doesn’t it then?”
Her voice was confident, but her normal Celtic lilt had given way to a much heavier brogue, which wasn’t at all surprising. She had to be just as exhausted as the rest of us, probably more so, and that’s when her accent was at its thickest.
“I think they were talking about a little more time than an hour.”
“I’m a fast healer.”
“Uh-huh… Sure… You know, the last time this happened you checked yourself into a psych ward, or have you forgotten that?”
“The last time this happened I was scared.”
“You seemed pretty damn scared to me a little while ago.”
“I was,” she said with a curt nod. “But, now I’m not. Now I’m just pissed off.”
I knew she wasn’t just saying that for effect. She meant it. Any sense of fragility that had been coming from my wife in the past weeks was completely gone, replaced in total by a mix of anger and determination. This new emotion burned so brightly behind her eyes that it defied any description I could muster. In a very real sense, her present attitude frightened me almost as much as everything else that had happened.
“Look,” I said. “I’ll admit that you’re probably the strongest person I know, but you have limits. We all do. After everything that’s gone on in the past twenty-four hours, not to mention the past month, I find it really hard to believe that you’re suddenly okay.”
“Well, I am.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Is that so? Welcome to my world.”
“Come again?”
She stopped packing for a moment and gave me a serious stare. “Are you telling me this doesn’t sound at all familiar to you, then?”
“Should it?”
“Aye.” She nodded. “I’m not saying anything to you now that you haven’t said to me yourself time and again. For the record, I never believe you either.”
“That’s different.”
“How?”
“It just is.”
Her eyes flashed as she opened her mouth to fire off a retort; but before any words came out, she closed it again and simply stared at me. A few seconds later her expression softened, and she slowly sat down on the edge of the bed and sighed.
“We can’t keep having this argument, you know,” she told me.
I let out a heavy breath of my own. “Yeah… I guess we’ve covered this ground before, haven’t we?”
“We’ve worn it barren,” she replied with a flat huff.
“I guess we have… And, it doesn’t get us anywhere, does it?”
“Of course not. We’re both too stubborn.”
“Maybe so,” I agreed. “But, I still think you have me beat in that department.”
“Aye. It’s a family trait.”
“So I’ve noticed,” I said with a halfhearted grin. I paused then added, “I’m just worried about you, honey. This has gotten to be too much… For either of us.”
“I know you are,” she replied. “And, I understand why. I really do… And, you’re right… It has… I’m just ready for this to be done.”
“Me too… So, how do we make that happen?”
“To start with, we don’t run from it.”
“I’m not so sure I agree.”
She shook her head. “You’re only saying that because it’s me she’s after. If it were you then you’d be rushing headlong into it. I know you would. You’ve done it before.”
“I suppose I have,” I agreed. “But…”
“That’s different?” she interrupted.
“Yes, it is,” I said. “But, actually what I was going to say is, at least I was dealing with someone who lived in the same plane of existence as me. Miranda is another story entirely.”
“She is,” Felicity said with a nod. “But, I think Annalise is the answer to dealing with that.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” She blinked and shook her head.
“Then why do you…”
She spoke up before I could finish the question. “A feeling.”
“A feeling,” I repeated.
“Aye. Sound familiar?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“I thought it might.”
A soft knock came from behind me, so I put further comment on hold for the moment.
“Hey,” Ben said, a questioning look on his face as I swung open the door. “You two about ready?”
“Close,” I said. “Probably just a few more minutes.”
“‘Kay,” he replied. “Get a move on. We need ta’ go soon.”
“Ben?” Felicity spoke up.
“Yeah?”
“I really am sorry about your hand.”
He held up his bandaged paw and gave it a quick glance. As it turned out, the wound had initially looked far worse than it really was. Once cleaned up, it had only taken a bit of homegrown first aid in the form of antibiotic ointment, a gauze pad, and some tape.
“Yeah,” he grunted. “Remind me not ta’ really piss you off.”
“Aye, like that would work?”
“Yeah, right,” he replied. “Listen, Row, can I see ya’ out here for a minute?”
“Needing to talk about me behind my back, are you?” Felicity quipped before I could respond.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much the plan,” Ben returned, a joking tone in his voice. “Actually, I really just need ta’ verify some stuff.”
“Go ahead,” Felicity said, looking up at me. “I’ll finish up here.”
“Okay,” I told her. “I’ll be right back.”
My wife stood up and returned to her prior task as I left the bedroom, swinging the door shut behind me. I followed Ben out to the living room where Constance was waiting for us, a concerned look creasing her features.
“So, how is Felicity doing?” she asked. “Honestly.”
“She says she’s fine,” I told her.
“Do you believe that?”
“For the time being, I think so,” I replied with as much confidence as I could muster, given that I wasn’t entirely sure if I believed my own words. “The real truth is, she’s had enough. We both have.”
“What about her episode? Do you think it will happen again?”
I shook my head. “Hard to say. I thought she would be safe from that sort of thing here, but obviously I was wrong. The salt water helped. The Lwa seems to have a fear of it, which is good. So, we’re going to try it as a preventive as well.”
“I called Helen, Row,” Ben interjected. “We can move Firehair back to the hospital instead of the safe house if ya’ want.”
“I’m not going to do that to her,” I replied, shaking my head. “And, I think you’d be hard pressed to get her to agree to it. You’d probably have to arrest her.”
“I already told you full blown protective custody had been seriously considered and was always an option,” Constance chimed in. “And, I’ll be honest, after what happened I’m still not ruling it out.”
“That won’t fix the problem,” I objected with another quick shake of my head.
