longer than it might have in another situation, maybe one that didn’t involve Charlie, but it hit Adam. “She’s dreaming...”
Rocking back and forth, Wren slowly stilled, sniffling and shaking to herself. Then, with no warning, she was up and trying to sprint away again.
“Yes, she’s dreaming!” Charlie exclaimed, before cursing under his breath and running off after her. “She does this - always has. Acts out her dreams - and this one’s not a good one.”
Adam followed after Charlie, able to keep pace with both of them easily despite his lack of any real athletic ability. “I know she does,” he pointed out, sounding annoyed at being talked to. “I also am pretty damn familiar with nightmares so I know what one looks like.”
Wren tripped, falling down immediately to her hands and knees.
Charlie looked over at Adam, disbelief written all over his face. “You really can pick a fight over anything, can’t you?” he asked. Like this was the time and place to be playing who is smarter than whom. “I don’t care what you do or don’t know - our job? Is to keep her safe and stop her hurting herself. Which I’m sure you also already know. So how about we just get on with that, okay?”
“I am not picking a fight,” Adam said rolling his eyes as he got to Wren. “I was just pointing out that you don’t have to talk to me like I don’t know her.” He knelt where she fell, not wanting her to suffer, but not sure what to do exactly. Nightmares were awful, he knew, but it wasn’t like he was going to bring up that he wasn’t sure with Charlie being his gently and passively condescending self.
Wren sat back, hugging her arms to herself, and at this point it was apparent she was crying, her hair wild and half sticking to her cheeks where the tears fell. Wren wasn't someone who cried a whole lot when she was awake. But when she was asleep, it wasn't actually all that uncommon.
Charlie crouched down next to her, having to hold himself back from running his hands over her to try and soothe her. He hated to see her cry. Instead, he made soothing noises for a moment, before glancing at Adam. “You don’t know her - not like I do. I didn’t know if she’d told you about the nightmares,” he said, his voice more soft this time, the remains of the tone he’d been using with her.
Adam was having the same troubles Charlie was, wanting to wipe away tears he’d never seen her cry. Then Charlie spoke and he wanted to punch him. “Why have you decided I’m not allowed to be in her life?” he asked, voice low, obviously not amused. Looking back at Wren he frowned more, wanting to wake her up, right now. Nightmares were the worst, especially when you couldn’t find your way out of them. Wake up Wren, he willed mentally, like she might hear it and actually snap out of the dream.
Wren continued to sit there and cry, little mumbles under her breath that were mostly unintelligible. Some snippets of words were heard, among them: please, don't, dead, hurt, no, gone and why. Her voice got ever so slightly louder and she squinted her eyes shut. "You lied."
“I never said you weren’t allowed in her life,” Charlie hissed across at Adam as he still hovered around her. “But I’ve known her for years. You can’t just come along and think that you know everything about her just because she’s slept on your couch a couple of times and you’ve slept on the floor in her room. It’s different.”
“Nothing to do with the fact that up until I dunno, six hours ago she knew more about me than anyone else in my life?” Adam suggested, since that was very much true until he’d told Kyle close to everything. Now Kyle probably knew more, but it didn’t diminish what Wren knew. “Are you jealous Charlie? Or worried she’s dreaming about you?” Right that was harsh and Adam half regretted it the moment he said it, but there it was.
A look of hurt flashed across Charlie’s expression for a second, then it hardened. “So now it’s my fault that you have so little in your life that your closest friend is someone you’ve known for a week?” he threw back, knowing that was a low blow, but figuring that Adam had gone there first.
For a moment Adam’s eyes went wide, shocked that Charlie would actually say that. Then they narrowed and he leveled a glare at him. ”Fuck you. You can talk about how you know everything and you’re never wrong but you don’t know me. And that doesn’t make you better than me.”
“You’re the one with the chip on your shoulder, being an asshole. All I said was she has nightmares, but you had to pull the ‘I already know’ card. I don’t fucking care what you already know - great, fine. Whatever. Nice for you. I care about her. And if you can help with that, great. But if you want to make this about how you really don’t like me, then pick a time and a place that’s not right now and I’ll make myself available for you to bitch at to your heart’s content,” Charlie hissed at him.
Wren shifted, and she laid down on her side, curling up in a ball. She was still crying a little, though the worst of it seemed to be shifting. "I know." she said.
“I’m here aren’t I?” Adam insisted, sitting in the grass near where Wren was laying. He wasn’t about to say anything of the sort along the lines that Charlie might have a point, but he would rather focus on Wren than her asshole of a friend. “Come on Wren,” he whispered, barely audible. “Find your way out.”
Charlie relaxed a little, though he still kept his vigil over Wren. “Good,” he said, glancing over at Adam. “This... Could take a while,” he admitted, then shrugged a shoulder. “Which maybe you already know,” he added, though his tone was less confrontational - the comment had been offered as an attempt at an olive branch and an acknowledgement that maybe Adam did actually already know that.
Adam shook his head. “I hope not. Being stuck in a nightmare is the worst.” It showed on his face how close to home that hit, how he was all too familiar with nightmares. That and he didn’t know. He hadn’t seen it. He knew she had them, he knew it happened, but he had no idea what it was actually like.
Charlie winced slightly as he recognised that Adam seemed to be speaking from experience. “That sucks, man,” he offered up. “I - don’t get them like that myself. I just - I’ve been with her for hers before. I think the only good thing is she doesn’t tend to remember them when she wakes up. So, at least it’ll be over for her then,” he said, looking back at Wren with a caring expression. He had always hated this, but at least he wasn’t as terrified as he had been the first time he’d been with her for this.
“It’s not the end of the world. I just don’t sleep,” Adam said shaking his head. “It’s good she doesn’t remember. That’s probably worse than the dream, not being able to shake it even after you wake up.” He wanted to touch Wren, shake her out of it so it’d be over for her now, not then. Then was too long.
Charlie looked back across at Adam. “Not sleeping doesn’t really sound like a sensible cure,” he pointed out, trying not to sound aggressive with that. He quirked a half smile. “I’ve seen Nightmare on Elm Street, I know how that goes,” he offered up as a joke. Which he knew might be taken the wrong way, but hey, what the hell, it was an attempt.
“There’s really not a lot in the way of alternate choices,” Adam said, giving Charlie a touch of a look. “I sleep more than those kids. And thankfully no one’s able to actually kill me through my dreams.” Shaking his head, Adam looked back at Wren instead. “I’m working on it. Fixing it.”
“Good luck with that. Really,” Charlie offered. He wondered for a moment why he was bothering. After all, it wasn’t like he was out to make friends with the guy. He still had serious problems with what he’d said. But, at the end of the day, Wren liked him. So, he would make an effort for her sake, if nothing else.
The comment surprised Adam, causing him to glance up, confusion on his features. What were they friends now? Or were they just going to pretend to be friendly? “Thanks.”
Charlie caught the look of confusion and shrugged. “She likes you,” he explained. “You’re a friend of hers. It upsets her that we can’t get on. And I... Don’t like upsetting her. Which I’m sure you have a hard time believing, but it happens to be true.”
Despite his distaste for Charlie, Adam didn’t have a hard time believing that he didn’t want to upset Wren. Adam didn’t want to either, which was part of why he felt bad for not being able to get over being upset with Charlie. “I’ve had shitty friends before,” Adam said, giving Charlie a little bit of ground and maybe a little more information than he deserved. “I don’t want anyone else I know and care about to be in that same spot. So I’m cautious about you. But she seems to trust you implicitly, which is weird to me, but I can try.” He wasn’t making promises, but he would try.
“I don’t have a problem with you being cautious about me. Says to me you care about her. And given my history... I’m not a shitty friend, but I can see how you reached that conclusion.” It was the idea that Charlie should have abandoned people to die, in favour of just focusing on Wren alone that he had a problem with. The rest kind of just made sense.
“Then maybe I’m waiting for you to prove me wrong.” Or to admit he wasn’t always right about everything. That part ate at Adam too. “And I guess, I hope I’m wrong. If you turned out to be awful, it’d break her heart.”
The quirked smile reemerged. “Give me time - I’ll see what I can do,” he promised.
Adam didn’t smile back. He just nodded and looked down at Wren instead. “Yeah I guess we’ll see.” He frowned more. “What was she doing on this block?”
Wren slowly stilled, any small mumbling dying down, the crying coming to a stop as it seemed like she slipped out of the dream and back to sleep.
Charlie relaxed back as Wren’s nightmare clearly abated and he sat back down in the grass, the tension leaving his frame. “She was talking to some new guy and lost track of time. Couldn’t get back to the other block. So, she knocked on my door and asked if she could stay in my room,” he told the other guy.
Adam watched her still, looking more like he remembered her sleeping, peacefully and calmer. That she’d asked to stay with Charlie irked him slightly, though he supposed it made sense. Maybe. It wasn’t like she didn’t know his door was wide open for her whenever she wanted. “Well, at least she wasn’t stuck without somewhere to sleep. Should we get her out of here?” he asked. “So she’s not, in the courtyard and all.”
Charlie nodded and stood. “Good plan, I can carry her back to bed,” he told the other guy.
All the goodwill that Adam had had for a moment there drained out of his face. “Of course you can,” he grumbled under his breath, fighting hard not to roll his eyes. This guy was really like this. ‘I’ll take her back to bed’. It took everything to not mockingly repeat what he said just to be annoying, but Adam realized that was childish and kept himself from doing it. Instead he settled for brushing part of Wren’s hair back from where it had clung to her tears. “I’ll be right up there if she does it again,” he said pointing towards the open door and light of the activity room. “Just yell.”
Charlie stooped to pick her up, cradling her in his arms and shifting her weight slightly so he could carry her safely. “Will do, man. Thanks,” he promised. “And, y’know - try and get some sleep yourself?”
“Sure...right.” Like sleep was going to happen now. No he was going to sit there and go through just what exactly was going on behind closed doors with Wren and Charlie. And why he felt jealous about it.