New Winslow S8E19
Iris wasn’t surprised when she glanced over about forty minutes later to see that Noah was asleep. He was half-sitting and half-lying on the couch, not looking particularly peaceful. She stayed where she was, not wanting to miss if Billy came through while Noah was here. But eyes still on him, she got out her phone and hoped that today was the day that Andrew actually had cell service.
“Hey Iris.”
“Hi. Um, Noah’s here with me.”
There was silence for a second. “Ah, so that’s where he went,” Andrew said finally.
“He’s… not fine, I don’t want to say he’s fine. He’s definitely not fine. But he’s okay?”
“Can you put him on?”
“He’s asleep, do you want me to wake him?”
“No,” Andrew said with a sigh. “No, don’t do that. He’s safe?”
“Yeah, we’re in my apartment. He’s safe.”
“Until I bloody well get there,” Andrew muttered, but there wasn’t any heat to it. “You didn’t…”
“No,” she said. “No, no, I told you I wouldn’t. He asked to though. And…”
She looked at Noah, feeling briefly like she was betraying his confidence. “When I brought up attempting lucid dreaming, he asked if I had any Nyquil so he’d sleep quickly and we could reach Billy that way.”
“Fucking hell,” Andrew whispered.
“He didn’t do it,” she added quickly. “And I think he kind of, I don’t know, realized what he was doing? So we just went upstairs and had some soup and sat for a bit.”
“Not the worst thing that could happen, I suppose,” Andrew said. “Alright, I’m in the middle of meeting with insurance. It’s taking forever and I can’t leave Liv with this. If he’s safe there, I’ll call when we’re done. Have him call me if he’s up before then.”
“That’s fine,” Iris said. “I don’t really have any customers today.”
She winced as she said it, but it was the truth. Nobody had been in for the past two days and she didn’t have any outside clients lined up. The practical side of her was screaming about this while the part consumed with solving the curse was trying to just push it aside for a little bit longer. But judging by Andrew’s silence on the other end, he was thinking along the same lines.
“We’ll talk about that issue tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve got some sales thoughts.”
Why was she so shocked? “You don’t have to do that.”
“I know,” he said. “But I work there too, remember? Alright, I have to go, I’ll call when I’m on my way.”
———-
Iris could have gone downstairs and reopened the shop. If she was so concerned about her rapidly depleting bank account, she could flip the Open sign and make it clearer that they were open for business. After all, Noah was, in fact, an adult like he’d informed her. He didn’t need a babysitter. And if he left through the back when she wasn’t looking, then he’d be fine. They weren’t doing any rituals and it wasn’t like she was going to force him to stay.
But it was raining and cold outside, and the gas fire was really nice. It had been a little while since she’d used her fireplace and Iris had forgotten how soothing the heat and flickering flames could be. And she knew that her relationship with Noah was complicated, more so than the one she had with Andrew. And even having him here made the guilt that was always kind of simmering over what happened with Olivia spike back up again. But the company was kind of nice and it was extremely cozy in her living room.
So instead of going back downstairs and having her business open semi-consistently, she was sitting in the overstuffed chair beside the window, reading a book and waiting for Andrew to call. It had been about an hour and a half by now and her phone remained silent. Noah was still asleep on the couch, occasionally muttering something, but nothing she could catch onto.
“I want to go home.”
She looked up from a particularly scary part of the novel she was reading. “Noah?” she said, standing up.
“I want to go home.”
Shit, this was it, wasn’t it? She hadn’t planned this by any means, she’d meant every word she’d said to both Andrew and Noah about waiting. But if Billy was coming through and there was a medium sitting in the room right now, it’d be a waste not to talk to him.
And technically, she and Noah hadn’t done anything to cause it, so she wasn’t doing anything wrong by taking advantage of the situation.
“Are you Billy McBride?” she asked, taking Noah’s hand.
There was a pause, like she’d interrupted a script. Good, this was a good sign. “Billy,” she said. “It’s alright, I’m here to help.”
“Only him…” Noah murmured with a frown.
“No, I mean, I need your help, but I can help you go home too. Do you understand?”
“No, no, only him.”
“Billy, I’m here to help. It’s alright, we can help each other. I’m a professional, please let me help you.”
“Only him!”
The words came out in a shout that sent Iris tumbling backward off the edge of the couch and onto the rug. That was when Noah gasped in a way that made her heart nearly stop at the familiarity of it, that sickening sound of air cutting off. He opened his eyes, looked at her for a second, then closed them, breathing normally again.
“Billy?” she asked tentatively.
But there was only the sound of rain outside.
———–
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