St. Giles Hospital, Baltimore, Saturday Late Night

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity woke up to the distant sounds of cheering. She smiled slightly, eyes closing again...and then remembered abruptly where she was. Her room was quiet, even the beeping machines were dark and pushed to the corners and she was no longer attached by tubes and wires to them. She waited a few minutes to be sure that no one was going to come barging in before she stretched slowly and folded back the covers, finally moving into a full sitting position. She was wearing one of those pale green hospital gowns. It was almost a relief to realize that those were just as much standard issue in cryptid hospitals as they were in human ones. Verity took a breath, steeling herself, and pulled the gown up to get a look at her stomach where Peter had shot her.

The gunshot wound was gone, and while the skin there was slightly paler than the skin around it, there was no scar. She touched it lightly with the tips of her fingers, feeling the first tears wet her cheeks. She was going to be okay. She was going to be better than okay, in fact. And that meant that whatever came next, it was going to be something that she needed to deal with.

There were clothes folded on the table next to her bed: jeans, a tank top, a flannel shirt, her loosest hip holster, and a brace of throwing knives for her to hide wherever it would be most comfortable. For shoes, she had a pair of broken-in trainers and some thick wool socks. By the time she had the last of the knives secured inside my clothes, Verity felt almost like herself again.

She tried to hold onto that feeling as she walked to the door, opened it, and stepped out into the hall. Pausing for a moment, she listened and turned to make her way toward the sound of cheering. When she reached the waiting room, there was a full-scale dance number going in the middle of the floor, with the mice literally waltzing around with their slices of cake and chunks of cheese. Uncle Mike was watching with detached amusement; Ryan and Istas with something approaching awe.

Liam	Under any other circumstances, Liam would have been watching the mice as well. But right now, all of his attention was focused on the door to the hall, waiting for Verity to appear. He sat straight up as she came in to view, and by the time she was in the doorway, was already standing and making his way over to greet her. "Hey," he said softly, reaching to pull her close.
Verity	"Hey," Verity said, and pulled his face down for a kiss. She'd needed this.
Liam	She wasn't the only one. Liam let himself get lost in the taste of her for just a moment, before he remembered that they did have an audience, after all.
Ryan	Ryan turned to see where Liam was going, and his face split in a wide smile. "Verity," he said, sounding relieved. "You're up and moving again."
Verity	"I am," Verity agreed, reluctantly pulling away from Liam. "Hey, Istas."
Istas	"The mice are performing a dance of thanks," she informed Verity, frowning. "You should observe the mice."
Verity	"All right," Verity said. She leaned up against Liam, her shoulders to his chest, and observed the mice. Istas clapped her hands, happy as Verity had ever seen her, while Ryan looked tolerantly on. "HAIL THE RESURRECTION OF THE ARBOREAL PRIESTESS!" "Amen," Verity said, unable not to smile at their antics.
Aeslin Mice	The mice went nuts, shouting hosannas and praising the hospital room, the chairs, the walls, and everything else they could think of to high Heaven. One enterprising acolyte even began praising Verity's bedhead, calling it 'the tousled proof of our glorious Priestess' trials.' She'd have to remember that one the next time there wasn't enough mousse in the world.
Uncle Mike	Uncle Mike caught Verity's eye and smiled, Ryan's relief echoed in his entire expression. "You know, they're not going to shut up for like a week." He tugged Verity out of Liam's arms and into a deep, careful hug. "Hi, Very-girl. The doctor says you’re just about fully recovered at this point. I knew you were too stubborn to stay injured for long." He squeezed once and let her go, looking her up and down for signs of any lingering injury. "You scared the crap out of me, you know."
Verity	"HAIL THE FAMILIAL TERROR!" exulted the mice. "Hey, this is a hospital," Verity said, finally getting around to counting them. There were only about a dozen of them present. It had sounded like more. "Keep it down." "Yes, Priestess," said one of the mice, sounding abashed. The others cheered. Very softly. "That's better." Verity looked back to Uncle Mike. "I didn't exactly sign up to get kidnapped. Again." Beat. "Also, for the record, you lectured me on not getting kidnapped by snake cults. Which, technically, I didn't do." That was not to Uncle Mike.
Liam	"You're right," Liam deadpanned. "Clearly, this was my fault, for being too specific. So let's amend it to 'Please do not get kidnapped by anyone, for any reason, ever again'."
Uncle Mike	"To be fair," Mike said, sounding pained, "when we got that anti-telepathy charm back, Kitty took it to some hidebehinds for a look-see. They said it had a homing compulsion on it. Once Verity picked it up, she had to return it to Margaret."
Verity	"Well, that's one bit of stupidity explained," Verity muttered. "When you say 'got it back,' you mean..." "They had made you swallow it, yes. And no, I'm not the one who had to do the actual retrieval." "Well, that's enough of that conversation to last me forever," Verity announced. And then she faltered a bit. "Uncle Mike, about Sarah..."
Uncle Mike	"She - and your boy here - are the ones who made sure we kept looking for you, right up until Dominic showed up to help us out," Mike said, nodding at Liam. "She's the one who got the dragons looking for you, and it was the dragons who followed the Covenant back to their base and confirmed you were being held in that warehouse. She's the one who transported the mice to the area to survey the ground floor and give us the all clear. Sarah knew what she was doing. I know it's hard for you to believe right now, but she had her eyes wide open through this whole thing. None of it happened to her without her knowing it was a risk, just like you didn't get shot without knowing it was a risk. Am I clear?"
Verity	"Crystal." Verity sighed. "I still feel awful." "Good. You should feel awful." She blinked at him. "Way to pep talk, Uncle Mike."
Uncle Mike	He looked at her implacably. "I'm serious. If a member of your family gets hurt, you feel bad. You figure out why it happened. You make sure it doesn't happen again. Feeling awful is the first step. Everything after this is up to you."
Verity	"Pep talk received," Verity said, saluting. "Okay, I think I need to go talk to the doctor before I go." Not about her condition. She was fine. Between Liam and the Caladrius, she was probably in better condition than she'd been before she'd gotten shot. About Sarah.
Liam	"C'mon," Liam said, sliding an arm around Verity's waist. "I'll go with you." He had a good idea of where Verity was headed, and he wanted to be there too. For Verity, and also because over the past few days, he'd been piecing together something that he needed to run past both Verity and her grandmother.
Angela	Grandma Angela was sitting next to Sarah's bed when Verity and Liam came into the room. She looked up at the sound of their footsteps, and smiled. "Hello, Very-Very, Liam." she said, making no effort to be quiet. There was no reason for it. Sarah was deeply unconscious, and from the slow, shallow rise and fall of her chest, she was at no risk of waking up. She was dressed in a pale green hospital gown, just like Verity had been. She was flat on her back, like a princess in a bad Disney remake of some ancient fairy tale. Only it was going to take more than a kiss to wake her up.
Verity	"Hi, Grandma," Verity said, walking over to the bedside. "How's she doing?"
Angela	"Asleep, mostly, but I think she's getting better, a little bit at a time. It can be hard to tell, since I can't pick up what she's projecting." Grandma reached over and smoothed Sarah's hair back from her forehead.
Verity	Verity swallowed hard. "Are you shielding the rest of us right now?" "Yes." Grandma nodded. "I didn't want to risk it being something that wasn't...well. That wouldn't go over well." "But it could be important. Maybe we need to know." Verity stood a little straighter. "Can you unshield me? Just long enough for me to tell you what she's projecting at the rest of us?"
Angela	Grandma looked unsure. "Verity..."
Verity	"Please. This is partially my responsibility, even if it's not my fault, and I've had Sarah screaming in my head before. I'm a big girl. I can take it." "If you're sure..." "Will it help?"
Angela	Very slowly, Grandma nodded. "I think it will, yes." "Then do it." "All right." She looked at Verity gravely. The edges of her irises went white, the lack of color spreading into the blue like frost - and just like that, the static buzz of 'telepath nearby' returned, Sarah's presence once more making itself known to Verity's mind.
Verity	Verity hadn't realized how much she'd missed it until she finally had it back again. Then her thoughts came flooding in, hot on the heels of the static. There were no words: just an emotional slurry of images and feelings and panicked reactions. Verity staggered, eyes going wide. Grandma half-stood, and she gestured for Verity to sit back down as she braced myself and started trying to sort through what she was receiving. It wasn't easy. "She's scared," she said finally. "She doesn't know how she did what she did, she doesn't know whether it's something she should have been able to do. She volunteered, but she didn't think it would be quite that easy, or quite that strong. So she's scared. And she's afraid that because it was easy, it's going to be something she wants to do again. Like this is something she'll just do now." But you won't, Verity thought fiercely. Sarah, do you hear me? You won't do anything like that unless you don't have any other choice, because you're one of the best people I know, and good people just don't do that kind of thing. So don't be scared of something that's never going to happen. That's just silly. There was a brief pause in the overwhelming flood of guilt. Verity didn't know for sure whether that meant she'd heard me, but she still took it as a good sign.
Verity	"What else?" asked Grandma. "She really did hurt herself. It was easy, but it was a strain at the same time, like those people who get hopped-up on adrenaline and throw cars around. She's afraid to be awake, because if she's awake, she might manipulate people just to avoid straining herself further." Grandma nodded. "That's what I was afraid of. Well, we can keep her out long enough to get her home, where there's nobody she can do that to." Grandma didn't receive; Grandpa was a Revenant, and having died once, he was basically immune to telepathic influences. Verity's Uncle Drew might have had more issues, but he wasn't living at home at the moment, and he could stay away while Sarah recovered.
Verity	"She's going to get better, right?" Verity bit her lip as she waited for the answer.
Angela	To her deep relief, Grandma nodded. "If she's projecting clearly enough that you can hear her, but not so strongly that she's knocking you unconscious, then yes, I think there's a very good chance that she's going to get better."
Liam	"About that," Liam said slowly. "I think I might be able to help."
Verity	Verity and her grandmother turned to Liam, confusion mirroring in their eyes. Verity's cleared first, since she had more of an idea of what Liam could do. "You really think you can help?" she asked, hopefully.
Liam	He nodded slowly. "Some friends of mine once had their consciousness separated from their bodies," he explained. "I was able to find them and guide them back. This- I know it's not quite the same, but I believe I can reach her. Help her come back in a way that's not only safe for her, but the rest of us." Assuming, of course, that his own consciousness didn't get lost on the psychic plane in the process. That was always a danger.
Angela	"Is that a good idea?" Grandma asked. "A cuckoo's mind is a dangerous place." She raised an eyebrow. "Is he a witch? A telepath?" Verity raised an eyebrow at Liam. This was his play.
Liam	Liam lifted one shoulder in a sort of half-shrug back at Verity. Her uncle and their friends had already seen evidence that he wasn't entirely human; explaining himself to Verity's grandmother didn't seem like too much of a leap from there. "Neither," he said. "I'm an alien. Not- from outer space. I was born here. On Earth." Liam, stop, you were rambling. "But that's not the point. The point is, my mind doesn't work the same way as someone who is fully human's would. I can do this." Sarah had saved all of them, he had to do this.
Angela	"Keeping secrets, Very-very?" Grandma said quietly.
Verity	"They're mine to keep," Verity said quietly, taking Liam's hand. "And not mine to tell. Does it matter right now?"
Angela	"Not if he thinks he can help Sarah," Grandma said, looking at Liam with piercing blue eyes. "What do you intend to do?"
Liam	Liam gave the hand Verity had taken a quick squeeze, grateful for the comfort the physical contact provided. "Find her consciousness. Talk to her. If she needs it, help her build some mental walls up, repair the damage she did to herself, so she won't be so afraid of inadvertently hurting anyone."
Verity	"I trust him," Verity said quietly. "Not just in general. I trust him with Sarah." Grandma looked at Liam for a long moment and then nodded. "Do it," Verity said. "Please?"
Liam	Liam let go of the hand that been holding on to Verity's and went to sit in the chair by Sarah. Her hand lay slack against the covers, and he turned it palm-up so that he could cover it with his own, focusing on letting his energy flow in to her, following it through to the threads of her consciousness, wherever it was on the psychic plane.
Sarah	Soon enough, he was able to hear her screams as well, leading him deep within the endless expanse of clouds that was Liam's projection of the psychic plane. Sarah was curled upon herself, hands clapped over her ears, eyes screwed shut, rocking back and forth, endlessly shrieking.
Liam	Liam- or his psychic self, anyway- made his way towards Sarah, until he stood in front of her. He sat down cross-legged, and reached one hand out to slowly, gently, tap her on the shoulder. He didn't want to startle her, not when she was already so fragile, but he needed to let her know she was no longer alone in here.
Sarah	Sarah lifted her tear-stained face to look, confused at the presence of someone here. "L-Liam?" she stuttered, voice raw from screaming. "What? How?"
Liam	"Trigonometry brain, remember?" he said lightly, hoping she'd recall what she'd said to him when they'd met last summer.
Sarah	"Didn't know it could do this," she said, wiping her face. "Why then? Why are you inside my head? It's not...it's not a very good place to be." It wasn't how it normally looked, either. Usually her brain was full of math, not clouds.
Liam	That last part was Liam's fault, seeing as he was the one who'd put together the psychic projection. "It's not exactly something I make a habit of doing," Liam admitted. "But I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I could handle it." That was... not exactly true. But Sarah didn't need to know that. "I wanted to talk to you, and this seemed like the best way to go about it."
Sarah	"What is there to talk about?" she asked, voice dull. "You saw what I did. You saw how easy it was."
Liam	"How easy it was for you to decide to do something to protect your family, me... even Dominic?" Liam asked. "Yeah. I saw that."
Sarah	Sarah shook her head. "But you don't get it," she wailed a little. "I'm not supposed to do that. It's...it's bad. It hurt and it was bad!" She looked up at him, even paler than usual. "It felt right, Liam. Even when it hurt, it felt right. I was doing what cuckoos do."
Liam	"But I do get it. From the most primitive of species to the most highly evolved, that a beast may lurk within the shadows of your soul isn't a question," Liam told her. "It's a given. What's true for you is true for me as well."
Sarah	"Oh really?" Sarah demanded, jumping to her feet, hands balled at her sides. "Were you a sociopath until you were eight? Did you cause the deaths of your foster parents? Were you supervised when playing with your cousins until well into your teens to make sure you didn't reach into their brains and mess with them? Do you stick close to your cousins now, knowing they have a standing kill order if you shake off your conditioning?! How much of that is true for you, Liam, huh?!"
Liam	"I caused my mother's death," he offered as he followed her to his feet. "And I never had a childhood, so I can't speak to the rest of that, but for the first few years of my life, yes, actually, most of the people I was close to were absolutely ready to kill me if I stepped beyond what they considered the line. Then three days ago, I stole a man's face. Along with his memories." Which was going to have terrifying consequences the moment he let himself really think about that but now was not the time. This was about Sarah, not him.
Sarah	That was...a lot of information about Liam that Sarah had never known. It stopped her where she stood, making her reevaluate everything she knew - or thought she knew about him. Shocked her right out of her shame/guilt/self-loathing spiral, too. "Do you ever feel, well, alien, too?" Sarah asked. Not making a pun. "Surrounded by people who are just...different? Who may love you and like you, but will never truly understand you?"
Liam	"All the time," Liam admitted. "Even Verity, there are some things she may never understand about me, but I also know her love for me isn't in spite of that. She just knows it's part of the whole package." This was more than he usually shared with people. But on the bright side, at least Sarah wasn't crying any more?
Sarah	More than one way to skin a cat. Or, well, stop a cuckoo from crying. Sarah nodded. "How am I supposed to face her again?" she asked softly. "How am I supposed to face any of them again?"
Liam	"Verity's scared," Liam acknowledged. "For you, not of you." The distinction was important.
Sarah	"But she saw what I did," Sarah wailed, she wrung her hands. "What I'm capable of. What if I do it again?"
Liam	"Do you want to?" Liam asked pointedly.
Sarah	"No, but that doesn't always matter," Sarah said, shamefaced. "Sometimes I just...do stuff. Like when I start freaking out and then everyone nearby wants to start taking care of me. Verity has to remind me to tamp it down a lot."
Liam	"You did the same thing for me," Liam pointed out. "Though I don’t know if you realized it. When Dominic came with us to the Nest? You reached out and helped keep me grounded, stopped me from letting my emotions get the best of me."
Sarah	"It's one thing to keep your emotions from getting the better of you," Sarah pointed out, "and another keeping them from affecting other people. Your emotions can't hijack someone else's brain."
Liam	"That's true," Liam acknowledged. "My emotional reactions can have pretty serious consequences, and I have to constantly be aware of that. Same thing for people like Istas. I'd say she's probably aware, every minute of every day, of how easily she could hurt any one of us. And still she makes the choice to be surrounded by other people."
Sarah	"Would you rather be injured, maybe even killed, or changed on a level so profound, you don't even realize it?" Sarah asked. Genuinely asked.
Liam	In Liam's experience, the second inevitably led to the first, but saying so would likely not be helpful, so he held his tongue. "I'm probably the wrong person to ask," he said instead. "I've been dead. I don't fear it, but I'm not interested in experiencing it again for a long while yet."
Sarah	Good instincts there, Liam. "I just - I'm scared," Sarah said again. "And I don't know how to not be scared anymore. And, and I hurt. So much. It's like I tried to rip my brain apart and nearly succeeded."
Liam	"Being scared is logical: you don't want to hurt people, despite your instincts. Letting that fear control you, that's the part that's not logical, because you’re so much more than just those instincts. You're smart, you're funny, you're kind... you even bled into a cup one time to help me out when I got injured, remember?" he made a face, because the aftermath of that had been... interesting. "I've never met anyone else willing to do that."
Sarah	"In fairness, it wouldn't help if more people did," Sarah said, with a small, hiccupy giggle.
Liam	"No, probably not," Liam admitted with a little huff of laughter of his own. "But my point stands: you didn't even know me all that well back then, and you still gave something of yourself- literally- to help make sure I was okay."
Sarah	"Well, you were Verity's," Sarah said. "And that was enough for me."
Liam	"Same here," Liam said earnestly. And then, serious again: "The not being scared part? That'll take time, and work, but the hurt? That I can fix right now, if you'll let me." The injury was psychic in nature rather than physical, but he'd repaired Da'an's link to the Commonality once, he could restore what Sarah had 'burned out' when she'd rewritten the memories of the surviving Covenant agents.
Sarah	"You can?" Sarah asked. "For real?" She'd still be scared, sure. Still fragile. But maybe she wouldn't feel so broken if she were, you know, less broken.
Liam	"For real," Liam promised. He held out both his hands to her expectantly. Yeah, this was the psychic plane and not the physical, and touch probably wasn't actually necessary, but some habits were hard to break.
Sarah	Sarah tentatively slipped her hands into his. Again, yes, it was the psychic plane, so being afraid of psychic spillover due to touch was a bit ridiculous, but again with the thing about habits.
Liam	Both in the psychic plane and in the physical one, the soft purple glow moved from Liam's hands through Sarah, gently seeking out and restoring that which she'd overextended. Helping rebuild Sarah's own walls between herself and the rest of the world, so that she could wake up and not worry about not being strong enough to avoid manipulating anyone.
Sarah	Sarah whimpered as the pain eased and the press of minds that was ever-around her pushed away. The lines around her eyes eased and she looked a little more like herself. "That...that feels better," she breathed.
Liam	"Good," Liam nodded, giving her a thoughtful look. "Now, think you're ready to rejoin the land of the living?"
Sarah	"Okay, but what if I wanted to keep feeling sorry for myself for awhile?" Sarah asked, cracking a very tiny smile.
Liam	"Suppose you could, if you wanted," Liam said lightly. "Orrrrr, you could wake up, where Verity's waiting to give you the biggest hug imaginable."
Sarah	"I guess that's almost as good," Sarah sighed. "Is it time to wake up now?"
Liam	"It is," Liam confirmed. "Everyone's waiting."
Sarah	"Then you should go," Sarah said. "I can find my way back. It's what cuckoos do."
Liam	"You'll be right behind me?" Liam checked.
Sarah	Sarah nodded. "If I don't, Verity'll just send you right back to chivvy me along," she said with a put-upon sigh. "Your girlfriend is the stubbornnest person I know." Beat. "Except Antimony."
Liam	"Except Antimony," Liam said, at the exact moment that Sarah did. Then with a grin and a wink, was fading from the psychic plane as he reunited his consciousness with his physical self.
Sarah	It took Sarah looked at the spot where he'd been just a moment before and sighed. It was so safe here, where nothing hurt and she couldn't hurt anybody. But...it was also boring here. There was no math. No Artie. No Verity. "You owe me a tomato sauce smoothie, Kincaid," Sarah muttered. ...And woke up in a hospital bed, seconds later.
Verity	And, true to Liam's predictions, the first thing that happened was Verity squealed and lunged for her, wrapping her arms around Sarah's shoulders. "You're all right!" she said, voice breaking. "Oh god, thank god, you're all right."
Sarah	"More like 'thank Liam,'" Sarah corrected, one arm wrapped around Verity, her other hand clinging to Angela's. She met Liam's eyes over her cousin's shoulder. "Promised I'd be along, didn't I?"
Liam	"That you did," Liam said. "Thanks for not making a liar out of me."
Verity	"Believe me," Verity said, shooting a grateful look over her shoulder at Liam. "He'll be getting his thanks later."
Sarah	"Ew gross," Sarah said. It was good to be back. Even scared, it was good. "Your grandma's right here and everything."
Verity	The mice were back to cheering loudly at something in the other room, and Verity could faintly hear Istas...singing? She thought it might be singing. She let Sarah out of the stranglehold she had on her and reached back for Liam's hand. She didn't even need to look to see where it was, she just knew. Partners always did. "Let's go home," she said, heart full of love and joy and too much happiness. "Let's all just go home."

[AND WE'RE DONE! The last bit of text, adapted and mutilated from Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire. Thanks so much to firstofitskind for a) all the preplaying, b) all the coding, and c) her endless patience with getting this done. <3 <3 <3 Could have technically? maybe? done this without you, bb, but nowhere near as well or stylishly.]