salute ➳ 〚h.s.〛 〚a.u.〛

the one with the blizzard

"Piper, where are you?"

"Hello to you too."

She could practically hear Harry rolling his eyes on the other end of the line. "I've been at your flat for almost an hour. Where the hell are you? This storm is getting really bad."

"About that." Piper looked out from the alcove she had sequestered herself in and was immediately hit with a blast of wind and snow that blinded her. She shuddered as she pulled back into the small space that was just barely keeping her protected from the weather. "I think I may be lost."

"You're what?"

"Lost," Piper said again, her cheeks burning with shame as she said it. For fuck's sake, she was a grown adult. She'd lived in Greater London all her life. She'd worked at Vauxhall Cross for a year. She wasn't supposed to get lost. "I, um, I must have taken a wrong turn. I don't know where I am."

"Piper, Vauxhall is a block away from the tube station. How did you manage to get lost?"

"I don't know if you looked outside in the last little while but it's like the fucking North Pole out here. I can barely see my own hand in front of me, never mind the fucking street signs!"

"Okay, alright, calm down." Piper sucked in a long breath and then let it out slowly, trying to get her temper under control. It wouldn't help anyone if she lost her shit standing in an alcove while the apocalypse raged on around her. "I'm sorry that I inferred that this was your fault."

"Thank you."

"Now, where are you? Are you safe?" Harry's first concern was always her safety.

"I'm tucked into a storefront so I'm protected from the brunt of it. I just don't even know where I am. I got really turned around somewhere and there's no one out on the street to ask for directions. Not that anyone would stop in this weather." Piper had passed a grand total of one person between Vauxhall and here and that had been many blocks ago. Everything in the surrounding area here was locked up. Even the storefront alcove she was hiding in was gated, completely shut off from the world. She was utterly alone.

"I'm going to come and get you, okay?"

"You shouldn't drive in this weather Harry," Piper said, shaking her head ineffectively because no one was there to see it. "It's too dangerous. The last thing I want is for you to crash because of me. I'll be fine here to wait out the worst of it."

"It's going to be snowing well into the morning, petal," Harry informed her. "Just stay where you are. I'm coming for you."

It was nice to know that someone out there was concerned for her safety. It made her feel infinitely better about this entire situation that Harry was on his way to her. "I think I crossed the tracks at some point," she told him, trying to give him some helpful directions to find her, "and I was walking for about twenty minutes before I ducked in here —"

"It's fine," Harry interrupted. "I'll just get Louis to track your phone and put it on the GPS. Just don't move."

Right, of course he would use a GPS. Piper felt a little stupid for not thinking of that right away. GPS tracking was what she did, what she was good at. And when it mattered, it flew right out of her head. Some operations analyst she was.

"Please be safe," Piper said to him as she watched the snow blow past the opening of the alcove, practically sideways with the force of the wind.

"I always am, petal. Now I'm going to hang up so we don't waste your battery. Keep your phone handy in case I need to reach you."