The staging base medic looked at Reaper's arm, then at the rest of them, then back at Reaper's arm, and made the specific face of a man deciding where to start."Sit," he said, pointing at the nearest cot."I've been sitting for four hours on a boat," Reaper said."Then one more hour won't kill you," the medic replied, and produced a needle that ended the argument immediately.The medical tent was brightly lit and smelled like antiseptic and rubber gloves, and after several days of cave floors and jungle and smoke and burning metal, Alan found the combination of brightness and cleanliness almost aggressively pleasant. He sat on the cot beside Pietro's while the medic's assistant worked on Pietro's ribs, which had turned a spectacular collection of colours during the boat ride back, and watched the tent entrance where the early morning light was just beginning to find its way through."How bad?" Pietro asked, looking down at his own torso with the academic interest of someone examining

Hazel opened the door still holding his pillow. She hadn't realised she'd carried it down the stairs with her until she saw his face and her brain stopped processing minor details like that entirely.Alan stood in the doorway with a duffel bag over one shoulder and a collection of paper bags in his other hand. There was a faint scar along his chin that hadn't been there three weeks ago, and his hair needed cutting, and he was looking at her longingly.Hazel stared at him for about two seconds, his lips slightly open…Then she dropped the pillow, crossed the remaining distance, and threw her arms around him with enough force that he had to take a half step back to absorb it. The paper bags crinkled between them. She didn't care. She buried her face in his neck and held on, and he wrapped both arms around her, bags and all, and held her back.Neither of them said anything for a while.She could feel him breathing, warm and steady and real, and something in her chest that had been wound

After Timothy left, the morning unwound rather slowly, almost dragging on. Hazel had a call with Clara at noon that lasted twenty minutes and resolved a supplier question that had apparently been circling for four days waiting for her attention. Alan disappeared into the study for an hour and came back out looking like a man who had caught up on three weeks of accumulated decisions and found them all manageable, which she suspected was genuinely how he experienced it.In the afternoon they walked through the estate grounds, which they hadn't done in a long time, and Hazel found herself telling him about her grandmother's phone call in considerably more detail than she'd intended to, including her impression of her grandmother's exact tone, which made him laugh properly, one that almost cracked his ribs..."She said I looked terrible over the phone," Hazel said again, shaking her head. "Over the phone, Alan. She couldn't even see me."'Hazel, you've mentioned this before,' Alan decide

For sometime, Alan had to sit back and assess how busy Hazel had been since the new week began.She had been back at the Emporium since Monday morning, which he understood. It's not like three weeks of accumulated would dissolve because he came home with chocolates and a necklace.But then, Tuesday evening she came back later than the night before, and Wednesday later than Tuesday, and by Thursday she was answering emails at the dining table at ten at night with a deep frown on her face. She had circles under her eyes that the weekend hadn't fully erased. She was eating with one hand and scrolling with the other, which meant she hadn't eaten properly since lunch, and lunch had probably been whatever Clara put in front of her between meetings.…Friday morning, he was already dressed when she came downstairs, still pulling her hair up, already reaching for her phone on the counter."Cancel your day," Alan announced immediately. It almost sounded like an order.Hazel looked at him ove

Men have been slain by his hands many times over, he had starved for days while scaling harsh climates and terrains, heck, he had eaten bombs meant to kill him a couple times, and yet Alan couldn't come to comprehend the current emotional state of his beloved wife.As much as he knew and was willing to know, the inner workings of a woman still remained a mystery to the warlord.‘I can't even tell if she's just teasing or being serious,’ his mind spiralled in thoughts.But then, as though she hasn't thrown her husband into a psychological dilemma, Hazel returned her gaze to the vendor and continued the conversation. She bought several meters of it, and the vendor wrapped it carefully like it was something precious, which to Hazel it apparently was.They had lunch at a restaurant Alan had chosen the day before, a rooftop place on the east side of the business district with a view that justified the walk up. Hazel chose the window table without being directed to it and spent the first fi