#roseson

"Wake me if you need anything, okay Steven?"

Her parting words for the night had still echoed in Connie's mind as she'd settled in to sleep on the couch. It had been several weeks since what Steven was calling his 'meltdown', and he seemed to be well on the road to recovery... but even still, the girl knew that full healing would take time yet. Her part was simply to be there for Steven every step of the way, whatever form that took.

Right now, the form it took was staying over in the beach house with him for the weekend. She wasn't trying to get too in his face if he needed his space, of course; but they'd both agreed to this. She loved spending time with him anyway, of course; and this way, she was just downstairs from his room, right there in case he needed anything at all.

A few hours later, Connie felt something jerk her back to wakefulness. For long moments she lay there in the dark, unable to put a finger on what had woken her. She fumbled blearily with her phone, which proclaimed the time to be just after 3 AM, as the last traces of a dream about accidentally taking Lion to school with her and trying to hide him from her teachers poked at the edge of her subconsciousness where she wasn't quite sure if they were real or not...

Then she heard it again: what sounded like an anguished groan from upstairs. All at once fully alert, Connie wasted no further time; in one swift move she was off the couch and scampering up the stairs to her boy's room. Pausing outside the door, she knocked gently before poking her head around the frame.