Summary: When Cam has trouble sleeping, Adrian grows concerned.
The feral attacks grow worse. That’s concerning enough by itself, but given The Baron’s obvious contempt for what he sneeringly calls Adrian’s “latest pet”, Cam steadily grows more worried and anxious. She tries not to, but every noise in her apartment makes her jump. She’s running almost exclusively on strong black tea, because every time she tries to sleep, something startles her awake.
Cam knows Adrian notices, because he keeps asking if she’s okay and never looks like he believes her when she says she is. He always makes sure she gets home okay, either calling her a car or taking her himself. Early one of those mornings, instead of leaving as soon as she gets the door unlocked, he gently touches her elbow.
“Cam? Are you sleeping?” he asks.
Her first instinct is to say yes, of course, it’s just been a long week and she loves tea and that’s why she’s been inhaling it. But she’s exhausted, and he’s looking at her so earnestly, that she sighs and admits, “Not really. Everything wakes me up, and then I can’t get back to sleep and I just lay there and… I’m rambling. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. But you need to sleep.”
“I know.”
She doesn’t know what else to try. Her brain is constantly running on overdrive, and nothing she does seems to help.
“Would it help if someone was here with you while you slept?” Adrian asks.
Her brow furrows. Lily has been staying at Jax’s current safe house, so Cam’s alone in the apartment now. It probably doesn’t help.
“Maybe?” she finally answers.
She’s so tired that she doesn’t register what Adrian is offering until he actually says it, that he can stay in the apartment while she sleeps, if she’s okay with it.
“Oh! I…yeah, that’s…that would be okay,” she fumbles.
She steps aside and lets Adrian in, closing and locking the door behind them. She pulls the curtains closed before the sun comes in, bathing the apartment in cool dimness.
Cam sets her purse down, all the while wondering why Adrian is offering this. She blames it on the exhaustion when she asks, “So, is this a boss worried about his employee thing…or…”
Adrian looks over at her from where he’s been toeing his shoes off.
“I wouldn’t offer to do this for any other employee,” he finally answers.
“Oh.”
Adrian sighs, walking over and gently squeezing one of her hands. “Cam. I worry about you. I care about you. But this…this would be dangerous.”
She’s heard it before. And she knows he’s probably right, but that doesn’t mean she likes the answer.
“I know,” she mumbles.
Adrian nudges her towards her room. “Try and sleep. I’ll be right here.”
For an hour, she tosses and turns, trying in vain to get her eyes to stay closed and her brain to turn off. But she can’t. Eventually she huffs, gets out of bed, and heads back to the living room. Adrian is on the couch, the TV turned down low. He turns around when she comes out.
“I tried, I swear,” Cam says.
She’s so tired that she sits right next to him instead of keeping a more respectable distance. He’s close enough that if she leaned over just a couple inches, she’d be pressed up against his shoulder.
“What usually helps?” Adrian asks.
Her brain protests the effort it takes her to think. “Bad TV, sometimes.”
Adrian hands her the remote, and she flips through to Netflix, settling on a terrible documentary on supernatural beings that usually makes her drift off. Adrian smirks a little when he sees what she’s putting on, and she laughs through a yawn.
“It’s really, really bad. Just to warn you.”
Her eyes droop closed almost immediately, then fly back open when she hears a door slam down the hall. Adrian touches her hand.
“It’s okay, Cam,” he murmurs.
She mumbles incoherently, her eyes closing once more. Cam isn’t sure if she’s dreaming or not when she feels herself shifting, and then finds her head resting against something solid, and not the cushiony back of the couch.
In her half-awake state, she decides she has to be dreaming when whatever her head is on moves until she’s more comfortable, and an arm comes around her shoulders. She must be dreaming, because she doesn’t think Adrian would ever let her sleep against him, even if she would welcome it, and even though that’s exactly what her dream self is conjuring to finally get her to sleep.
When her eyes slowly blink open later, Cam is startled to find that she finally slept, long enough that it’s dark out. She yawns, and turns, and her head whips up when she realizes that falling asleep on Adrian wasn’t just a dream. His arm is indeed around her shoulder and his shirt is soft under her cheek. Her heart starts thundering in her chest, realizing how close he is.
She should get up. She should, feels a little guilty that she wants to just stay there, but he’s not making any attempt to get her to move.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you,” Cam finally says.
“That’s alright,” Adrian says, his voice low and softer than normal. “Did you sleep well?”
Yes, she thinks. The best I have in a long, long time, and I’m almost positive that it’s all thanks to you.
“I did,” she answers.
Reluctantly, she sits up, but she stays sitting next to him.
“That documentary is terrible, by the way,” he says casually, and Cam laughs.
“I did warn you.”
There’s a comfortable silence for a few moments, another show on the TV playing quietly in the background.
“Thank you,” Cam says.
“For what?”
“For staying.”
“You’re welcome, Cam.”
His face is warm and earnest when she glances over at him, and she bites her lip at the intimacy of it all. They’re still sitting close together. She just fell asleep curled up against him. It’s late, and dark in her apartment. She doesn’t want him to leave.
Cam sees Adrian reach his hand out, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, and she sighs and leans into his touch. His thumb gently caresses her cheek.
“I should go,” he says quietly.
“Oh. Right,” she replies, unable to stop the disappointment she feels.
“Cam.”
He moves his hand, tilting her chin up until her gaze meets his.
“I have a Council meeting. That’s all.”
She thinks if she had still been sleep-deprived and saying the first thing that came to her mind, she would have asked him if he would’ve stayed, if not for that meeting. But she doesn’t. She doesn’t, because the way he’s looking at her and the gentle way he’s still running his thumb over her skin tells her that what the answer would be.