I glance out the window, surprised to see it’s light, and I check my watch. It’s almost ten.
“I’ll make a Starbucks run,” Jinx offers.
“I knew you had to be useful for something.” Sailor smiles at him. “I’ll have the biggest caramel macchiato you can find.”
Jinx gives her a salute and heads out.
“We have to get that second Soul Gem and fast,” Sailor says. “Nexus, can you take Mel and Ya-Ya and try to find out how we can get down there safely please?”
Nexus nods and opens a portal, which the three of them step through.
“What about the rest of us?” I ask.
I’m vaguely aware I should be the one making these decisions, but Sailor seems to have a plan of action all worked out, and if she has everything covered, then who am I to stand in her way? She’s the one who experienced whatever the hell that was, not me, and that gives her a bit of slack to make a decision or two in my mind.
“Can you and Aziza nip down to the diner and grab me some breakfast? And make sure my dad goes to work. He’s due to start at eleven. He’ll want to stay here, but not only is it not necessary, it’ll just slow us down.”
“I want to stay with you,” I say. “Sunday can go with Aziza.”
Sailor shakes her head firmly and squeezes my hand.
“I appreciate that, but I need Sunday here right now. I want to go through what we saw with him. There’s stuff I can’t explain, and if he knows about it, it’ll make it much easier to explain it to you guys. Is that okay?”
I nod reluctantly. I guess it makes sense.
“If you need anything at all, call me,” I say.
Sailor nods.
“Right now, I need a bacon sandwich.” She grins.
I can’t help but laugh. It’s good to know that almost dying has done nothing to damage her appetite at least.
Sunday sits down on the edge of Sailor’s bed as Aziza and I head out. I catch a couple of Sailor’s words as the door closes, but I must be mistaken. She couldn’t have said what I thought she said. Because I thought she said she was seeing my family.
CHAPTER SIX: FAMILY SECRETS
Aziza and I walk back into Sailor’s hospital room. Jinx is already back and she’s sipping her large coffee. Her stomach rumbles as she smells the sandwich I’m carrying and I can’t help but laugh. I hand her the sandwich, and she tears into it like she hasn’t eaten for days.
“Oh my God, that’s so good,” she says around a big bite.
She takes another bite and washes it down with the coffee.
“So, did you and Sunday manage to make sense of everything?” I ask.
“To some extent,” Sunday replies. “There are still things we don’t really understand, but the dreams aren’t a threat. They’re the result of the first Soul Gem. The Gem is basically teaching Sailor all of the Avo history I tried and failed to teach her.”
“It wasn’t you who failed, Sunday.” Sailor smiles. “I’m not a great student at the best of times, and history was never my strong point.”
Sunday shrugs.
“Whatever. So do you want to start at the beginning?”
“Aren’t we going to wait for the others?” Sailor asks.
I shake my head. I need to know what’s going on with her.
“No. You can tell them later,” I say.
I see her face change and I frown.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her.
“I don’t want to go through it all again, Rye. This is bad enough to have to go through it now.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think,” I say. “I’ll get them back here.”
I send Nexus a message asking her to come back with the others. While we wait, Jinx winds Sailor up about her saying he was the hottest member of the team. Unfazed, she laughs along with him.
“You do realize that people who are doped up see the weirdest things, right Jinx?” She grins.
“I’m hurt. I really thought you were seeing the truth,” he pouts.
“I was,” she says, smiling in my direction.
I return her smile as Jinx makes fake retching sounds. Sailor rolls her eyes at his theatrics. She turns to me.
“Did you and Aziza convince my dad he has to go to work?” she asks.
I nod my head as a portal opens and Nexus, Mel, and Ya-Ya step into the room.
“I’ll tell you everything after this,” I say.
Mel goes to the corner of the room and drags a stack of chairs over. When everyone is seated, Sailor looks around at us all.
“I’ll start with what I saw before Sunday came to me,” she says.
She looks at me with a strange look, one I can’t quite read.
“I was in a room and a woman walked in. I didn’t recognize the room and I didn’t recognize the woman, but she told me she was your mom, Rye. She asked me to tell you she loves you and that she misses you and that she’s extremely proud of you,” Sailor says.
Now I know what the strange look was about. I smile at her, a pained smile. I want to thank her but I don’t trust myself to speak. Aziza reaches out and squeezes my shoulder and Sailor carries on.
“She said that she knew you loved me and that I just had to be patient.” Sailor smiles.
“She clearly hasn’t done her research on you then if she thought there was any chance of you being patient.” I laugh, finding my voice.
“Hey.” Sailor laughs. “That’s not fair. I can be patient when I want to be.”
“She just doesn’t want to be very often,” Aziza adds with a laugh.
Sailor shrugs.
“Yeah. I can’t really argue with that one,” she says.
She pauses for a moment and then she goes on.
“The conversation with your mom was the only bit that I could really make sense of. The rest of it was like broken fragments, flashes
