sister intuition || koda & jesse
Jesse gives Koda a call after Chase was first moved to the hospital. Set a couple days prior to Chase almost dying and waking up.
Seated on one of the steps of the amphitheatre, Jesse had been alternating between staring at his phone and up at the sky for the past ten minutes, caught between what he felt like he should do and what he knew Chase would want him to do. Eventually, tired of putting it off, he opened up Koda's contact and pressed call.
Keys jingled as Koda entered her apartment and dropped them into the tray beside the door. She sighed, kicking off her shoes and untying her work apron - realizing that she had worn it home from her shift again. "Where is my mind lately?" She directed her question to Soup, who was perched on the windowsill, head tilted to the side as if he was thinking where her train of thought had gone. Koda scratched him behind his ear, looking out the window at the fading light, stealing a moment to breathe before she started some household chores. Suddenly, ringing came from her pocket. She pulled out her phone, eyebrows raised, but her expression quickly changed to excitement. Koda answered, launching into a breathless greeting, "Jesse!!! Hi!! How are you? I was thinking about you guys! How are my favorite siblings? How's camp?"
Despite everything else going on, Jesse couldn’t help but smile at the sound of Koda’s voice. He leaned back against the step behind him and pulled one of his legs up so his knee was bent and his foot was on the same step as him. “Hey!” Now he had to decide how to phrase this. “Camp is pretty normal. I called for a reason but I want to hear how you are first?”
Hearing her younger brother's voice immediately brightened Koda's mood. She felt more grounded than she had in days; it had been too long since she'd last talked to her siblings. She balanced her phone between her ear and her shoulder, listening to Jesse, as she scooped up Soup and deposited him on the couch. "A reason? Oh, I'm doing alright. Work has been exhausting the past week or so. I've had a lot of doubles and so has Renee - we've barely seen each other." She frowned, "And I haven't been sleeping well. Haven't really seen Chase in dreams either." Koda added that last part quietly; it was something that had been weighing on her.
"Oh, that's too bad." Jesse frowned slightly. It seemed all of his siblings were exhausted these days, even past their usual level of tired. He pressed his phone between his ear and his shoulder to retie one of his shoelaces, unaware that his sister was in the same pose on the other end of the line. "Uh, yeah, that's kind of what I'm calling about." He chewed his lip. "Chase has been having some really bad nightmares."
"It'll be okay, I'm back to brunch shifts next week and-" Hearing Jesse say nightmares made Koda's stomach flip. She put her phone on the counter, tapping it to send Jesse to speakerphone. She braced herself against the counter's edge and took a deep breath. "Jesse...how bad? We don't- we aren't supposed to have bad dreams. That's one of Dad's blessings or something, right?" The tips of her hair were slowly turning purple, though Koda was unaware of it. She was staring intently at her phone, thinking about what Chase and nightmares meant, when put in the same sentence. Koda had a bad feeling about it all.
Jesse rubbed his face and sighed. He knew it wasn't realistic, but a large part of him had been hoping that Koda was going to say something reassuring, that this kind of thing had happened before and it wasn't a big deal. "It's bad. Yeah, somehow they got past dad's blessing. Chase started sleepwalking and the other day he, um." Jesse said the next words in a rush. "He attacked me in his sleep."
"I'm sorry, he- what? You're joking." Koda tried to make her voice sound a little lighter, hearing the strain in Jesse's. "Chase would never attack any of us, that's- that's insane." She trailed off, shaking her head. "He attacked you in his sleep. In his sleep. He attacked you." She repeated what her brother had said, as if the words would seem less surreal.
Jesse leaned over his knees and sighed again, trying to formulate the best way to explain what had happened. "Yeah." He took his glasses off and started cleaning them on the hem of his shirt just for something to do with his hands. "It was like he was possessed. Um. He..." Jesse cut himself off, not wanting Koda to have to hear the details. "It was pretty bad. Yeah."
Koda could tell her brother was holding something back, and frowned. She picked up her phone and wandered back to the couch, flopping down unceremoniously. "Jess, what happened? How bad was it? Are you okay?" Worry continued to edge into her voice. Her hair turned just a bit more purple, the more concerned she became about Chase. "Are you hurt? Is- is Chase hurt? Wait," Koda pressed her fingers to her forehead. "Is this why I've barely heard from him for the past two weeks? How long has this been happening?"
Jesse put his glasses down beside him and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Uh." He inhaled shakily. "Um. It was pretty bad. But I'm okay, I'm fine, really, Cas came and woke him up." He bit the inside of his cheek. "He's been having trouble sleeping for a few weeks. But this is the worst it's gotten. And, uh–" Everything else came out in a rush again. "God, Koda, I got into an argument with him and left the cabin and now he's in the hospital and they're saying he's okay but he really seems like he isn't and I don't know what to do."
Koda listened to her brother, massaging her temples as he spoke. "Cas had to wake him up? Like, he had to use his power to wake him up?" Panic began to rise and she felt her chest tighten. When Jesse's words came tumbling out of his mouth, all Koda wanted to do was hug him. She let him speak, pausing for a minute to breathe and take in everything Jesse had said. Her first instinct was to frantically ask for all the details about Chase. Chase is in the hospital. Breathe. Chase has been having really bad nightmares. Breathe. Chase attacked Jesse in the midst of a nightmare. Breathe. Koda steadied herself and sat up.
"Jesse -hey, take a breath. Chase is in the hospital, he's being cared for. You need to take care of yourself too, if you're going to be any help to anyone. Are you hurt? Are you sleeping enough? I know you never fight but okay that you had an argument. It's- it's going to be okay." She tried to put some confidence behind her words, but faltered. "Actually...I don't know if it's going to be okay. And I wish I'd called you sooner, when I hadn't been hearing from him as much as normal. What can I do? I feel like a sitting duck here."
Jesse's chest tightened as Koda spoke and he leaned back against the step, staring up at the sky and taking a few seconds to calm his breaths and think over what his sister had said. "I'm not hurt, no," he said carefully after his pause. "Just a couple bruises, I'm sleeping fine– the visiting hours at the hospital mean I can't stay overnight." He exhaled slowly and swapped his phone to his other ear. "I should've called you sooner. I'm not sure what there is to do– we can't even do anything here. I just wanted you to know."
"Bruises! Jesse..." Koda sighed. She could feel her brother's concern in his every word. "I'd say I'd come visit to check on him, but if there's nothing you guys can do, I don't want to be an extra body in the way. Thanks for calling me to let me know." She fiddled with her necklace for a moment. "Has he been awake at all?"
"He kind of, uh..." Jesse trailed off, not wanting to tell Koda he had been kneed in the face. "Yeah." He shook his head to himself, wishing that for once he knew the right thing to say. "Yeah, he's only been awake. He started refusing to sleep after that whole incident."
"My gods....so he's been awake for days?" Koda exhaled. She scrubbed her face with her hand. "You better have iced whatever he did to you, I know you're not telling me everything that happened." A tiny grin worked its way onto Koda's face. "Sister intuition."
"Days," Jesse confirmed grimly. "He's been trying to tell me he's sleeping, but it's obvious that's not true." At her words, he exhaled, not quite smiling but still relaxing somewhat. "It's kinda freaky how you can always tell things like that."
The small smile that had appeared on her face slowly melted away when Jesse confirmed her question. "Days," Koda repeated. "Chase, the constant napper, has been awake for days. Gods, I'm worried about him." She shook her head. "I'm worried about all of you. And yeah - between you guys and my mortal siblings? I have pretty good sibling radar." Koda exhaled, debating whether to bring up another thing that was on her mind. Her cat jumped up onto the couch next to her and she scratched behind his ear, absentmindedly. "Soup says hi, by the way."
After a moment of silent debate, her voice shaky, Koda added, "There's something I wanted to tell you- or talk to you about, actually."
Jesse wasn't sure if he should be relieved or worried about the impending subject change. "Oh, uh, really? What is it?"
"Oh, sorry that sounded kinda ominous. It's nothing bad." Koda chewed her lip. "It's, uh. I was thinking? Maybe?" She couldn't get her words out, suddenly wondering if this was a bad time to bring up her thoughts. Her next words came out in a rush. "I was kind of sort of thinking of maybe moving to New Athens and I've been thinking about it for a couple weeks but I didn't know if I should tell you because I wasn't hearing from Chase so I didn't know if there was something wrong but anyway basically," she took a breath. "Basically, I miss y'all every day. And the town wasn't a thing when I left so I didn't have the option of living there. But now I do, and Ren could come too and, I don't know - do you think it's an awful idea?"
Until now, Jesse had not thought there was anything Koda could say that could make him feel any better– but with her rush of words, he found himself smiling. "You're thinking of moving here? Really? That's great! Oh my god, Koda, you have no idea how much we would love that. All of us." He ran a hand through his hair again and pressed his cheek to his shoulder. "Wow."
Koda could hear the effect her words had on Jesse; instantly, she felt relieved. "Really! You think everyone would like that?" She smiled. "Like I said I've been thinking about it for a while and Ren and I have plenty saved up sooo...it's not too crazy, right?" She paused. "We'd probably need another roommate, but I don't know! I can't stand to see you guys so rarely! Especially now - with Chase?" Koda exhaled, thinking. "I want to be there for you when you need me. For all of you. And I'd love to actually bond with our younger siblings."
"The thought of seeing you and Chase, in person? Every day? Is just," Koda laughed. "It's too good to pass up."
"Everyone would love it." Jesse finally felt as though he could breathe again. If Koda was coming back then no matter what, something was going right. "I think finding a roommate would be pretty easy?" He quickly ran through the people he knew that lived at camp still and came up blank on any looking to move, but then again, his mind was elsewhere. "I could ask around? Unless you want it to be a surprise." He shook his head to himself again. "Ko, really, I would love that so much. I can't put it into words."
Now that she had spoken the idea of moving to New Athens to existence, Koda couldn't contain the bubbling sense of happiness she felt - even with the news that had begun her call with Jesse. It felt real. She knew she'd need to talk to Renee about it when she got home from work, but Koda was positive Ren would share her enthusiasm. "Jesse, I'm so excited. I just want to be able to see you and hug you and Chase. And hang out with Cas and Ellie, oh my gods. I'll be able to do that. That's wild." She tried to think about who she knew at camp. "I can worry about a roommate when I get there, I'll ask around. As far as a surprise...I don't like keeping secrets from Chase but I'd love to surprise him. See his face? It would be gold! I'd say tell Cas and Ellie if you think they can keep it a secret too? Or-" She shook her head, suddenly wondering if her idea was too crazy. "Is a surprise to big of a secret to keep from Chay?"
"They're going to love getting to know you more," Jesse assured her. The idea of Koda around the townhouse, hanging out in the blanket fort with the Killers and their siblings, filled him with a peaceful warmth. "Usually I think surprising him would be good, but I think telling him right now might be nice? It'd be good to have a pick-me-up or something."
"Then I'll tell him." Koda could picture it already: nights in with her siblings, Soup meeting the other cats, all of them helping her construct a fort in her new place. She needed it. "Oh gods, Jesse. I didn't realize how badly I wanted this to happen until I said it out loud. This is the best idea I've had in a long time."
Jesse had not imagined for a second that he would end this phone call feeling significantly lighter than when it had begun, but here he was, sitting alone in the amphitheatre grinning to himself. "I love all your ideas, Ko, but this one really is just amazing." He pulled his phone away from his ear for a second to check the time. "I should probably head back to the townhouse now, I've been away for long enough. But thank you, really– talking to you always helps."
