Now You See Me

Forty-Five: A Change of Scenery

Chris was allowed out of the cellar the next morning. I heard Leia unlock the door, and I heard her talking with Chris in the hall right outside reception, but I didn't want to go and see him. The idea of it frightened me, which was upsetting, but in the light of recent events, inevitable. I had every intention of asking him what the blue box in my memory had been when I saw him next, but it was seeing him that was the problem.

"Is Damien around?" he asked, and I tensed until my fingers went white around the mug of tea I was holding. Over the top of the desk, Thea grimaced in sympathy at me.

"I believe so." Leia's tone was carefully neutral.

"Does he not want to see me at the moment?" He affected casualness, but I could hear how much the idea upset him and I loathed myself for sitting tight.

"I haven't asked him." Leia paused. "May I ask why you want to see him?"

"We...said some stuff to each other yesterday," he replied. "I feel bad about it."

"Well...." At Leia's tone, I narrowed my eyes. She knew full well I was in here and that I could hear them. "I don't think he's particularly angry with you, if you ask me. He has had, I believe, a rather confusing memory, though, which he might want to discuss with you."

I had to intervene before she made it doubly awkward. I put the mug in the sink behind Thea's desk and then wandered out with my hands in my pockets, hovering just shy of the doorway until Chris spotted me.

"You were in there the whole time?" he asked. I nodded.

"I'll leave you two to it," Leia said. She glanced at me. "Nothing should happen. I've reinforced the wards as best I can, and Lorien's checked him over, but if anything changes let me know."

"You're clean?" I asked him, once she was gone.

"Yeah." He glanced down, and then up again at me through his hair as it flopped over his eyes. "I feel better than I have in days."

"You look better," I said. He had colour in his cheeks, and he wasn't as vague as before. He could meet my eye and hold it, and some of his worst injuries were no more than scabs now.

We stood there for a minute in the hall, staring away from each other.

"Do you want to come to my room?" I asked, hesitantly.

"Might be better than standing here all day." He laughed, and looked at me with uncertainty as if he wasn't sure he was supposed to. He reached up to rub the back of his neck. "Things are a little awkward, huh?"

"They do seem to be." I began to walk towards the stairs, and he trailed after me. I tried to detach myself from the worry at having us shut in a room together, but even Lorien had verified that it was safe. I could only think that it was irrational, but it felt very real all the same.

"So, what was this memory Leia mentioned?" he asked, shutting the door behind him as I went to sit on the bed.

"It was...pretty normal," I said, "I'd gone to work and left you to pack and you made a complete tip of my bedroom."

Despite himself, he grinned. "I remember that. Though I'm not getting why that's confusing."

"I found a box among the shoes." I watched him for a reaction. "It was small and blue and you didn't want me to see it. You took it away and hid it and refused to tell me what it was."

His brows furrowed in the middle, which I didn't take as an encouraging sign. As he thought, though, his cheeks grew steadily redder. "Oh. Oh, I know what you mean. But you never saw it. I would remember if you'd seen it because you'd have known what it was and it wouldn't have been a surprise anymore." He looked down. "You had no idea there was going to be a surprise."