All Eyes on Me

Chapter 15

Evan woke up to the end credits of Neighbors playing on his Netflix account. He stirred, finding Maci with her head propped up on her elbow on the arm of his sofa, fast asleep. He made a move to get up from the couch, knowing he needed to take some more pain medicine. He didn't want to wake Maci up, he knew she'd had a long day just as he had. So, he swung his legs out to the floor, pushing off the cushions with his good arm until he was completely upright.

He sighed, hoping it was just "first day back home" jitters or something like that. He hated that everything was taking so much energy out of him. Course, it is the first time you've been shot while doing your job, he reminded himself.

Yep, he'd taken a few hits to the head, plenty of punches, and even got his forearm knifed by a gang member once – that needed stitches – but he'd never been shot in the line of duty. His partner, Ben, had experience with it though. He was nicked by a bullet that went off from a gun he tried to tackle out of a suspect's hands. Didn't hit anything major, and so it was what they called a "graze."

He shook his head, sighing, trying to bring himself back to the present moment. Right, he thought. Pain meds, pain meds, pain meds. His aching arm seemed to only further remind him of the urgency of the matter.

He hoisted himself up and padded over to the kitchen to get some water. He went back to his room to grab the medicine and was in the midst of popping two pills when he could feel Maci's presence in his doorway.

He quickly swallowed, washing them down with water before asking: "Yes?" He didn't turn around right away though.

"I would've gotten those for you, you know." She told him, leaning against his doorframe, her arms crossed over her chest and her one leg crossed over the other, bent at the knee. Even one of her eyebrows was raised up in that "uh huh" look he knew so well.

"I know, but you looked so cute sleeping," he replied, turning half of his body towards hers. He caught her eye roll over his shoulder, but was pleasantly surprised when she came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"You're cute," she said against his back, her hands holding steady over his chest. She could feel the heat radiate from his body, and she just wished she could stay like that forever. Surrounded by the very essence of Evan.

"Well, yeah," his teasing voice jogged her back to the present moment. "But you're cuter." He added, craning his neck back a little to kiss her cheek. She popped up on her tiptoes to meet his lips for a second kiss.

She still kept her arms wrapped around him, and she really didn't ever wanna let him go. But, she knew they really couldn't stand like this for hours on end, no matter how much she wanted to.

So, she broke the hold, releasing Evan and taking a step back.

Evan opened his mouth to say something, but instead what came out was a yawn. He didn't understand how that was possible, he'd just taken a nap on the couch. But, Maci nodded towards the pill bottle, and Evan remembered. Duh, side effects. He closed his eyes as another yawn came on, and when he opened them, Maci had pulled back the covers to his bed.

"Come on, in you go." She said, motioning for the bed.

"You're coming with me," he stated as opposed to asked. She said she was going to stay with him.

"Yep, just one minute," she said, scurrying out of his room. She was back barely a minute later with her phone. "Just in case someone needs to get a hold of me," she told him as she set it down on the nightstand.

Evan mumbled an "Mhmm" as he climbed into bed. He noticed Maci got the sides right this time, that way if they wanted to, they could actually cuddle. He definitely wanted to, he'd missed her so much. Even though they'd spent time together in the cabin, he was still feeling both overprotective and overemotional at the fact that he almost lost her again. He didn't ever want that to happen again. Plus, he wanted to know if they could fall back into some semblance of a routine – sans awkwardness, if they were really lucky.