#hopeclaimed

“Pete.”

All hesitation to hold him in her arms went out the window as soon as the tears flowed more freely for him. Her breath shook at how heartbreaking it was to see and hear the toll of his selfless actions. It was an injustice on his part to be punished like this.

“It’s okay. Really. I’m here now. We’ll figure this out. You’re not alone anymore. If a spell can’t keep me from remembering you, wild sorcerers definitely couldn’t drag me away now.”

The eastern part of the hospital wing was still in good condition, using one of the offices for temporary living, after her apartment took a heavy hit from the floods. Dinah was keeping busy, finding sleep a bit harder to come by, moving patient files to her office. At least, what could be salvaged, so hearing strange noises in a place that had ill history wasn’t uncommon. Lately, rats had been invading - but this was no rat.

Out of the corner of her eye, she knew the shadow that was moving. “I haven’t really been able to collect anything that could be of use to you...” Her voice trailed off, sensing that this wasn’t like the times he came and went. “Is everything okay?” The answer was most likely no, but did he even have that luxury?

PLOT: Post recovery efforts in Gotham after the flood which becomes more complex when the Arkham breakout came soon after.

Crazy. That word held a lot of weight. Bella had been asking herself the same question since the day Edward left. It’s how she felt inside. Crazy, numb, reckless, devoid of any emotion other than sadness. A part of her was gone. She shook her head to try and drown out Jacob’s empty words, not believing them for a second. No one was trustworthy. They would all leave her. “No! No, you — disappeared. Like HIM. I needed a friend and —“ She still needed him. “I don’t need to be saved, Jake. I don’t want to be here anymore and I’m prepared to take every chance necessary, including jumping off of this cliff into that water, to make sure that happens sooner rather than later. There’s nothing left.” 

Idiot. He didn’t love that. But he probably deserved it. He hadn’t been the most fun to be around for the last five years. He couldn’t blame Leah for being tired of it. Hell, he was tired of himself in a lot of ways. All of his teammates who had made it were moving on with their lives or trying to and he and Nat had just been stuck in the same place. Not moving or changing since Thanos had snapped.

“Just because this isn’t the worst thing I’ve caught you doing doesn’t mean it isn’t bad.” Buzz didn’t always make the best choices. Sometimes, he flat out had to be told not to do something stupid, especially on a mission. But Woody seemed to seek out bad things sometimes. “Seriously, why do we have another horse and what are you doing with it?”