I'm supposed to be dead.

Rekker’s smirked grew a little more. “Then just bury me on the moon.”

Rekker stretched one of his legs out. “I’d be careful going to space with him, Ace. He likes to pry, and there’s no escaping in space. Unless you wanna leap out in the suffocating void, which I personally would not recommend.”

Nehemiah’s brow rose. “You ‘personally’ would not recommend? You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”

“Hank and I went to space the first time we met,” Rekker replied, sending a look at Hank.

“Please tell me you didn’t try to go outside of whatever air bubble you had.”

“No, Hank pushed me out of it.”

“What?”

“In his defense, I was getting kind of mad at him.”

Nehemiah made a noise sort of like a small wheeze.

Hank’s smirk became devilish. “If you only knew what I’ve done on the moon.”

His smirk slowly morphed into a grimace as Rekker told Nehemiah about their little misadventure in space. His ear feathers lowered and his wings fluffed up. 

“I-It was only for a few seconds,” he said. “It was the quickest way I could think of to make him calm down!”

“You would get yourself thrown into space,” Ace snickered.

The cave warmed up steadily with the heat Hank put off. It made it cozy warm, like there was a fireplace right in the middle of the cave. That mixed with the rhythmic pitter-patter of the rain outside made their surroundings nearly perfect to fall asleep in.

In fact, that was what was sort of happening to Nehemiah. He was definitely fighting it, but it was hard to ignore the lull. He, too, was also drawn to Hank’s warmth. He stayed in his spot by the wall, but slid his feet just a little closer to Hank.

He listened to Hank talk about taking Rekker to Jupiter. The poisonous gas part didn’t sound too good, and Nehemiah would definitely disapprove the trip unless it was absolutely certain Rekker would be safe, but disregarding that, Nehemiah was sure Rekker would like it if he could go there. Playing with space lighting would probably make Rekker’s day. In fact, Nehemiah wouldn’t mind it either if one day he himself got to play with Jupiter’s lightning. 

Rekker rose an eyebrow. He didn’t think Hank had been all that serious about going to Jupiter back then.

“Yeah. I think I would much rather not die by poisonous gas. Though, if I do, just bury me on Jupiter.” Rekker gave a slight smirk behind his apple, knowing Hank would likely remember their bit about Rekker telling Hank to bury him on the moon during their first space trip. The old angel was seriously critical of the idea, even though Rekker was only joking. Half joking. 

Rekker took another bite. He chewed thoughtfully for a moment. 

“I think it would be cooler just to fly to Jupiter. You could see more that way.”

Hank’s brow furrowed, but he smirked back. “There isn’t any ground on Jupiter to be buried in. It more likely has a metal core, but I’ve never even been there. The increasing heat moving towards the center isn’t an issue, but the pressure certainly is. I couldn’t create the kind of pressure needed in the bubble to resist the inner atmosphere. I’d need several more years of very dedicated training to do that. And I could probably never get past the liquid metallic hydrogen!”

Hank realized he’d started rambling about Jupiter. He shifted his wings and gave Ace his apple back.

Ace was grateful to have some warm food. After he ate this apple he fully intended to fall asleep. In the meantime, he was enjoying the talk about space.

“You mean you can really go to space?” Ace said, in awe that such powers even existed. Hank nodded. 

Man, Ace thought, he should have asked for those powers. “You gotta take me sometime!”

“Maybe when you get more settled in to being an angel,” Hank said.

Thomas and Nehemiah also accepted the offer of food. They took a banana. Rekker took an apple.

He pulled one of his bags closer and pulled out one of the blankets he’d packed inside. He gave it to Ace. He also gave Ace a pair of soft pajama pants. Rekker knew how miserable it was to be uncomfortably cold.

“You could just act like a space heater. Then I don’t have to figure out how burn a fire with you all around,” Rekker said, wiggling out of his jeans. He wanted to put on something more comfortable, so he pulled on a pair of gray pajama pants. He swapped his shirt and socks, too. Then he put his hoodie back on.

Dorothy walked around the cave, investigating everyone in her home, then she went back to Rekker and hopped into his lap. He gave her a pat on the head. She was probably hungry, too. He took her bowl out and gave her some food, which she happily munched on. When he was sure she was good, he leaned back against the wall and bit into his apple.

Ace gratefully accepted the blanket, and just put the pajama pants on over what he was wearing.

“Burning a fire in here would not be ideal,” Hank said, wiggling his way to about the center of the cave and plopped down to behave as a space heater like Rekker suggested. He curled up like a cat loaf. A Hank loaf. He ate his baked apple.

Ace took a bite out of his apple and stuck his hand out from under the blanket, lightly touching one of Hank’s wings. Wow, he really was warm.

Generally, Ace would keep a respectful distance from anyone he didn’t know well, but the idea of being warm and cozy was more appealing than keeping distance. Not that they could keep much distance between them anyways right now.

Ace curled up in cat loaf position next to Hank. Hank instinctively put a wing over Ace.

“I take it you are the new angel being escorted?” Hank said.

Ace nodded. “Yeah.”

“Very good. Do you want me to cook your apple?”

Ace handed over the apple. While Hank cooked it in his hands, he turned his attention to Rekker.

Dorothy rubbed her head against Ace’s chin. Ace smelled familiar. Rekker often came home smelling like him. Rekker must’ve liked him since they visited so often, so Dorothy liked him, too.

When Ace brought her over to Ebony, Dorothy ears went up and she looked at Ebony intently. It’d been sometime since she’d played with another cat. Despite the growl, she trilled at the black cat. Hello! Hello!

Thomas stepped inside and set Ebony’s carrier down away from the mouth of the cave. He was pretty sure the cat would appreciate not getting wet. He set Ace’s suitcase in the same area. 

It was a bit of a tight fit to have five angels in here, but there was enough room where they wouldn’t be touching too much. There was a little room so they could spread out some. So long as everyone didn’t try moving around a lot, it would be fine.

Rekker blew a long breath into his bangs. He wasn’t fond of crowds, but what was he going to do? Kick everyone out into the rain? Had he known it was going to rain, he would’ve sent some of them off to go seek shelter in town. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. They would just have to make the best of it. 

Rekker turned to his pile of pillows and tossed one out for everybody so that they didn’t have to sit on the rock floor. Yes, he even gave one to Hank. He bumped Ace in the head with a pillow.

“Quit whining.”

He went over to his mat/sleeping bag and sat down. Thomas also took a seat and so did Nehemiah. Nehemiah looked especially grateful to be off his feet. He let out a little sigh and loosened the armor around his feet and took off the outer pieces.

Rekker reached over to pull a small basket closer to himself. He removed the checkered cloth that covered the top.

“Anyone want an apple? I have a few left in here. I have some bananas, too.”

He also had some jerky, but that was his. And peanut butter, but that was also his. 

Ace batted Rekker with a pillow as well. “I’m not whining.”

Ace sat with his back to the wall, knees pulled to his chest, wings folded around himself. It already wasn’t the warmest of nights, and the rain was making the temperature drop further. Ace wasn’t dressed for this kind of weather at all. He rubbed his arms.

Ace took an apple out of the basket without saying anything and went back to his huddled position. 

“An apple sounds good,” Hank said quietly. He took an apple in his hands and slowly began to warm it. The smell of baked apples filled the cave, and the extra heat Hank was producing was also warming up the cave.

Rekker shot a glare at Hank when he squealed. Well there went keeping that secret for a little longer. 

“That’s sweet,” Thomas chimed in, making it two old guys grinning at the apparently adorableness of a boy naming his cat after his mother.

Rekker rolled his eyes. He handed Dorothy over to Ace. She settled into Ace’s arms, but kept her eyes on Rekker. He was packing. That meant a trip! She shook her head and looked up Ace. She meowed at him and then looked back at Rekker.

Rekker grabbed the three bags he had and began stuffing the things he owned into them. Nehemiah knelt down to help him. Not everything fit, but that was mostly extra pillows. Since he was going back home, Rekker wouldn’t need all of them, so he just picked out his favorite two. He’d give the rest to the store in the town. He also set aside anything relatively unnecessary. He kept his few sets of clothes, his laptop, a couple books, and few other little things. All of Dorothy’s things too of course. 

He was zipping up the last bag when he heard the familiar pitter-pat of rain falling onto the rocks. He turned to look and sure enough, a steady rainfall was starting outside. Thomas stretched his hand out and let the water fall over his fingers.

“Looks like we may have to stay in for a while. We’ll get soaked otherwise.”

Ace pet Dorothy and gave her a couple little kissed on the forehead. He wondered how his own cat, Ebony, was doing. He walked over to Thomas and knelt down as best he could with his crutches to look inside the cat carrier. Ebony was curled up at the back of the carrier, tail twitching in irritation. She obviously hadn’t enjoyed flying, but she looked ready to fall asleep. Ebony gave a tired growl at Dorothy.

When the rain started falling, Ace looked to the cave. Then he looked at everyone. The only shelter around was Rekker’s cave. Were they really all gonna cram in there? He had serious doubts about them all being able to fit in the cave, and he had even more serious doubts about Rekker letting everyone in the cave. He’d already shown particular dislike for the angel that looked unsettlingly like Hank from two hours ago. 

Ace hurried into the cave to assure a good spot away from the mouth of the cave. Hank would let Thomas go inside the cave before he did. Hank was sort of wary of going back in the cave for fear that Rekker might kick him again. Might as well be in a spot where he could get out quickly.

It was... really cozy when everyone got inside the cave. Almost so cozy it wasn’t, depending on how much you valued personal space.

Nehemiah shook his head. “It’s okay. I can understand why you kept quiet. Thank you for looking out for him,” he leaned in a little closer so Rekker wouldn’t hear, “I know keeping an eye on him is no easy task.” 

“Her name is Dorothy,” Rekker said slowly, knowing he was now giving away that he had named his cat after his mom.

Nehemiah caught on to this detail and tilted his head a bit at Rekker. He looked amused, much to Rekker’s dismay. Rekker gave his dad a small pout. Nehemiah decided kept quiet about it, for now anyway.

Dorothy meowed and nudged into Ace’s pets. Her fur was nice, soft, and fluffy. Rekker obviously took care of her, probably better care than he gave himself.

Dorothy purred. She was getting a lot of attention tonight. She didn’t mind this. 

Hank nodded. Rekker was a handful sometimes. Most of the time.

“Dorothy is a nice name,” Ace said. “I guess... I’ll hold her while you pack some stuff.”

Hank’s ear feathers twitched. “Dorothy? Isn’t that your wife’s name?” he said to Nehemiah. If that was the cat’s name, too, then...

“It’s alright,” Thomas gave Hank one more reassuring pat.

Rekker picked up Dorothy and scratched her neck. She purred happily. He looked over his shoulder at Ace. 

“Don’t worry. Not all of them are like that. Hank’s a special case,” he said with malice. 

Nehemiah stared at Hank nearly dumbfounded. It took him a few tries to respond. 

“Y-you knew he was here?” Nehemiah looked hurt. Did they not know how long he’d been looking for his son? And Hank hadn’t said anything?

Nehemiah’s wings sort of drooped. He could understand why though, even if he didn’t want to. He sighed quietly. He lifted his wings back up.

“I understand. You came here to check on him, you said?”

“I-I’m sorry,” Hank said. He felt really guilty about not telling Nehemiah, and the look on his face and they way his wings drooped didn’t help. Hank pulled his wings closer to his body and looked up at the sky briefly before looking back at Nehemiah.

“Yes, I was just checking up on him... I was gonna leave and search elsewhere, but he has a really cute cat.”

He heard Rekker’s comment, and his ear feathers drooped. That wasn’t very nice, but Hank agreed.

Thomas shook his head. “No. I’m not going to kill you.” He reached in a pocket of his robe and pulled out a handkerchief. He offered it to Hank.

Nehemiah nodded slowly. “He’s…one of the Councilmen from Aberle. Why he’s all the way out here though, I can’t tell you.”

After Hank wiped his face, Thomas stood up. He held out a hand for Hank. “Come on then. Back to your feet.”

Hank took the handkerchief from Thomas and blew his nose. He accepted the hand up as well, and stood. 

“Sorry, uh, for... that.” Hank said, avoiding eye contact. He rubbed his forehead. He overheard Ace and Nehemiah’s conversation and sighed. He turned to face them.

“I... I’ve known where Rekker was for a while. I never knew how to tell you... we don’t even know each other that well...” Hank rubbed the back of his neck. “I-it seems to have resolved itself though, in spite of me...”

Nehemiah staggered out of the way, blinking bewildered.

Rekker kept his face scrunched up in an irritated snarl. “Nobody important, just an annoying old man.”

Thomas watched as Hank sunk to the ground. He smiled softly and knelt down. He patted Hank on the back.

“I’m not here to harm you. I’m just an escort for a new angel here. Come up off the ground. There’s no need to cry.” Thomas continued to gently pat Hank’s back like he was consoling a wounded child.

Hank looked up at Thomas, eyes filled with tears, pupils almost taking up the entirety of his eyes. “Y-you’re not gonna kill me?” he blubbered. He sat up, but didn’t stand up. He was still crying, of course. 

Ace came out of the cave to see what was happening with this weird old man. Seeing the situation didn’t answer any questions for him. He shrugged at Nehemiah.

Nehemiah stepped into the cave when he heard the yelp. His concern turned to puzzlement for probably the fifth time this night. He did recognized this new angel and he had no idea why this angel, this Councilman, would be here.

Rekker stared down at Hank. He opened his wings up a little more. He certainly looked like he might kill Hank. After their last encounter, Rekker wanted little to do with Hank.

“Get. out,” Rekker snarled. 

Hank set the cat down.

“Sooorryyyyy!!” he said as he scuttled as fast as he could out of the cave. He brushed past Nehemiah, and stopped as soon as he got outside. Oh. A High Councilman was here too. Why?

Hank sank to his knees in front of Thomas. “Are you here to take my soul?! Ohhh, I knew the Top Seven were gonna take me out one day! You guys never liked me!” Then he sunk the rest of the way to the floor and began to sob.

Ace looked at Rekker. “...Who?”

Rekker gave a short sarcastic laugh. “Yeah, right.” Rekker knew Ace knew about all the kisses Ace had given Rekker.

Nehemiah and Thomas chuckled. They laid off. No more jokes about mints or kisses.

Rekker, Nehemiah, and Thomas all fell into a comfortable silence, only making small talk here and there, but for the most part just focused on flying and following Rekker.

Two hours later, the group came up on a quiet seaside town. Rekker went over it and headed for the cliffs the lined the shore nearby. He landed on a wide ledge next to opening in the cliff’s wall that was covered by some curtain. He waited for the others.

Thomas helped Ace land so that the younger angel wouldn’t hurt himself again. Nehemiah hovered until there was room for his feet on the ledge.

Rekker pushed the curtains aside and ducked in. He frowned. Something wasn’t right. Dorothy, his cat, usually bounded right up to him whenever he returned. She was nowhere in sight. Rekker worried. Maybe she’d gotten out? She never wandered too far out on the ledge, but maybe she had while he was gone and slipped. Rekker hoped not.

Something else was off, too. His blankets that were usually spread out somewhat neatly over his mat were all bundled up around something. Rekker feathers bristled. Something was definitely in his home.

He walked up and carefully pulled some of the blanket back so he could maybe catch a glimpse of what was underneath. It kind of hard to see because it was still dark, but regardless, Rekker felt he had a good idea of what it was. He scowled.

He straightened up and gave the thing under that blanket a kick. A hard kick.

“I should have known you were a cave hobo,” Ace said when they landed. “It’s just like your personality.”

Ace followed Rekker into the cave, and saw him kick the figure wrapped in blankets. His feathers puffed out momentarily, thinking maybe it was more demons or a real cave hobo.

A yelp came from under the blankets, and the figure sat up and scooted up against the wall as fast as possible. The creature was another angel, all four wings spread out and feathers standing on end. In his arms was the cat, who had been sleeping comfortably until now.

Rekker knew this angel, and so would Nehemiah, and possibly Thomas if he hadn’t forgotten. It was Hank, a Councilman from Aberle.

The three angels looked back and forth between Hank and Ace during the exchange. None of them said anything. Even Rekker kept a straight face. He jumped up after Ace. Nehemiah followed.

Thomas waved goodbye to Hank. “Thank you for fixing up the apartment. Goodbye!” Then he was off too.

Rekker caught up to Ace and flew by his side. He was quiet for a minute.

“Don’t expect me to kiss you if you get stressed out.”

Thomas snorted a little bit.

“You want a mint, Thomas?” Nehemiah asked.

Ace squinted at Rekker. “Not like I’d wanna kiss you,” says the guy who has kissed Rekker many times. “Nehemiah’s cuter anyways.”

He rolled his eyes when Nehemiah offered Thomas a mint. “Stay downwind if you guys are gonna eat that gross old man candy. Or maybe don’t eat it.”

Slick got another message: “Wow. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen him. And you telling us not to worry about the background is making us worry more about the background…. We have a lot of questions when you get back.”

A little “oof” was Joel’s response to Slick’s hearty smack to his back, and a louder yelp was his response to being lifted off the ground and whisked away by her. Nehemiah shook his head with an amused smile. 

“Those two are something else, aren’t they? They’d make a cute couple,” Thomas commented. Nehemiah nodded in agreement.

Rekker fluffed his feathers. Well, that was two of them gone. Still, he didn’t think the remaining three needed to join him back to his cave. He was pretty sure any complaints he had would fall on deaf ears, though. They were all ready to go with him. Slipping away from them would not be easy. Great.

“I can carry your things, Ace,” Thomas offered, picking up Ace’s suitcase and cat carrier. “Alright Rekker. You lead the way.”

Rekker grabbed his bag that he had brought to Ace’s and slung it over his shoulder. When everyone was ready to go, Rekker lead them outside.

“I live a couple hours from here. Are you all sure you want to come? You don’t have to. You really don’t have to.”

Ace stuck close to Rekker as they walked outside. “I’m your best friend, so I gotta come.”

He looked back at Thomas and Nehemiah. “And Thomas has to come with me, and Nehemiah definitely has to come, he’s your dad.” He looked back at Rekker. “It’ll be like a road trip. Road trips are fun.”

Suddenly Hank piped up after being silent for most of the time. He leaned on the door he’d finished fixing. “Only road trip you’ve been on is one with me and Bambi all the way from the east coast to here. You were crying half the time.”

He said it exactly like he’d said everything else previously, and his expression didn’t change, but you could somehow tell he was mocking Ace. Ace narrowed his eyes at Hank.

“I did not,” Ace said.

“Did too,” came Bambi’s voice from inside the apartment. 

“It’ll be just like that road trip. You’ve already got an awkward group that isn’t comfortable with each other,” Hank said. He pointed to Ace’s ankle. “You’re leg’s even broken like it was then. At least this time the car won’t break down and you end up making out with someone because you’re stressed. And if you do end up making out with one of these guys I won’t have to watch.”

Ace wondered why Hank felt the need to drag him like this right now. A hint of a wry smile crept onto Hank’s face. It was Ace’s turn to scowl.

There was a few seconds of silence from the rest of the team, like they needed a moment to process what they were just told. Then one message came in, sent to Slick only. “You mean…his son?” Even in text they sounded like they were in disbelief. 

Joel smiled up at Ace. “Told you.”

Rekker glowered at Bambi, but his sour attitude towards her lifted when Ace distracted him. He looked at Ace with a confused expression for a moment before it actually dawned on him. They were all expecting him to go back, weren’t they? Had he said anything about going back to Aberle? Sure, he’d blubbered out an apology when he was face to face with his dad, but he was pretty certain a promise to return home was never mentioned.

Rekker looked at his dad. Nehemiah seemed to be waiting on an answer. It was apparent that he was just as uncertain on how to react like Rekker was, which was strange to Rekker. Nehemiah always knew what to do. Then again, Nehemiah had never been faced with this particular situation before. He looked like he had a lot of thoughts running though his head, just like Rekker did.

“Actually, I have…to go get s-some of my stuff from my place…” Rekker mumbled.

Thomas placed a hand on Nehemiah’s shoulder. “I know tonight is a busy night for all of you. Not exactly the best night for a reunion, huh?” he smiled a bit. Thomas hadn’t been given all the details, but he’d put a few pieces of the puzzle together.

“If you can’t leave your duties, I can take Rekker home.”

Joel looked at Rekker, then over to Nehemiah. He piped up “Nehemiah can stay.” He went on before Nehemiah could voice any objections, “Slick and I can handle ourselves, and our team can manage without our captain for the rest of the night. This is pretty important for you, sir.”

In response to the message, Slick pointed her phone at Rekker and took a picture of him and sent it to the team with the message, “Yeah, this guy. He’s kind of a punk. Don’t worry about the background.” Thomas was kind of in the shot, along with the destroyed apartment, most prominently a half-burned curtain and several scorch marks on the wall. And exactly one small blood splatter.

Slick agreed with Joel. “Yes yes, this is important. Don’t worry, I’ll keep this rowdy boy in line while you’re away.” Slick slapped Joel on the back, not exactly gently. Then she scooped Joel up fireman-style and ran out of the apartment and flew away before Nehemiah could say anything.

Ace scratched his chin. “Oh yeah... You need to get your cat too, huh? Let’s go.” 

Joel situated himself so he could care for Ace’s ankle. He was as careful as he could be to minimize any pain, though he knew some pain was unavoidable. He told Ace everything he was about to do before doing it and made sure Ace was okay with it. His concerned attentive behavior was sort of endearing, or annoying, depending on the patient’s point of view. 

Meanwhile, Nehemiah, Slick, and Joel’s phones bleeped. Joel didn’t answer his. He figured they’d all got the same message since they’d all gone off at the same time. Nehemiah checked his, rubbing the back of his neck again. It was the rest of their team checking in with them. They had gotten word of Joel’s stop at the sector, so they were making sure they were alright and asking when they would regroup. 

Rekker eyed Bambi suspiciously. He made a move to go over and see what see was jotting down and probably snatch it from her. Thomas carefully stopped Rekker by tugging on the hood of the boy’s jacket.Thomas shook his head. Rekker shot the old angel an irritated look and huffed, but settled back down.

Ace sort of wished Joel would stop talking so much, but he could tell Joel was just trying to do a good job. He nodded at whatever Joel said so they could just be done quicker.

Slick was the first to respond to the message. She tapped away at the keypad and wrote, “We’re fine. We found a human that just got turned into an angel and he broke his ankle being stupid probably. We’ll probably regroup after Joel’s done taking care of this guy.” She sent it.

She paused for a moment, then sent another message. “We also found Nehemiah’s kid.”

Bambi saw Rekker get tugged back into line. She smirked at him, folding the piece of paper and sliding it into her pocket.

Ace grabbed the crutches and stood up when Joel was done finally. He took a few steps. “Yeah, these are a lot easier than a stick,” he said. 

It occurred to him that he couldn’t really carry his suitcase or his cat now that his arms were occupied with crutches. He turned to Rekker.

Nehemiah reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. He was a little uncomfortable having his wings out for humans to see. In fact, none of them seemed to have remembered to conceal them. Not that it really mattered right now. 

Nehemiah offered Bambi a small smile. “It’s been a long night,” he said. Rekker didn’t answer.

–

Ten minutes later, someone knocked lightly on the doorframe before peeking their head in. Joel had returned. He slipped inside. He had crutches strapped to his back, and some extra supplies. He also had his wings hidden from view, but slowly revealed them once he noticed everyone else had theirs out.

He walked over to Ace and loosened the crutches from his back. “Here you go. These’ll help you keep the weight of your foot and help you heal. When you’re done with them, we can just take them back to whatever sector. They’ll use them.”

He examined Ace’s ankle next. “Good. You’ve got ice on it. Do mind if I stabilize it? I’ve also got some stuff that will ease the pain and help with the swelling.”

Hank gave Joel a similar treatment as he gave to the others when he came inside. Lots of glaring, telling him to make no trouble.

Ace took the crutches from Joel and leaned them against the couch.  He nodded at Joel’s question. “You’re the doctor, do whatever.”

Thomas nodded at Bambi. He bent down and picked up the bag. “I’ll take care of it.”

Thomas left the apartment again, saying a polite “excuse me” as he went around Hank.

Rekker set Ace down on the couch. He found a pillow to prop Ace’s ankle up on, then went in the kitchen to get some ice.

Nehemiah looked around the apartment. It was pretty bad, and he assumed it had looked even worse earlier before some clean up had been done. There was still a slight smell of burning (probably from the rather scorched couch) and a heavy scent of what was most likely bleach and something else like rot. Things were broken, claw mark decorated some spots and black burnt spots marked others. It must have been one heck of a fight, and in such a small space, too. 

Rekker returned with an ice pack wrapped in cloth. He took Ace’s shoe off and put the ice on the ankle.

Rekker didn’t really know what to do now. This whole situation was still very uncomfortable. He lapsed back into silence and fidgeted with his hands. 

“So, have you been here the whole time?” Nehemiah asked.

Rekker shook his head.

Then they were quiet again. Nehemiah had a feeling Rekker wasn’t up to talking about himself right now. Nehemiah didn’t think he’d get details that easily anyway.

Ace was sort of unused to this kind of attention, and so remained mostly silent while Rekker took care of his ankle. He kept being quiet when Nehemiah spoke to Rekker, and didn’t break the silence afterward.

Slick was also quiet. The silence wasn’t broken until Bambi walked in.

“More people?” she said, pulling down her face mask. “Also what happened to your foot?”

“Broke my ankle,” Ace said.

She rolled her eyes and flicked him on the back of the head. “You just got resurrected. Maybe aim to live a little longer instead of getting hurt so soon.”