“He’s waiting at the med ward,” Gabriel reports while wrapping my hand and I blink at him.
“Gabriel,” I blink through a new wave of dizziness, “I almost missed you.”
He snorts, “When you regain your senses, I'm going to tell you you said that.”
“… I had a dream once that you were nice to me. This must be another one?”
“… I'll start arranging the funeral.”
“He’s not dead yet,” Xavier snaps again, “Wrap him up properly until we get there.”
“Get the doctor for him too,” I mumble. “Olsen.”
The three of them almost trip over their feet to stare at me.
“You’re joking.” They say in tandem.
I huff. “He has kids.”
There’s another pause, but my eyelids are too heavy to stay open; I can't see what expressions they're making now.
“Bastard fucking lied to my face,” I can feel myself drifting off as I mumble. “Shit person but still a decent father. That doesn’t even make any fucking sense.”
The world goes black, but even as pain throbs across my body…
I can feel the warmth of the three of them close by.
And suddenly, the memory of cold nights and damp wet fur from pouring rain… feels like the lingering echoes of a nightmare that happened a long time ago.
Phantom
“You—You are—”
I’m sure my smile doesn’t reach my eyes but I try anyway, “Pleased to meet you, Miss Ambrose.” I hold a hand out to her but I already know she won’t take it.
Since the incident, she has been careful not to let anyone touch her.
I can guess why… but I need to confirm for myself.
As expected, my hand hovers in the air and she watches it warily before turning her gaze away, pretending not to see it. “It is rare to see a man like yourself in the shopping district. How can I help you, Mr. Antonovna?”
To recognize me immediately is surely impressive in and of itself. But that makes this ten times easier for me.
“I know you must still be recovering from the shock of the heist,” I retract my hand to put it back into my pocket, “but in that, at least, we have something in common. I’m not sure if you know, but I lost my brother on the Millenium Star that night.”
The visible tension in her shoulders tells me she’s a very bad liar before she’s even begun.
“But they say he was found far away from the commotion,” I continue. “The lowest levels of the ship. One would think that is where he’d be safest.”
Her mouth has set into a firm line and her face has paled. Honestly speaking, it’s a wonder how she passed the police investigation.
“Might you know what it was he was doing down there?”
I have to fight to keep the smile off my face when she stiffens.
“How would I know what he was doing there?” Her reply is practiced. I can’t help but wonder who taught it to her. “I lost sight of a lot of people when the chaos broke out.”
“Oh. When he spoke of you I thought you both were in a more,” I’m still fighting to stop the smirk from breaking out onto my face, “intimaterelationship.”
