chapter twenty-two

I'm discharged from the hospital at around seven a.m. A different nurse than before bullies me into a wheelchair and wheels me down to the front entrance of the hospital as per their policy. Max has to help pull me to my feet. My various bruises make themselves known once my legs start to support my body weight, but I bite my way through the pain. Max slings one of my arms over his shoulders despite my embarrassed protests and we hobble our way across the parking lot to a waiting car that was sent by the League. The ride back to New York is going to be long, especially with the checkpoints that have been put in place, which is fine with me. I just want to relax and not think about anything for a little while.

I settle into the backseat beside Max and try to get comfortable. It's a worthless effort, though, because I have to shift around to present my League ID every time we encounter a checkpoint. We finally cross through the last checkpoint and leave D.C after about an hour. The security and safety precautions are kind of annoying, but it makes sense for everyone to be safe rather than sorry.

"Can you drop me at my brother's apartment, actually?" I ask the drive on a whim, slowly reading off the address so he can input it into his GPS when he agrees. Max merely raises his eyebrows when I look over at him.

"My head's a mess right now," I mutter to him. "I just wanna see him."

He studies my face for a moment before nodding in agreement.

I slip towards a less serious form of consciousness, sliding down in my seat. I unbuckle my seat belt and the driver thankfully doesn't say anything about it.

"Alright, come here," Max orders. "Lay down and sleep before you pass out and hit your head again." It takes a second for my foggy brain to process his words. I lean over, resting my head on his thigh and curling my legs up onto the seat. I pass out completely for the rest of the car ride.

Max shakes me awake an unknown period of time later. I recognize the street we're parked on, though, because it's where the old apartment I shared with Derek is.

"You can go back to the tower," I tell Max, sitting up a little faster than I probably should have and opening the passenger door. "I'll be back later tonight, okay?"

"Yeah, kiddo, I'll see ya," he agrees. I climb carefully out onto the street and shut the car door behind me.

The car waits until I'm halfway up the front steps to the apartment to actually pull away. I take a second to stand still and just breathe once I'm alone. I don't have my phone on me since I was afraid I'd lose it somehow in D.C., which was a good call considering it probably would've been destroyed if I brought it along.

I make my way up to Derek's floor, pausing for a second to collect myself again before actually knocking. There's some scuffling until I hear a female voice say they're coming to the door. Alexandra. Right. This really isn't the best state to meet her in. First impressions are everything, after all.

Oh well. Too late to turn back now.

The door opens and the petite blonde woman standing in the doorway literally gasps in surprise.

"Derek!" she exclaims. "It's for you!" I snort out a laugh at her response which makes a smile bloom across her face. Derek appears from behind her without a shirt on and his blue eyes widen comically at the sight of me.

"Jesus fuck, Lake, what the hell happened to you?"

I sigh tiredly.

"Mom."

His face contorts in a way that looks almost painful before he's grabbing my unbroken arm and dragging me into the apartment. Alexandra shuts the door and locks it behind us. Derek leads me to the worn red couch that came with us from the old house we lived in with mom and dad and sits me down.

"This is about the assembly in D.C, right? They chose you as a rep?"

"Yeah," I reply, nodding as I settle as carefully as I can onto the uncomfortable couch. "It was all going well. Then she blipped into reality from behind Scofield and stabbed him through the chest. She's gained a large following, too. I'm still waiting for the final death tally to be released."

"So mom did...this?" he asks, looking me up and down.

"Yeah. I think one of her goons broke my fingers, though."

Alexandra sits down on the newer armchair we bought when we initially moved into the apartment, watching us with concerned eyes. It doesn't look like she expected Derek's little brother to be a League agent for a living.

"Did they get her?"

"No. She started going on about Ashton so I kept spitting blood into her face. I almost got to choke her out, too, but Max dragged me away," I explain before shrugging slightly and looking away, "it was probably for the best though."

"Who's Ashton?" Alexandra finally pipes up, looking from Derek to me and back.

"Our mom's brother," I clarify. "He abused the fuck out of me when we were kids."

"Oh," she says quietly, suddenly just as subdued as before.

"Don't worry about it," I reassure her, offering a slightly forced smile. "He's dead."

"So your mom did this?" she asks, glancing between Derek and I once again.

"Yeah."

"And you guys seem really...casual about this..." she trails off.

I exchange a look with Derek.

"It was like this a lot when we were kids," Derek says gently. "Like. A lot, actually." The horrified expression that crosses her face is unfortunately what I expected. Basically everything about Derek and I's family doesn't tend to go over well with normal people who had typical childhoods.

I watch the silent conversation taking place between the couple and realize with a start that I've started something that Derek has yet to bring up without knowing. Derek and I come off as completely normal people until we start delving into the past. Sometimes we both mention things in passing that are typical to us and horrifying to others without realizing it. It's obvious by the look on his counterpart's face that the topic of how horrible our parents were to us hasn't come up yet. He probably decided to keep quiet about it for now like I have. Things have the tendency to slip through the cracks when I'm talking to Rowan but he definitely doesn't have a full or even partial picture yet. He may never know the whole story. There's a lot of hurt that has followed me around for as long as I can remember. I'm not sure if I'm willing to place any of that hurt on him.

"I just...wanted to stop in. Make sure you're okay. If you're feeling even a little worried or uneasy, call me. If I don't answer, call the tower. I'll text you the number," I say after a lapse of silence.

"You think she'll come after me?"

"No. She hates me because I became a League agent and because I'm gay. You'd be her favorite if she liked either of us. I just wanted to cover all my bases," I reply. Dropping in without notice is unlike me so I can understand Derek's concern. I mostly just wanted to see him, but I'm not going to admit that right now. He'll know something is wrong if I did.

"I'm gonna go. I'll text you later," I tell him.

Alexandra half-heartedly insists that I stay the night, but her face says that they have a lot to talk about. I feel bad exposing this part of Derek's life to her before he seemed ready to, but maybe this is the push he needed. Stubbornness is a Ford family trait.

I take the train back to the tower. Max took my bloody uniform after they cut it off of me in the ER, so I'm luckily already in street clothes. I'm half asleep the entire ride and excited to collapse into bed once the tower comes into view.

I take a gaze up at the sky as I walk. Stars are dotted here and there among the black expanse, dimmed from the light pollution of the city that never sleeps. I've always loved star gazing and constellation searching. I may not be as enthralled as Cally is, but it's an interest nonetheless.

Agent Moon meets me right at the front door after I climb the steps. He's never done that before so this must be part of the new security protocols going on within all the League teams.

"Good evening, Agent Ford," he greets with a friendly smile. "ID."

I fumble around in the pockets of my jeans before producing it and hand it over. Moon swipes me in on a card swipe that's always been on the wall by the door. I've always swiped myself in by the elevator, but I suppose you can never be too careful these days. Christin may be able to teleport wherever the hell she wants, but anyone who enters the tower without an ID on their person sets off the security alarms and locks the entire building down. She can come if she wants, but we'll know the second she's here.

"Agent Rivera has been losing his mind since Max got back without you," he informs me as I make my way to the elevator.

"I'm sure he has," I say with a chuckle. "Had some stuff to take care of first."

"Lake," he says suddenly, and I stop to look back at him with an eyebrow raised in question. "There are very few who remember Christin Blackwell's face well enough to recognize her children, and from those of us who do, I just want you to know that we won't say a word." Nobody in the League knows my mother had children, but I understand exactly what he's saying. Dad always used to say that I have my mother's features: the blue eyes, blond hair, and oval-shaped face.

I appear to have severely underestimated Julien Moon.

"Thank you," I say, lips pulled into a crooked smile.

He nods, turning away to head back to the front desk. I press the up button for the elevator and step on, heading up to the common floor.

Rowan is on me the second the elevator dings and the doors slide open. He looks more worried than I've ever seen him before, so my immediate instinct is to pull him into a tight hug. He holds on as if I'll crumble into dust if he lets go.

"I was so fucking worried, you asshole," he mutters into my ear. "We watched it on the news. They had every fucking police car in D.C. on the street of the assembly building. Nobody knew if you two were alive or not. If we weren't Bonded and I couldn't feel you, I don't know what I would have done."

"I'm sorry," I whisper back. "We didn't bring our phones and they kept me overnight in the hospital."

"Max told us you were hurt, but he didn't know all of the injuries," he says, finally releasing his grip and letting me go. His face is set in a grim expression but his golden eyes are glowing slightly, a trait exclusive to element benders. My eyes have never done the same, but that's just how it is for some people.

"What's the damage?" he asks with a minute tightening of the jaw.

"It's not that bad, Row," I mutter, looking down towards the floor.

"Lake."

"Well, obviously the broken bones. I have a concussion. Some stitches. Some...internal bleeding that should resolve itself in a couple of days or so."

"Oh jeez, Lake," he says with a sigh, running barely there fingertips down both my arms. I only really feel it on the right arm because of the cast on my left, but the action is still soothing and sweet. "The rest of the team is up on the conference floor calibrating the Armadillo Protocol. They're really excited to see you, baby."

My shoulders slump as I raise my head to look up at him. I'm really not in the mood to deal with people right now. Rowan is just about all I can tolerate. Maybe Bella, too, but that's about it.

"Can I just sleep?" I say instead of doing the professional thing and agreeing to join my teammates. "I just wanna sleep."

His expression changes, eyes narrowing as he studies me more seriously.

"Are you okay?" he says quietly, carefully curling his hands around mine so he doesn't disturb the splints on my fingers.

There's a long silence during which I can't find any words. I don't know what's wrong with me. My thought process has been shorting out since I got my brain rattled around my skull by my mother and her new friends.

"I don't know," I mutter. "Just wanna sleep, Row. You can come, if you want."

"Yeah, okay," he agrees after a pause. "I already put Bella down for the night."

We consider going up to my suite, but decide that it'll be easier to just go to his room on this floor. He still has yet to move him and Bella into the suite Max designated as theirs the moment Rowan came back from the entrance exam.

We pass by Bella's room on the way down the hallway and peek inside to check on her. The little girl is fast asleep and curled around the stuffed puppy that she has appropriately named "Puppy." Rowan shuts the door quietly, smiling as we make our way past her bedroom to his.

Rowan's bed is as soft as it always is. It smells like him, too, which is great for when I shove my face into the blankets and curl myself into them. I turn over to face him when he joins me under the covers.

"You know I love you, right?" he says quietly in a rare, tender voice that I don't hear him use often. It's a tone of voice he has reserved for only me and occasionally Bella. His words manage to pry a smile out of me. As small as it may be, it's the most normal I've felt in the past two days.

"Of course," I say with a nod. "I love you, too. So much."

He drags me forward and I go along willingly albeit clumsily with all of the casts and splints. I sleep the best when he's around, so I don't even try to fight it. Sleep is all I really want to do right now.

/-/-/

I sleep through the night and into the morning. Rowan gets up early to drop Bella off at school but I decline the offer to come along. The doctor I had in D.C., one of the many I've had in the past year or so, said to take it easy. I remember how it was when I didn't listen to my previous doctor's instructions after getting shot, and I definitely don't want a repeat of that. I also may be giving into the fog that's taken over my head for a little while. There will come a time very soon, probably later today, when I'm going to have to act like a professional adult and do my damn job. For now, though, I'm just going to relax and not worry about anything at all.

My cell phone buzzes with a phone call on the bedside table a little while after Rowan leaves. I pick up the call only when I see Atlas's name on the screen.

"Hey, Wilson," I say upon answering.

"Lake! Jesus, have you seen the news lately?" he replies, nearly shouting into the phone. "Your mom's dead, Lake! But apparently not, right? What the hell is going on?"

I sigh quietly. This problem is much more public than I first thought. I run a harsh hand through my hair before giving Atlas the basic rundown of everything that is going incredibly wrong in my life right now.

"She did what?" Atlas seethes once I get to the part about her beating the shit out of me.

"Yeah," is all I'm able to say in response. "Listen, Atlas, I really wanna drop by in person sometime to see you guys. I'm sure the old lady misses me." I haven't seen Maggie since Atlas and I moved out of our dorm room. It really wasn't that long ago but so much has happened between then and now that it feels like it's been an eternity.

"You better," Atlas agrees. "Text me every once in a while so I know if you're alive or not, okay?"

I agree and we hang up. I put my phone on Rowan's bedside table and I curl back up in the blankets until the bedroom door opens. Rowan comes in and lays down beside me even though he's wearing jeans. I roll over and kiss him softly on the lips in greeting.

"I'm so happy I could get her into that school, you know," Rowan says with a content sigh. "She loves it there."

"She's a really bright kid," I agree.

"Definitely brighter than I was at her age."

Rowan and I spend some time relaxing for the next few hours. I always feel like we're missing out on time together. Every time things seem to have settled down, the plot somehow thickens and I usually find myself back in the hospital for some ridiculous reason. Maybe things will truly quiet down after Christin is taken care of.

Rowan and I are edging towards some more R-rated activities when a sudden idea strikes me.

"Wait," I say suddenly. He stops as I expected him to, dick in his mouth and all. He looks up at me, half concerned and half like I've lost my mind.

"Yeah? What's the matter?"

"I just had an idea," I reply. He sits back a bit and props himself up on an elbow, clearly unimpressed.

"Yeah?" he says blandly. "Here I am trying to blow you, so it must be damn important."

I smile mischievously before bopping him innocently on the nose.

"Christin has a brother," I say slowly.

His gold eyes darken to a near brown.

"Yeah, I know," he says lowly. "That sick fuck."

"No, no, she has another one. Estranged for some reason. Maybe he knows something about her that we don't."

"Such as...?"

"Like about her powers. There's gotta be a weakness. Every power has one," I reply, smiling triumphantly. "I can go see him tomorrow. Grill him about how to haul her ass in."

He smiles a bit exasperatedly, but agrees.

"We can go tomorrow. If you want me to go with you, I mean," he offers.

"That'd be good," I say, nodding slowly. "He could very well be a murderer."

"It's decided, then," he says, moving back towards me. "Now, can I keep going or..."

I throw my head back against the pillow with a loud laugh before urging him on. What an absolute dork.