For half a second, nobody moves.Because the brain rejects impossible things before it accepts miracles.Then Fury swears, loud, raw, and broken.
“Holy shit...”
Steel is already crossing the yard at a near run.Savage moves next, fast but controlled, the kind of speed that saysdon’t scare it away, don’t fucking blink, don’t let reality realize we noticed.
Cherry pulls off her helmet.Her lip is split and one eye swollen, but her smile is intact.
“Well,” she says, voice rough but unmistakably Cherry, “you all look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
The yard explodes.Fury grabs her first, lifting her clean off the ground in a bone-crushing hug that earns a hissed curse from her.
“Jesus Christ, Fury ...ribs ...fuck!”
He doesn’t let go.
Steel pulls her into the chaos next, arms tight, forehead pressed to her hair like he’s grounding himself against something that nearly ripped a hole through the club.
Savage stops just short of her.Not hesitant but slightly overwhelmed.
Cherry looks at him, grin widening despite the damage.“Miss me, pres?”
Savage exhales like someone just restarted his heart.“Jesus fucking Christ, Cherry...”
Then he pulls her into his arms like she’s something he refuses to risk losing twice.I feel it ripple through the compound.Relief, shock, and something dangerously close to joy.
Men laugh, sharp and disbelieving.Prospects stare like they’re witnessing mythology instead of flesh and blood reality.Cherry finally pulls back, wincing slightly.
“You all done squeezing the life out of me?”
“No,” Fury says immediately, reaching for her again.
She laughs, hoarse but bright as she dodges him.“Figures.”
Savage’s hands slide to her face, eyes scanning every bruise like he’s cataloging sins to avenge.
“They had you for days...”
Cherry shrugs, actually shrugs.“Yeah.”
“And you’re standing here like it was a fucking inconvenience.”
“It was,” she replies.“I’ll have an ugly scar or two, but they didn’t break me.So, I need you to stop looking at me like they fucking did.”
Saint shakes his head slowly.“You are absolutely insane.”
Cherry grins.“Occupational hazard.”
My chest tightens unexpectedly.Not jealousy but recognition.This is what this club is built on.Not violence for the sake of being violent but survival.And the ones who come back.
The energy hasn’t even settled when the infirmary door slams open.Chains bursts out, face lit with something I’ve never seen on him before.
“Savage!”
Every head snaps toward him.Ghost.
Savage moves before Chains finishes speaking.Fury, Steel, Saint, the entire goddamn yard surges toward the infirmary like gravity reversed.
I’m already running.Inside, the air feels charged, electric, and unreal.Ghost is sitting up.Actually sitting up.Color back in his face, eyes clearer than they’ve been since he came in all bloody.Tubes gone.Monitors quiet.
