CHANGING

Hypothetically, wouldn’t be the violation of the doctor’s oath keeping my mouth shut if you know what I mean. You know me, always airing on the side of caution. 

If they establish a line of communication, I’ll personally badger them until they find out. Hugo’s a lot stronger than we give him credit for in spite of his anxieties, Fi. He learned that from you.

You don’t air on the side of caution sometimes, Madyson, and that’s what worries me.

Pandora wondered if there would be a house to even come home to when she was reunited with Derek and Katie or if they would need to start over from a new foundation. That could’ve been their chance of escaping St. Cascadia forever, but there were too many variables keeping her and Derek where they lived. His job, her connection to Benji, maybe it was a fantasy wanting to take her boyfriend with them. “Uncertainty grips us all.” Pan pressed her lips together, nodding once, “I know someone from my faction who’s a doctor. The first chance my cell service comes back, I’ll pick her brain to see if she knows where your father is. It doesn’t hurt if I asked about Hugo too.”

Fiora nodded at the girl, grateful that she was able to meet up with someone with a connection to the hospital. Uncertainty grips us all, and it was the truth– she never knew that there’d be a time where she was on her own, waiting to hear of news about survivors of the catastrophe. She’d always had her family, at least her brother in some capacity– Fiora needed him just as much as he needed her, and his absence was noted in every second that ticked by. “Thank you,” Fiora managed to say with a small smile and she wished she could offer something to the girl so she really understood how thankful she was. Her family was everything. “Should we look around and see if we can find Derek and Katie?”

Pandora nodded continuously, ensuring herself that Katie wasn’t roaming around alone and safe with her father. “They’re the only family that really matters.” She tugged at the sleeves of her jacket, wiping a small dust of dirt that collected along the front, “That’s the scary thing about the word if. Too many uncertainties.” Pandora’s gaze shifted, “Were you looking for anyone? Maybe we’ll find them in our search.”

Fiora smiled gently at the girl. She knew that Derek was a hard person to get close to from personal experience and through her conversations with Madyson; she knew that Derek and Katie needed as much family in the girl as the girl needed in them. “There’s always uncertainties,” Fiora said quietly before nodding, “my brother Hugo and our father. I was on the way to see our father when everything happened, I’m just hoping that he was evacuated with the rest of the hospital staff and patients.”

Even if I was, I couldn’t disclose that fact. I’ve hit my daily danger quota recently anyway.

Did you want to try asking someone if they know what zone he landed in? I’m sure there’s a list.

You don’t have to tell me, I know how all that works with you, but I just hope you’re being safe.

Katie, shit, I hope she’s with him. Thank you, if anything happened to either of them, I might lose my fucking mind.

I’m sure he has her, he wouldn’t have left her behind at all.

Those assassins aren’t completely fearless, Fi. I just want to go home to Stella, I got into contact with her babysitter and they’re both fine.

You holding out on me and have one of them on your patient list?

Even I can admit that I’m…I’m a little scared right now.

I’m trying. I need…

Derek. Detective Monaghan. I need to find him.

Yeah... I know him– I used to take care of his daughter. I don’t think he’s here, but I can help you look?

Shit, shit, shit, fuck. This can’t be happening.

Hey, hey– breathe with me. In and out.

Sorry…

Oh, don’t apologize– try not to move too much, you look really banged up.

If I couldn’t lie to you when we were children, there is no way in hell I would accomplish that now. We know the other too much.

Exhausted, hungry, but managing. I so cannot wait until I’m able to sip my wine again after a long day’s work.

You know, that could sound like a thinly veiled threat to anyone listening in. You know too much.

You never are, Fifi. Of course, I could make an effort to sneak past my symptoms around you, but I know it’s a failed attempt. You see through it and it leaves me disheartened.

I’m glad you remember that. You know in reality we see through each other– it’s not a one way street with us.

Hugo picked up the stack and leafed through a few of the pages, reading over files of children under his sister’s care and wondering how many were now either leaving Davenport or part of a different faction. Who lived where would be easy enough to sort the children that could no longer stick around, so that’s where he began. “We’re the select few that went against the grain and didn’t pack our bags the first sign of deserting. The little friends I had jumped the fence already.” He separated everything in two even piles as Fi instructed, who stayed and who went. “You can’t run a day care without kids, Fiora. If it reaches a point, you might need to consider closing the doors temporarily.”

Her eyes flicked towards her brother, a frown marring her face as she thought. There were so many pros and cons weighing in her head about leaving that it was a struggle to keep them straight. In leaving, they’d have to move their father, lose their house, lose what little friends they... well, she had left. With the staying, she’d most likely have to close her business down, fall even further in debt, and stay in a faction that was crumbling and could potentially get worse– not to mention her brother was slowly losing people he was close to. “You know... we could leave, Hewie, we just need to think of the logistics for it,” Fiora said quietly, as she finished leafing through her stack, holding a measly few that were actually staying in Davenport. This wouldn’t be enough with the cost to run the place– she’d have to raise the prices. “If we stay I... I don’t know what I would do without it. We’re barely paying off the creditors as it is.”

I’m not going to further incriminate myself and say you aren’t technically wrong. Don’t tell me you would break the friend code and spill my secrets, how appalling. 

I know I’m not wrong, Del. I’m not going to right now, but the minute that I think you’re pushing yourself too far, I am. I have her on speed dial.

Right. The band. I just never expected the Fiora Diaz to know who I am.

That, is another thing that wasn’t here before. I feel like I’ve joined the cast of Gossip Girl.

Not just the band, Tommy. You’ve only been gone two years and you’re not as forgettable as you think you are, at least not to me.

I have a select pool of patients who don’t sit still for me to grab a stool and also I’m very stubborn. What Doc Huxley doesn’t know won’t hurt her necessarily.

Sure, sure, it’s more of the second part than it is the first part and you know it. You forget who accompanies you to your doctors visits.