"Okay," Alyssa agreed. It had been a nice comfortable bed. "No lights
please," she said. The light from the window was hurting her eyes something
fierce and it was hard not to start crying again. She rubbed them gently
then did something a little out of character with her, especially with
strangers. She held her arms out to Derek.
He picked her up and watched Alex go, only to adjust Alyssa in his arms so
that she could lay her head down and, if she wanted, use his neck or
shoulder to block out the light for now "All right, don't forget your
friend."
He couldn't remember the name of the doll but was used to Kat and Tuffy so
knew of some level of importance a stuffed animal had with children their
ages.
Carefully, he left the office and headed up to his bedroom, making his
movements slow as he pulled the comforter back and laid her down before
covering her back up. Then he went over to the windows and drew the shades.
It wasn't night yet so there was the natural but soft refractional glow of
light that snuck in through peeks, lighting the room enough to see what was
around but not enough to be bright.
"I'm going to go check on the medicine," he said, walking over to her side
of the bed and pointing to the phone there "If you should need anything,
press that red button, all right? Just relax and get some sleep."
He made sure she was tucked in well and quietly backed out of the room,
closing the door in reference to the others in the house and the possibility
they might make noise or worse.
What a day, he thought, heading toward the Control Room.
