Elena certainly felt tired after their lengthy talk; after all, mentally had she gone through all the recent months in a matter of only a few hours. Additionally, the soothing sound of the finishing piano chords felt like some sort of lullaby to her, while she was lying on the couch with her eyes closed and her mind travelling far away. Though she had twitched nervously with her thumbs above the blanket, by the end of the piece of music she had reached an almost meditating state, or so it seemed from the outside.
A little sigh slipped out of her mouth when he finished the last note and when it became clear he wouldn’t continue with it, but the disenchantment didn’t last all too long; instead, she slowly sat up on the couch, still wrapped in the blanket, and blinked at him, as though she had enjoyed a long lasting winter dormancy and was just coming out of hibernation again. While she kept rubbing her left eye slightly, she glanced at Doc and gave him a friendly smile. Her head felt heavy, as if it only wanted to be rested on the cushion again. If anything, she only was looking forward for a little more comfortable bed to sleep on anymore. For once, she wasn’t worried about what might happen while she would be sleeping, nightmares creeping up in her dreams and making her rest a living hell. But that didn’t seem as much of an issue to her anymore.
The thought of the children Doc was alluding to both frightened and exhilarated her at the same time. The way he talked about them only made her look forward to meet them by herself, but there was still this deep-routed suspicion piping up in her mind and once again reminding her what had happened and what she had done. “A night’s sleep doesn’t sound bad at all,” she gave back, while she pushed the thoughts her suspicion and self-hatred offered to the back of her mind, neglecting them for the time being. It worked to an extent, an extent she could already be happy with, though. It worked a lot better than most of the times she had tried while she was alone. Usually it had rather turned into a disaster when she actively tried to do that.
She couldn’t help herself and gave a yawn to and fumbled about with the blanket and looked out of the window. The snowstorm had been losing vigor rapidly; one could actually see Gran Canaria’s not-so-impressive landscape in the far distance. “If I may ask you something,” she said. “How much of your time do you actually spend here, on your Estate? I mean, it’s a beautiful place, and it’s a large one, but I can imagine it’s a little too large when you live here all for yourself the whole time. Doesn’t it become too secluded at some point?” A little pause. “I myself wouldn’t be able to live all alone all the time in such a large area.” It only took her a second to realize that she had been doing pretty much exactly that for quite a while by now, but she kept that thought for herself. It made her shut up, though.
