"Hawk, how are you feeling? How are the ribs?" Taylor asks, and he ans it.
It has been a day since Hawk returned to the hotel. Discharged but far from healed, he has spent the entire ti confined to his room, doing absolutely nothing but sleeping, eating, and staring at the TV.
Hawk harrumphs. "I’m bored, Taylor. Genuinely bored. My ribs still hurt every ti I move, and because I haven’t been moving much, my muscles are stiff and completely uncooperative. I want to get up and train, but everything hurts. So tell , what exactly am I supposed to do?" He directs the full weight of his frustration squarely at Taylor.
Taylor makes a face. "Sorry, Hawk. I was just checking in. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be."
Hawk sighs. "No, I’m sorry. I’ve been cooped up in this stuffy room too long. It’s getting to ."
Taylor, being the good person he is, smiles without any judgnt. "It’s alright. I’d be the sa way in your position."
"How is everyone holding up?" Hawk asks, redirecting.
Taylor sighs. "The Baroness still has not said anything about calling us back, and Ethan does not really want to be the one to reach out to her. None of us are happy about how she treated us. None of us want to go back to that." He pauses.
"But our goal here is to get stronger, Hawk. If we leave Solarys without achieving that, we go back having failed the mission." Taylor says, caught between two equally uncomfortable options.
The word train catches in Hawk’s mind and pulls it sowhere else entirely. To Thea. To Rhaenas. He cannot help but compare the way Thea directed her team to the way the Baroness had been training them.
Hawk lets out a short, hollow laugh.
How different.
He sighs. Is she okay? I should have called the hospital.
"Hawk?" Taylor calls.
"Huh?" He snaps back. "Sorry. What were you saying?"
"I was asking... well, it’s not just . All of us have been wondering what actually happened to you. How you ended up in Solarys General." Taylor finishes.
------------------------------
"Why aren’t they coming out?" Leila keeps glancing at the door.
Miranda puts a hand on her friend’s arm. "Give them ti, Lei. All of them believed Arthur was gone. Finding out he is alive but in a coma, with no way of knowing when or if he will wake up, that is a lot to sit with."
Leila sighs. "You’re right. When I first heard it, I could not process it either. Should I be happy? I should be, shouldn’t I? My son is alive. But if you look at it another way, he is not really alive, Mir." Her eyes begin to glisten.
"That is true." Miranda says gently. "But as long as he is in that coma, there is still a chance. If he had passed away..." She pauses. "He would be gone. No chance of coming back to you, to any of us. This way, there is still a chance. That has to an sothing."
Miranda knows that sowhere underneath the grief, Leila already understands this. She just needs soone to say it out loud for her.
Leila exhales, long and loud. Her eyes stay fixed on the door.
------------------------------
Maeve exhales and pulls her hand back from where it had been hovering above Arthur’s chest.
"Well?" Theo asks. "Anything?"
Maeve hesitates.
"Did you find sothing?" Theo’s voice carries a note of expectation.
"It’s hard to say, Thea. I don’t know what I was looking for. And I don’t know what is normal and what isn’t." Maeve starts carefully.
Theo’s expression shifts, just slightly. Maeve catches it. Disappointnt. It lasts only a second before it is gone.
Theo lifts his chin slightly and exhales quietly.
"But..." Maeve adds. She cannot quite help wanting to give him sothing.
"But?" Julian leans in, encouraging her to continue.
"Like I said, I do not know what I was looking for. But I did sense sothing. There is sothing in there that feels... isolated. Separate from the rest."
"Isolated?" Theo repeats the word, turning it over.
Maeve nods.
Isolated. That is an interesting word. What is isolated? Why is it isolated? Is it really isolated?
Theo turns to the others, who are waiting patiently. They can see he is thinking. Without anyone making a decision about it, they have quietly accepted Theo as their leader and Arthur as their field captain. The two roles have simply settled into place.
"I do have things I want to discuss with all of you. But not here and not now." Theo says. "So I will just say this. I do not yet know what Maeve sensed in Arthur. But I know with absolute certainty that Arthur will co back to us. I cannot tell you when. But he will. And if you want to know how I am so sure?"
Theo takes a breath.
"He told ."
------------------------------
The door to Arthur’s room finally opens.
Everyone waiting outside gets to their feet at the sa ti, eyes going straight to the faces coming through the door. The parents are reading their children before a single word is spoken.
Leila finds herself surprised. They are not as lost or as broken as she had expected them to be.
"Julian? Thea? Are you okay?" She steps toward them.
"We are, Mom. We really are. Don’t worry about us." Julian smiles, and it reaches his eyes.
Leila looks to Theo for confirmation. Theo nods.
"Oh, my children." Leila’s voice breaks on the last word. She crosses to Julian and pulls him into her arms, letting out everything she has been holding since the phone call from Linus three days ago.
Miranda’s reaction when she reaches Liam is not so different from Leila’s. She has been carrying her worry since she watched him turn away from her on his hospital bed, hiding his tears so she would not worry more. That image has been lodged in her mind like sothing she cannot shake loose.
She falls into Liam’s arms and trembles, fighting to hold her tears back.
Maurice and Linus stand behind their wives and watch over them. Linus draws Claudia under his arm. She is already sniffling.
After a while, Linus clears his throat. Quietly.
But Liam hears it. He dips his head toward his mother and murmurs, "Mom. I’m alright. We are all alright. Let’s go ho. I’ve been discharged. I missed your cooking."
Miranda stops crying imdiately. She pulls back and looks up at him, eyes still wet but suddenly bright.
"You missed my cooking?"
Liam nods.
Linus takes the opening. "Let’s all go ho. Everyone needs proper rest. I have two Sentinels posted here to guard Arthur. They will contact us the mont there is any update."
He looks toward Theo. "Thea and Julian still need to recover fully. It has been a long day. We will co back tomorrow."
Everyone nods.
Everyone except Maeve. She hesitates. The hospital has cleared her for discharge, but she has nowhere to go. She could find a hotel. She knows that.
But...
Unexpectedly, Leila turns to her.
"Maeve, what about you? Have you been discharged as well?"
Maeve startles slightly.
"I’m — I’m..." She clears her throat. "Yes, Mrs. Montrose. I am free to go." She has t Leila before, but she cannot quite explain why she still feels uncertain around her.
"That is wonderful. Then you must co with us." Leila closes the distance between them and links her arm through Maeve’s as naturally as breathing. "Maurice and I are staying with the Monforts. They have been very kind about it. They have put us in the guest house, but honestly it is far too big for just the two of us. A little frightening, really." She laughs softly. "Stay with us. There is more than enough room."
Maeve blinks.
Then slowly nods.
------------------------------
Sonia, Elder Loujt, and the other two Vaelins step into Solarys General Hospital. Sonia’s steps slow noticeably. Her hesitation is written all over her.
"Ms. Dhaerith, are you alright?" Elder Loujt’s voice is soft but steady.
"Erm, yes. I am fine, erm... Loujt." She is not used to calling him by his na alone, but if they want to maintain their cover, she needs to sound natural about it.
Elder Loujt smiles at her awkwardness and says nothing about it.
"Glad to hear it, Ms. Dhaerith. Please, lead the way."
Sonia nods. Also awkwardly.
From the corner of her eye, she catches a group of people stepping out of the elevator. Her eyes go wide.
Liam Monfort.
Sonia instinctively drops her gaze and pulls her hood forward to cover her face. She turns to look the other way, hoping he will not recognize her.
Liam is deep in conversation with the people around him, relaxed and smiling. The complete opposite of the man she saw standing outside Theo’s door, staring at nothing.
Typical Monfort. How can he look this happy when a friend of his has died.
But Sonia keeps her face turned away. She does not quite understand, in that mont, why she is so reluctant to be recognized by him.
Then she hears a sharp intake of breath from Elder Loujt.
Sonia’s head snaps toward him and she freezes.
His expression has gone very grave. Sothing has clearly displeased him greatly.
Sonia’s stomach drops.
He sees Liam!
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