Room 216, Sunday Morning

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie was asleep. She hadn't expected that to happen, but it had, though it had taken a long time and had been pretty fitful. What could you expect after the day she'd had, with everything that was going on, really? It did not make for sweet dreams. It was only now in the morning that she seemed to be sleeping sort of calmly, in her baggy shirt and grey pajama bottoms, on her side with her back towards Sam. Or maybe it wasn't that she was calm as much as it was that she'd worn herself out with stress.

Either way, it probably wouldn't last very long.

[ooc: For the necromancer!]

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[necroslacker]

Sam was not asleep but that was pretty much expected, wasn't it? He'd slept a little but it hadn't lasted and for the last little while, he'd been mostly rubbing his fingers up and down Natalie's arm while distracting himself with thoughts of a better time.

He really hoped the world wasn't ending.

[whenshewasnice]

That was going around. Natalie had spent all of her waking hours hoping that, yesterday And then she'd hoped she would at least dream of better times, but she hadn't really dreamed of anything at all.

She stirred a little, and sighed, softly. She wasn't necessarily going to enjoy waking up.

[necroslacker]

Sam looked down at her, checking for signs of waking up and kept stroking his fingers against one of her arms. He figured that waking up was going to mean her features were going to be marred by stress again.

She looked calm right now and he wanted that to last instead. He knew it wouldn't.

[whenshewasnice]

He was probably right. Natalie shifted with another quiet sigh, and after a moment, her eyes fluttered open. It took her another moment to get her eyes to focus and her brain to take in where she was.

Only then her eyes fell on him. Her voice was hoarse with sleep. "Hi."

[necroslacker]

"Hey," Sam said, giving her a brief, small smile. "Sleep okay?"

He knew the answer to that question but asked anyway. Maybe the sleep had helped her a little bit.

"Need some water?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Yeah." That was in response to that last question, unsurprisingly. It was a given that no one in this bed had slept okay.

The slight frown appearing right now meant she remembered why.

[necroslacker]

"Okay," Sam said, nodding and rolling slowly out of bed. He was quiet while he gathered up a cold water bottle and came back to sit on the edge of his bed.

"Need anything else?" he asked, handing her the bottle. "Breakfast?"

[whenshewasnice]

"You're obsessed with feeding me," Natalie said, though he wasn't. She pushed herself a little more upright and ran a hand through her sleep-mussed hair before taking the bottle. "Breakfast can wait. Thank you."

[necroslacker]

"I'm not obsessed," Sam replied, shaking his head. "People tend to eat in the mornings so I thought I'd asked. It's a little thing called breakfast. You might have heard of it."

[whenshewasnice]

"Yes, I have," Natalie replied, with what might have been a wry look of tired amusement though it got quickly obscured by the water bottle. "Just now. From you."

She took a sip of water and cleared her throat. "But I'm not hungry."

[necroslacker]

"Hey, there are some things I know," Sam said, shrugging and running his fingers through his hair before blowing out a breath. "Feeling more rested, at least?"

[whenshewasnice]

"A little." Not a whole lot, but it would do because it would have to. Even if she wanted nothing more right now than to stay in bed and hide from reality.

She didn't want to be thinking about her parents. Or Todd. "Did you sleep at all?"

[necroslacker]

"Yeah, a little." He shrugged. "Did you really think I'd sleep for awhile? I had stuff on my mind and making sure you were asleep was good enough for me."

[whenshewasnice]

"I doubt your brain agrees." But, she knew he slept little at the best of times, and wasn't going to argue. She took another sip of water. "Today's going to be another wonderful day, isn't it?"

Oh, sarcasm.

[necroslacker]

"I don't know." Sam shrugged. "It might be. And if it is, I guess we'll just have to do our best with that. Can't get hopeless."

[whenshewasnice]

Capping the bottle, Natalie lowered herself back on the bed again, hair in tangles around her head, against the pillow. She rubbed her eyes.

"I know."

But getting hopeless was such an appealing option.

[necroslacker]

Sam looked down at her and frowned, kind of hating seeing her like this. It was so unlike her and he hated it. He reached to brush a thumb over her eye lightly.

"If all else fails, I'll take you to Seattle with me."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie was all over the place and she knew it. She hated it, too.

"Thanks." It was more for the lovely thought. With Portalocity shutting down the day before... She wasn't sure Seattle was a viable option anymore. But just this once, she was going to keep that to herself.

She kept her eyes closed and tried not to sigh. "I don't feel like getting up. I know I'll have to."

[necroslacker]

"You don't have to," Sam replied, shaking his head. "Why would you have to get up? I'm not gonna make you get up and I think whatever's going on will still be going on if you wanna take a day off."

[whenshewasnice]

"But I should be doing something useful." What, was she supposed to give up on overachieving just because the world was ending? "Not hiding."

[necroslacker]

"You're not hiding," Sam said, shaking his head. "You're getting some rest. If you were hiding, you wouldn't even be letting me see you. You're stressed and you're upset and you need to rest."

[whenshewasnice]

"Hiding from the world." Or what was left of it. "Not you." There was a difference.

She opened her eyes again. "I'm not handling this well."

[necroslacker]

"And that's okay," Sam said, giving her a brief smile. "I don't think anyone's supposed to really handle this well. It's crappy topped with awful and it's worse because it seems unstoppable. How can you be helpful if you're dead on your feet, though?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I'm not dead on my feet," Natalie replied, though it sounded like she was saying it just to say it. She really did want to hide. "I'm fine."

She was not fine in any sense of the word.

[necroslacker]

"You're not." Sam crossed his arms and stood up, shaking his head as he did. "I haven't known you very long but I know you enough to know when you're repressing things and you're repressing. You're not fine. With all that you found out yesterday, there's no way you can be fine."