Lesson 78- Knowing who to call for help is just as good as knowing how to fix something yourself.

I stand and watch as Torin apologises to a confused and mildly horrified Laura. I don’t think I have ever seen her look so uncomfortable. She of course assures him multiple times that he doesn’t need to apologise. Not to mention that she has already called in someone to fix the doors who should be by soon. Damn she’s good. Footsteps sound in the hallway which has Torin stalking out to check who is out there, with me trailing along behind him, still holding his hand. We find Kyle stumbling down the hallway with his arms piled high with plastic containers.
“Hey Kyle, what are you doing here?” I ask. He turns sideways so he can see me properly over the containers and gives me a look that is very clearly questioning my intelligence.
“Laura texted that guys broke in and attacked you again. I brought food. It just took me a while because I had to wait for a damn taxi.” He responds. Kyle doesn’t get cleared to drive again for a few more days and he is HATING it. Although I think he’s secretly enjoying having Laura drive him to and from work all the time. But the poor guy is too shy to admit it to her. Torin is staring, clearly confused.
“Why did you-” He starts but I cut him off.
“Thank you Kyle, that is really thoughtful of you.” I tell him gratefully, squeezing Torin’s hand. Kyle really is sweet, even if he does try to hide it. We head into the kitchen to lay out all the food.

When the hell did he find time to make all this stuff? It’s only been a couple hours max since the guys broke in. Does he just wake up stupidly early in the morning and start cooking? Or maybe he keeps entire feasts just stashed in his refrigerator… Either way, he’s laying out pretty much every breakfast food I can imagine. I’m suddenly very aware of how completely empty my stomach is. I DO still feel a little bit nauseous, but there are pancakes! Not to mention the bacon. Oooh, and muffins! We all stand around in the kitchen eating. Between mouthfuls, Laura explains the arrangements that she’s made and her general plan for the day.
“So, the guy to fix or replace the doors will be here any time now, I’m hoping to maybe head home and get a few hours sleep while he sorts that out. Then if someone can call me when they’re done I’ll come back, preferably all refreshed and ready to cast the most complicated wards I’ve ever attempted.” She sounds exhausted just talking about it. Or maybe she’s just exhausted because she worked a night shift, went home, experienced some kind of painful magical backlash then drove straight back here. She’s running on just as little sleep as I am. Torin is probably exhausted too.
“Right. So the bar will stay closed tonight until I’m SURE it’s safe.” Torin confirms. I let out a huge yawn.
“I still really need to get some sleep too. Maybe I should go to bed…” I trail off at the pained look on Torin’s face and I remember my promise to stick close to him. No way he’s going to let whoever is coming to fix the doors work unsupervised, so I guess we’re both going to be supervising. Maybe I can bring a pillow or something and find a corner to just sort of close my eyes…

There’s a firm knock on the doorframe of the broken back door.
“Hello? I got a call about some broken doors and by the looks of it you weren’t kidding. What the hell happened here?” Jackson calls out.
“Come in! We’re in the kitchen!” Laura calls back to him. Jackson joins us in the kitchen and looks over the group of us curiously. I suppose we’re a strange looking group. Half exhausted, thrown on outfits or in my case, just full on pyjamas.
“Mornin’ all. Is it just the one door that needs fixing?” He confirms. I shake my head.
“Nope, the front door too.” I sigh and Jackson nods. Torin is, as usual, very quiet.
“Right… Well if the front door is anything like the back one, you’ll be wanting to just replace the entire door. I’ll need to go grab some supplies from the store, then I can have it done in a few hours.” He explains. Torin nods.
“Very well. If there is a way to reinforce the doors or make them stronger, then I want that done too.” He declares and Jackson nods.
“Well alrighty then. I’ll just take a few measurements then run to the store and get right to it.” he announces. Torin gets up to follow him and watch him work and I reluctantly get up to go with him. Today is going to be a very long day. I’m so tired. Then again, I’m pretty sure that if I sleep right now I’ll have nightmares, so maybe it’s better this way after all. Laura comes to stand with me as we watch Jackson measure the door frames.
“You called Jackson to fix the doors?” I prompt. Laura shrugs.
“Well yeah. I mean technically he’s a plumber, but he’s enough of a handyman to know how to replace a door. Not to mention he was available to come right away. I also figured that Torin would be more comfortable with someone he already knows doing the work. I mean, I know he doesn’t necessarily TRUST Jackson, but I doubt he trusts anyone. At least Jackson isn’t a stranger.” She concludes.
“That’s true. I’m sure Tori appreciates that.” I lean over and nudge him in the side. He reluctantly nods. I think he might be hitting his limit for emotions and socialising this morning. He looks pretty over it all, sadly, our day isn’t even close to being over.

An hour later, Laura and Kyle have both gone home and Jackson is back and is starting work on the front door. Torin had brought some of his paperwork out and set up at one of the tables and I’m sitting next to him pretending to shop online when in reality I’m just kind of mindlessly scrolling, too tired to actually seriously look at anything. You would think all the power tools would be too loud for me to get any actual rest, but I can’t help myself and soon enough my eyes are falling closed. I move around a little bit, uncomfortable in my chair and unable to find anywhere to rest my head. The scraping of Torin’s chair as he moves makes my eyes fly open as I reluctantly get ready to follow him wherever he plans to go. But he isn’t leaving, instead he just reaches over and with a gentle hand, tips me over and shifts me until I’m lying with my head on his lap. It’s not perfectly comfortable. My legs are still hanging off my chair weirdly and if I move too much I’ll probably fall. But I’m so tired that I don’t care. I just close my eyes and tune out the sound of the power tools and focus on the soft shuffling of Torin’s paperwork.

I slowly wake up to the feeling of a gentle pressure on my head. I don’t need to open my eyes to know that I’m not in the same place I was when I went to sleep. For starters, I’m lying on the opposite side, but more obviously, I can feel the motions of someone breathing so I must be lying against someone’s chest. The pressure on my head repeats and I realise that it’s the feeling of someone slowly stroking fingers through my hair. I assume the someone is Torin, mostly because I don’t know anyone else who would be holding me like this and because he did say he wanted to keep me close. Still… How the hell did I end up here? I open my eyes and find that we’re in the hallway. Jackson is working on the back door now and instead of waking me, it seems that Torin just carried me with him. He’s sitting on the hallway floor with me in his lap and even though he’s still warily watching Jackson work, he is absently stroking my hair. I don’t know how long I’ve been napping for, but I feel way better. I’m surprised I didn’t have nightmares. Maybe because I didn’t sleep for that long, or maybe it was just because I wasn’t alone.