Chapter Text
The sun had already set as Maya locked the door of the café, wiped down the counter and shut the lights. Now she had to deal with Sky.
Andrew had taken a month off to train a pet for Alistair Malcom, some artist just discovering his questionable tastes. Maya had let him, despite the extra work it meant for her and the other employees, and right now she was seriously starting to regret it. It had been three weeks when today a woman showed up with Sky, Andrew’s own pet. After promising the woman she’d get Sky home safe, Maya had put Sky in one of the café’s private rooms and called Andrew to figure out what was going on, and oh, was that a mess. Andrew had managed to lose the guy he was training for Alistair, then let Alistair have Sky, only for him to lose her. And now Andrew was asking Maya to babysit Sky for a few days. Seriously, after all this he would owe her so many favors. So many.
Grabbing her coat on the way, Maya went to find Sky. Sky was curled up on the floor, her arms wrapped over her head, too tense to be asleep. She hadn’t touched the food Maya had brought her earlier, but the water bowl at least looked a bit less full than it had been.
“Sky?” Maya said, watching Sky tense even more. “Sky, it’s time to leave. Andrew has some things to take care of, so you’re coming home with me today.”
Sky whined, but sat up to kneeling on the floor, and lifted her arms when Maya held up the coat to help Sky put it on. Andrew didn’t let Sky do anything on her own, which was ridiculous, and left her unable to even put on her own clothes. Maya sighed and shook her head, but buttoned the coat for Sky and stroked her hair for a moment. “Ready?” she asked, and picked up the tray with the food Sky didn’t eat and went out of the room, waiting for Sky to follow.
After cleaning up the last plates, Maya took Sky to the car and buckled her into the passenger seat. Sky kept staring at her hands the whole way, not once looking out the windows.
Maya tried not to feel nervous as they took the elevator to the top floor of the apartment building, but it wasn’t easy, since she didn’t know how her husband would react to seeing Sky. She’d sent him a text to warn him, but he wasn’t used to seeing the reality of her work like this. Actually, Maya wasn’t sure if Aaron even knew what her job really was. They had an unspoken agreement not to discuss it - Aaron never asked and Maya never shared - so in theory he could be under the impression that she just owned a normal café. She didn’t think he was that stupid, though. “I want you to act as human as possible,” she told Sky before they left the elevator.
She unlocked the door and followed Sky inside. Aaron looked tired as he came out from the bedroom to meet them.
“Hi,” he said to Maya, touching her arm in greeting before turning his attention to Sky. "And who’s this?” Maya had already told him, so it was obviously more for Sky’s benefit than his own.
“This is Sky,” Maya said, taking the coat Sky was wearing and hanging it up. “She’s gonna stay with us tonight, right, Sky?” Sky looked at her feet and didn’t respond.
“Oh, that’s nice,” Aaron smiled, holding a hand out to Sky, trying to meet her eyes. “Nice to meet you, Sky. I’m Aaron.”
Sky glanced up at his hand for a moment before going back to staring at her feet. Aaron’s smile faltered a bit and he shot Maya a questioning look when it became clear Sky wasn’t going to respond.
“I think I’ll take Sky to the bathroom so she can clean up a little,” Maya finally said. It would give Sky a bit more time to adjust. “Did you make dinner?”
“No, I had a bad day. I was thinking we could order something,” Aaron replied apologetically. He had suffered a head injury not long before they started dating, and was still dealing with the after effects. “I’m feeling a bit better now, though. I could make something simple? Spaghetti?"
"Yeah, that sounds good,” Maya agreed, and took Sky to the bathroom. She filled the tub and helped Sky undress, then told her to get in the water. Sky was shaking, but obeyed with stiff movements, so Maya didn’t comment, just handed her a washcloth and told her to wash. Sky made a weak attempt at scrubbing her leg, but it clearly didn’t do any good. Instead of waiting for Sky to fail at cleaning herself, Maya took the cloth back and scrubbed Sky down, ignoring the shaking and the flinches. When she was done, she wrapped Sky in a big towel and went to find something clean for her to wear.
When they were finally done, Aaron had boiled pasta and heated sauce from a jar, so Maya had Sky sit on the chair next to her while they ate. Sky argued less than she had expected about having to use furniture, which was a relief. Aaron didn’t say anything when Maya put the cutlery in Sky’s hands, or when Sky just shuffled her food around, not eating more than a mouthful.
Sky looked absolutely exhausted, so Maya took her to the guest room and put her to bed after dinner, before going to talk to Aaron. He deserved a few answers after this, and especially if Maya was going to leave Sky with him tomorrow. Hopefully he would accept whatever explanation she came up with and not ask too many questions.