While Alex knew that it hadn't actually been all that long in Richard time (after all, their shortest fights lasted something like a week before he or she came back) but it still definitely felt like quite a long time to Alex. Honestly, there was some part of herself that was angry with the way that she was acting now, or had been acting before she fell asleep. It had taken her a long time before she'd fallen asleep, and Saturday night had involved Alex staying up all night crying. Relationships for Alex (at least the ones she'd had in the past) had never really made her feel this terrible. Oh, they could be bad when there was breakups, but this was different. This one made her feel like she had when Richard had left to see Charlie without a word: like there was a possibility that everything was over. Maybe she was being melodramatic (because she was Alex) but it had still hurt that badly.

After all, there had been the unspoken maybe. That maybe was like a shard of glass that had gotten inside of her, one that she couldn't get out, even when she was putting a good face on it and trying her best not to do anything stupid. Thankfully, it hadn't happened that badly but it might have been because Alex was worried about just how dangerous it could be. Which sucked. This entire thing sucked in her opinion, and she wanted nothing more than to cry at someone, but she didn't dare. So, in the end it was just this and poor Apo with wet fur.

When he petted Apo, the dog made a soft noise of being happy to see him, that might also be a bit of chiding for him being gone for so long. But the noise cut through Alex's dreams (nightmares) and she had started to wake up even before she felt the movement of him against the sofa. Jolting upwards in his shirt, Alex just blinked a bit, gasping before she noticed what it was that had moved the sofa. Then Alex just breathed softly: "Richard?"