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I pushed his chair away from mine. “Be quiet, they’re trying to sleep.”
Tully chuckled and opened his laptop again to check the live video feed. We had satellite radars and some footage cameras but the one he had was perfect. It was looking out to sea, directly into the face of the cyclone.
All we could see right now was squalls of rain for a few feet into the dark, but if it held out until daybreak, the footage would be spectacular.
If it held up. If the camera stayed intact.
If his house was still standing...
And through every minute and every hour that ticked by, the rain never stopped, the winds were a yo-yo of blustery to gale force. I sent out alerts for large hail and some lightning activity, more heavy rainfall, and more wind warnings.
Across the top end, all of Darwin, Kakadu, and Arnhem Land.
Tully fell asleep in his chair around one thirty, and I let him sleep. He needed the rest, and if I was being completely honest, I liked watching him sleep.
God, he was so handsome.
He had his arms crossed, his chin on his chest, legs outstretched. His longish hair was pulled back in that cute little sprout ponytail, and the lights on the control panel were painting his profile in orange, green, and flashing red.
But around three o’clock in the morning, a massive crack of thunder shook the building. Tully shot up out of his chair, and Doreen sat bolt upright, Suri still tucked under her arm, still half asleep. Bruce began to bark at the walls.
“Jesus Christ,” Doreen said, picking Bruce up. “That was close.”
“We’ve got an electrical storm,” I said, stating the obvious. More thunder rumbled and a crack of lightning ripped through the night, right above us.
Tully ducked. “Holy shit. That’s too close.”
“What time is it?” Doreen asked.
“Zero three hundred.”
“Three...? I told you to wake me, boy,” she said, getting up. “Split shift is supposed to be split. You shoulda woken me an hour ago.”
“Well, considering you don’t even have to technically be here at all, I thought I’d shoulder most of the time.”
She sighed and jerked her thumb at me. “Outta the chair.” Then she aimed it at Tully. “You too.”
He didn’t need telling twice, and given she was clearly not a morning person, I didn’t either.
“I’ll make some coffee,” Suri said, disappearing into the small kitchen. The light from the open doorway allowed me to see where I could lie down, and even though I doubted I’d be sleeping at all, I knew resting my body was a good idea.
Tully took a quick look at the laptop, and his illuminated face showed shock and disbelief. He turned the screen around so I could see, and despite it being pitch-black and rain slanting into the balcony, lightning lit up the harbour like a horror strobe light.
It showed how truly big the storm was, how dark the clouds were, how tumultuous the water was already. And the rain on the wind... God help us.
He closed the laptop and pushed it over near the wall, then manoeuvred my arm so I was his pillow, and he sighed against me.
Suri turned the light off, though I could smell the coffee she’d made. The sounds of the storm were loud, and the booms of thunder crashed in time with the flashes on the screens above the control panel. There was zero time differential, meaning the storm, the lightning, was directly on us.
The city of Darwin was getting a light show so constant and severe it almost made it look like daylight.
But the weight of Tully on my arm, his body against mine, his warmth, were like a weighted blanket, and the sound of heavy rain, thunder and lightning, were oddly comforting. And, by some miracle, or a testament to how exhausted I was, my eyelids closed.
I could have sworn I only blinked.
But soon Suri was gently shaking my shoulder. “I’m sorry, sweet boys,” she said. She glanced back at the control panel, at the radar showing the cyclone had finally crawled the final inch home. “It’s game time.”
Tully was now facing me, his face buried in my chest, his hair messed up. I think he’d drooled down my armpit.
