Chapter 24: The Waiting Game

As soon Beatrice started to film, Charlie passed out on a waiting room couch. She had been awake for over 24 hours for the first time since college and it was really starting to take a toll on her.

She woke up what felt like an eternity later to Beatrice shaking her awake. Or at least doing her best to shake her awake.

"Five more minutes, B." Charlie grumbled, rolling away from her and nuzzling further into the couch cushions.

"Come on, Charlie." Beatrice said, shaking her harder. "You've been asleep for six hours. Don't be a brat."

"Six hours?" Charlie jolted upright and rubbed her eyes. "I only meant to sleep for like an hour or something."

"Well, you were out much longer than that." Beatrice said. "The broadcast is going to start soon so we need to get ready to leave."

Charlie stretched and slowly hauled herself off of the couch.

"Leave? Where are we going? Did I miss out on that much while I was sleeping?"

"We're going to an abandoned parking garage that's really close by." Beatrice said. "I asked Harleigh to make the video traceable to this location, but I'll actually be waiting at the parking garage else until she arrives."

"I'll?" Charlie asked incredulously. "What about me?"

"We'll have to find somewhere for you to hide." Beatrice said casually as she reached down and picked up an overstuffed duffle bag.

"I'm not just going to hide somewhere and let you fight Night Thief alone!" Charlie said.

"You'll just get hurt." Beatrice said. "I'm trying to keep you safe."

"I'm trying to keep you safe!" Charlie countered.

Beatrice sighed. "Fine. I guess you don't have to hide the whole time. But you have to promise you'll be extremely careful and stay out of the way."

Charlie stuck out her pinkie finger.

"I pinkie swear!" She said.

Beatrice rolled her eyes, but was obviously trying to bite back an amused smile. She stuck her pinkie out anyway and linked it with Charlie's.

"I'm going to hold you to it. You do something dangerous or get hurt and I'm breaking your pinkie." Beatrice jokingly said.

"Good thing I've never broken a pinkie swear before!" Charlie said. "I never go back on my word!"

"For your tiny finger's sake, let's hope so."

Charlie pouted but didn't try to retort.

Her hands were pretty small, so her finger would probably break pretty easily.

Beatrice unfolded the hoverboard and started to program a new location into it.

"Come watch me." Beatrice said, waving her over. "You need to make sure you know how to use this in case you need to make a break without me."

Charlie tried to hold back her frown as she watched her.

Beatrice didn't say that like it was something that might happen. She said it like it was something that would happen. Charlie didn't like it. She understood planning for the worst, but that was completely different than expecting the worst.

I'll have to talk to her about it later. Charlie thought. I've got to make it clear to her that I'm not just going to leave her behind for my own sake. She's getting out of this too.

After Beatrice was done showing her how to use to board (and berating her about not listening and getting distracted) they headed out. It didn't take very long to get the empty parking garage because it wasn't that far away at all. In fact, Charlie could see the abandoned hospital from the window on the top floor.

"Well need to keep watch." Beatrice said, already unpacking things from the bag and setting them in order. "Since we don't have a TV or access to the internet there's no telling when she could show up."

Charlie nodded numbly, simply watching her set things up.

"We should try and rest as much as possible in the meantime."

Again, Charlie nodded silently.

"You can sleep first if you want to." Beatrice said. "You said you were still tired earlier."

"I—uh, no." Charlie said. "You're the one that's going to be doing most of the fighting. You should get some rest."

Beatrice nodded a grabbed a pile of blankets and began to arrange them into a makeshift bed on the floor. Charlie grabbed a bag of ancient, stale chips and walked over to the window.

Even though they were so uncomfortably stale that they were basically soft, the sound of biting into them still felt overly loud in the quiet room.

It was pretty boring just staring out of the window at an old building and a bunch of trees, and Charlie found herself mostly just listening to the sound of Beatrice tossing and turning, and occasionally huffing in frustration.

"You okay?" She asked, still staring out the window.

"I can't sleep." Beatrice grumbled, continuing to twist around in the covers.

"Well, you are laying on concrete." Charlie said.

"It's not just that—" Beatrice huffed in frustration and flopped down.

Charlie looked away from the window and turned to face her. "What is it then?"

Beatrice shrugged tiredly and rubbed the blanket between her fingers, her eyes distant. "I don't know. I haven't seen my mom since I was like nine or something. I'm kind of…"

"Scared?" Charlie finished for her.

The look on Beatrice's face said that she didn't like to use that word to describe herself, but she nodded nonetheless.

Charlie left her post and walked over to Beatrice where she sat down beside her and put an arm around her back.

"Are you sure we shouldn't contact Linton, at least for backup?" Charlie said. "I'm sure he would help you. He seems like he would."

Beatrice shook her head.

"No. He would just tell me to leave so that he could handle it himself. He always tries to act like I'm a baby or something. I'm an adult. I can handle my own problems."

"But it's still good to ask for help when you need it." Charlie offered.

Beatrice sighed and shook her head, before plopping her chin down on her open palm. Her barely visible eyebrows were furrowed together as she stared at the dirty concrete floor.

"Well, why don't I just sit beside you until you fall asleep?" Charlie said.

"You're supposed to be keeping watch." Beatrice said.

"It'll just be for a few minutes. As soon as you're asleep I'll go back up keeping watch." Charlie promised.

Beatrice gave her another uncertain look, and Charlie responded by grabbing a hold of her and pressing her against her chest.

"Shh." Charlie said. "Just sleep."

Beatrice sighed, and Charlie ran her fingers through her hair. It took a while, but she did eventually fall asleep.

Charlie carefully reached over to the bag and fished around for the transporter and tried not to wake Beatrice to at the same time. After she pulled it out, she tried to find paper and a pen as well. Unfortunately, she could only find a pen, and eventually settled for ripping off a small corner of her shirt and writing on that.

She wrote:

Dear Linton. We are at a parking garage. Night Thief is on the way and we could probably use your help. I included our coordinates at the bottom.

PS This is Charlie. The Delaqua one. Thanks.

Charlie shoved it in the transporter and addressed it to Linton's phone number since that was the only thing she knew that could possibly be connected to his location.

Hopefully this will work.

When she pressed send, the machine buzzed and sputtered, and Beatrice stirred beside her.

Charlie quickly turned back to her and started to rub her back again. The lines on her face quickly dissipated and she snuggled her head closer against Charlie's shoulder.

Somehow, looking at the content expression on Beatrice's sleeping face made the concrete feel much more comfortable. Charlie's heart swelled, and she moved a little closer in as well.

I'll just lay here a few more minutes. Charlie thought as she reached down and grabbed Beatrice's hand. Surely it won't hurt anything.