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usual.” He put the sleeping woman down in one of the chairs in the living room and then spread a few towels on the couch, moving her once it was ready so that she could lie flat.
                  His plan to go to sleep when he got home was clearly foiled. It wouldn't do for her to wake up in a strange house with him off in the bed, so he sighed and went to go change into something clean and dry and then heat up the Chinese food in his refrigerator, planning to settle in until the woman woke up.
                  Either the beeping of the microwave or the smell of warm noodles and chicken was enough to wake her, and when Karic came back into the living room, carrying two bowls of General Tso's over chow mein, he was surprised to see amber eyes trained on him.
                  “Oh,” he said, and then rolled his eyes at how very stupid that sounded. “I mean, hi. It's good to see you're awake. Do you remember me?”
                  She hesitated and then nodded. “This is your house?”
                  “Yeah. I didn't know where you were going, and since you passed out and I wasn't about to leave you on the side of the road to be found by some crazy stranger, it seemed like the best thing to just bring you here.”
                  “Thank you,” she said softly, wincing as she went to sit up. “Fuck, what an awful night.”
                  “Coulda been worse,” Karic pointed out. “You could have drowned.”
                  She shot him a pointed look. “I feel like I did.”
                  His cheeks colored as he realized that she was still soaking wet and he hadn't offered to do anything about that yet. “Right. God, I'm sorry. It's late, and I was at work forever, so my brain isn't…right. Um…” What was the matter with him? He dealt with people all day and didn't get flustered like this, but he was just going to chalk it up to exhaustion. Not to say that she wasn't pretty because she was. Her dark hair was curling around her face where it had escaped from the bun, and in the light of the living room, Karic could see that she had creamy skin and a smattering of freckles that went across her nose and cheeks. She looked so young, and the compulsion to ask her what she was running from was strong. Instead he got himself together and focused on the matter at hand. “I'll show you to the bathroom. You can have a shower and get the river water off, and I'll set some of my things out for you to wear.”
                  “They…might not fit,” she offered, wrinkling her nose.
                  Karic grinned. “No, I've got just the thing. C'mon.” He set the food down on the coffee table and watched as she got up from the couch, making a face when she stumbled, favoring her right leg. “Your ankle?”
                  “Yeah, I really think I messed it up when I slipped into the river.”
                  “Well, let's work on getting you dry, and then I'll take a look at it, okay? For now…” He went over and offered her his arm, bracing her as they made their way up the stairs. “I'm Karic, by the way. I don't know if you remember me mentioning that.”
                  She nodded. “I do. I'm…Camilla. I…thank you. For not just leaving me there on the side of the road. And for being so nice to some girl you don't know.”
                  Karic shrugged. “It's no problem, really. Apparently I've got a white-knight complex, and I can't say no to a damsel in distress. Or anything in distress, really.”
                  “That's not a bad quality to have,” Camilla pointed out.
                  “Yeah, well. It's gotten me into trouble sometimes.” He flipped the light on in the bathroom and stepped back from her. “Can you manage from here, do you think?”
                  Camilla