Jackson

The next morning...

I leaned over the kitchen counter resting my elbows on its surface as I lifted my cup of coffee up to my lips, confusion swirling throughout my mind as I tried to think back to last night, most of the night being too hazy for me to recall.

Earlier this morning, my mind was completely left in the dark but now that I was wide awake with a little caffeine in my system, just recently, my memories gradually began to reveal themselves to me.

And they terrified me...

When I woke up this morning on my couch, butt naked with nothing but a thin, white blanket hardly covering me, I hadn't thought anything of it until images of Nicole being in my home began to surface back to my mind.

The memories were anything but clear to me and there were numerous gaping holes as I recalled seeing her at the bar, to speaking to her in my kitchen, then... Kissing her in my car.

I groaned as I set my cup down and rubbed a hand over my face as I tried to remember how we ended up in that position and, more importantly, what happened after that.

I guess it'll help if I knew how we ended up at my home in the first place...

I knew I drank a little more than I should have at the bar and I take full responsibility for that. It's why I was having such a hard time remembering anything from last night, it's why I couldn't do enough to help Nicole while she was in so much pain last night.

Which means she's never even left...

"Dammit." I huffed out in realization, remembering now that she stayed the night here because she had a sudden hangover and still has not woken up from it yet.

I'd better go check on her. I thought as I began to head to the room she slept in.

Before she knocked out, I remember her complaining of her stomach twisting and she was a bit dehydrated as well. I knew it was from the way the detoxifying tea conflicted with the extra bottle of beer she had in the car and there wasn't much I could do about that except give her water and have her rest while her body tries to get rid of the drugs that were snuck into her drink that night. That has been helping her feel in less pain but the whole experience was definitely not easy on her.

As I was making my way to her room, I noticed that my laundry room door was cracked open, a small green light coming from my dryer machine indicated that whatever was inside was ready to be taken out.

When did I do laundry?

With a raise of an eyebrow, I headed there instead to check and see what had been placed in there, not getting the slightest memory of anyone ever stepping foot in there last night.

As I approached the dryer, I noticed the mess of powdered detergent soap on the floor near the washer machine, making me scratch my head. It looked as if someone tried to do laundry in complete darkness.

And it most likely had been me.

I shook my head and turned my attention back to the dryer machine, making a mental note to myself to clean that mess up soon. When I opened the machine, I found that Nicole's sweatpants and my own outfit from last night had been tossed in there and nothing else.

That explains where my clothing had gone.

Just as I was trying to figure out exactly why I washed these, my phone suddenly rang in my pocket, startling me.

I let out a deep breath and answered it after seeing Rebecca's name appear on the screen, "Uh, hey Rebecca. How can I help?" I tried not to sound tense.

"Coach. I've been trying to get a hold of you for some time now." She said.

"Were you?" I asked as I held the phone between my ear and shoulder before beginning to fold the clothing.

"Positive." She giggled. "Remember when I told you that I would be staying the night at headquarters?"

"Yeah... Yeah, yeah, I do. You were monitoring any suspicious calls made from Simon's cell."

"Mhm..." She mumbled. "And you told me that if anything turned up, I should tell you immediately."

I nodded, "Yeah... I did."

I already know where this is going and I am not proud of it...

She laughed, "Well, I called you via video call."

"I missed your call didn't I...?"

"Something like that." She replied. "I guess I could understand. You and Nicole were having plenty of fun last night. I shouldn't have interrupted."

My eyes widened at that and my hands froze just as I was folding the last item of clothing.

What?

As thousands of questions began to rise, she continued by saying, "Don't worry though, we've already gotten the call taken care of, we have a few new suspects who could be helping the criminals. I'll fill you in on the specifics once you arrive."

"T-that's great... I- I mean it's huge!" I said, her previous words circling my mind and preventing me from saying anything logical. All I could do was wonder how she would even know that Nicole and I were here if I had missed her calls. She wasn't around when we left headquarters so the whole scenario just didn't make sense. I pinched my forehead in aggravation and just told her. "Look, I'll... I- I'll call you back. I'll see you whenever I can make it."

"What's wrong, coach? You sound flustered." She asked before I could hang up.

"I'm not, j-just don't worry about-"

"Hey, I can hear it in your voice. You can tell me what's up." She insisted.

I let out a deep breath and leaned with a hand pressing against the hood of the dryer machine, "I'm just a little confused." I told her. "How did... How did you know Nicole was here last night...?"

"Oh, that!" She laughed. "Well, when I called, somebody answered and it was probably by accident since I kinda saw you two in the car so, I hung up right away. No worries, I won't say anything."

In the car...

I never answered my phone in the car.

Had Nicole answered it?

That wouldn't make sense, why would she have my phone?!

"That's so weird." I stressfully said to myself but she heard me.

"What is?"

"This is gonna sound crazy. " I told her as I headed out of the laundry room.

She snickered, "Tch. I've most likely heard crazier."

I took a heavy seat on my living room couch, "I just... I don't know what the hell is going on and I've been trying to put all of the pieces together but... None of this even makes sense to me."

"Really..." She said, slightly amused. "You don't remember anything? Not even when you two made plans to go out to a bar after training?"

"I remember that part just fine. It was later on that everything went into a blur."

"You've been doing a lot of drinking, have you...?"

"Sort of," I said, slouching in my seat.

"Technically, I should say something about this."

"Rebecca, please-"

"But I won't because I totally understand. It's been stressful with the boss being abducted and all."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Not sure it's enough stress for you to irresponsibly engage in intoxicated sex with one of your clients..." She added.

And my heart dropped to my stomach.

"What...?" I asked barely above a whisper, sitting up now. Heart throbbing heavily in my chest.

"Coach... You did have protection... Right?"

I remained speechless. My hands growing cold with fear and the hairs on my arms shooting straight up as soon as she spoke those words.

No, no, no... Hell no!

That's impossible, I would've definitely remembered at least a slither of that!

Wouldn't I?

There's a possibility that it all got lost in the blur...

Oh... Shit!

Maybe it really did happen...

"Oh my god..." She said. "You seriously don't remember. Does Nicole know?"

"I don't know," I said, feeling my throat go dry and my stomach ache. "I don't know if she remembers anything. She got sick and, and she's been asleep, and... Fuck! This can't be happening right now..."

I'm gonna fucking lose my mind!

"Okay don't freak out." She told me as calmly as possible. "Maybe we can straighten this out somehow but you have to talk to her about this. She has to know something."

"Okay." I bit my lip anxiously.

"I'll call back in a little bit. Just don't panic..."

"I won't... Thanks, Rebecca."

"Anytime." She said to me before hanging up.

I slowly pulled the phone away from my ear after hearing the call end and didn't know what to do with myself after that. I could only stare at the screen, guilt and disgust eating me alive as I sat there in complete disbelief.

How am I going to explain this to Nicole?

I can hardly even understand it myself...

Even if I had been doing some drinking, there was absolutely no chance that I could have slept with her last night. I would be able to remember a little bit of that, especially now that Rebecca said something about it, that should have recovered memory of it but, still, I can't recall any of it. Even if I couldn't remember a damn thing, I would have at least felt different this morning...

I turned my head to look at the hall... Nicole's sleeping right around that corner.

There was no way I could go in there now. I'll just wait until she wakes up.