It feels like a piece of him died on that island.
In the water.
In the fire.
He holds Jules tight.
?
Everything about the helicopter journey is a blur.
Lachlan loses time without ever closing his eyes.
They arrive back at the Estate by night.
He hears people around him talking but he can’t process any of it.There’s information he should be retaining but it’s all just indecipherable noise.Carrigan on the radio speaking to her Navy contacts.Madeline screaming at Alistair before they parted ways after the jet landed.People keep saying it was theMoroz Front,that they did this.
Lachlan can’t retain any of it, let alone react to it.He’s dead on his feet, a bloody wreck with smoke clinging to his hair and skin, but despite everything, his heart swells to see home when they finally land at the Estate.
Safe, solid and impenetrable.
He made it that way.
Mimi is inside the Estate, but he can’t see her right now.
He needs to shower.
Be debriefed.
Take care of Jules.
The first two he only knows because Danya told him.
The latter is branded into him always.
The Estate medical team is waiting to take Savannah straight into theatre.She’s whisked away on a gurney before Lachlan could get close enough to see if she even survived the journey, but he thinks by the way they attach a mask to her face that she did.
Alistair vanishes.
Lachlan doesn’t carewhere to.
And then they’re in the showers and Lachlan doesn’t remember walking here.These are the South Wing showers, part of the spa.He’s never used them before.Jules is there too.
‘Shower,’ he says, nodding to himself.‘Yeah, good idea.’
‘Do you need help?’Jules asks.
‘No, do you?’
‘No.’
The pair are quiet after that.
The water pours, steamy and soothing.The soap smells good.
Lachlan lets hot water pool in his mouth before swallowing it.
He scrubs hard and washes his hair twice and then leans two hands against the tile as this simple act of caring for himself brings up a sore, sinister spiral of unexpected grief that Roman doesn’t get to wash the dirt of the island away, doesn’t get to wash his hair, or dry off with a clean towel, or dress in different clothes than the ones he died in.
