Sapphire

Chapter 7

Noah spent the next couple of days in his room. Laying in bed, surrounded by his light blue walls and the words of rapper NF coming through his speakers. Gradually, he made it to the floor and did pushups, situps, and jumping jacks, feeling too ashamed of his weakness to workout with Summer and Shay downstairs.

He still went to the dining room for dinner, and occasionally hung out in the kitchen for other random meals. It's not that he was antisocial, he just knew that weakness was something you had to keep to yourself. If not, it could be used against you. He knew that better than anyone else.

Two weeks after he got shot, he finally felt well enough to get back to life as usual.

"You ever been to Cape Cod, Noah?" Summer asked as they walked through the basement after a briefing. Val and Eli were ahead of them, leading the way upstairs and through the hidden door.

"No." Until this job, he had never even left Cori, Massachusetts. Now, he had at least five different states to add to that thanks to various missions he'd been on. "You?"

"One time with my girlfriend. Way back when I had one." Summer murmured. After a long conversation Noah had with her once, he found out just how badly she'd been bullied before coming here. Sometimes it resulted in major injuries that sent her to the hospital, and it was all for liking girls instead of boys.

Fucking savages. If Noah ever ran into one of those assholes, he'd know exactly how to put his newfound skills to use.

"You dated her for a year, right?"

"Yep."

While Noah thought his past was bad, he soon found out that Summer's was even worse. He didn't ask about it, he knew better than to do that; instead, she volunteered the information soon after he got shot. She just came in one day and started talking about it while he lay in his bed, listening. While he'd been on his way to prison when Val picked him up, she had been standing on a bridge getting ready to jump.

His life was bad, but never that bad.

"Meet back downstairs in twenty minutes." Val called as soon as they were all in the kitchen, her and Eli heading to their downstairs bedrooms while Summer and Noah went upstairs. Once they hit the top, Summer turned left while Noah went right. He was about to step into his room when he noticed Shay's door was open and she was sitting on the floor, nose in a book with an expression that wasn't as neutral as usual. It actually looked like she was sad.

Shrugging it off, Noah turned and started gathering supplies in his room, everything from bathing suits to stealth clothes to his trusty handgun. By now, he had a routine and could be packed for a mission in less than five minutes.

Still, when he stepped back into the hallway and saw Shay again, he hesitated. "Hey, kid."

Sapphire eyes lifted up to gaze at him while her pink lips stayed in a slight frown. Her legs were crossed in front of her indian style, her long hair tumbling in waves next to her face. "Headed out again?"

Since his injury, Noah had been around the house constantly, which meant that he and Shay were often the only ones there. They'd spent a little bit of time together each day just watching TV on the couch or practicing languages, and he'd felt that she was starting to grow accustomed to his presence. Now, he was leaving again, and she would have to be alone. "Yeah. We shouldn't be gone long, though."

"Ok." Shay's eyes went back to her book without a smile, or even an ounce of proof that she was really okay.

After standing there for a second longer, Noah knew what he had to do.