I had tried to close my eyes, with hopes of getting dozed off shortly after in every single time, but I suppose that my body had not yet wanted to go to sleep. I suppose it could be because I was still thinking about what Nest could give me on the next transmission that it resulted in me could not make my mind relax yet.
I glanced at Billy, who had been fast asleep leaning against the wall on the left side of the fireplace, and then turned to Jessica who seemed to already be sleepy but somehow had yet decided to rest her eyes and just poking the burning logs in the fireplace for once in a while. When I looked at my watch again, I realized that it had been almost an hour after that discussion with Billy. Since there was nothing that I could do anymore, I decided to let the time past by talking to Jessica.
"I thought I am the only one here who had yet to go to sleep…" I said to her softly.
"Ha… I guess something still bothers you that you cannot make your eyes closed, no matter how many times you tried?" She responded to me by asking a question as she chuckled a little.
"You got me." I replied to her right away as I sighed. "To think that there may still be a flaw and something missing after what we have concluded since three years ago…"
"Well… sometimes, only if we let some things slide for a while that we may be able to get the truth…" she said to me, as she put down the fire poker down to the wooden floor before she approached me and leaned to the wall beside me.
I only nodded twice, albeit a little nervously when she leaned against the wall right beside me. At that moment I hoped that I was the only one feeling awkward around her, although I also somehow felt like she could guess it. Strangely enough, my mind felt more at ease and relaxed just when she approached me, and therefore as an attempt to reduce my nervousness, I tried to bring out another topic.
"Why did you want to become an archeologist?" I asked her.
"Always straight to the point, are not you?" She responded to me with a question, teasing me a little as she laughed.
"Uh, who knows if it can help you get a little more tired and makes you go to sleep faster tonight." I replied to her, stammering a little. "That and it may be able to make me more relaxed and help me to go to sleep as well."
"Where do you want me to start?" she said as she mimicked my words from earlier, laughing a little.
"Your passion, maybe?" I responded to her, pulling out a straight face as I squinted my eyes a bit.
She almost instantly burst out a brief laugh right after my respond, something that I had yet to see from her up until that time. It might be an indication that she was also more relaxed around me and in the conversation, or rather, was probably her attempt to try and make me more relaxed. She looked down for a moment first as she was still smiling before she began to tell me.
She began by saying that she had been interested in plants and flowers ever since her primary school years. There had been multiple times back then when most other children had their difficulties in shoveling the soil just to plant a seed, while she had almost no problem at all replacing a couple of flowers from a pot to garden by using the exact same gardening equipment.
She said that she was always fascinated by how most plants does not need to kill any other living things in order to thrive, and that was the main drive for her to do botanical activities for once in a while. However, when she had just entered her junior high years, she came across upon a full video recording about the discovery of traces of a lost and extinct civilization.
It was not actually the ancient civilization that stole her attention, but rather on how the archeological team had managed to figure it out through the unusual characteristics of the plants that grew on the soil right above it. That discovery fueled her interest more in the plants, since the unusual state of them was basically what made the archeologists noticed that something had hindered the condition of the plants.
However, it came out to be disheartening for her when she realized that the plants had to be exterminated in order to extract the thing buried inside it. At first she had not realized it yet, but as soon as she entered her high school years, she eventually decided that she would take an archeology degree after she graduated with her motivation to discover a non-invasive and destructive method in extracting artifacts.
Of course, she would not be able to do it all alone. Upon that realization on the 2nd semester of her university days, she decided that she had to hone her public speaking skills, as a way for her in preparing her in introducing and promoting her methods to the other archeologist colleagues by involving herself in organizational and environmental activities.
"Good to know that you have a peaceful childhood and bright teenage years." I said to her as I smiled.
"Really? It may sounded like I had everything in a smooth way but I also had my struggles, you know?" She responded to me, smirking.
"I, uh…" I replied to her, but was lost for words for a little moment. "Let us just say that I have met and become close with few people, people who had a rather bitter childhood and harsh teenage years."
"Are you going to tell me that you yourself are among those people?" She asked me softly, with her beautiful eyes looking deep straight to me.
I could not look at her in the eyes for a moment. However, after a little while and few considerations of words, I brought myself to look at her eyes and replied her.
"I suppose I cannot say… but then again there will always be other people who would have both better and worse experiences than us. Do not you think so?" I answered to her.
She only nodded once as she leaned back against the wall behind her, looking sleepier than she had been earlier. It was then when I had yet asked her if she felt any pain after I had removed the leeches that had latched on to her body.
"How are your wounds?" I asked her, turning to her.
At first, she did not say anything about them, probably because she did not want to think about the wounds. Therefore, I took back my words but somehow she asked me if I wanted to see them.
"Nevermind. I suppose I should not have asked them at all in the first place." I said as I shook my head.
"Do you want to see them?" She responded to me, as she slowly turned to me.
"Huh? I…" I was in a total loss for words, completely not sure of what to say.
"I do not mind if you want to…" she continued as she went back facing away from me and began to lift up her t-shirt.
Somehow I sensed a nervous tone from her words as well, but I was not even sure since my heart suddenly pounded fast when she began to lift up her t-shirt. She did not completely remove it, but it was lifted high enough that I could see the back of her sports bra and the wound spot on her back. I initially thought that it was only my imagination, but apparently she was also nervous as well since I could hear a faint sound of fast breathing.
At first, I hesitated and tried to hold myself. However I eventually gave in and began to slowly reach and feel her wound spot as gentle as I could. I felt like it took me forever to reach the spot, and it made me a little surprised when she reacted in reflex just as my fingers touched her wound spot.
"Ngh…" she muttered, which sounded like she moaned a little.
"Oh… my apologies, does that hurt?" I pulled my fingers in reflex, as I was jumped a little.
"No, no. It is okay…" she replied to me, as she turned her head partially and smiled at me.
I then proceeded to slowly touch the same spot again, trying to be more gentle and slow. With what seemed to be taking forever, I finally reached that smooth golden brown silk-like skin. I slowly lost my control of my fingers as I begin to caress around her wound spot.
To my surprise and to the least of my expectation, I somehow felt like either she had been expecting it or even enjoying what I did since I could feel her body relaxed as my fingers kept on caressing around the spot. Before I lost control even more however, I decided that I had enough and slowly lifted my fingers off her back, before I gently reached to her t-shirt and began to close her back with her clothes.
"It had begun to dry up. It should be better by tomorrow morning." I said to her softly, trying my hardest to hide my nervousness.
She did not respond anything but just turned her head to me. I leaned back to the wall behind me as I had then felt much sleepier than earlier.
"You know, I do not think that it is a good idea to get your skins exposed too much to this cold weather since you can catch a cold." I said to her softly. "It only because there was a wound on your back…"
"What if there was not any and I still do not mind anyway?" she asked me with a low voice.
She then rested her head to my left shoulder, and locked her right arm gently to my left arm before she dozed off shortly after. I was stunned to hear that last words from her, since it might be a direct hint from her that she had an interest in me. Thankfully, since she had dozed off, there was no awkward moment between us, and I was able to quickly close my eyes off, before my surroundings quickly darkened away…