There’d been a low grade grumbling amongst folks as she’d picked her way through the dregs in the grocery store that morning. Queues had already been stretching halfway through the store as folks continued their ridiculous levels of hoarding – as if fifty toilet rolls or a lifetime’s supply of pasta was going to do much for you when you breathed in a crap ton of virus droplets through your non-existent mask. First curfews and patrols, then there’d been all that clamour over infected water and now Halloween was being cancelled? It seemed to be a general oh hell no on that. Standing there listening to it, Elea had been chewing on her tongue to stop snapping. Thank God the mask had covered it, especially when a middle aged woman three carts in front of her had started to clear her throat loudly.

She gave a faint shudder now as she stretched out on the couch in what passed as the ‘living’ quarters at the station, watching the comings and goings of shift change. A hot shower had happened before she’d left the house, skin left glowing red by the scrubbing she’d given herself to make absolutely sure before heading out to a job where she could infect not only the other life saving front line staff but half the freaking city too. Elea buried her cheek against her shoulder, scratching it self consciously like she could just feel the germs crawling under her skin.

At this point it almost felt inevitable that it was going to creep into the firehouse even with all the added precautions they were sticking resolutely to. She stopped as she heard Naomi call out. Goodies. The herald to a dozen pairs of thundering feet usually. There was a quiet rush as she heard her partners phone burst into life. She didn’t need to hear Naomi’s voice to know who it was. Having a kid at a time like this had to be an impossible job, especially when you were on this side of the line. Elea pushed herself up on her elbows, then sat up, watching her partner talk to her son, fingers rubbing at the bridge of her nose in frustration, that huff slipping out as she hung up.

Scooting up, she sat, arms draped over the back of the couch. Her lips curled faintly as she imagined Jake now driving his grandma crazy in turn. ”My favourite little man’s worried about you,” she murmured, propping her chin on his arms. She couldn’t blame him for that. Even at eight Jake had to know that his mom was putting herself out there into the worst of things every time she went to work. ”I can’t blame him on that, or on avoiding schoolwork, math …” She let out a pained little grumble, propping her chin on her forearms. ”Did I hear you say the magical words that you brought goodies?” Her lashes fluttered slightly in a subtle plea. It hadn’t been like the store was filled with anything remotely appealing this morning. Beggars couldn’t be choosers though, especially now. So what if it was a case of eating brown rice and canned asparagus for the next month, at least she was eating.

Tagged: @naomi * Word Count: 538