[center]Alyssa had caught it – the brief moment of pause at her response – the silence filled the air between them for only a second,  but she had noticed the subtle shift in his expression and suddenly she felt if she was being scrutinized. He was a psychiatrist, after all, he probably knew the ins and outs of behavior and reasons why people did the things they'd done… And she wondered briefly if he knew more about her than she had even let off. He could have never guessed her secrets, she was sure of it – he could have never known what she'd come from or what she had dealt with throughout the years – he couldn't get past all of those walls that she had made sure to put up and secure. But in that brief, fleeting moment, she hesitated – and then he was right back at it with his quick words as he nearly bounded down the stairs. She could only stare after him, wrapping her mind around everything that had just happened within the short amount of time that she'd set foot in the house. 

Perhaps she had a silly look on her face, but Nathan's words had pulled her from her thoughts and she blinked, focusing on him at the bottom of the stairs for a moment longer. His joke really had fallen thin – mainly due to the fact that it had seemed more a fact than a joke. She already could gather how very eccentric he really was, and she'd only met him for a few moments… Insanity, well, it seemed more plausible than laughable. 

Alyssa quickly shook her head as she moved to step down the staircase towards him, brushing away a stray curl from her face in the wake of it all. "I'm sorry – I'm just…" She began with a small smile. "Just trying to figure out how this all happened that quickly, is all. It's a bit to take in…" She offered, her voice quiet and still cautious. She was almost waiting for him to burst right back through that door as if it were all a joke and she was foolish to believe it all. 

Once more, Nathan had brought her back from reality as her gaze shifted to the front door, almost to quell her own worries before she looked back to him. "Ah – my address. Yes – thankfully, I don't live too far off from here…" Alyssa explained before she had given him her address, eager to travel along to get her things in an effort to make sure that everything arrived in one piece. 

She hadn't intended on taking too much – she really didn't need to bring too much at the end of the day, but once those men were in her little house, it seemed that they simply unleashed and filtered in like ants, wrapping things up and shoving them in the truck before she could even dispute it. It was odd, her empty little house full of life that seemed so out of place in that moment. Who would have thought every bit of her life could be packed up so easily and tossed aside? Who would have thought that just hours later she would have been standing in an empty bedroom, wondering if she really had made the right decision?

What was so terribly wrong about it? She had placed herself in a good position and she was doing everything she could to help her father… who, truthfully, she wasn't so sure he deserved it. At the end of the day, he was her father and no matter how many times she had to pick herself up off the floor, patch up a hole in the wall, hide a bruise or two – she would still be there at the end of the day just to make sure that [i]he[/i] was okay… Part of her couldn't blame him – he had lost a wife when her mother passed away, but she had also lost her mother as well… They both had to deal with a loss, but Alyssa had to deal with her father's depression instead…

She shook her head to rid herself of her wandering thoughts, breathing a slow sigh as she eyed her empty room once more. This was a good thing – it had to be, for her father's sake and hers.

And maybe the eccentric Mr. Coates would keep her busy enough that she wouldn't have to dwell on it much longer. She could collect a paycheck and send it right on its way – she could [i]breathe[/i] for once… 

Eventually they had ended up back at the large house, her belongings already being shuffled inside and she was quick to try and unpack and sort everything through. The entire ordeal had taken far too long for her liking, and apparently from what she'd heard through the open front door that she knew Nathan had ran off to – it wasn't to the liking of a certain Mr. Coates, either. She nearly flinched at his tone as she carried one of her own boxes up the stairs, wondering if her suspicion that he might have a bit of suppressed anger behind that eccentricity was true as well… [/center]
[@freedomliveson]