Finally (Eleven)

Finally

He felt his eyes open slowly, not waking up from sleep with a jolt but with his eyes flickering slowly as he tried to adjust to the light streaming through the bedroom window.

He lay there confused for a moment as he tried to work out where the light come from, he never slept beyond the first rays of the new day. the nightmares that had haunted him forcing him to the point he could sleep no more.

He opened his eyes once more and again struggled to deal with the brightness that filled the room, he groaned a little and could feel where his threat still felt raw from the night before but his head did not feel like it was weighed down by a considerable force.

He was not even sure what time he had fallen back to sleep, he just recalled his head on Melissa and her soft comforting touch and words that had allowed him to switch off, he had struggled at first but now he could feel how good real sleep could be.

Finally, he had managed to fight back the demons that plagued him and it felt like some sort of rebirth, he could not help but to feel a little apprehension that it could be just an isolated moment and the bad dreams would come back with a vengeance.

The thought was not given long to linger as he could now smell the delectable smell of bacon frying downstairs, the aroma wafting up the stairs and along the hallway like some sort of seductive force.

He felt his mouth water at the thought of freshly cooked bacon and a moment later he had rolled from his bed and was heading along the hallway and down the stair as his nose led him as much as his feet took him that way.

He moved into the small kitchen area and he saw Melissa standing over the stove, she was dressed in the same clothes she had worn the night before and was using a spatula to flip over a piece of bacon that was cooking in the pan.

On the table to the left of the cooker, he saw a few dollar bills and a few coins, change perhaps, had she gone out to get the bacon? he was pretty sure he had nothing like that in the house before.

He took another step closer and the sound of his weight shifting on the floor made her turn her head to look across at him.

"Morning, I am making breakfast"

She said and turned her attention back to the pan and worked to flip another piece of bacon as it sizzled on the cooker.

"Nice, thank you"

He offered in response and continued to watch her, she now seemed more lost in her efforts to make breakfast than to talk with him and he did not want to break her away from doing that.

A few minutes passed before she was working the bacon from the pan and onto separate plates with a couple of pieces of buttered toast on each.

"Breakfast is served"

She said as she turned to face him and offered the plate in his direction and he did not hesitate in taking it from her.

"I will eat this and get out of your hair"

She said as she took her plate and slid into a chair against the kitchen counter, she did not seem to be waiting for any sort of answer, perhaps having already made up the answer in her head.

He ate with her in silence as a multitude of thoughts cascaded through his head, but not the normal dark thoughts that would terrify him, no these were thoughts of many possibilities that could be real.

The last piece of bacon lifted with his fork into his mouth and savored as he chewed it slowly and then placed the knife back down on the plate and a crazy thought came over him as he looked towards her.

"You, are more than welcome to stay here for as long as you like, I have room"

He said, the words coming out as naturally as he had thought of them, but he had expected to trip over them, after all, they did not know each other and it was a big commitment to watch over someone.

She looked up and twisted her lips and her face turned to a mask of contemplation as she did not protest his words but seemed to be giving them some consideration and he thought that could only be a good thing.

Her lips shifted and her face resumed the passive look that it held before and she gave a slight smile to him and held his gaze with hers

"Can, we get a cat?"