After the initial shock of the Norns and everything else, people start to crowd me and ask me questions along the lines of "What did your dad look like?" or "Why does he like PowerPoints?" or "Can he give me a weapon too?". TJ stands up and pushes his way through the crowd of people to get to me and he hugs me close and yells, "Everyone get the f**k away!" "Can't you all see that she is shaken up after all of this?" He demands to know and the whole room gets quiet and almost everyone gets this shameful look on their face. TJ and I start to walk out of the group and everyone in our way quickly gets out of it as he leads me to the elevator. Once inside, his torso shifts as he turns to look at me. "Are you okay?" He asks with the purest of intentions, and those would be to not get with me. Guys have tried that before and they were all mistakes. "You look as though those questions were flesh-eating acid covered bullets from a Gatling gun." "They felt like it. Half the time I was confused as to what was happening and the other half, the barrage just stung." I shudder as I think that those mobs of people could happen at any point in time. "Here, you are all different kinds of shaken still." He states as he offers me a copy of his room key and I look at him puzzled. "Why?" "Just in case you ever need to talk," he says as if he normally does this. He keeps me close as if he's expecting an ambush of people as he walks me to my room. Don't get me twisted here. I don't like a whole lot of human contact, but for TJ I can make an exception.
I unlock the door and it swings open quietly. He and I both walk in and I let go of him, and he of me. I walk to the dresser and grab the issued Hotel Valhalla pj's and turn around. "You can go now," I say as I see him marveling at my room. I apparently caught him by surprise as he flinched. "O-okay. Are you sure you're going to be okay?" He queries with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "Yes TJ. I'll be fine," I laugh. He quietly and kinda sullenly walks out of my door and starts to close it. "Oh TJ!" I yell at the last second. He stops and peers in the door. "Thank you so very much. I appreciate it a lot." He smiles weekly, "You're welcome." He then pulls his head out of the door and closes it the rest of the way.
I walk to the bathroom and take a shower and meanwhile, I'm trying to process all of today's events but my mind keeps circulating back to TJ and how cute the son of Tyr looks when he's protective of something he loves. Or someone he loves, my brain says. I don't try to banish the thought because it'll eventually vanish, only it doesn't. I wash away all of the sweat and grime from training today. Eventually, I feel like a newborn from all of the scrubbing I did. I get out of the shower in only a sports bra and loose fuzzy pants. I flop on the bed knowing that I will have training tomorrow at the normal time.
