Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Man you look horrible”
Keith looked with disdain at Eric
“Shut up”
He went back to work on his computer.
“You have bags under your eyes, have you been sleeping?”
“I haven’t”
“Well you should”
Keith Frowned
“Guess what I’ve been trying for the last four days?”
“Woah! Four days without sleeping? that must be horrible… "
Keith wanted to shove a coffee through his throat and scream at him no shit sherlock, but he was better than that… probably.
But the last month was extremely chaotic, the so-called ‘tour’, and the hospital visit... not to mention the talk with Helena and...Tod…
He inhaled and exhaled
“Keith!”
Dick was calling him from his office, he went.
He sounded serious, so probably he’ll have to ask all witnesses again for their testimonies about the kidnapping.
Entering the office he closed the door.
Dick looked at him up and down.
"take a week off" He didn’t expect that
“I took a month off…”
“Yeah and one week was in the hospital and the other working”
“You still need help with the case”
“Yes and that will be my problem, take. the week. off.”
he sighed
“Then tell Eric to not bother me. at all”
“Okay, just go and rest”
He may as well do that…
~~~~~~~~~~~~Baring’s house~~~~~~~~~~~
Going by the same path as every day he felt somewhat...strange
there was a time going through this rocky entrance caused him a pain he hid, it still does, but now… at least he wasn’t alone…
He entered the house and the first thing that greeted him was the smell.
“Honey! you’re back early”
“Dick told me I look... horrible”
“Now now, you only need some sleep”
“So I do…”
She went to him and give him a kiss on the cheek
“Just go and rest”
“He also gave me a week off…”
“Really? that’s really sweet of him”
“Or maybe he just wanted to laugh off” she smiled
“Why don’t we go out and eat something? there’s this Buffet Shirley recommended to me, we could go tomorrow”
“Well… alright…"
“We will have a lot of fun just you see”
The world didn’t see it that way, the first thing he heard when entering the place was-
“Helena! Mr. Keith!” Both looked at one table, Shirley, David, and Sophie were seated.
“I didn't know you two will be here, I would have invited you" Shirley said smiling at both
"It’s okay, Keith got a last-minute vacation week”
“Man! a week off! so good to rest” Keith Grumbled silently
“Now now Mr. Keith maybe you are grumpy if you don’t enjoy even rest days”
“whatever…” Helena chuckled and Shirley got out of her seat
“We’ll go to the bathroom and be back in a moment”
“Okay!” David answered clearly happy
Helena went to Keith a kissed his cheek
“Don’t eat all the bagels”
“Mh”
Finally, they were gone and Sophie took her drink
“You don’t look too well Keith, it’s something the matter?”
“It’s been five days since I last sleep and I’m so tired…”
Sophie then stopped mid-drinking.
“F-Five days?” Sophie was worried
“Yes...I think… when you came to the station”
Sophie’s eyes widen
“Must be hard for you then…”
“Yeah, but it’s not only affecting me now, but Helena also tries to stay up with me as much as she can and she’s getting tired too”
“Maybe...you should pray to the sandman!”
Sophie almost choked on her drink
“The sandman?”
Sophie then realized what happened.
“Yeah!, he puts people to sleep with his sleeping sand”
“I’ll pray any god if it means to be able to sleep”
“Well now that I think so...he’s more like a fairy”
Keith Perked up
“Fairy?”
“Yeah, but personally I can only think of a man with long white hair and bear”
Keith then looked at Sophie.
for a few seconds, Sophie got scared, Keith keeps his sight on her, frowning.
she was sweating more and more
“Hey…” she got scared when he finally spoke up
“W-What?!”
“Do you still believe in those fairies?” he chuckled
she then frowned
“huh? Fairies? Do you believe in them, Sophie?”
“I...uh...well…I...met a few some time ago”
“That’s...surprising…”
“Hmph! You don’t believe me do you?!” She gives him an angry glare
David crossed his hands quite scared
“N-no, that’s not, well I mean, one can see something the others can’t like words in the walls or something"
“Hey what are you talking about now” Now Keith give him the glare
“W-what I mean is… You can believe in whatever you want, maybe you truly can see them, but is impossible for others… When I was searching for Mr. MacGahan I was sure I meet people in the places he went to, but Paul says...they never existed…”
Silence stayed and he looked up both Keith and Sophie looked at him with grossness
“You know...we were talking about how can I sleep and ended up talking about ghosts?”
“But they existed I KNOW!”
“so do fairies!”
Keith just looked at the wall sighing internally, this was definitely not how he wanted to spend his first day of vacation…
---------Grundler’s House------
Sophie looked out the window
“So you did hear me huh…”
she looked at her closet, then went to it and close it, and put her table against it.
“You better don’t come Boogie Man you do it and I assure you there will be one less fairy in the world!” she went to her bed and looked at the ceiling.
"Hey, I know Mr. Keith was all rude and that... But I think that's enough for him, he should be able to sleep too, I'm sure he won't do it again... Probably... But yeah put him to sleep already, I know the pain of not being able to sleep, and He and Helena seem like they do love each other no matter what, and Helena doesn't deserve that either, she doesn’t sleep as long as he doesn’t so… put them to sleep, and give them a good dream too if you can…”
she finally yawned
“And thanks… for taking care of me”
she went to sleep with a smile
~~~~~~~Baring House~~~~~~~
Keith drinks the water after taking the pill.
He’ll pray if he can finally sleep
Helena came to the room with a little stereo
“Maybe relaxing music will work” Keith smiled, now he needed to sleep, more for Helena than for himself.
she left it on the nightstand, soft music could be heard.
“Thanks”
She kissed him on the forehead.
“I’ll go brush my teeth and be right back”
“Okay…”
she went to the bathroom and he keeps looking at the pills, then got under the covers, at least that way he could try to sleep.
he moved his hands and frowned, got the covers up, and took something.
“Huh?...is that...sand?” he didn’t have time to think, he fell asleep quickly, with no time to react he fell on the pillow.
“Keith have you seen my-” Helena got out of the bathroom and stopped when her sight got to the bed.
Keith was sleeping peacefully.
Helena smiled, went to him, and kissed his forehead.
“Sleep peacefully, honey”
His soft snore was the only thing she heard.