Time Waits for No One

[Kai Alexander Morgan]

Green had been staring what seemed like hours at a small lock of Mack's hair, slowly moving back and forth in front of her nose with every breath from oblivion.  It was always taunting him.  The careless chestnut locks that refused to do what anyone told them to.  Large sigh was pulled in, scent of his shampoo in her still slightly damp hair filling his lungs.  Everything was so silent.  The kitchen light had been left on, the bathroom inadvertently as well, leaving the would-be darkness of his bedroom illuminated slightly in long shadows.  The world was hushed.  For once.  No nightmares…

 

For once.

 

The tangled fingers hadn’t moved either, her grip tucking his hand under her chin like a stuffed animal pulled close for comfort.  He hadn’t made any attempt to pull them free and was surprised she hadn’t woken; his skin a blast furnace most of the time- the length of her body was completely against it.  So, he remained unmoving.  He could be still for an eternity, training….understanding that one’s life only was dependent on how invisible one could be in the face of an enemy.  Hours.  Days.  Sometimes a week in complete silence and miniscule movement to wait out whomever was on his tail.  This was different.  He didn’t want to move, he didn’t want to wake her… maybe he didn’t want to wake her because she would leave and not come back.  She would realize what a huge mistake it was.  There were other concerns that were looming with the clock ticking forward.  Her arms were clawed up pretty heavily of her own doing from whatever had set her off the evening before, and she’d gouged his back more than once… not on purpose of course.  Though the risk was.. in his right mind, not one he should be overly worried about.  He was.  He would never, ever put her in danger of living his hell. 

 

Eyes shifted, glinting toward the small case on his nightstand next to the alarm he’d set for 6:30am.   It would be the first thing he would ask her to do.  Minutes ticked by too quickly.  The Were had maybe dozed a few minutes here and there, only to be woken by the slightest sound, ready to rip into whoever, or whatever had come to crash their silence.  Work would come too soon…awkwardness, the reality his apartment was a bit.. disheveled.  Couldn’t be exactly sure where clothes had ended up.  They would go their separate ways.  She would hate him again…

 

Chest sighed quietly once more.  Thank him?  She’d thanked him, lower lip rolling through his teeth as he dwelled on it again.  For what?  Did it mean she wouldn’t hate him forever?  He couldn’t think like that.  It was what it was, he was who he was.  He would expect nothing.  There was nothing to hope for. 

 

Brow crinkled, lashes lowering at the sight of 6:29 finally flipping forward… savoring the last minute of silence and warmth before the lull of Chopin would break the silence, and this... whatever this  was, would end.

[MacKenna Zielinski]

No matter what anyone said, there was two kinds of zombies in the world.  The gross, diseased, dead but not dead that wandered the wilderness...and people like Mack who did not do mornings.

 

Her brain registered a noise, a noise that sounded like music but in Mack's dictionary did not qualify.  She was a hard rock kind of girl and hearing some classical composer (which to her sounded all alike) was not only jarring, it had her fumbling for the gun she usually kept by the bed to shoot whoever it was that was enough of an ass to torture her with that in the morning.

 

Realizing a lack of gun in her usual spots had one blurry green eye popping open and blinking at the chest in front of her for a second.  Slowly reality started filling her in on things sleep erased, like the fact that she wasn't at home.  Really she should have known that right away because Kai's bed was a hell of a lot better than her mattress on the concrete floor that masqueraded as a bed in her place.

 

Right...alarm...which she had made a comment for him to set.  With a disgruntled sound she grabbed a pillow and pulled it over her head as she squirmed to be as close to warmth as possible.  She didn't get warm in her basement usually after all.  "Five more minutes," she muttered trying to block out reality.  

 

She was not about to answer if it was because she wanted to sleep more, or because she didn't want to face what she did last night.  It was there in the back of her brain like a large attack dog on a chain just waiting for release.  She didn't want to address though yet.  Not before large amounts of coffee anyway.

 

Somewhere her brain also registered that in spite of the really shitty night starting out with PTSD on steroids...she'd slept like a rock?

 

What did that mean...exactly?  Besides the fact that in spite, or perhaps because of, Kai's condition she felt...safe with him.  Reality had just gotten very weird on her.

[Kai Alexander Morgan]

Lashes stayed closed, the tightening of his core in anticipation of having to either defend himself, or pretend he didn’t give a fuck what had happened...  Shit was about to hit the fan the moment his alarm slid to life.  Not the blaring forcefulness of most, his senses were too sharp to be jolted that heavy from sleep.  This morning though, it felt like shattering glass.  It was reality smacking back to life, the relentlessness of a subway in the distance that was just starting to run, he could smell coffee starting to drip from his machine in the kitchen as it warmed.  Wheels were turning.  Gears grinding forward as the world woke up, and for all the power and ruthlessness that he possessed to make anything in his path stop or disappear, it was the one thing he couldn’t control.

 

Green slits twinkled quietly as lids parted, an eyebrow gently cocking at the hand that began to grope for something she wouldn’t most likely find… a sense of complete stillness washing over him with a fierce prickle the moment she realized where she was. Blinking was fluttered, profound at the pillow that she pulled over her head, taking every measure of control not to tense at the Mack-glom that was squirming closer to him.

  

"Five more minutes"

 

He swallowed, the lump tight and hard to force down.  The world was suddenly flying apart in tiny little pieces.  What was he supposed to do?

 

Stay still?

 

Agree?

 

Five more minutes…  right.  The alarm.  Pupils dilated before focusing again.  Okay.  Fingers deftly moved to press the button.  Did it even have a snooze?  He’d never needed to hit it.  It went silent… lips pursed… afraid to breathe until his lungs burned, afraid if he moved she would realize exactly the predicament and all hell would break loose.  Head cocked slightly, watching the minute rise and fall of the comforter.

 

He had five more minutes… to lay there in agony of anticipating a horrible morning.

 

Or…

 

…the cat in his gut had been smugly satiated, curled in sleepy bliss until now.  The dichotomy was grouchy, putting him on edge, impatiently pawing at his psyche like it needed breakfast… pushing him to do what it wanted.  Fingers tightened to a fist, tense for a moment before they released and wandered with a feather’s touch across the slope of Mack’s shoulder that peeked from under the pillow.  She needed to get up.  He pulled up the comforter around her shoulders.  Or not.

[MacKenna Zielinski]

Nope, reality was not going away no matter how much Mack willed it.  It did amuse her that Kai didn't push, in her experience usually mornings was the time for the mad scramble and walk of shame...which amusingly she had never had before and...she wasn't positive about now.

 

For one thing it was hard to feel ashamed when you had a guy curling around you and tucking you in better.  A small smile worked over her mouth as she felt fingers on her shoulder for a moment.  She was going to have to remember that Kai was apparently an enabler.  She didn't have a problem with this though it made her think he'd signed up for more than he could chew.

 

Right...reality...she stayed curled up with him until the alarm went off again and sighed.  She really did not want to get up and grumbled but she sat up, rubbing sleep from her eyes as she took in the light of his apartment instead of the usual subterranean darkness of her own.  She might have wished for it right that minute because she was struggling to think of how to handle matters.  She felt like they should probably talk about things but at the same time she was loathe to do so.

 

Thankfully she smelled something first and almost whimpered.  "Coffee?" she asked sounding reverent as she stretched pulling the old burn scarring on her back as limbs popped.  Long standing habit had her pulling the covers up for modesty's sake as she looked over her at Kai with a sleepy smile.

 

It had to be unnatural for him to look so damn tasty in the morning.  Would have been worth being late for work but considering she had been late yesterday Mack thought that was a terrible idea.  Considering she was usually on time being late to much was likely to cause people to start questioning, not something she wanted done when she was...er...well...

 

"This is going to get awkward ain't it?" she said with a disgruntled sigh of surrender.  "Please tell me that's coffee so I can be coherent for things?  I don't talk well before I have a pot in me."

 

It was a stalling tactic and Mack knew it.  She just...needed a minute to figure out her own feelings on things cause right now they were muddying up the waters to the point of oozing.  With her sense of responsibility prodding she stood up...and promptly remember she hadn't been wearing a stitch when she'd fallen asleep.  She could feel embarrassment jump in her face thinking of all the scratches and scars and marks she'd gotten just from being a soldier, like the burn marks on her back...

 

Clothes!  Where the heck had she left her clothes?  She had to struggle to think with one part of the brain as another tried to yank on her attention and all of it was covered in the muck of feelings she wasn't sure she wanted to handle.

 

[Kai Alexander Morgan]

The sheer control it was taking to not feel like a rigid wall of fear, yes fear- an odd sensation for him and he wasn’t really sure that’s what it was, had taken his mind of the inevitable.  This was going to be one giant clusterfuck.  Or maybe it wouldn't. One could only hope.  Play it cool, he could do that, all the while inside his head a complete cacophony of screaming bloody murder.  So, he remained quiet, relaxed… and simply waited.  Eyes closed, focusing on his breathing.  Five more minutes felt like an eternity, and he’d be lying if he’d said the sound of his alarm after the short moment didn’t make him jump slightly.

 

How weird was that?

 

She sighed.

 

Eyes opened carefully.  Was that a good sigh?  A bad sigh?  A pissed regretful sigh?

 

Fucking hell.

 

…and then she sat up, fingers curling to let her go, then rest folded across his stomach as he could only imagine she was deciding to crack him in the jaw.  He probably deserved it, but was silent. No explanations offered, eyes softly blinking at the case on his nightstand next to the alarm clock.  If nothing was said, he would merely hand it to her, and let her go, eyes narrowing in at the scarred flesh he’d felt on his fingertips the night before but was now seeing for the first time.  Injuries, burns.  He had his fair share, even the tomcat looking nick on an ear from a knife fight gone horribly wrong.  Hers… he was fraught to ask, so he didn’t.  What did bubble up, was anger.  The same anger he felt when Mrs. Kolcheck was in danger or had been hurt when they had first met.  It was a dangerous anger, one where people died. Horribly.  In spades.

 

Eyes blinked at her as the sleepy smile found him, finding it difficult to pull himself out of the vicious funk that was so quick to rear its head.  His own smile was tentative, even though rehearsed a thousand times.  It almost seemed to be coming from emotions he was certain didn’t exist instead of trained kneejerk societal expectations.

 

"This is going to get awkward ain't it?"

 

Brows furled, one cocking slightly as he rolled and reached over to pull open a drawer on the dresser next to the bed opposite the nightstand.  He pulled out a tee shirt.

 

[kai]Not unless you want it to be,[/kai] the low voice was barely there.  [kai]I’m not an awkward kind of person.[/kai]

 

It was truth, he wasn’t.  Or more accurately, he could fake it.  Well.  Inside, he was flying apart into a thousand pieces.

 

"Please tell me that's coffee so I can be coherent for things?  I don't talk well before I have a pot in me."

 

Nostrils flared slightly as he nodded, draping the dark gray tee shirt over her shoulder before settling back with one arm behind his head to prop it up.

 

[kai]You go get dressed, take a shower if you need, coffee should be already done.[/kai]  He knew it was.  It was done by six every morning and just waiting to be poured at this moment.  [kai]I’m going to stay here a few more minutes and wake up.[/kai]

 

Lie.  He didn’t need a few more minutes to wake up.  He just wanted to give her a chance to not run out of the apartment screaming.  And she was right...  this was about to get really awkward.  Fingers reached over to pick up the case, lower lip rolling through unusually pronounced canines for a human.

 

[kai]I know… it’s not possible, but if it would make you feel better, you can take these.[/kai]

 

He set them quietly next to her hip.  The one he wanted to grab and.... Fractured green blinked at his own chain of thought.  What the hell?  Good lord.  He cleared his throat lightly.  [kai]Clothes are in the living room next to the couch, you can toss them in the dryer to freshen up if you want. Shower is yours.  I’ll give you a bit before I make myself breakfast, if you want some let me know.[/kai]

 

And then it was gone, the euphoria of something he’d never known, or knew he wanted, spiraling down the drain into the disappointment and abandonment he knew was coming.  What a mistake, a big, huge fucking mistake. He needed to kill something… to satiate the anger... and the asshole that had preyed on Mack last night at the shop was the primary target on his list.

[MacKenna Zielinski]

Mack immediately pulled on the t-shirt Kai gave her though she noted that because he wasn't that much taller than her it didn't quite cover the bits and she kept tugging on it as she blushed.  Ridiculous really given that he'd already seen her naked here but it had her sitting down again to cover some anyway.

 

She blinked though as he told her the shower was open.  She could see a ploy to get her to go away when she heard one but she wasn't entirely positive how to take that.  It was compounded some but the case he set next to her hip.  Mack didn't have to ask what was in the case, she remembered he mentioned it before.

 

It certainly dropped reality on her head.

 

Christ she needed a smoke something fierce suddenly.

 

"Thanks," she told Kai, at a loss of what else to say about things.  It made sense to her for it to be around and such after all.  Wasn't any different than being on the pill or having some plan B because accidents happened.  Though most accidents probably didn't include sprouting fur and fangs and who the hell knew what else.

 

 

It suddenly struck her how much that had to weigh on someone.  In the old days it was something like HIV or mental health issues (both of which still existed mind) and now it was suddenly having to watch yourself because you could potentially destroy things.  She cut loose and ran wild last night when she probably shouldn't have but how many people actually could do that these days.

 

For once, Mack considered herself lucky.

 

With that thought popped in an impulse that Mack followed because that was simply how she worked.  She hopped up from the bed and hooked her arms around Kai, making sure he stayed there for a moment before kissing him.

 

She liked to blame the fact that he was so calm and closed off.  It had her itching to shake it up and get a reaction from him.  Plus she wanted to make sure he knew she didn't regret things.  She might question her sanity a bit about things and not be the happiest camper because it was morning and she would have rather stayed in bed than go to work.  None of that was on him however and she wanted him to know that.  Since he seemed to react better to actions she opted for that.

 

Nevermind that she'd been wanting a good kiss all morning.

 

She gave a grin as she pulled away a bit, arms still hugging him close.  "Breakfast sounds as amazing as last night was," she told him before giving him a peck on the bottom lip this time and collecting the case to go get cleaned up for the work day.

 

She might have been a reckless idiot but she drew the line at completely stupid.  It was better to be safe than sorry.

 

She still hummed horribly off key in the shower though, trying her best not to let reality crush her under it's heel to much.  She was after all, not sorry or regretful.  Sure some people might blow a gasket over things if they found out but she didn't see how it was any of their business what she did with her free time.  Least not unless it somehow effected her work and she was just a grunt in the motor pool.

 

She better not think to much on philosophy though or she might snap from how much things were not meshing so well.

 

[Kai Alexander Morgan]

Lips quirked in a boyishly perplexed look as she pulled the tee shirt on as soon as it was out of his hands; it quickly fell away to something more neutral, trying to hide the disappointment that he was right… was she regretful? Eyes averted to watch the back of a hand on his stomach as she fidgeted, and he gave her an out- and she seemed… upset? He most certainly wasn’t going to get up… …then he’d be scrambling for something like a sheet.

 

Ohhhh….

 

The Were thought he got it. Though not really caring less who saw what and where, it wasn’t an issue before the Resonance, and even less of one now. But, learning curve. Women never spent the night, and neither did he. People had feelings, and sometimes those feelings included being shy, or regretful. There was that word again.

 

"Thanks"

 

Lashes fluttered as her voice pulled him from the thought process.

 

[kai]It’s okay,[/kai] his voice was so quiet, unexpectedly reassuring, humming from somewhere in deep. It really was. he was trying desperately not to headshrink or rationalize. She wasn’t a patient. Awww shit. She really, sort of was... Eyes inwardly rolled. He’d failed in this, had to be the voice of reason and he’d dropped the ball miserably. Breath sucked in the second she pounced on him, his brain still in the reasoning mode. Fractured irises blinked at her as she seemed to envelop him and he reciprocated the early morning kiss in kind, leisurely with a heat he didn't know he had. Promise of more maybe? Sound rumbling from his chest one that was a darker hint of a very large, dangerous kind of feline... Possessive… pleased?

 

Christ almighty.

 

Teeth lingered on her lower lip to tug a moment before she decided to pull away, dark lashes hiding the flare of pupil that was watching her intently.

 

"Breakfast sounds as amazing as last night was,"

 

He wasn’t sure what flickered across his features, horror? His ears were hot. Was he blushing?? In any event, it was a perplexed form of ‘holy shit’. If he’d tried not to look as she made her way to the bathroom, he didn’t remember…a crinkle again to his forehead. The second the water started, he tossed the blanket off, rolling from bed in a smooth motion to snap a pair of drawstring scrubs from his drawer and pull them on just as gracefully.

 

One hand found itself on his hip, the other brushing a mess of hair forwards and backwards as he stared at the bed. He could never get her out of his apartment. He could scrub it down, but no matter how much he cleaned, the senses would still pick her up every time he pulled the blanket or sheets to his skin.

 

Fuck. Fuck.. FUCK

 

Tight sigh left the twisted blankets where they were, oddly enough not triggering the dreaded OCD reaction. Instead, bare feet padded through the apartment to pick up the remains of the evening’s festivities and set the world right again, stepping in long enough to silently set her folded clothes on the sink counter. The rest included clearing his weapons and returning them to where they belonged. Would there be an issue in the day? Not sure. He was sure as hell though there would be hunting later, as well as a tour around Mack’s place. The Were had to get into it again somehow. There were answers there, just not sure how he was going to get them without her being suspicious… or drawing attention from something or someone he didn’t want.

 

Apartment was on its feet again, and he set forth in the kitchen, moving with almost an ethereal grace to recreate what he’d made the night before that was only partially eaten. Coffee. Bacon. He needed bacon. Everyone needed bacon.

was quiet from his player, something to soothe the hairtriggered beast that was clawing up from the depths of his gut. He thought he’d come to terms that it was a part of him… at the moment rekindling the desperate need for it not to be. So he cooked, and worried, and waited for Mack to emerge, and padded around the kitchen in nothing but dark gray scrub pants as everything tangled together so very… very domestically. A psycho killer domestic Were. What. The. Hell.

[MacKenna Zielinski]

Refusing reality was easy when you just ignored it while enjoying small things like hot showers and the smell of an honest to God breakfast.  Mack's mouth was watering as she padded into the kitchen.  A t-shirt and jeans that would be covered up by coveralls when she got to work to keep all the motor oil and grease off the rest of her.  Dog tags and rings chiming as she settled.

 

"You know...I don't think I've had a real breakfast since before the world shot to hell," she commented looking thoughtful.  "If one can call rations breakfast anyway."

 

She waited, just watching Kai move about the kitchen for a few while she tried to think.  Reality couldn't be ignored forever after all and she kind of wanted to figure things out.

 

"So um...I'll get your ride figured out after work today," she began, already she was feeling nervous about mentioning work just because of who she worked for.  "Maybe take a day or two but you were saying you needed it and such."

 

Yep, cars.  It was easy to ignore the rest of thing if you overly focused on something else.  All talk of what happened the night before was not going to be brought up.  Well maybe what happened when they got here but Mack didn't want to tread into that unless Kai wanted to.  After all it wasn't like they were in a relationship...er she didn't think so anyway.  She didn't really do one night stands but it wouldn't have been right to expect anything else out of Kai when he had been trying to behave last night.

 

She'd been the one not behaving.  While that was odd of her it was like the top of a pressure cooker had popped off and she sure as hell felt a lot better now.  She didn't think sexual therapy was a service of Kai's there though.

 

"So...um...did you want to try getting a pizza and helping me again tonight?" she asked then, the words popping out of her and making her instantly kick herself.  "It's ok if you say no.  I meant it, last night was great but I don't want to go um...tying you into anything because I blew a gasket in my brain somewhere."

[Kai Alexander Morgan]

The glitter of metal twitched the corner of his eye.  He had them too, silenced, then not worn at all the further he got into his mess of a military career.  There was something else, a lighter metal. In the back of his brain, he’d noticed it before… shut out perhaps because of the reality of what he knew it was. 

 

"You know...I don't think I've had a real breakfast since before the world shot to hell, If one can call rations breakfast anyway."

 

The smile was soft as he slid breakfast onto the table with two huge mugs of black coffee.  He’d not really asked if she wanted anything in it. There was no other coffee to him than black and strong.

 

[kai]There were times I could have killed for rations… when I was too deep in.  No contact for months.[/kai]

 

Jesus Kai.

 

He never talked about his military past. To anyone.  Ever.  He didn’t sit for the longest time even though there was a plate for her, and his just a few feet away.  It felt too… domestic.  Not that he didn’t desperately want the ‘normal’ and sit down to have a proper meal… there was something in his core that screamed at him that she would bolt like a deer if he did.  So he cleaned. The pans, the coffee pot… everything as his breakfast got cold and he left her to hers.

 

"So um...I'll get your ride figured out after work today, Maybe take a day or two but you were saying you needed it and such."

 

He nodded, scrubbing the coffee pot out for the second time. Out. Out, damn spot.

 

[kai]No rush. I know you have a job to consider first.[/kai]

 

Clean kitchen towel wiped everything to a brilliant shine until there was nothing left to do but sit and eat a cold breakfast, finding himself not really hungry anymore.  He picked up his coffee, hip leaning against the counter as he fiddled with his music player. 

 

"So...um...did you want to try getting a pizza and helping me again tonight?"

 

Green slid to her before settling on the black liquid in his cup, both hands warming on the ceramic.  The ripples quivered in his normally still grasp.  Fitting.. he felt like that movie, the T-Rex just under the surface of all sensory perception.  A dread in the darkness ready to rear its ugly head at a moment’s notice.

 

"It's ok if you say no.  I meant it, last night was great but I don't want to go um...tying you into anything because I blew a gasket in my brain somewhere."

 

Is that what had happened?  Of course it was. 

 

[kai]Like I said before, I can’t fix cars… but I’m good at following directions and taking orders,[/kai] he smiled slightly, but his eyes weren’t in it.  He rarely felt a chill, but it traveled over his skin to raise goosebumps.  [kai]If it gets me out of your hair faster, I can help as much as you need. I know this must be… not ideal, considering…[/kai]

 

He set the cup down without a sip, padding to the bedroom to retrieve a heather gray tee shirt and peel it over his form.  Tension in his chest kept snarling tighter and tighter.  It was anger, it was always anger, returning to the kitchen to pick up his plate and finally begin eating… albeit leaning on the counter where he was before, and silent.

 

There was a killer in his gut, and it was livid.  He couldn’t pin down exactly why. Is this what disappointment felt like?  Was he disappointed at being shrugged off?  Maybe she didn’t want to seem like she was expecting anything else, because he’d been distant?  Uncaring?  Had he been uncaring?

 

No.  He didn’t think so…  what the fuck was it then?

 

It was worse than that.  It was gut instinct, the monster colliding with the man. A man that had no empathy, fighting with a monster that felt too much. She was blowing him off, and it was reacting. It was hurt, and furious.  It.  He was part of that “it”, the itching burn deep in his muscles that prickled the back of his neck was too powerful to be just the cat… it bordered on a dangerous rage.  Rage?  He wasn’t sure what it was… he’d never felt it before… cheeks hot.  A tug in his chest that felt, pained.  It was panic.  Panicked she was blowing him off when he wanted anything but...

 

Good god.

 

He was panicking she didn’t want him.

 

He was panicking… absolutely burning to swipe everything off the table, grab her and…

 

…teeth crunched suddenly on a piece of bacon as he watched her.  And?  And?  Make her desperately want to stay...

 

[kai]When do you want me to head over?[/kai] voice was so quiet it barely broke the air.  Pupils had dilated widely, slow blink darkening his view of the world as they returned to normal.

 

Panic, hidden by sheer will with a calm veneer.