Nick looked at the silent interactions between Olivera and Leonard and smiled.
Better they had met each other, without having a bad rapoor. It would make the upcoming journey easier, and his worries deeply taken care of.
"We should get going then." Leonard stated.
Ever straight to the point. Nick mused, gesturing Olivera to get up. It was time to go back. He was going to miss her.
Olivera nodded, before picking up the bag which contained food from the floor first, slinging it on her shoulder. She didn't want to forget it. Even though, she knew she wouldn't. Who forgets food?
But before she could carry the bag which carried the clothes, Leonard intercepted her.
"Don't worry about that. I will carry it." He said, carrying the not-so-heavy bag in his right hand, before motioning that she should take the lead.
All the while, communicating with Nick telepathically (mind link). The latter had told him everything the Beta had mentioned when he had come that night.
It seems that his work of protection over the girl would end with this night. The Alpha would be coming for her tomorrow. He pitied her.
Olivera nodded her thanks, before walking towards the door. Before she left, she turned aside and hugged Nick whose eyes had widened a bit before his lips broke out in a wide smile; he hadn't been expecting the display of affection.
"I will see you tomorrow." He promised, patting her gently on the back, aware that Leonard was staring at them.
"More closer than I thought." He heard him say to him through the mind link, and smiled the more.
Olivera disengaged from the hug, and her eyes turned misty again, especially as Nick patted her head gently.
Wordlessly, she turned away from his arms, opened the door, and walked into the deadness of the night.
**
"Can we stop at the changing rooms?" Olivera asked Leonard as they approached the first field.
He had been silent since they had left the doctor's house, onlu muttering greetings to a few people who had bothered to say a greeting to him while she was in his company. The others had flung their face the other way, especially as they had sighted her in the beautiful dress she was wearing.
She had an inkling of what they might be thinking. They didn't think that a slave deserved to be dressed that way.
They knew she was one because she was still wearing the tag on her wrist. Her task mistress, Rose, had admonished her that she shouldn't remove it for any reason. That was another seal of her slaveship apart from the flimsy brown dress.
"Why?" He asked.
The first time he had spoken to her since the night.
"I need to hang back my working cloth in one of the lockers. I don't think Rose would take it lightly with me if she discovered that it was absent." She replied, praying that he would agree with her point.
" Okay then. But don't waste much time." He warned, and she nodded, forgetting that he couldn't see her nods in the darkness of the night.
The first field was deserted as it should be when they walked on it. They must have all gone back to the cell after the day's work. She thought.
The lockerooms told of the same story too.
Luckily for her, Leonard was with one of the keys to the small bungalow.
"Be fast." He said to her, waiting at the entrance.
She nodded, before walking straight to the locker rooms.
She was confused the next second.
There were a lot of lockers there, and she had forgotten which one that her task mistress had taken the slave uniform from.
She tried opening one of the lockers, but it was already locked.
She tried another, the same result.
She tried eight more, the same result.
Her heart skipped in fear.
Was she too late?
"What is the problem?" She heard Leonard ask from behind her and shuddered greatly. She hadn't been expecting him so soon.
"The lockers are locked." She replied, biting her lips as she she stared sadly at the lockers, as if, prompting them to take pity on her and open up.
"That's because they are not yours." He stated, with a sigh.
"Didn't she tell you that you have a personal locker with a key?" He questioned.
Olivera could tell even in the dimly lit room that he was brimming with annoyance already.
"No, she didn't." She muttered, wishing he was the doctor.
Leonard drew in a long breath, hoping to soothe his nerves.
He was very hungry after the trainings, and was not in the mood to babysit anybody. The only reason why he had agreed to help the doctor was because he owed him a huge favor, they were friends too with the same beliefs. They had both, been against the slaves decree.
"We have to keep trying the lockers then." He soughed as his eyes ran through the more than hundred lockers.
Were the slaves in the pack that much? He thought, as he walked to the far end of the room, his eyes searching the lockers with no locks on them.
He stopped at one which wasn't locked.
He noticed that Olivera was also right behind him.
He opened it, and found it empty.
"My name is on it." He heard her say tentatively, and nodded, sighting her name too which was sketched roughly with a metal on its apex.
"Your locker then. You can put your clothes inside and lock it up." He said, dropping the bag of clothes on the floor.
"Be quick. I'm waiting outside." He stated, before striding out of the small house.
Olivera sighed as she watched him leave.
What went up his butts? She thought amusingly, bringing out the wet slave cloth from the bag on her shoulders.
She had washed it after she had taken her bath at Nick's place.
Citing a lone metallic hanger on the short rail in the locker, she took it out, fixed it into the dress, and hung it back on the rail, praying that it would dry completely by tomorrow.
Next, she picked up the bag of clothes and kept it inside the locker. Then, closed the locker.
The key was right in the keyhole.
She locked it up, and took out the key, putting it in a small pocket on her dress. She hoped it wouldn't fall off.
That done, she found her way out of the house, meeting a still grumpy Leonard outside the door.