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"Carter," Sadie called.

I stopped walking and turned around. My little sister was dressed for travel in her jeans and blouse, her hair braided and dip-dyed red, a small bag slung over her shoulder.

"Where're you going?"

She raised an eyebrow, "If you listened to me, you'd know. I told you this morning I'm going off to have lunch with Liz and Emma." She shifted her bag on her shoulder and scuffed the toe of her combat boot against the floor. She looked like something was bothering her.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

She looked up at me, startled. "Nothing, I suppose. It's just been a while since I've seen Liz or Emma, and the last time wasn't the best."

'Not the best' was an understatement in my opinion. Two gods possessed our grandparents and then attacked Sadie. She and her friends had to run for their lives. I'm surprised they wanted to be anywhere near her after the fiasco that happened last time. Maybe that's what had her so on edge.

"What time are you planning on being back?" I didn't want to parent her, but I needed to know when she'd be back because everybody and their cousin was going to ask 'where's Sadie' for the next three hours.

"I dunno," she said. "Probably around four." She looked at me, waiting for me to tell her that was too long.

I sighed. If anybody else had wanted to disappear for three hours, unaccompanied, I would say no. But this was Sadie and it's not like she got to see her friends very much anymore.

"Alright," I nodded. "Just make sure you stay safe. Walt and Bast will have a cow if you come back injured."

She nodded, "got it. Just don't destroy the house or anything while I'm gone."

"She's late!" I exclaimed. I turned on my heels and began pacing in the other direction. I knew I was wearing a hole in the floor and I wasn't being much of a 'calming energy' in the room, but I didn't care. Sadie was supposed to have been back two hours ago.

"Carter, sit down," Alyssa said soothingly from the couch. "It's Sadie, she probably lost track of time."

"Two hours!" I hissed. "That's too much, even for Sadie!"

Walt shifted uneasily from the other side of the room. Walt was equally as concerned as I was, but his curse was awful today and he couldn't get up and move easily. He sat in the recliner, looking half-dead and worried sick about Sadie. Jaz whispered something to him and he shook his head. Jaz looked less than amused about Walt not being in bed.

Most of the recruits had migrated to the Great Room. They sat on the floor, on the couch, in the recliners, stood up. Bast was behind Walt, chewing her nails. Amos was at the First Nome, working with some old friends of his. I wished he was here. He'd be able to calm everyone down and make them go to their rooms. I barely had room to pace with everybody in here.

Suddenly my phone rang. I jumped over the couch and snatched it up, nearly cleaving Cleo in the head on my way over.

"Sadie where the hell are you?!" I demanded.

"Is this Carter Kane?" a professional female voice asked.

I felt like I'd swallowed a clump of wet cement. "Y-yes."

"I'm sorry to inform you, but your sister is in critical condition at the First Nome Infirmary."

It took me a minute for the shock to set in. Bast appeared at my side and gently pried the phone from my hands.

"I'm sorry, could you please repeat that?" She prompted politely. There was incoherent words as the woman on the other end repeated her message. All the color drained from Bast's face and she raised a shaking hand to cover her mouth in horror.

"Y-yes," Bast said softly. "Yes, we'll be on our way." She closed my phone with a snap and put a hand on my shoulder, steadying herself. I'd never seen her look so lost.

"My kitten, my poor kitten," she said, tears filling her eyes. I was in too much shock to register the fact that Bast was near tears.

All of our recruits were looking at us. Walt was on the edge of his chair, and Cleo had closed her book.

I couldn't find my voice. I couldn't find anything reassuring to say.

Eventually, Bast found her voice. She turned to the recruits, her yellow eyes full of tears. "Sadie, she," Bast cleared her throat, her voice weak. "She's been hurt. They don't know if she'll make it through the night."

I choked. The room seemed to spin. I staggered over to the couch. Cleo moved out of my way and I fell hard, sitting down and burying my head in my hands.

They don't know if she'll make it through the night.

To my shame, I started to sob. My little sister-my infuriating, annoying, little sister-was dying. She had her rough moments, but she was loyal, and could be sweet, and she always had my back.

And now she was on hers, in an infirmary, dying. I sobbed harder, the tears flowing down my cheeks. I kept my head in my hands, not letting the trainees see me cry.

Large hands rubbed my back. I looked up in surprise, expecting to see Amos. Instead, Walt had sat next to me and was trying to comfort me. He looked like he was being burned, but he wasn't crying.

"Cry now if you're going to," he said, his voice compassionate but firm. "But you aren't going to break down in front of her. Get it out now before we go see her. Sadie will get out of that bed and ring my neck if you're crying."

Through my tears, I chuckled. It sounded strangled and unnatural. "Why would she ring your neck for me crying?"

He rolled his eyes, "because it's Sadie. She loves to wring my neck."

I sniffled, wiping my eyes on my sleeves. The rest of our recruits were in tears or about to be in tears.

"When are we going to see her?" I asked, my voice still shaking.

Bast pointed towards a portal that had opened sometime while I was crying. "We can go now. Sadie said to 'drag Walt along'."

Walt stood up and pulled me to my feet. "Consider me dragged," he said calmly.

We walked out to the patio and stepped into the portal before the rest of Brooklyn House decided they wanted to come too.

When we stepped out, a tall middle aged healer was waiting for us.

"She is this way," the woman said, indicating to a hallway to our right. Her voice sounded like the one that had been on the phone.

I had to restrain myself from bolting down the corridor and locking myself in Sadie's sickroom. Instead, I followed Bast and Walt in a numb state and thought about things I didn't want to think about.

I don't know what condition I expected Sadie to be in, but it wasn't this. When we got there, she was lying in a hospital bed, in a small room. She looked like she was asleep, her features relaxed and peaceful. Bandages covered her arms, neck, and hands. I saw more around her waist. There were stitches on her forehead. There were dark bruises on her arms and jaw and the healthy tan of her skin had turned greyish. An IV was beside her, a needle imbedded at her wrist. Her breathing was deep but strained. The machine at her side that was monitoring her heart rate was muted, but the lines were all over the place. My throat got tight as I went to her side. I had never seen Sadie look so broken.

I sat down and Walt followed, looking morbid.

Bast was beside herself. She made a sound so heart-wrenching it made me cringe. She darted to Sadie and threw her arms around Sadie.

"My kitten!" She wailed, tears flowing from her eyes. "My poor kitten!"

Sadie apparently wasn't too deep asleep because she woke right up to Bast's tears.

"Bast?" she mumbled, her voice weak. "'s wrong?"

"You," she sobbed. "My poor kitten!"

Sadie managed to still have her sense of humor, even on her deathbed. She mustered up enough strength to keep her voice from shaking and raised an eyebrow down at Bast. "I'm not even dead yet, but you're crying?" she twisted up to look at Walt, "Bloody hell, that is annoying. No wonder you're always grouchy."

Walt managed a faint smile and took Sadie's frail hand, running his thumb over the bandages. "What's the damage?" he asked gently.

Sadie sighed. "Broken ribs, burned hands, fractured skull, internal bleeding, my vertebrae had to be put back where they're supposed to be, and apparently I mentally, physically, and magically exhausted all my reserves. Nothing too bad."

I had to admire Sadie's attempt at bravery. She was obviously in an incredible amount of pain and her heart rate was all over the place. Yet, she still tried to joke and get us to laugh.

I could've cried. It was obvious Sadie was a wreck. The healers here were the best in the world, but a magician can only take so much magic healing before it starts having the opposite effect. I knew they'd done their best to heal her, so if this was what was left of her injuries, I shuddered to think what they had all started off as.

"Kitten, what happened?" Bast said, petting Sadie's hair.

Sadie shifted and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. Even that small movement seemed to exhaust her. Walt hovered, but there was nothing any of us could do. It was a few minutes before the color returned to her cheeks.

"I went and had lunch with Liz and Emma," Sadie said, her voice weak. "When they left, I went to come home, I went towards the museum. When I turned the corner," her voice caught and she trembled, fear clouding her eyes. Bast hurried to calm her down before she could break into a million pieces.

"There were so many," Sadie whispered. She buried her face in her bandaged hands and the heart rate monitor beeped rapidly.

Immediately, the middle-aged woman we'd seen at the front hurried into the room with a syringe. She inserted the clear liquid into the IV and immediately, Sadie's eyes became heavy. Her sobs were stopped and her head drooped.

"Harsh, I know," the woman said, shaking her head when she saw our horrified expressions. "I don't like doing that, but any strain on her mind will be the end of her. She's too weak. Really, we shouldn't have allowed her visitors, but the poor thing was insistent to see you."

I looked at my baby sister, passed out and bandaged. "Will she recover?"

The nurse looked at me hard and I was afraid for the answer.

"…her physical wounds might heal, if she can just make it through the night. She's very weak, but with a lot of attention and medical care, she should have a chance at recovery. However, she is in a great deal of pain, and it won't get much easier for her. She might not want to go through the pain of having all those broken bones and bruised sinew righted. It will take many incredibly painful spells for her to ever be able to function again. I hate to suggest it," she paused, giving me a sympathetic look. "It might be kinder to let her go. She's young, she could have a happy afterlife."

Bast snarled viciously, "Now is not the time to discuss this!"

The healer didn't look scared. She gave Bast a small bow and looked me in the eye. "I was only making sure you were informed. You are her blood relative and although the decision is her legal guardian's-Amos-you still have a heavily weighted opinion in this."

She left ordered us not to upset Sadie when she came around, and Bast nearly took a swipe at her. Thankfully, the healer seemed to pick up on the hind that she'd overstepped her boundaries, and she left.

"I need to speak with Amos," Bast said, rising out of her chair. She looked at me lovingly. "Don't fret Carter, Sadie's a strong little alley-cat. She'll be okay." Despite her words, Bast looked at Sadie as if she was already dead. She leaned down and kissed my sister's bandaged forehead before leaving.

Once she was gone, Walt took Bast's seat. "Man, I thought," his voice broke. "I thought she was dead when we walked in. I don't even know what I would do if she died."

I nodded, sitting back down at her other side. "You and me both."

We stayed there for a while. After a few minutes, Walt seemed to forget I was there and he put his head on Sadie's shoulder. She shifted and her eyes fluttered, the heart-rate monitor picking up as she came around.

"Did they drug me again?" she asked, her voice still sleepy.

"Yeah and we aren't allowed to upset you anymore," Walt said, moving off of her shoulder. "Meaning we have to keep you happy," he gave a weak chuckle, "we're in for trouble aren't we?"

"Well then, since I have you two as slaves, food would be lovely," Sadie said, casting me a hopeful look. I almost told Walt to go get it, but I realized Sadie probably wanted to talk to him without me listening in. I sighed and left, giving Walt a warning look before I left.

When I came back, Sadie looked incredibly content. I didn't know what she'd done, but Walt was holding her hands and petting her hair, as if their trip to Egypt had never happened. I knew he'd been trying to distance himself from her for the past few months, but now it looked like he had dropped that, at least for now, and was trying to keep her happy. It looked like it was working, too. Sadie was practically purring.

I handed her a plate of food and she took it gratefully. "Thanks, brother dear. Now, about you putting me down," she raised and eyebrow at me. "I hope you weren't actually planning on putting my amazingness down, hm?"

I swallowed hard, "Sadie, I don't think I could do that, even if it had to be done."

She looked relieved, "oh thank gods. I thought you would try to do the 'right' thing and keep me from suffering and so on."

I balked, "Sadie-I wouldn't-that would be-no-"

"Oh, stop stuttering," Sadie said, rolling her eyes. She gingerly picked up the fork and took a small bite of the enchiladas I'd brought her. Once she'd swallowed, she shuddered and put the plate on the table.

"What? Aren't they good?" Walt asked.

She shook her head, "I had really a bad bit of internal bleeding and such and don't think It's quite as fixed as the healers think it is-" Suddenly she curled over her stomach and screamed.

"Sadie!" I leapt to her side and Walt towered over her.

"H-healer," Sadie said, gasping for air.

Walt turned and flew out the door, calling for a healer. Immediately, three came in and pushed Walt and I in the hallway, shutting the door quickly behind him. The last thing I saw was them knock her out with sedatives.