The Nanny

Chapter 8

It was only a few minutes after 5am when Onika crept into the house, barely able to stay awake while even standing. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep for days. The last thirty hours had been so busy, she had barely even had time to text Beyoncé. She closed the door behind her and climbed the stairs, grabbing the railing to keep herself from falling. Approaching the top landing, she didn't even think twice before turning right and heading straight to Beyoncé's room. Quietly she slipped inside the brunette's bedroom, jerking her scrub top off and unfastening her bra. She shoved her scrub bottoms over her hips, leaving her panties on, and, pulling back the covers, crawled as gently as possible into the brunette's bed.

Beyoncé was in the middle of the bed, facing the left side. She startled awake when she felt a warm hand grab her wrist and wrap her arm around a bare midsection. "Onika?" she mumbled. "What are you doing?"

"Need sleep. Hold me," Onika nearly slurred, as she scooted back to press up against the younger woman's frame.

"But the kids might come in here and see us," Beyoncé muttered groggily, though still pulling the older woman tighter against her.

Onika grunted softly. "Sleep. Can't care now."

Sighing, Beyoncé laid there for several minutes before she gingerly extracted herself from around the black haired woman and slid out of bed. She tiptoed to her dresser and quietly pulled out a large t-shirt. The brunette knew potentially bad things could happen if the children discovered their own mother almost naked in Beyoncé's bed, so she crawled back into bed and whispered, "Sit up, Nicki."

"Hmm?"

The brunette pulled Onika into a sitting position and slipped the shirt over her head before gently putting each of her arms through the sleeves. She lowered Onika back onto the bed and settled in behind her again, wrapping her arm around her lover's waist once more.

When Beyoncé's alarm went off not even two hours later, the young woman groaned and tried to roll over, only to have her movement halted by someone laying halfway on top of her. Peeking open her right eye, she saw black hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and finally remembered Onika crawling into her bed in the early morning hours. The older woman's arm was looped around Beyoncé's middle, her right leg thrown across Beyoncé's lower thighs, and her head resting in the crook of her shoulder.

The older woman did not stir in the slightest. Beyoncé was torn between letting her simply sleep in her bed as long as she needed, waking her up and having her go back to her own bed, and simply carrying Onika to her bed. Finally she decided it would be best to let the blonde continue sleeping, and just make sure the children didn't go into her room until Onika had woken up and dressed herself.

It meant, however, altering her plans with the children that day, in order to let Onika sleep peacefully. Maybe, Beyoncé thought, a trip to the library would be in order. Beyoncé remembered going to the library as a child and loving the access to books, despite growing to dislike reading in late middle school.

Slowly, Beyoncé slipped out from under Onika and pulled the covers over the sleeping woman. Onika made a slightly disgruntled face at the loss of contact, but did not wake up. The young woman stood by the edge of the bed for several moments, simply watching the beautiful woman sleep.

Suddenly a lump formed in her throat as she realized that her heart was probably already too far gone to save.

*****

1:09pm. That's what the red numbers on the alarm clock said.

Red numbers? Onika's alarm clock didn't have red numbers. She sat up quickly in bed and glanced around, confused. Finally realizing she was in the guest bedroom - Beyoncé's bedroom - the older woman relaxed significantly. The oversized t-shirt covering her clearly belonged to Beyoncé.