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"Couldn't sleep, lass?"
Summer blinked, trying to think of something coherent to say to that. It wasn't like she had any reason to have insomnia - her family had enough money to pay for a therapist and she'd taken advantage of that. It wasn't like the three of them had suffered any defeat recently, either.
It was… just weird. "Yeah." She gave Flynn a grin. A weak one, to be sure, but it was a grin.
"Eh. Neither could I, somehow." He'd obviously been preoccupied; while his hair was short and tidy, his shirt had obviously been buttoned the wrong way, with the buttons in the wrong buttonholes. She wondered if he'd actually managed to make a coherent smoothie, or if he was going to make a face and dump it after a few seconds. "I get insomnia every so often, though. Figure it's something to do with coming up on Christmas."
She nodded. It made sense, given that there were so few people who had survived the attacks. That there were so few people out there to celebrate any of the winter holidays, to be alive and surviving under Corinth's dome.
She, Flynn, and Scott were fortunate; at least some of their families survived, no matter how little she thought of her own parents. Flynn had his father, and so did Scott.
Somehow, she never thought she'd have a blue Christmas. "I don't know about you, but I'm kind of depressed."
"Perhaps you are suffering from a lack of natural light," Doctor K said, his screen coming on. "My research indicates that light, especially the spectrum expected by living beings, is a mood-lifter. I suggest that you work on spending more time out in the dome."
"What's this about natural light?" Scott asked, joining the two of them - three if one counted Doctor K.
"I think the good doctor is saying it's a natural anti-depressant," Flynn said, because he was the most adept of the three at figuring out what Doctor K was talking about.
"You couldn't sleep either?" Summer asked, though it was obvious that their team leader was having a bout of insomnia himself.
Scott shook his head. "For some reason, my feet are freezing."
"Yeah, I can't sleep too well either when my feet are cold," Flynn said. "Finally built myself footwarmers to wear at night."
Raising his eyebrows, Scott asked, "And you didn't tell us about them?"
"Didn't know you suffered from cold feet." Flynn grinned at the words. "It shouldn't be a problem, Scott. You too, Summer?"
"I just wear my favorite ankle socks." They were a far cry from what she'd owned back before, but the simple socks worked just as well and were cheaper.
"I kick mine off." She could tell Scott was a little embarrassed about the fact.
"I used to," she said. "It took practice." And a set of ankle socks that weren't that easy to kick off in bed. Especially in this place, where the heater never seemed to be set to high, even in the winter.
Even if the winter tended to be really mild, because of the dome's climate controls. Still, Summer knew that there would be snow; it was in the weather forecast, after all. They had to have their snow, for the people used to it.
"Maybe I'll make a couple of sets. Can't be all disciplined like Summer, here. And we'll have two more Rangers, eventually."
"Why don't we get something warm to drink, then share body warmth?" Summer asked. "Because it's not really practical to heat up this whole place."
It was one of the downsides of living in a garage; it wasn't really energy-efficient to heat it, as Doctor K had mentioned once or twice.
"That's a good idea. Bed or couches?" Flynn asked casually. "Could watch a movie, I suppose."
"You do have training tomorrow, Ranger Operator Series Blue," Doctor K reminded him.
"He's got a point," Summer said. "And I'm not really in a movie mood either." She wanted to have her dogs, truth be told, but they were long dead. Or at least she presumed they were.
"Coffee or cocoa and then we'll just sleep together, then," Flynn decided.
"That would be nice, but... we don't have any place to do that," Summer pointed out. Her bed wasn't tiny, but it wasn't meant to have three people in it, and she suspected the others' weren't either.
At least there were only three of them, not five.
"Well, I know the sofa's a sofa-bed," Flynn said. "And if that won't hold the three of us, there's a blow-up mattress in the storerooms."
"That's for emergencies only," Doctor K said. "I would not constitute this as an emergency."
"Well, then, let's hope that the sofa bed holds," Scott replied, looking around. "You mean we kept that ugly-looking thing for a reason?"
"Well, yeah." Flynn shrugged. "Thought you knew." He was heading towards the sofa in question, pulling the cushions off and unpacking a familiar shape.
Summer had never been fond of sofa beds, but if it kept everyone warm, she wasn't going to complain.
"I guess I'll make the cocoa then," Scott said, heading towards the kitchen.
"I'll get my comforter." It was a down one, a nice one, too big for her bed - but just perfect for the sofa-bed. If she grabbed pillows from each of their rooms, and maybe a blanket or two, it would be exactly what the three of them needed.
By the time she got back down, there were three mugs of cocoa and Flynn was putting finishing touches on the bed. She handed the comforter and a pillow to Flynn, going back up to see if she could find another blanket and two more pillows.
At least the others waited until she got back before starting on the cocoa.
"This tastes good," Flynn said. "A little odd, but good."
"I picked it up from some Swedish import store," Summer admitted. She'd been doing the grocery run that week and had seen the cocoa, and thought it might be nice to have something a little exotic. "I didn't think it would taste any different."
There wouldn't be any more chocolate from that maker, unless the Swedes had thought to make a domed city like Corinth. She'd thought she'd heard they were trying it with some city called Hudviksvall or something, but she never knew if they'd gotten very far.
"Eh. It's Swedish, figure they know how to make cocoa. They only have daylight five hours a day over there, you know."
She hadn't known that, but she should. Her parents had made sure she was in excellent private schools. But that was neither here nor there.
"Maybe we should draw up the sheets, go to bed," Flynn suggested. "Dunno about you, Scott, but I think Summer and I are getting a wee bit cold."
"Yeah, I think that's a good idea too," Scott admitted. He finished his cocoa and went to make up the bed, arranging pillows and blankets military-neat on the sofa-bed.
Soon, after all the cocoa was gone, the three of them settled into the bed, and Summer had to admit that it was nicer with three people in it. She could use the warmth.
Thinking about how nice it was, she drifted off to sleep, content in the bed with her teammates beside her.