Last Resort

[Alice Kelly]

Alice felt a small frown tugging at her lips. Coincidence... Though she knew very well what would happen if she went to check her own. Oh well, it wasn't the first cell she'd burned out and probably wouldn't be the last. At least she'd finally given up on trying to buy anything nice. She could only hope that Tom had been far enough away that it maybe only killed the battery... Honestly Alice, you're going to worry about the guy's cell phone now?

"Left the charger at home again?" It was the first thing she could think of saying, but it was certainly better than Yep, it's dead, I kind of have that effect on things.

What was supposed to be some good natured internal personal jabbing turned into a sudden spike into her chest that threatened to take the air right out of her. She found herself swallowing down the feelings as she made her way over to the bed. "Thank goodness for crappy old land-lines, eh?"

Oh. My. God. I didn't just... She quickly snatched the menu off the table and pretended to be very very interested in what it had to offer.

[Tom Harriman]

The momentary telephone conundrum had been enough of a distraction to reset Tom's mind and forget all of the worries he'd been contemplating moments before. Instead he found himself perched on the edge of a bed, little more than an arms reach away from where Alice stood as adorably half-nervous as ever, wrestling with the urge to reach out, run his fingertips across the small of her back, draw her into his arms and never let go.

The list of reasons not to do that was considerably shorter than it had been ten minutes ago, and yet still he resisted, allowing himself only to reach out and ensnare her hand in his, gently enough to not startle her but still attract her attention. "We both know," he teased, with a hint of a smile, "That no matter how many times either of us looks at one of those menus, we always order the exact same thing. In fact -"

His eyes fell away from hers for a moment, focused on her delicate fingers as he drew them to his lips for a kiss. His gaze returned to hers, and his mouth quirked into a smile.

"- I bet you," he suggested playfully, "That I can guess every single item you'll want, including any on-a-whim extras, without a single word from you. And if I'm right, if I win -"

He drew her gently onto the bed beside him, letting his fingers lace with hers as he placed his next kiss softly on her shoulder. His gaze lingered on her perfect features, and yet again his lungs became too distracted to remember how to breathe properly.

"If I win, you give me a smile: because when you smile at me it feels as if time stands still, and I want every single moment with you that I can possibly get."

[Alice Kelly]

"Okay..." As if he really had to worry about her not smiling.

That wasn't the hard part at the moment, the hard part was trying to keep some strange self-consciousnesses to crop up as he had kissed her shoulder. Up until that moment she had somehow manged to forget the way she was dressed. It had just been her and Tom, now it was back to Tom and her in the fancy dress she didn't even own that exposed way more skin than she was used to.

Alice slowly passed him the menu, completely ignoring the whole and if I win scenario part of their bet. That was the thing about Tom she hadn't been able to really say before, every moment they were together she felt like she had won at something. Cheated life somehow, managed to get a little bit of payback at the universe for everything else. At times she guiltily had wondered if she hadn't actually gotten the better of the deal but that was always shoved down deep and freshly overcome with nervousness that karma had heard her and would turn things around at any moment.

The small smile that had been a constant grew again as she laughed slightly and shook her head. Why was she so skittish about this whole thing? This was Tom. The same man she had hit with a pillow and told to move over on the couch before, the same man she had once stumbled on half naked in the middle of the night and helped bandage a particularly nasty wound he had obtained from his vigilante activities, the same exact Tom that he had always been and she always hoped he would be. Alice forced herself to take a deep breath and pushed herself back onto the bed so she could sit on it with her legs tucked under her.

"But if you get anything wrong, you owe me one of those strawberry martinis you tried earlier."

[Tom Harriman]

Tom felt his breath catch a little in his chest. She could have asked for anything, she could have asked for the whole damn universe if she'd wanted to, and he would have given it to her. Instead, she asked for the sweetest, most innocent little thing.

He kissed her again; he couldn't stop himself, it felt like if he didn't he'd split in half. "Anything you want," he whispered breathlessly, trying to restrain himself to just a single kiss but forced to persist a few times before his lips finally got the memo. In the end he tore himself away, his cheek brushing hers as he allowed himself to place one more kiss, on the slope of her jaw. "Anything, any time. All you have to do is ask."

He lingered, head resting against hers as he gazed down at the sculpted curve of her neck and shoulders. He realised that it was a sight he hadn't really been treated to much before; Alice didn't exactly hide herself away, he'd certainly never seen her wear anything that flattered her often hidden curves the way tonight's dress did. He was glad for that: glad she'd stolen his heart before she'd caught the attention of other parts of his anatomy.

His brow twitched into a slight frown. "Kat made you wear this, didn't she?"

That made him angry, and grateful, and then angry that he felt grateful. He wasn't like that. The way he felt about Alice wasn't like that. She didn't need dresses or make-up or extra curls in her hair to trick him into thinking she was more beautiful; to his eyes, being more beautiful than she looked every single day was a scientific impossibility.

He pulled away, his face a confused mix of frown and thought. "Don't move," he insisted, and dove across the room for his suitcase, rummaging out a grey and slightly worn hooded sweatshirt, and a matching pair of workout pants. "Here," he said, handing them over. "You don't -"

He hesitated, unsure how to finish that sentence. You don't need a dress to make me think you're beautiful? You don't look comfortable? You don't want to get cold? You don't want to be wearing something that I desperately want to tear off you?

"- want to be lounging around eating Chinese and watching zombie movies in something like that," he settled on. Not a great choice, but it would do.

"I'll -" he started to say, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to the bathroom, but he didn't finish. It was probably for the best: I'll go hide in here because I don't trust myself not to look while you're changing, probably wasn't the best thing to say at a moment like this.

[Alice Kelly]

Alice felt her head tilt to the side slightly, eyebrows arching upwards as she looked from Tom to the clothing in his hands. She wasn't sure why but at that moment the plan he had come up with was just about the sweetest gesture she could ever think that anyone had ever done for her. A tiny laugh left her as she stood up and took the offered clothing.

"What you'll do, is order the food while I go in there and get changed." She spoke slowly, casually gesturing with hands and eyes to emphasize the point.

Watching Tom act about as disjointed as she often felt was endearing and she wasn't quite sure how to make him stop before it caused a chain reaction and she started being the same way. There really was only one solution and that was to try and make things easier by playing along. They'd both had enough stress throughout the day that now really wasn't the time to be adding to it.

Another quick kiss was stolen before she waved him towards the telephone. "Remember, you have to get everything right or I win."

Okay, so maybe those words didn't help matters but Alice was hoping the way she'd said it was more comforting than antagonistic. Without waiting to find out the results she made a hasty retreat to the bathroom to rid herself of the dress and slip into something that genuinely would be more comfortable even if it was over-sized.

[Tom Harriman]

Sure, that was the smart plan, the logical plan. Him stay in the big room with the phone; her go into the small room with no windows.

Except that this way around, Tom had to concentrate on making a phone call while fully aware of what was going on not five meters away, and he didn't even have the option of hurling himself into a cold shower to clear his head.

He slumped onto the bed; grabbed the phone and punched in the necessary digits to make an external call. While it rang he kicked his feet up, trying to get half-way comfortable and back into the sweet spot that seemed to be the only place where aiming the remote in the vague direction of the TV seemed to actually have some kind of effect. The audio muted just as a black-and-white zombie shoved it's arm between to stupidly placed planks that clearly weren't going to provide any kind of structural protection against any sort of external attacker. There wasn't even any cross-bracing, it wasn't secured at the centre... a couple of swift kicks to the middle and either the wood would snap in half, or pop right off the not even hammered in all the way nails.

He sighed in frustration, just as the restaurant picked up. Awkward timing as always.

He ran down the order; double spring rolls of course, and double the crispy seaweed because no matter how much they thought they were going to consume, there always wasn't quite enough. He went with his standard reliable choice for himself - beef, black beans, chilli, green peppers - and threw in the Szechuan crispy beef that he always used to gauge whether a takeaway was good or terrible. He almost ordered something sweet and sour for Alice, but between the dress, the spa, and how self-conscious he knew she must be feeling, he settled on one of the vegetable dishes instead; something with plenty of bamboo and water chestnuts, lots of crunch without too much calories. They offered him special fried rice, and considered his options; picked the one with the prawns and things in, which he hated but she loved.

And that was it; his guess. To be honest, the thought of winning had completely fallen out of his head. The door to the bathroom opened, his stomach knotted, and he made a mental note to never wash that sweater ever again.

[Alice Kelly]

Alice ran a hand through her hair, using fingertips to comb out more of the curls that had been imposed upon it. Although she felt like a kid that had wandered into an older brother's wardrobe, Alice did have to admit that she felt more cozy than before and that instantly took a weight off of her. It wasn't that the hotel room looked any less foreign, or that Tom didn't look any more comfortable, or even that she felt like anything had really changed aside from the fact she just felt more like herself. Comfortable clothing, a crappy movie on the television, and a spot next to Tom that was waiting on her so she could listen to him point out all the scientific impossibilities of what they were watching while she argued that it was make-believe and fiction so you needed to suspend disbelief. Different location, but it still felt right all the same.

Her footsteps shuffled across the floor as she made her way to the other side of the bed and quickly crawled on top of it and fidgeted until she found just the right spot that was close enough to Tom that she didn't feel like she was invading his personal space as she wrapped her arms around her knees as she pulled them close to her. It was a slightly defensive position and the moment she realized it she forced herself to uncurl from herself. She wasn't sure if she should actually stay where she was or follow through with the sudden impulse to tuck herself against Tom's side. The last thing Alice wanted to do was move things too quickly, make him think that she was being fake or too forward or...anything else.

"So," she began, forcing the words out and nodded towards the TV. "Anything good on or are we stuck with the almost-over classic that I can pretty much say every word to?"

[Tom Harriman]

Anything good.

Tom's face twitched a little uncomfortably, something sinking a little in the pit of his stomach. Good was a relative term, and in the context he presumed that Alice intended, the answer was in fact a surprising yes. Unfortunately, that yes filled Tom with a special kind of dread, one that was so hopelessly irrational that he was too embarrassed to really speak about it.

But here was Alice, so nervous she was fighting the urge to curl up into a ball; and him, suddenly extremely conscious of how uncomfortable his arm felt where it currently was, and how desperately he wanted to wrap it around her. If this wasn't the time for sharing intimate secrets, when was?

"You're gonna laugh," he said, doing so a little himself more from nerves than anything else. "But you know how I'm always saying that movies don't scare me, and how you're always saying that I never suspend my disbelief? Well, uh -"

He tried to look at her, but he couldn't quite manage it. Instead, he explained himself to the TV, which helpfully did not have eyes that would be able to judge him for his confession.

"- there is one movie. I must've been fifteen when I saw it. To big to get scared of that sort of thing. In my head, I knew it was all fake, all computers, none of it, was real, but there's this moment, this scene, where -" He grimaced, the point of no return reached. "- a velociraptor breathes on the window, and like, there's condensation, just like there should be if it was real. And sure, there's probably some animatronic head with a pipe shoved up it's nose to do that, and I know that in my head, but in that moment? It totally side-swiped me, and then the thing slowly starts opening the door, and -"

He sighed, shook his head, his cheeks were throwing off enough heat to power a small mid-western town. "Ever since then, every nightmare I've ever had, every anxiety dream, there've been velociraptors coming after me, or the people I care about."

He mustered a sheepish smile. "Jurassic Park terrifies me. And it's on pay-per-view."

[Alice Kelly]

Alice listened, withholding judgement and only let the smallest of "Heh."s leave her. After all, she was scared of bees for crying out loud and knew damn well you didn't get to pick your illogical fears; the brain just did what it wanted sometimes. The only real sense of discomfort from the whole thing came from the fact he was suddenly outpouring information about himself like he wanted to abandon all secretsbetween them - and she liked it. She would gladly listen to him talk about himself all night if he wanted, anything to keep her from having to do the same about herself. The guilt of the one-sided started confessions started to creep up on her again and she silenced it with the only thing that had been working - by reaching out and taking Tom's closest hand in both of hers.

"You honestly think that I would make you watch something that would make you uncomfortable like that?" Alice shook her head and let another small laugh leave her as her eyes lowered for an instant before meeting with Tom's again. "Haven't we had enough drama for one day? How about you pick? Anything you want. I'm completely happy just..."

Her voice trailed off as Alice found herself about to say something immensely sappy that she would scold herself for later. A quick re-word in her mind put it into better terms, "...Just being here with you right now."

[Tom Harriman]

"I just..."

Whatever he'd intended to say, that last line from her shattered it into tiny pieces, allowing a stampede of desperate urges to swarm throughout his mind. Chief amongst them was the urge to pull her close to him and hold her tight, so intense his arms practically aching as they begged him to. He satiated himself by merely taking gentle hold of her hand, resting on the cavernous and unwelcome canyon of bedsheets between them.

"I like being vulnerable around you." The words sounded so thin and pathetic as they tumbled from his lips; he fixated on her fingers, his thumb gently stroking against the side of his hand. "Whenever I'm around you, I get so nervous. Scared, even. I feel it right there burning away in my stomach. I worry about what you'll find out about me, and what you'll think about me when you do. But every time you find something out, you just smile and look at me the exact same way. You don't judge. You don't run away. You just -"

He managed to drag his gaze to meet hers, and it felt like a supernova in his chest as he did. He couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips, and he didn't want to. "You just keep looking at me with those beautiful eyes, and it makes me the happiest man alive."

He swallowed, trying to force a little more confidence into his voice. "I wear masks and disguises all the time. And it's not just the hood I wear at night. At work, when I put on that lab coat, I hide behind it. People look at me and they see a scientist. Or they look at the suit and tie and they see a teacher, or a businessman, or whatever it is that I am that week. Back in England, all they saw was the uniform, and so I was just a soldier. Kat looks at me, and all I am is her big brother. And because no one ever saw the whole me, just some aspect, I never was the whole me."

"But you?" He raised her hand, and pressed it gently to his lips. "When you look at me, all you ever see is Tom. And because of the way I feel about you, I -" His smile flickered. "- I want you to know what that really looks like. Every single broken, damaged inch of who I am."

His eyes fell away, embarrassment ravaging his cheeks again. "So lets watch dinosaurs. And when the velociraptors show up? It won't be so bad, because I'll be with you. And that makes everything better."

[Alice Kelly]

Alice never thought she would ever understand songs that talked about liking the way something hurt. There was no way Tom could know about the conflict within her. All she wanted to do was pull herself close to him and explain everything. But that vision, that one of the man she loved suddenly taking back everything he said, the one of him pulling away from her as if she was just as dangerous as she felt, it kept replaying over and over in her mind every time Alice even began feeling the tugs of courage.

It wasn't that she had to force the smile that remained, it wasn't the mask that viscous little part of her mind was claiming it to be - but some part of her genuinely wasn't sure if within the next second she would be laughing happily or smudging her makeup as she fought to keep emotions under control.

No... she'd keep silent, again. Tom was practically serving up every opportunity to speak on a silver platter and she was turning them all down in favor of just keeping him how he was now. He seemed happier than he had since they had left Los Angeles and she wasn't about to do anything to jeopardize that. And that also included keeping her distance no matter how badly she wanted him to hold her, to make everything seem like it would be okay.

Alice realized she'd been fidgeting slightly, at some point had slowly pulled her hands from his and was now twisting the bottom hem of the sweatshirt in her fingertips while listening to him talk and waging war on her own mind. She nodded her head, hoping desperately that she looked more bashful than like some nervous wreck.

"Well then, if you insist. Dinosaurs it is. I think I can manage to keep you safe from them, I'll just call on my zombie hordes to overwhelm and distract them while we make a quick escape."

[Tom Harriman]

She let go of his hand.

She was nervous; he could see the fidgeting, knew what it meant. He knew it didn't mean anything, or at least that it didn't mean anything bad. She was holding back, protecting herself, and that was the only thing that anyone in their right mind could have expected her to do. Even so, he'd opened his heart, exposed himself on purpose, and she'd pulled away. Let go of his hand.

He locked his expression in place, not allowing the look of understanding disappointment form on his brow. His empty hand slowly closed; his chest caved in, echoing the motion. He'd gone too far. Too fast. Pushed too hard. He'd let himself get carried away, caught up. He should have known better: he'd been wrestling with these feelings for far longer than she'd harboured her own, so of course she wasn't as ready as he was. It was stupid. His fault. All on him.

Trying to keep as upbeat as he could, despite the urge to slump against a wall and curl up into a ball, he swung his legs off the bed and sat up. "I'm gonna grab a glass of water," he explained. He mustered a quick smile. "You know, to help keep watch for the T-Rex. Can I get you anything?"

[Alice Kelly]

She could see it... the slight slump in his shoulders, that expression he always put on when he was expecting her to react badly to something. They were so minute, such tiny things, and yet she could pick up on them as if he were portraying it so someone across town could see them. If her mind hadn't been in frantic mode she might have been amazed by that little factoid. But as it was, there was a sudden tightening in her chest as the horror in her own head was starting to come to life. What had she done? What had she said? A flicker out of the corner of her eye brought everything into sudden realization, the gaudy colors of the blanket bedspread under them were wavering, twisting, swirling around every place she was making contact with it. How long had that been going on? Was that what he had seen? Tom was a genius, of course he figured something out.

A sharp intake of breath was taken when she realized that yes, she could still breathe, her eyes shut tightly for a second. Calm down, calm down, calm down... The mantra started and was repeated as she looked back to make sure everything was cooperating once more before she realized he was rising from where he sat.

Her hand shot out, as she forced herself to sit up, quickly grabbing his wrist.

"Don't go. Please." The last word came out far worse sounding than she planned, she wasn't asking, she was pleading with him.

[Tom Harriman]

"Go?"

The word tumbled from his lips amid horror and confusion, his chest suddenly a glacier that sent chilling cold to every extremity as he stared down at her hand on his arm, and the look in her eyes. Oh god, her eyes.

It melted in an instant, and before he knew it he was back beside her, arms pulling her towards him whether she was willing or not. His hold on her wasn't tight, but it was firm and resolute, as all encompassing as he could muster.

"Never," he almost whispered, resting his head atop hers. "There is not a force, not a word, not a thing in the whole universe that will ever be able to take me away from you. Nothing."

He nestled a kiss amid the waves of her hair. "The way that I feel about you, the way that I love you, there's no stopping that. It's a chain reaction. Nothing that happens, nothing that's said, nothing that you do or don't choose to tell me, or anything that happens is going to change that. You are -"

His voice fluttered; cracked a little. "- you are perfect, and that's not a sliding scale. You can't get any more or any less: you just are. That's not hyperbole, that's not opinion, that's fact. You are the sweetest, kindest, most wonderful person in all of existence, and anyone or anything that tries to tell me different, tries to change my mind, is wrong."

He took hold of her hand again; placed it against his chest; held it there, palm against the thundering beat beneath his ribs. "That thing? That's just the pump that makes my blood go round. My heart is yours, Alice. It's impossible for anyone to take it, or me, away."

[Alice Kelly]

"What about..." The words came out softly, hiding the fact she barely had control over her voice any longer. "Things you can't see."

Alice was trembling, could feel the tiny shivers running up her spine and into her hands and yet his arms were there, around her. There was no fighting it anymore, she couldn't, didn't have the strength to, not after what Tom had said. The way everything had been worded, passionately and carefully. She could hold everything in forever, never change, and he wouldn't judge. But he loved her and that meant all of her. Didn't he have a right to know? Wasn't he worth that to her?

"You know, sometimes, when we have the radio on in the kitchen and you say something and I laugh and it seems like the music cuts out...?" It was an awful example to start with. She now knew very well that in those instances Tom was paying attention to pretty much everything but the silly radio.

Words were failing, thought was failing and so once more she pulled her hand away from him but instantly made up for it by pressing herself into his hold. No, there was no explaining this. All she could hope was that what she planned wouldn't have any further consequences.

The hand he had placed to his heart was raised up and she shut her eyes. It had always been an involuntary action but sometimes, just sometimes, she could make it work... If she focused very hard on one single emotion, how it felt.

Fingertips stretched out as she let it all go, she couldn't bring herself to look back to Tom for his reaction as she watched the soft light, not quite blue, not quite green, but a multitude of shifting colors of every hue slowly form and wrap itself around her, rippling and drifting away as her fingertips moved.

"That's the only good thing I can do with it." There was no hiding the sadness in her voice, nor that hint of terror at her own self.

[Tom Harriman]

Tom watched, with a new look in his eyes. It wasn't the terror or horror that Alice expected though; and while the unwavering love was still there, it was joined by something new.

Wonder.

"That is -" He was at a loss for words. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Part of his mind was racing, pulling out every word, term, definition, and explanation it could think of for the scientific marvel that was being portrayed in front of him. But those weren't the words he needed right now. He didn't need to explain what he was seeing to a class, or in a scientific paper. He needed to explain it to someone much more important. The only someone that mattered.

"It's beautiful, Alice. It's -" He struggled for the words, tripping over his awe and a sense of joyful desire that snared his chest like a net and tried to drag him down into an endless embrace with the woman in his arms. "- it's like a little aurora."

He tore his eyes away, though not with any reluctance at all, because their destination was an even more beautiful sight. His fingers traced the line of her jaw, tilted her chin so she was forced to look at him; give him a view of the eyes he drowned in every time. "Thank you," he whispered, an aching moment passing before he let himself place a kiss on her delicate lips. "Thank you for trusting me."

[Alice Kelly]

The soft waves of colored light dissipated as he kissed her, as she couldn't hold on to the emotion that she knew triggered the effect any longer. For one instant she just wanted to remain right where she was, with everything seeming completely at peace for once in her life.

"It's not that I didn't trust you. It's... me." A small shake her head accompanied her words. There really was no holding back now, she'd opened the door and it was like a herd of kittens came storming out. Ideas careening and bouncing off of each other and refusing to remain in any sort of logical order. "Like I said, that's the best of it. Everything else, you can't see, can't even feel until... And I can't control it, not really. Those 'Vitamins' I take? Yeah, actually low dosage Xanax, keeps things from happening. Well, not entirely. Your phone, that was probably me earlier at the restaurant. And..."

Her voice trailed off as Alice noticed Tom's expression hadn't really changed with anything she had said. There was concern, maybe a hint of curiosity in his eyes but not fear, nothing negative reflected back despite everything she was saying. It caused her to stop speaking and let out a slow breath as she slumped against him, her head coming to rest against his shoulder as her arms moved around him. It didn't matter at that moment, what she was, what she did, it just didn't matter. She could try and explain her worries, whatever she actually knew about what the x-gene had caused her to be at another time, maybe later when she didn't feel so completely drained.

The silence that fell between them was once more broken by a soft quick exhale, not quite a laugh, the thought that had occurred to her wasn't exactly funny.

"Aurora... I like that. Far better than Radiation Girl."

[Tom Harriman]

Your phone, that was probably me.

Those words in particular stuck out more than the others; at least, until she rested her head on his shoulder. His mind had raced with thoughts of electromagnetism, of how her ability must be able to manifest in invisible wavelengths as well as the visible, of how understanding the way she was able to manipulate photonic fields could revolutionise every single field of science -

And then nothing. Just her and him. All that curiosity, all that thirst for scientific knowledge, blown away by a concept so perfect and simple that he didn't want to ask a single question.

"Not to mention -"

He let his head rest gently atop hers, and couldn't have kept his eyes open even if he'd wanted to. His mind had already burned her face onto his eyelids, but it didn't matter what he saw any more: this was what he wanted to feel every time he closed his eyes.

"- you make a pretty adorable Sleeping Beauty when I find you curled up on the couch in the mornings."

[Alice Kelly]

A soft laugh left her as she could feel embarrassment threatening to take over. It was strangely welcome when Alice put it up against all the other emotions she had run the spectrum of that night. Not that she didn't appreciate being compared to the iconic perfection that was a Disney Princess, but it was like she had reached compliment capacity and now without the constant dodging of talk about her abilities to distract her from really processing everything it left her to shy away from them like always. Only now instead of laughing and shaking her head as she walked away to keep Tom from watching her reaction she simply hugged herself tighter against him.

"Please don't ever call me that again. Not unless we can figure out how to have me magically change the color of my clothing at will, okay?" Another small suppressed giggle left her. "Of course right now I'd probably let you call me whatever you wanted if it it meant everything could just stay like this forever."

[Tom Harriman]

Colour-changing dress? he mused. With your powers and some fibre optics, I could probably do that.

He kept it to himself though, because he couldn't bring himself to interrupt that sentiment. Aerosmith began playing softly in the back of his mind, but he didn't care. For the first time since he'd known her, Alice seemed completely comfortable, totally at ease around him. The dark secret that he'd already surmised and that she'd been so determined to conceal was exposed; the dancing around it that had occupied so much of their lives could change into the slow, intimate dancing that entered his imagination every time a romantic song came on the radio.

He smiled, and marvelled at how right it was; how well the two of them fit together. How perfect it all was. Nothing could ruin that moment.

A set of knuckles rapped frantically against the door.