Chapter Text
Gwen couldn’t quite remember the last time she truly slept.
Well, that wasn’t entirely accurate. She knew she was sleeping just fine before her promotion, but she couldn’t exactly picture the concept. It had all gone so very downhill in such a short amount of time, and she didn’t have a moment to cling on to any stability she once had. And now she was here, pulling the skin below her eyes down so they would stay open as she reread the case in front of her over and over as she tried to remember how to understand the English language. She risked a glance over at Alice, whose music was somehow audible through her headphones as she skimmed (skimmed!) her own case, shrugged, typed a few words, and tossed the file aside. God, Gwen wanted to yell at her for that more than anything, but even opening her mouth was too much energy, and she could feel the world around her begin to blur, and was she falling forward or to the side…?
She stirred awake at a particularly jarring cymbal crash. She blinked, disoriented, and frantically scanned the environment around her. She was in a car, it was still dark out, and music was playing very, very loudly. Out of pure instinct, she reached over and clumsily flipped the volume dial until the music was muted completely.
“Ah, she’s up,” Alice sighed from the driver’s seat. “Still a buzzkill, even half-awake.”
“Wh–” Gwen rubbed her eyes, willing herself not to cry for a third time that day. “Where are we? Alice, what did– why are– what…?”
“Real inspirational,” Alice said with a nod. “I'm driving you home.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you’re delirious enough to fall asleep, at work, on me,” Alice said. “Triple threat coming from you.”
“You didn’t have– I'm fine, Alice,” Gwen mumbled, sinking further into the seat, “take me back to work.”
“Look, you can either sleep on a keyboard or in your bed. Choice is yours.”
“Or I could go back to work–”
“No secret third options here, Gwen,” Alice scolded, “and we’re almost there anyways. Let the workaholic in you retreat back to her fluorescent lighting cave and go back to sleep.”
Gwen grumbled something incoherent. She could feel herself slipping back into the strange, dissociated state she had been in for the past few days, where everything faded into a blur of colors and her own mind felt like a separate entity than… whatever she was currently using to think.
“Right, princess, we’re here,” Alice said with a harsh pat to Gwen’s shoulder as she turned the car off and opened her door. “Can you walk, or do you need your local strong woman to bridal carry you to your royal bed?”
“Walk,” Gwen said, her speech slurring as she fumbled with her seatbelt for an embarrassingly long time and stood up, taking a second to lean against the door before she slowly began to walk back to her flat, Alice trailing behind her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled as she missed the keyhole three times, “f’r taking me home.”
“My pleasure,” Alice said, watching bemusedly as Gwen finally slid her key in. “Always nice to see you this quiet for once.”
Gwen opened her door, tripping over the ledge before walking into the entry hall, turning back to face Alice. She knew she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, not like this. She couldn’t be alone without seeing the shadows in her room shift and move towards her. And Alice looked… well, she looked cozy, in her oversized band shirt and long skirt, standing in her driveway against the first shy rays of sunlight.
“Stay,” Gwen said, before she could stop herself.
Alice raised her eyebrows. “Sorry?”
“Stay,” Gwen repeated, leaning against the doorframe. “Can’t sleep alone.”
Alice’s face went through a string of emotions, finally settling on a rather confused grin. “I-I'm honored, Gwen, but I have my own bed to get to, y’know? I’d hate to abandon it on such short notice.”
“Please,” Gwen said softly, “want you here.”
“Want me here, or want someone here?”
Gwen thought about it. “You,” she tentatively decided.
“Well.” Alice cleared her throat. “How about this. I… go home… I know,” she added at Gwen’s frustrated pout, “and we circle back to this at work later. And if a more awake version of you is still sticking to it, I'll… join you, I guess. Christ, everything in my life got really strange really fast. Anyway, can we agree on that, Aurora?”
“Fine,” Gwen sighed, rubbing her eyes again.
“Great. See you tonight, sleepyhead,” Alice said with a wave, and then she was gone, getting back into her car and turning the music back up to its earsplitting volume before driving off.