Psychosis

Chapter 39- Ciara's Bunder Blunder

Isabel looked at the man with her, the man that had gotten her away from the devil's grip when they were on the plane. They were meeting someone new today, someone that he said was a nice person and could be trusted. Isabel took his word for it, and she watched as he greeted the woman fondly, and Isabel smiled, already liking the girl. But then she felt a chill run down her spine, the kind of chill that she only felt when a demon was near. But surely there was nothing demon like about this girl, right? But then she said her name, and suddenly, Isabel was able to see the demon under the mask.

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Ciara stood in her bedroom, trying to decide what shirt to wear that day. She already had her undershirt on, she just had to decide what shirt to wear over it. She could go with one of her band shirts, or she could wear her The Matrix shirt for the third Saturday in a row. She sighed, and picked the latter, knowing it would be simpler than picking a band shirt, and it's not like Reid really cared what she wore on their excursions. Since they had made up on the plane, the two of them had been closer than ever. When they were at work, Reid never left Ciara alone for too long, but it wasn't in a creepy, overbearing way. It was endearing, it really was. He didn't keep track of her every move, but just made sure that she was okay and that no demons were coming for her. Without Reid, the demons would totally come for her. Ciara just knew it.

Ever since them making up, Reid had truly proved that she could get back what little trust she had in him. She had given back her trust after the first week, but in the next two weeks after that, her trust had only grown and blossomed despite her attempts to keep it under control. She didn't want to trust Reid fully, because she knew that once she trusted someone like that, she would get hurt. But at the same time, she was beginning to understand that Reid would never intentionally hurt her again. Not that he really wanted to hurt her the first time, he only thought he was doing what was necessary. Ciara understood now that he would never do that again. Was that what trust was? Was that what trust felt like? If it was, she didn't mind the feeling, and she was beginning to wonder what else she could trust him with.

"A-kilah, I'm going out to meet up with Reid!" she yelled.

"Okay!" Akilah yelled back from the next room over, and Ciara checked her phone to make sure she had gotten the info correct, and once she had gotten her confirmation, she grabbed her bag and left the apartment, her keys jingling as she stashed them in her bag. It was early March, and she looked up at the clear blue sky as soon as she had walked outside of the apartment complex. It was pretty warm for the beginning of March, so she didn't even need a jacket or anything. Her undershirt kept her arms covered enough for her. As she walked, she kept her eyes down, thinking. She wondered if she could trust him enough to make eye contact with him for the first time, but then she shook her head. She wasn't ready for that. Even if she completely trusted him, that wouldn't make her ready for that. But maybe...maybe she was ready to try human contact. Was she?

She hadn't revealed to the rest of the team why she hated human and eye contact so much. They all assumed it had to do with her Asperger's, but that was only a small part of the reason. The rest of the reason was something she wasn't going to tell anyone, seeing as she had to keep her secret safe.

Safe.

That's what she felt with Reid. She felt safe, perhaps even safe enough to allow herself to have human contact with him and not shake every time she did so. She had lost that ability when she was five, though it had only grown from aversion to near-phobia five years ago. Still, though, was it possible that after nearly twenty years, she was finally ready to make contact with another person and not have it be a big deal? Ciara looked up from her counting of steps to see that she had arrived at her destination. She walked inside the coffee shop and saw Reid already there, waiting for her. Her heart used to race when they first started doing this, but now, it just felt safe and natural. It felt right.