When Norma got up and dressed, the house was empty. As in, her footsteps on the wooden floor was the only sound filling the entire house kind of empty. It wasn't until she looked at the clock that she realized why this was. It was way past her usual wake up time. She must have even slept through her alarm clock she was that exhausted. She had a moment of panic, thinking she'd left the motel office unattended way past opening time. Since the house was empty, the was a good chance that Norman was in the office but honestly she didn't know with him anymore. She couldn't be sure. As she opened the front door in a hurry, she was shocked by the sight in front of her.
Alex has his hand out ready to knock the door, and had to steady himself when the door opened quickly.
Norma jumped, putting her hand on her heart for a moment. "My god you scared me to death." she laughed slightly, looking at him in slight confusion. "Did you...come for this?" she unhooked his jacket from the hanger, holding it out to him.
"No, actually....but thanks." Alex laughed slightly, taking the jacket from her. He looked at her with a small frown. "I came to say sorry about last night. I shouldn't have let you see me angry like that...and I shouldn't have sent you away when you dropped me off." He shook his head. "I guess it just pissed me off-I didn't understand why you came to protect him. I felt like you were being pressurized to have him back in your life and that's not fair."
"I didn't come to protect him, like I said before...I'm not sure I do want him back in my life." Norma said, tracing her fingers on the door frame. "I came to find you."
"Me?" Alex raised an eyebrow, confused. "Why me?"
"I told you before I was done letting you get tangled up in my mess, so I wasn't going to let it happen again." Norma shrugged.
Alex looked down at his feet, letting out an awkward chuckle as he shook his head. "You do know it's too late for that anyway, right?"
"Too late for what, what do you mean?" Norma looked at him.
"Trying to prevent me from getting 'tangled up in your mess', or whatever you wanna call it. I already am, and Bob and his men taking the flash drive from you...and giving you this--" Alex said, stepping forward to stroke her cheek where the now slightly faded bruise was. "-gives me all the more reason to stick by you."
Norma looked at him, placing her hand on top of his and closing her eyes. "I don't understand why.."
"Why what?" Alex said, his thumb tracing over the soft skin on her cheek as he waited for her explanation.
"Why the hell you'd want to stick by me. All i've ever done to you is treat you like crap and lie to you." She glanced up into his eyes, frowning.
"You don't treat me like crap. Bare in mind that you did come and pick me up while I was drunk and tucked me into bed like I was a little child that needed taking care of. I don't call that treating someone like crap, do you?" He shrugged. "But the lying part...you're not wrong about that. You still haven't told me the truth.."
Discomfort filled Norma, and she leaned away from Alex's touch. "Yes I have..." Although her past with Caleb was what she was most ashamed of, she was still afraid of telling him about Norman. What if he ran away like James did as soon as he saw or heard about how bad Norman's condition was?
"You told me about Caleb. And I know that's not all you're hiding, Norma." Alex said with a small frown, moving his hand away when he could tell she was uncomfortable. He sighed, looking away. "Please. Just tell me the truth, you know by now that you can trust me. I know I let you down by going after Caleb, and I shouldn't have done that...I let my anger get the best of me. But it was only because I care, I didn't like the thought of someone hurting you. All I want is for you to be safe, and if there's something else that's going on that's making you feel like you aren't, I want to know what it is."
