Page 116 of Chained

Alicia gave her a stern look.

"About?" I asked.

"Taylor. They think he's waking up." She grinned, ignoring Alicia.

"When can we go?" I asked, stepping towards the door.

"In the morning, I promise. He's safe but we can't travel at night, not around here." Alicia caught my arm to stop me and shot a dark look at Laurie under her lashes. "I thought we agreed not to tell her until the morning so she wouldn't try to go charging off?"

"I never agreed," Laurie said simply.

I took a deep breath, ready to argue but I glanced at Alicia and knew there really wasn't any point. I let it out in a huff and moved to slump on the lumpy couch.

Coal emerged from the shower wearing a pair of sweat pants. Hunter was busy preparing us something to eat and my stomach rumbled loudly as I realised I hadn't eaten all day.

Alicia and Coal started having a whispered conversation behind me and was fairly sure I knew who they were talking about, but it didn't really matter.

Laurie sauntered past the counter casually and tried to steal a bite of food. Hunter's hand shot out so quickly that I almost didn't see it. He caught Laurie's wrist and pulled her close to him.

"Try it again and I'll put you on your ass." He smiled broadly and released her.

She pursed her lips and stepped away before coming to sit down next to me.

"Why am I tempted to take him up on that offer?" Laurie whispered and I giggled.

"I can't wait to get back to Fairview," I said with a smile. I hadn't had much time to focus on Taylor but I missed him so much that it almost hurt. I was bursting to tell him everything that had happened and waiting until tomorrow seemed like eternity.

Laurie glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes at the siblings bickering behind us.

"Taylor's not awake yet anyway. At first light we can hit the road and make sure we get there for when he is," she said. I could see some of the same excitement and trepidation on her face that I was feeling.

"He's not going to believe all of this," I said, trying to imagine how I would explain everything to him.

"Do you think he'll be happy to see me?" Laurie asked after a moment.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes at Laurie, sensing that she was trying to hide something from me.

"You know, just because I only met him a few times and I probably didn't really register with him, considering..." She trailed off and looked away.

"Considering what?" I regarded her curiously.

"You know, just it was a busy time and he was preoccupied with, you know - everything." She waved a hand vaguely.

"Like trying not to get killed?" I guessed.

"Yeah." She looked relieved. "Like that."

I felt something twist uncomfortably in my stomach but resolutely pushed the feeling aside.

"I'm sure he'll be pleased to see you. He liked you when you were training us and we were looking for you right before he got hit." I shifted in my seat. A shiver passed down my spine at the thought of how closely we had escaped death that day.

"Were you? I wasn't sure if it was coincidence or if you'd really been trying to find me. I feel... responsible for what happened to him." Laurie twisted her hands in her lap uncomfortably.

"Don't be ridiculous," I said. "After Evan died, we thought it was going to be us next. We couldn't find our way out so we thought if we could just find you then maybe we'd be safe." I shrugged, it had worked out after all, if not in the way we'd expected.

Coal and Alicia were still having their hissed conversation behind us and I thought I heard my name mentioned.

"I lost sight of you. I'm so sorry about Evan. I've never trained anyone before and I was worried that what happened to him was because I'd forgotten to teach you something important or-" Laurie looked almost like she was going to cry.