Stress

When she had stopped taking the sleeping pills. Emily had known that it was just a matter of time before all the negatives that came with nightmares keeping her awake at night came back like they had never been gone.

A week.

That was how long her body had hung on to the few restful benefits of the sleeping pills. In the past, she had often managed to extend the feeling of almost being well rested by about two weeks. But now, thanks to the stress of knowing that Derek's lecherous idiot of an uncle had their number, the effects of artificial sleep had worn off faster than she had anticipated.

And now, after only an hour of sleep the night before, Emily ached…bad. It was a deep ache too. The kind that she felt deep in her bones, and it was not helped by the fact that when she tried to rub at her aching temples. Trying to alleviate her headache, that brought forth a new agony. The night before had been a bad night to embroider, but she had done it anyways, and as a result her finger tips were full of pinpricks. Some of them even bled if she pressed too hard.

From her aching head, her sore eyes, her hurting back, feet, even her neck. There was no part of her that had been spared, and the stress of knowing that Lucas and his boss were up to something did not help at all.

When it came to keeping secrets. Lucas was the weakest link in the duo, that was himself and Sebastian Haven. Normally all it took was a few choice words from Emily and he would let slip something important trying to prove how much smarter he was. Sometimes, like the time on the stairs, she did not even have to goad him. She simply just had to be at the right place, at the right time. Other times he was not even talking to her, but was busy showing off to other PAs, unaware that he was giving her useful nuggets of information.

But this time, Lucas had the silence of a tomb. His lips were sealed shut, and not because he had somehow learned to keep his big mouth shut overnight.

No…there was no way that would have ever worked.

Lucas was quiet because he was busy.

He was always running somewhere, carrying this and that, and when he was not running around, he was shut in with his boss. The two of them only coming out at the end of the day looking very satisfied with themselves.

And each time Emily saw them share a secretive smile she felt like punching them in their throats until they spit out whatever it was that they were doing. But she never did and they remained silent. Unintentionally increasing Emily's stress levels the longer they kept them in the dark.

It was like that moment when babysitting and the kids suddenly went quiet. Loud kids meant noise and a few bumps and bruises while playing. Quiet kids meant broken bones because they had somehow climbed to the roof, and once there decided to test if they could fly or not.

Having kids go quiet was stressful. Having an idiot boss and loudmouth PA go quiet was even more stressful. Emily was just about ready to start pulling at her own hair.

Many times as they waited for the bomb to drop, she found herself looking over at Derek and wishing that she had the man's poker face.

She knew that he was stressed. But that was only because she knew the situation. To an outsider Derek came of as someone sailing on smooth waters. Not a hair out of place, his suits as crisp as ever. There was the smallest hint of dark circles under his eyes, but she had been his PA long enough to know that those were always there. Actually, they were quite similar to hers, except that while his were obviously natural, her dark circles were only manageable thanks to a strict skin routine.

But natural dark circles or not, Derek was still under as much stress as she was. Only he got to go home and actually sleep. While she went home, flushed sleeping pills and pretended to sleep.

The unfairness of the world knew no bounds.