“Hazel, do you want to explain to me what on earth you’ve done to my son?” Sebastian asked through gritted teeth. Fletcher lay a few feet away, lying in a hospital bed with three separate casts and tubes coming out all sorts of places. A heart monitor beeped rhythmically in the corner, reminding him that his son wasn’t dead quite yet, just very very close.

  “Sebastian,” Hazel said. “You’re nothing if not efficient when it comes to Fletcher.”

  “Now is not the time to joke with me,” he warned her.

  “I didn’t do this to him, Seb,” she replied softly.

  “But it was under your watch. You went to Vesi and then you brought him back like this?” Sebastian motioned to Fletcher, hooked up to oxygen and several IV lines.

  “I was there on official business. I had a job to do that didn’t involve spending every second watching out for him,” she argued.

  He glared at her. “Don’t give me that crap, Hazel.” Taking a breath, he calmed his temper. “Just… tell me what happened.”

  She glared right back at him and then nodded. “Someone’s demanding today,” she murmured.

  He ignored that.

  Hazel came to stand closer to him and she quietly recounted the entire mission to Vesi, including getting captured by Kirred as planned and then the curveball of Fletcher’s capture.

  Sebastian’s rage flared up again, part of it directed at the Unhumans and part of it directed at his ex-wife who stood by while this all happened. She prioritized the mission entirely over their son’s life, but he knew he shouldn’t be surprised. Hazel was who she was, and he would never change that.

  “You let them torture him?” he asked, his throat tight as he gazed down at his second-born.

  “Fletcher was the one who got caught.”

  He whipped back around to face her. “How dare you blame a single part of this on him? You heartless beast. This is my child we’re talking about! I know you missed out on that parenting lesson where you learn to care about your own kids, but I didn’t, and I happen to care very much about mine.”

  “Yes, I’m very aware of that, Sebastian,” she bit back at him.

  Sebastian curled his hands into fists. Why did he even bother? Hazel’s priority was and always would be her mission over the people she should care about. As hard of an adjustment as it was when they were partners, he did eventually learn to live with it, but he would never be able to fathom how cold she could be to her own children, especially someone as gentle as Fletcher.

  “You should go,” he told her. He didn’t want to look at her and be reminded that his son suffered because of her cruelness.

  “I’m entitled to check in on him, Seb,” she said with a dangerous edge in her voice.

  “After sending him to get tortured?” he asked.

  “I just told you that’s not what happened!” Hazel exclaimed. “He made a mistake, and he paid an unfortunately high cost for it, but the world can’t cater to his every whim the way you chose to do while raising him.”

  “I raised him just fine. In fact, it’s pretty obvious Fletcher turned out a lot better off than Nora under your guidance,” Sebastian said to her.

  “Oh, please. You’re delusional if you think you did a better job as a parent than I did. Nora is miles ahead of Fletcher in every way. Your ego never could let you admit your failings.”

  His jaw dropped. She wanted to talk about his ego? Oh, that woman. His blood pressure had never been better since splitting up with her. She knew just how to needle him, but he wasn’t going to roll over just because she ended up as a general, though she loved to throw that in his face.

  “Sounds like someone’s projecting,” he said. “When was the last time you even had an open conversation with Nora? She’s a mess, Hazel. She can’t even handle something as basic as a relationship due to you.”

  “She’s focused on her career, just as she should be. I’d like to remind you that it was thanks to me that Fletcher was pulled out of an Unhuman city after getting blown up by the Humans a year ago. You just let him go, not a thought for his safety, so I find it ironic you want to yell at me about it now!” Hazel’s voice was cold and bitter.

  Sebastian rolled his eyes. “You wouldn’t understand. It’s called letting go, an important part of parenting that—”

  A blaring beep cut him off, and they both turned to the heart monitor which shrieked at them with bright red lights as the heart rate dropped dangerously low. Before either of them could truly react, a doctor flew into the room, followed closely by a team of nurses.

  One of the nurses ushered them out of the room as the doctor issued orders, including charging up shock paddles on the crash cart.

  Even Hazel was too stunned to argue as they were pushed out the door and into the hallway. They both stood there, and without thinking about it, Sebastian put his arm around her, pulling her into a hug. It was more for him than her since she’d made it quite clear from the moment they first married that she didn’t enjoy such gestures. They stayed like that for a moment before she pushed away, and then she paced the area before the room while he leaned against the wall, his mind flooded with worries and worst-case scenarios.

  Time passed.

  Realistically, it wasn’t all that long, but not knowing what was happening with Fletcher made each second heavy and painful, like a jab from a needle.

  And then the door opened, ending the waiting. The nurse from before allowed them into the room, and Sebastian rushed inside without giving Hazel a second glance.

  The doctor stood over Fletcher, a woman with obvious [Goblin] traits such as pink eyes and a gray tint to her skin. The heart monitor was back to its original steady beat.

  “We got him back,” the doctor said. “That was a close call. He has multiple infected wounds, and he contracted pneumonia as well. We’re not out of the woods yet. I expect he’ll remain catatonic for several more days at least, but assuming he does wake up again, that will be the best sign he’ll recover.”

  Sebastian nodded, numb to the news as he considered that his son very nearly died before his own eyes only minutes prior.

  Hazel didn’t struggle the same. “Thank you, Doctor. Ensure I receive regular updates on his condition.”

  “Yes, General. It’s already been ordered,” the doctor assured her.

  “Sebastian, he wrote you some letters. I’ve had them delivered to your office.” With that, Hazel walked out of the room.

  The medical personnel were also starting to disperse, but Sebastian stayed with Fletcher for a few more minutes, holding his hand and begging whatever creator might be out there to let his son pull through this. If Fletcher lived through this, he would see to it his son was never in danger again. This had been too much already.

  Eventually Sebastian knew he had to go. There was nothing more he could do for Fletcher by sitting there, and the doctor seemed pretty sure that he wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon. Saying goodbye, Sebastian left the room and ICU behind. He sighed as he checked the time on his watch. He hadn’t realized it was so late already. Nora was expecting him, and she was probably going to be unhappy that he was late to their dinner, but he hoped that this one time she would have a little understanding.

  Not bothering to change from his uniform, Sebastian made his way through Finnack and up to the Beta Commercial District to the restaurant he snagged a reservation at nearly two months earlier.

  It was a sushi bar, and given fish was a pricey commodity for a place like Finnack, it was difficult to get in. Originally he’d gotten the reservation in hopes of taking Fletcher as a late birthday present, but once it’d become clear that Fletcher wasn’t coming back even after all of Sebastian’s pleading letters, he’d gone ahead and asked Nora to join him. He was overdue for some quality time with his daughter anyway, so it worked out, though now that Fletcher was back and in intensive care, the last thing he wanted to do was go out for drinks and sushi.

  Rubbing a hand through his thinning hair, Sebastian reminded himself that he really needed to focus strictly on Nora tonight. She already had a bad jealousy complex when it came to her younger brother, and it was his duty as a parent to ensure she felt an equal amount of love and devotion.

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  “Daddio,” Nora called out as he entered the restaurant. She was sitting at the bar, which was crammed full. “I got us seats already.”

  “Hi, Nora.” Sebastian smiled and waved as he went to join her. It was hard to maintain a happy demeanor when he was crammed in like a sardine, someone else’s elbow constantly jabbing into his side, but he wasn’t going to complain and start the dinner off poorly.

  “How are you doing?” he asked as he picked up a menu, glancing across the wide range of options.

  “Good. How are you? How was that meeting you had with Colonel what’s-her-name?” Nora already had a beer, and she pushed a full glass over to him.

  “Oh, it got canceled,” he said without thinking. To cover for his mistake, he quickly changed the topic. “What looks good to you?”

  “I’ll probably go for the spicy tuna roll. What happened to the meeting? I’m shocked you let her bail on you after how long it took to get it set up.” Nora sipped her drink.

  “It was a family emergency,” Sebastian said, keeping his eyes on the menu. “Hm. The salmon sounds tasty.”

  “You’re really not going to bring it up?” Nora said nonchalantly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know Fletcher’s back and in the hospital, Dad. I’m honestly shocked that you didn’t skip dinner too to go hold his hand and remind him that he’s your favorite child,” Nora said.

  Sebastian set his menu down. “You know that’s not true, Nora. He’s also your mother’s favorite.”

  She rolled her eyes, not even cracking a smile at the joke. “Whatever. Why don’t you go sit with him and I’ll eat alone? I don’t particularly enjoy spending every second discussing Fletcher, but I’m sure he’d love to hear about himself some more.”

  “Nora,” Sebastian said gently. He loved his daughter, but she was unbelievably frustrating to be around, largely due to her mother’s influence. Deep down, she obviously had self-esteem issues that she hid with a tough exterior, but as her father, Sebastian really believed he could help her if she would only let him.

  “Go on. Fletcher will probably die without someone reminding him he’s the most important person in the world every second of the day, and as much as I would love to be an only child, I think that would make you depressed.” She took another swig of her drink.

  Sebastian stared at his beer, his throat tight as he remembered Fletcher almost dying earlier that very day. “Don’t say that, Nora. You don’t mean that.”

  “I’m joking, Dad. Jeez. Grow a sense of humor.” Nora huffed and pulled her menu back out. “It’s funny because he gets sent to the hospital for every minor thing. They should give him a frequent visitor card or something. It’s not a big deal.”

  “He nearly died today, Nora. And there’s no guarantee he’ll pull through,” Sebastian said, realizing she didn’t know the full extent of the situation with her brother.

  “Okay. Ha. Ha. Fine. I learned my lesson. Joking about Fletcher dying isn’t funny. Can we move on?” she asked.

  “I’m not joking,” Sebastian said bluntly. “Nora, he’s very sick. If I’m caught up thinking about him, it’s because I’m not sure he’ll be around next week or even tomorrow. You might think about paying him a visit sometime today.”

  Nora stared at her menu, and Sebastian got the sinking feeling he screwed dinner up. Well, at least he tried to not bring up Fletcher, but obviously his efforts were far from perfect.

  “Okay. Yeah. Maybe I’ll go after this,” she said at last.

  “Yeah. That’s a good idea,” Sebastian confirmed before clearing his throat. “But back to dinner. I’m starving. Did any appetizers catch your eye?”

  “Depends. Are you paying?”

  He smiled. “I supposed I can foot the bill this one time.”

  “Then yes.” Nora smiled back.

  ***

  Two days later, Sebastian was back in Fletcher’s ICU room. There had yet to be any significant changes with his son, but the doctors seemed to think that was a good thing. Sebastian really hoped they were right, but after so long without seeing any real signs of life from Fletcher, he was getting worried.

  Those worries drove him to take his laptop to Fletcher’s room and work from there so he could be there when his son woke up, or—as much as he hated to think it—be there when his son took his final breaths.

  His mind often went back over the letters Fletcher wrote him but never sent. They were brutally honest about his struggles at Vesi, including during the attack and then the aftermath. Even once he recovered from his physical injuries, it was clear Fletcher would still have a lot of psychological and emotional damage to work through.

  The door opened, and he glanced up to see Hazel enter the room. She hadn’t come back to check on Fletcher while he’d been there since their original conversation two days earlier, and he hadn’t really spoken to her since that argument.

  “Hazel,” he greeted her cooly.

  “Don’t start with me,” she said.

  Sebastian closed his laptop. “You’re getting updates. Why are you here?”

  “I wanted to check on my son. That’s not a crime, Sebastian.” Hazel stood near Fletcher’s bed, glancing down at him.

  “Given you stood by and willingly let him get tortured, I’m surprised you care,” he said.

  She turned back to him. “There was nothing I could do. I knew help was coming.”

  “Sure. Help came. After you let them break his bones, slash open his feet, and burn half the skin off his stomach. You’re right. He’s completely fine.” Sebastian stood up from his chair.

  “It wasn’t like I wanted to see him suffer, Sebastian.”

  “I’m not sure I believe you.”

  Hazel turned away. “I’m not going to keep arguing with you about this.”

  “Fine. I’ll take a walk and give you some time,” he relented against his better judgment.

  “Thank you.”

  Sebastian paused as he walked to the door and looked back at her. Her voice cracked. That wasn’t normal.

  “Hazel?” he asked.

  “Go away, Sebastian!”

  He didn’t. He did the opposite. He went to her, one of his closest friends and his former partner. She kept her back to him, but as he got close enough, a certain glisten on her face confirmed his suspicions.

  Deities, she was… she was crying. Hazel Vincent, crying.

  “Hazel,” he said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  She shrugged it off. “Don’t.”

  “Hazel, I’m sorry,” Sebastian continued. “I-I didn’t mean to push you this hard.”

  “Do you really think it was easy for me to sit by while my son screamed, Sebastian? To listen to him suffer? Do you believe I would ever want that for him?”

  “No. No, of course not,” he told her. “I’m sorry. I… I’m angry that this happened, and I misplaced the blame. I know you didn’t want this to happen to him.”

  She sniffled as tears rushed down her face. “Deities, Seb. I was helpless to do anything for him. He screamed, and all I could do was sit back and watch. I was so terrified.”

  Sebastian once more placed an arm around her shoulder. “He’s okay, Hazel. He’s going to be alright. This isn’t your fault.”

  “It was just like when he got sick as a baby. Do you remember that?” Hazel reached up and grabbed his hand, pulling herself closer to him.

  He grimaced. “I do. It was a miracle he survived. Most kids his age who got the fever didn’t.”

  “It was like that moment all over again. My baby boy was screaming from pain I couldn’t solve, and I was convinced it might be the last thing I ever heard from him.” Hazel closed her eyes, holding back a sob. “Oh, Sebastian.”

  “It’s okay.” He used his other hand to rub her back. “Hazel, he’s going to be okay. He pulled through then, and he’ll pull through now.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “All we can do is hope.”

  Several beats of silence passed.

  Hazel pulled away and cleared her throat. “Sorry. And… thank you. I didn’t mean to…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Sebastian said, understanding that the moment was over. But it proved that she still had some kind of heart buried in there. He could think of perhaps only three other times he’d ever seen her cry, one of which was when Fletcher was a one year old and contracted a deadly fever while they lived in the refugee camp. He hadn’t seen her shed tears in years though.

  She wiped her eyes, and most signs of the crying were already fading. “He picked up a dog while he was out in Vesi. I brought it back. Once he’s finished with training, you’ll take care of him until Fletcher is well enough to take him on again.”

  Sebastian cocked an eyebrow. “You brought a dog back for him? I’m impressed.”

  “He needs it, Seb. The dog is getting trained in PTSD care. I’m… worried for Fletcher. He might be due for a release from the military altogether. I guess you were right. A soldier’s life wasn’t for him,” she admitted.

  He frowned and glanced down at Fletcher. “Actually, I’m not sure that’s the best idea, Hazel.”

  She glanced at him in surprise. “You argued with me for hours about sending him to the military at all, and now you want to keep him in?”

  “His life has been upended a lot in less than two years. I think trying to take on a civilian life within the Mixed would be tough for him, especially after everything he’s been through.” Sebastian was thinking of the letters his son wrote him. “He needs the structure of the military and having people always looking out for him. Keep him in.”

  Hazel nodded. “I defer to your judgement in this matter then. We’re also going to need to keep a close eye on him to make sure he fully breaks that smoking habit he picked up.”

  Sebastian cocked an eyebrow and glanced down at his unconscious son. “Fletcher started smoking? I raised him better than that.”

  “You’ll have to take it up with him when he comes to.”

  “How is Nora? She mentioned you two were having dinner the other night.” Sebastian decided to change the topic to something a little lighter.

  “You saw her two days ago. Do you really have to ask?”

  “It’s called smalltalk, Hazel. It’s a normal part of friendship,” he replied.

  “I think we’re past those kinds of worthless efforts.” Hazel shook her head.

  “Smalltalk isn’t worthless. It’s part of socializing. But I now see where Nora got her terrible social skills.” Sebastian rolled his eyes.

  “Don’t start that up again with me, Sebastian. I swear—”

  A muffled sound came from nearby, preventing her from finishing the thought. They both turned back to the bed where Fletcher lay. More movement confirmed it. Fletcher was finally awake.

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