Chapter Text
Michelle sat by the window in the lounge after getting back from the forest. The group of agents had already done their debrief, so she was left to her own accords. All she could think of was what happened back there.
She had let the mask slip too much, she was too unreserved. She felt desperate with her obvious flirting.
The thought was eating away at her. How could she have been so careless?
And Micah? He was deflecting, or worse avoiding.
She had struck up the courage to talk to him after getting back but he just brushed it off. When she brought up her 'almost fall', he said “Don’t worry about it.” with a grin, before walking away to talk to Judah.
Her chest was feeling heavier and heavier by the moment.
She couldn’t just sit here and stew about it, it was gonna drag her down.
She needed to busy herself, keep spirits up.
Michelle decided the best use of her time would be to go run a simulation in the training room. Keep her body and mind distracted at the same time.
When she got there, she found Alex already training. It had been a while since she had hung out with him, outside of missions. So she figured this was just killing two birds with one stone.
Alex having heard the door open, turned towards Michelle offering a light smile.
“Mind if I join?” Michelle asked returning the smile.
“Not at all! It’s way more fun when you have a partner!” He replied.
They took position in the middle of the room and reset the simulator.
“What mode should we do? You can choose since I’ve already done a few.” He said, offering her a wink.
She laughed before replying,
“Let’s do the ’zombie’ simulation, it will test our observation skills and reactivity.” Michelle declared.
“Both things I could stand a little brushing up on.” Alex added with a laugh of his own, making Michelle smirk.
He selected the ‘Zombie’ setting and hit start.
As soon as the simulation started, Michelle let her mind snap into steely focus. All worry drifting away behind sharp and lethal movements.
Once her and Alex wrapped up their session, Michelle slipped away, retreating to her room for what she thought would be the night.
Her room felt heavy, like the air’s sole purpose was to weigh her down. Maybe it was because the thoughts were starting to catch up again, so she decided that avoiding it was the best decision, at least for now. Until she felt ready to really dissect what happened, or better yet when Micah decided to talk to her. So, she decided on a cold shower to wipe the sweat away and cool her down.
Afterwards, Michelle decided to visit Josiah in the lab. He always appreciated the help, plus she is a quick learner. And she knew that he would be guaranteed to still be up at this hour.
She knocked on the lab door as a precaution before opening it up.
When she stepped inside she saw a very funny site, Josiahs sleep filled figure slumped on the table surrounded by machine parts.
Michelle knowing she shouldn’t wake him, since he barely gets enough sleep as is, grabbed a blanket from the hall closet and draped it over him. She then shut all but one of the labs lights off and retreated back into the hall, closing the doors behind her.
She quickly pulled out her communicator and sent off a group text saying, ‘Jo fell asleep in the lab again. You know, incase you can’t find him tomorrow.’ Before putting it back in her pocket and wandering down the hall.
Not wanting to return to her room, Michelle circled back to the lounge and settled on the window sill once more. She was tired, but she couldn’t bring herself to face the silence in her own room. Instead, she stared out the window, focusing on the moon and lowering her head against the wall. Her eyes drooped slowly, as Micah’s response to her remark echoed in her head.
“You came back.”
“Never left.”
That night under the moon, she sat slumped against the window frame, replaying it over and over, until eventually she gave way to sleep.