Pain throbbed in my head. Some muffled, almost incoherent sounds in my dulled ears woke me up, but it wasn't until a voice broke through to me that I groggily opened my eyes.

"Ms Bloom? Ms Bloom, are you with us?"

Moaning quietly, I blinked my heavy eyelids and tried to get my sight to focus.

What was happening? I couldn't remember... there was something about a... a bang?

My blurry eyes tried to blink again to gain clear vision, and with some effort, I managed to make out a shape above me, a man with brown eyes and a helmet on, wearing some sort of suit...

"Ms Bloom?" I saw his lips move again, but then he turned his head. "She's disoriented. How are her vitals looking?"

"Pulse and heart rate are both stable," Another male voice now spoke. "No abnormalities."

"Alright. Ms Bloom, can you hear me? I need you to look at me."

Before I had the chance to try, a bright flashlight lit into my eyes and blinded me, made me squeeze my eyelids shut and had the pounding in my head growing worse.

"Pupils are a little slow, I think we're looking at a mild concussion. Is the Creature immobilized?"

Creature...

My eyes flipped open again, and this time I willed my mind to focus. Finally, I managed to settle on a somewhat sharp, if not slightly dizzying image, and found myself looking up at a man dressed in a tactical suit, wearing full body armor and weapons strapped to his kevlar vest. What the hell?

"Where's Charlie?" I hoarsely got out, trying to pull myself up, but had to hiss and give up when my head wouldn't allow me.

"Take it easy, Ms Bloom," The SWAT guy calmly advised me, his tone professional, almost clinical. "You might have endured a light concussion from the blow to your head. I need you to try and tell me what you remember before you blacked out."

What I remembered? My head spun as I tried to recollect my thoughts.

I remembered being in my living room, writing on my laptop, when the lights suddenly flickered. I remembered all the electronics suddenly messing up, and then I was running upstairs...

From there, there was a big blank in my mind. I blinked as I tried to recall it, but nothing came. "I... I'm not sure. I ran upstairs to..." Why did I run upstairs? What was I running t— "Charlie!"

"Don't worry, Ms," The SWAT guy said again as I tried to sit up once more, grinding my teeth when my head hurt. Man, I'd made sure to break the fall with my cranium. "We responded the second our scanners picked up on the electrical abnormality. We found you lying against the railing of your stairs, thankfully unharmed."

My throbbing head slightly disagreed with him. "Where's... where's Charlie?" I asked with difficulty as I looked around, my eyes searching for him. SWAT men were walking around on my first floor, all of them carrying heavy weaponry, but there was no sign of Charlie. The SWAT's were all cataloguing the damages, fixing up what mess had been made.

The mess... the furniture... Charlie's dreaming... it all came back to me in a flash as I looked into his bedroom where his bedsheets were rumpled, but utterly void of the Creature I was in charge of.

"Where is he?" I voiced again, my eyes whipping to the SWAT guy in front of me who hadn't responded to me the first time. "What happened to Charlie? Is he—"

"You need to keep calm, ma'am," He told me with a stern look. "We've incapacitated the Creature and strapped him down so he's of no more danger to you. Or anyone else," He added under his breath as he turned his eyes to a medical chart in his hand.

My mouth fell wide open. "You did what?!" Oh God, this was all my fault. I shouldn't have tried to wake him up, that was stupid of me. What the hell did I expect? "Where is he? What did you do to him exactly?"

Sighing, the SWAT guy who seemed so interested in my attention before now gave a small annoyed purse of his lips before he replied. "We took him downstairs for transportation. He's heavily sedated with a tranquilizer commonly used on elephants—"

I was struggling to get to my feet before he even finished his sentence. I didn't hear his protests as I clung to the banister of the stairs, ripping off the blood pressure device I hadn't realized was attached to my arm, and then tumbled down the stairs in a hurry, my feet clumsy and my head disoriented. The whole world was spinning as I made it to my living room and, surprise-surprise, found more SWAT guys down there. However, these guys didn't have their weapons safely secured in their holsters, but rather had them aimed strictly at the large, barely conscious man lying on my beige rug, strapped in some sort of metal harness, eyes droopy, but lips pressed tightly together.

"What are you doing?!" I damn well nearly yelled at the men with all the guns. I jumped forward and kneeled down to Charlie who I doubted even sensed my presence with all the shit-crazy safari drugs they'd pumped him with. "Unleash him from this thing immediately! You've completely misunderstood the situation; he's not dangerous!"

"Ma'am," A new male voice spoke to me. What was it with all these damn men? I was drowning in fucking testosterone. From my left, an older man in a dark green uniform stepped out of my kitchen and approached me. "Ma'am, we need you to step back from the Creature. He might be sedated, but we don't know what harm he's still capable of—"

"He's not capable of any harm," I growled at him, only half-lying. I was sure Charlie could level a whole city to the ground if he sneezed too hard, but the way he constantly seemed terrified that he might hurt someone by the slightest touch, I knew he had no intentions of harming anything or anyone. "You don't know what you've done, he wasn't trying to kill me, he was just having a nightmare!"

The man (who I assumed was a General of a sort, affiliated with the C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S lab in case of emergencies like these) stopped up in front of me and lifted a grayish, bushy brow, looking at me as if I was crazy. "A nightmare you say?"

"Yes," I snapped, turning my head back to Charlie and cupping his. His magenta eyes blearily looked up at me, but then drooped to the side again. "He was having a powerful nightmare and he made things levitate. I made the stupid mistake of trying to wake him up, and when he did, his subconscience snapped whatever kinetic connection he had established and it resulted in a mild explosion that popped me off my feet. Do you see? It was a mistake, everything is fine."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, his 'mistake' nearly cost you your life," The General replied, his voice stealthy, but authoritative. "This Creature is dangerous and very well capable of killing you faster than you can scream for help. You're lucky our standby team responded so quickly."

"With all do respect to you, Sir," I snarled back, "It was my mistake, not his. This scenario is exactly similar to one of not wanting to wake up a sleepwalker. Like it's been pointed out on many occasions, Creatures react differently to things – we don't know how they will respond or behave. Charlie was having a bad dream and he accidentally begun levitating things. He didn't mean to harm me. As mistakes go, I'd say yours is the only one committed with the intent of harm."

The General's fiery eyes that matched the color of his suit, glinted with outrage for a moment as he stared down upon my kneeling figure next to Charlie. "What exactly are you implying, Ms Bloom?"

"I'm talking about this!" I shouted and smacked my palm down on the hard metal harness that tied Charlie's hands and thighs strictly together, almost encasing him like an iron sarcophagus. "You chained him up like a rabid dog when all he did was have a bad dream! Then you shot him up with mammoth-drugs and are now waiting to transport him to where exactly?"

"Back to the facility where he's meant to be, Ms Bloom."

"Hell to the no," I growled, rising to my feet. "Charlie is staying put right here, and so help me God if you don't let him out of this metal briefcase right now, I'm calling C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S and telling Mr Alan about how you're defying orders expressively given by the warden of Creature 6402-C, who is his legal guardian by a binding contract. Are we clear?"

The General gritted his slightly yellowing teeth, but then after a moment cocked his head to one of his men who then yelled out an order that immediately made all of them lower their weapons. One man stepped forward with a set of intense-looking keys and slipped them into the four locks that bound together the harness that kept Charlie immobile. After a short moment, they popped open and the man removed the restraints. Charlie's body sagged against the floor.

"Know that this is highly irresponsible and ill advised, Ms Bloom, and I will be having a word with Mr Alan myself," The General warned while I tentatively brushed Charlie over his hair, hearing him let out a small groan. Anger flamed inside me as I then flipped my eyes up to the General who continued speaking; "He might not've meant to harm you, but look at what happened anyway. Maybe next time you won't be so lucky to escape with just a thwack on the head."

I narrowed my eyes at the General, but kept my voice level. "I knew the risks when I signed up. I don't need a lecture from another man, thank you very much. You work with guns and tranquilizers; I work with Creatures. Now if you don't mind, you and your men can see yourselves out."

It was damn well too typical of a man carrying more medals and guns on his persona than I had freckles on my body, to give me a lecture about what was dangerous and what was not. His concern would almost have been endearing if it wasn't smothered in chauvinistic piss, concerning me being a woman and not being able to take care of myself. He chose his job, I chose mine.

– And if we were being honest here, working with a new breed of humans was much harder than aiming and firing a damn gun.

With a hard glare, the General looked like he could read my thoughts and therefore tightened his mien into a hard one before he yelled out an order to his men who then begun packing up and filing out of my home. All the while I stayed on my carpet with Charlie who still seemed too far gone to comprehend what was really happening.

"I hope for your sake we don't meet again," The General as the last man out of my house stopped up to say in my door, glancing over his shoulder at me with another flat look. "Next time I don't see this ending as peacefully."

"There won't be a next time," I growled back, sending him a last cold glare before I flipped my eyes permanently back to Charlie. "Close the door on your way out."

A small moment passed, but then I heard the General scoff and shut the door with slightly more force than necessary. Nevertheless, I didn't let it faze me as I looked down at Charlie who was now slowly closing his eyes, the silence maybe telling him there was no need to try and be alert anymore.

"It's okay," I whispered, stroking his fine blond hair again, seeing the magenta eyes disappear behind his lids. "I got you, Charlie. You're safe."

~~~

Since Charlie had to weigh more than 250lbs, I couldn't drag him up the stairs and into his bed to sleep off the sedatives they loaded him with. I'd found a small needle mark on his neck, bicep and diaphragm, indicating they had to literally have shot him down like a wild animal caught on the loose. My anger had felt like it was going to burst, but I had kept it down and instead focused on doing what I could to make the situation more comfortable for Charlie.

I'd started with propping a fat pillow under his head, then went upstairs to get him his blanket from his bed. I'd tapered it neatly around his broad shoulders, tucking him in like a kid. Then, I'd laid down next to him on my carpet and decided I might as well try and get some sleep too, since it would take a few hours for the drugs to wear off. I'd also set an hourly alarm on my phone to wake me up, just in case my 'mild' concussion turned out to be more.

So that's why, when at dawn the sun creeped in through my windows, I hadn't slept much. My body was stiff from sleeping on the floor and my neck had created several knots that did nothing to the headache I still felt throbbing lightly in the back of my head where I felt a bruise the size of an egg forming.

But now stirring besides me, my tired eyes flipped to Charlie who began pushing and pulling his blanket off. I quickly sat up on my knees, placing a soft hand on his shoulder. "Charlie, calm down, I'm here. Everything is okay."

At the sound of my voice, just like yesterday when he had been dreaming, his magenta eyes flew open and landed on me. I tried giving him a comforting smile, but before I could even fully develop one, he was reeling back, shoving himself away from me.

"Charlie!"

"Get away from me!" He panicked. Before I could speak another word, he arose from the ground and made ready to bolt – only to topple over sideways and hit the ground when he wasn't wearing his prosthesis.

"Charlie!" I called again, holding up my hands warily as I approached him carefully, but it was all the same to him. He laid eyes on me again and instantly began pushing himself backwards on his palms, sliding into the kitchen, the only path away from me.

"Don't come near me," He pleaded, desperation grated in his voice. "I hurt you... I... I h-hurt—"

"Charlie, you didn't hurt me," I assured him gently, my heart twisting at his words. Those fucking monsters. How could they chain this man up? All he wanted was to be accepted, to do good and not harm anyone. Instead he was met with caution and loaded weapons. "Charlie, look at me. Tell me what you see. Do I look hurt to you?"

Charlie's eyes did a scan of my body, looking from the smallest toe on my bare feet, to the top hairs on my uncombed head. His throat bobbed, but then his eyes nervously met mine. And then he opened his mouth. "But I hurt you, Carly. I did, I saw what I did. I..." His eyes looked away and flashed with fear as he was transported back to last night. "I pushed you away with my mind a-and..."

"But you didn't mean to do it, am I right?" I asked while I carefully came closer, sinking down to my knees. "You didn't want to do it, did you?"

"No!" He exclaimed, his eyes fixing on mine again. "I didn't! I don't know what happened, one moment I was... I-I was seeing things, and then... then..."

"You were dreaming," I explained, now sitting right in front of the leg he had pulled up and clutched. He had leaned himself up against my fridge, his body shaking as he tried to get a hold of everything. "You were deep in your subconscience when I woke you up, and that's why you did what you did. It wasn't your fault, it was mine. I'm sorry, Charlie."

He instantly blinked at me confused, then frowned. "What?"

I sighed, patiently. "It was my fault. I shouldn't have woken you up while you were having a bad dream, I should've waited and seen what would've happened. I apologize for that and for everything that followed. It wasn't okay what those men did to you – attacking you and shooting you up with drugs. It won't ever happen again, not on my watch. I promise you that."

When I was finished speaking, all he did was look at me. I could see in his eyes he was trying to process my words, but something had a hard time clicking for him. I suspected it was the 'sorry' part. His training in C.E.N.T.U.R.I.E.S surely hadn't involved a lot of sorrys from the doctors and scientists whenever they did something to him he didn't like.

Sorry, we took your leg. Sorry we couldn't make it regrow. Sorry, here's a prosthesis.

I silently shook my head and decided not to think more about it. "Are you hungry? Thirsty? You should drink some water to get the last of the drugs out of your system," I told, now rising to my feet. "It's also just a good idea to drink something in general. They couldn't have been good for you..." God, elephant tranquilizer. Just what did they think he was?

A Creature. And apparently so powerful that only elephant tranquilizer will put him out.

I shook my head again. "Charlie?"

When I looked down at him still sitting on the floor, I quickly remember why. Fuck, I was stupid.

"I'll run upstairs and get you your prosthesis, yeah?" I said, trying for another smile when all he did was look away and lean his forehead against his knee. "I'll be right back."

I went upstairs into his room and found that all the levitating furnitures from last night had been put back into their place by the SWAT men, along with his prosthetic leg that stood by the side of his nightstand, waiting for him as if he was still sleeping in his bed.

Assholes. They'd planned on bringing him back without his leg. Just so he couldn't run in case he felt like it.

Gritting my teeth, I picked it up and was momentarily surprised at how heavy it was. Carrying it downstairs, I found Charlie still popped up against my fridge, sitting quietly in his boxershorts and nothing more.

– But it was better than nothing at all.

"There you go," I smiled as I put his prosthesis down besides him, watching him instantly reach for it, laying it down so he could attach it to his leg. "Now, let's try and move past all of what happened last night with a hardy breakfast, yeah? Would you like some scrambled eggs?"

Charlie secured his leg and then pulled on one of the mechanisms that instantly allowed him to move his mechanical foot. The prosthesis looked more robotic than anything else as he grabbed on to the counter and pulled himself to his staggering six foot seven. When he turned and looked at me with those deep magenta eyes, I had to swallow a lump in my throat.

Ripped, tall and handsome, Charlie looked too good in the morning for someone who'd spent last night getting shot down by tranquilizer guns.

And definitely too good for my dirty, perverted and incredibly inappropriate morning-mind.

"Food?" I feebly tried again, clearing my throat to get rid of that darn lump. That definitely wasn't a euphemism.

Charlie looked at me for a long moment, but then finally took a little step closer, very carefully. "Yes, please. Thank you, Carly."

– And damn it, did my brain find a way to drag his innocent words through the gutter.

• • •

My mind is always in the gutter in the morning.