Julian fills the doorframe behind her, Ryan beside him, Elena and Penelope crowding in after. They spill into the small room with the particular energy of people who have been holding something back for weeks and are finally allowed to put it down.
"He lives," Julian announces.
Cody's whole face changes.
I watch it happen — the genuine surprise, the relief, the way his eyes move across all of them like he's counting. Making sure they're real. I slide off the edge of the bed and step back to give them space. Penelope immediately fills the gap, leaning in to hug him carefully, then Elena, then Ryan, who grabs his hand and holds it for a second without saying anything, which is the most Ryan thing possible.
Julian is last.
He crosses the room and looks down at Cody for a moment, jaw working, and then he leans in and hugs him — not carefully, notwith the mindful gentleness everyone else used. Just fully. Like, he's angry about how close it was, and this is the only way to say it.
"Don't do that again," Julian says.
"Everyone keeps saying that," Cody says into his shoulder.
When Julian straightens, he turns and finds me standing slightly apart from the group, and something moves across his face. The last time we were in a parking lot together, I asked him if he put Cody in the hospital. I said the words out loud and watched them land on him. I have been carrying that ever since.
He opens his arms.
I step into them without hesitating.
His hug is brief and tight, and when he pulls back, he keeps his hands on my shoulders and looks at me with those easy Julian eyes that have never once in his life held a grudge. "Water under the bridge," he says quietly.
The relief that moves through me is so complete it almost takes my legs out. "I'm sorry," I say.
"Don't be." He squeezes my shoulders once. "You were scared. I get it."
He lets me go and turns back to the room, and just like that, it's over. I stand there for a second, feeling something loosen in my chest that has been wound tight for weeks. I hadn't realized how much I needed that until now.
The room settles into something warmer. Cody holds court from his pillows, asking questions, laughing at things Julian says, looking more like himself than he has since I walked in. Color in his face. The particular aliveness that comes from being surrounded by people who are genuinely glad you exist.
I lean against the wall near the window and watch him.
This is what he's good at. This easy warmth, this gathering of people around him like planets finding orbit. I fell into that orbit two years ago and called it gravity. Called it love. Called it the best thing that had ever happened to me.
I watch his face while he laughs at something Ryan says, and I think he is so good at this. He is so genuinely, effortlessly good at making people feel like the most important thing in the room.
I wonder if he practices or if it just comes naturally.
I wonder which one is worse.
"Adela," Penelope says suddenly, gesturing at me with her coffee cup. "I haven’t seen you in so long. It’s been way too long. How is UW treating you? Is it better than Puget Sound?"
The room shifts.
Cody’s eyes find mine.
"What does that mean?" he asks. His voice is perfectly calibrated. Curious. Light.
Penelope's smile flickers. She looks at me, reading something in my face, and I watch the realization move across hers in real time. Her mouth opens slightly. "I — sorry, I thought—"
"She transferred," Julian says.
The room goes quiet.
Cody looks at me. His expression hasn't changed, and that's the thing about it — it hasn't changed at all. No surprise, no warmth, no flicker of any readable emotion. Just his eyes on mine, steady and dark and waiting.
In the doorway, Judge Ravenshaw goes very still.
