Even on their own private jet, the ride from Kansas City to Paris seemed to take forever, and Cadence spent the whole time thinking about Jack and wondering how he was doing. The rest of the team understood that she needed some alone time, and they gave her some space. Before she left Nebraska, Taylor and the rest of her friends arrived at the hospital, and at least one of them was at the hospital around the clock so they could constantly keep her updated once she got off the plane. Nevertheless, she still felt bad leaving Jack when he was so ill.

When she had returned to his room that night, he was asleep, not unconscious again, but truly asleep. His parents said they understood that she couldn’t stay, that she needed to get back to work. They already believed that the medication was working, and they were certain they’d be calling her soon with positive information. That was yesterday evening, and she still hadn’t received any word from his parents, which was disappointing. And now, all of the rest of their friends were there as well, which left her feeling very melancholy and made the trip even longer.

For some reason, it seemed everyone and their brother was visiting Paris at the same time, which had made booking enough hotel rooms extremely difficult. Aaron told her that as soon as Eliza found out Stormy was coming, and there wouldn’t be enough hotel rooms for them each to have their own, she had essentially called “Not it!” and talked Jamie into sharing a room with her. That left Cadence to share with Stormy since it only made sense the two remaining women would be best put together. And since the Hunters required more sleep, putting them in the same room was logical. Cadence was fine with that at first. They were both Vampire Hunters, which was something. Surely, she could get along with anyone for a few days.

Unfortunately, that had not been the case. As soon as they arrived at the hotel, Cadence wanted to call and check on Jack. The room was tiny, and the bathroom door was paper-thin. Stormy insisted that she needed to go to sleep immediately. If she were to perform at her best, she needed precisely ten hours of sleep each night.

“Well, I need to call and check on my friend,” Cadence said.

Stormy was a burly woman with short brown hair and a ruddy complexion. She wore a slouch hat and cowboy boots. When she answered, her voice was anything but sympathetic. “I’m sorry,” Stormy said, “but the next ten hours are quiet time for me, and that means you must be completely silent at all times. You cannot call in here while I am sleeping. You’ll have to go somewhere else.”

Cadence thought that arguing with her could quite possibly lead to a physical fight, and though she was fairly certain she would win, she wasn’t willing to escalate the situation. “Fine, I’ll go out into the hallway,” she acquiesced.

She spent the next fifteen minutes on the phone with Taylor, talking about how Jack was doing. Taylor explained that they had changed some of his medications because he wasn’t responding as they had hoped he would. They were hopeful that this new regiment would be more productive in creating healthy blood cells. He would also be receiving one or two blood transfusions daily now. She said he had been awake and talking for a few minutes that day, but he never made much sense. It upset Cadence to know that, each time he woke up, he asked where she was.

After hanging up the phone, Cadence returned to the room she shared with Stormy. However, Cadence quickly discovered Stormy had thrown the bar across the door, and even though she had a keycard, Cadence was unable to access her own room. She attempted to wake her up on IAC, but Stormy was either completely off or just ignoring her.

Cadence knew she had one of two choices. She could bang on the door and attempt to wake her that way, potentially getting into an altercation with her, or she could just find somewhere else to sleep. She was wearing linen pants and a sweatshirt and she had brushed her teeth before she went out to make the phone call. So, all she really needed was a bed. She knew that Jamie and Eliza were already sharing a room, and she didn’t want to ask them to make room for one more. Christian and Elliott each had their own room. Elliott was out of the question, and she was afraid that, if she asked Christian, he would assume other intentions. Tonight, all she truly wanted to do was sleep. That really only left one person.

“Hey, I’m locked out of my room. Stormy put the bar over the door, and she won’t let me in.”

“What! That’s crazy! I can wake her up," Aaron offered.

“No, don’t do that. I don’t want to make her angry. We’ll just end up fighting.”

“Okay, well, I know there are no more rooms available in the hotel. What would you like for me to do?"

“Are you sleeping or working?”

"Working."

"Can I sleep in your bed?"

There was a delay in his response, and Cadence thought perhaps she had overstepped the new boundaries he had recently established. She hoped the delay came from multitasking and had nothing to do with her.

Eventually, he replied, “Of course you can.”

"Thanks. What room are you in?"

"Three-seventeen"

She made her way down the hall and knocked quietly on his door.

“Hey,” Aaron said, opening the door wide enough for her to enter.

“Hi. Thank you,” she added as she stepped into the room.

“Sure,” he replied. “I’m sorry Stormy is being so difficult.”

“It’s not your fault,” she said, looking around. He must have been working on his laptop, which was open on the coffee table in the sitting area. He only had one queen sized bed in his room, but that worked just fine since one of them didn’t sleep.

“It is and it isn’t,” he admitted. “I mean, I’m the one who invited her, and I’m in charge, so if she’s being difficult, I need to take care of it.”

“Well, maybe she’s just tired, and she’ll be nicer tomorrow. I don’t know; I just went out in the hall to call Taylor to check on Jack, and she locked me out.”

“That’s a bit on the harsh side,” he admitted, choosing his words carefully. “Well, it’s all yours,” he said, gesturing toward the bed.

“Thanks again,” she said, walking over and pulling down the blankets. Slipping off her shoes, she sat down on the edge of the bed. She was very aware that he was still standing there watching her as she climbed between the sheets and scooted back against the headboard, propping the pillows behind her. “Everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes, sorry,” he replied, as if realizing he had been staring. “I was just going to ask how Jack was doing, but I didn’t know if you wanted to talk about it.”

She sighed, not really sure if she wanted to discuss him or not. Jack was just one of the many topics that she currently found upsetting. When she had first decided to ask Aaron if she could sleep in his room, she had thought she would be able to handle being so close to him, telling herself her sole purpose in doing so was to get some sleep. Now that she was here, she realized that her feelings for him were still at the surface level. He was dressed in very nice gray pants and a powder blue shirt, almost the same shade as his eyes, and she was beginning to wonder if coming here was a mistake. She had cried enough over him recently, and she really didn’t want to go through that again.