She chuckled. “Well, let me know where you land, Juliet. I’ll come visit.”
Isaac survived the battle at headquarters and joined Lucas’s assassination mission as planned. When he visited us a couple of days after the press conference, he’d given me a stiff hug.
“Where’s Dev?” I asked.
Isaac swallowed. “He, uh… He didn’t make it. That grenade got him.”
The familiar darkness spilled into my heart, that ache of loss. My throat grew thick. “No.”
Isaac’s eyes went bright. “He was pushing me out of the way, and he just?—”
I hugged him again, my chest tight. “He saved you.”
He said little else, and when he left, Lucas held me while I cried.
“Do you really think it’s over?” I asked once the tears dried up. “It’s so hard for me to believe.”
“It’s over, Sophia,” he said and kissed my temple. “Never again, okay?”
I nodded. “Even though it seems impossible, I’m choosing to believe you.”
He chuckled. “It’s about fucking time.”
A few weeks after Isaac’s visit, Adam had finally healed enough to fly from Canada. He stayed in the guest room of the apartment Williams had granted us in DC, but left after only a few weeks to help subdue the NAO riots in Baltimore.
“Stay safe,” I said, gripping him tight before he shipped out.
“I always do.”
When I released him, Adam turned to Lucas and offered a handshake. “It’s been a wild ride with you, man.”
Lucas gripped his hand, the hate brands freshly covered by a sleeve of ink. “Let’s not do it again.”
Adam’s friendly smile creased the skin around his eyes. “Take care of yourselves. I’ll see you soon.”
He closed the door behind him, and another silly urge to cry washed over me. When would my emotions settle? It seemed they sat right at the surface, begging for release.
Lucas took one look at my face and pulled me into a hug. “He’ll come back,” he said.
Would the fear of loss ever truly leave me? Was this my new normal?
But it occurred to me as I settled into his familiar embrace that with the country in some state of normalcy, I didn’t have to suffer in the dark anymore. I finally had options. Therapy. Counseling. Medications.
Those things had existed at one point, and they would again.
More than that, I had my autonomy back. I could choose how to address my mental health, when to see a doctor. Hell, I could choose to go outside in shorts and a tank top without worrying some soldier would lay eyes on me and think,Mine.
I was now an equal member of society again, and maybe, with some effort, with somehelp, I might have a chance at healing these deep wounds I’d thought were fatal.
While we waitedfor the clearance to move, Lucas and I debated where we’d go. Eventually, we settled on the wilds of the Pacific Northwest. We’d find something secluded. Something quiet.
Something safe.
After over six months of playing mascot to the Prime Delegate, she cleared us for travel. “But you can’t leave the country,” she said during an official visit to our borrowed apartment. “We may still need you.”
Lucas’s glare would have made most melt in fear, but not Williams.
“You can hate me as much as you want, Mister Scott,” Williams replied, “but you are both civil servants, and if you’re needed to help me keep the peace, you will do it with a smile.” She turned for the door, leaving Theo to wince in apology.
