He was aware that she was saying something. Megamind hunched down further in the back of the car, his forehead creasing briefly in frustration. All he wanted was to be left alone. Just... get me home, and leave me alone. Minion would be there. Minion would take care of him. Without talking and doing things that didn't involve taking him home and leaving him alone.

The car had stopped. Were they home? He raised his head just a little to peer out the window. No. There were trees out there. He wanted to go home. Why weren't they home?

He forced himself to pay attention to her voice. "...it'll do you good," she was saying. Something about energy. He curled back in on himself as she shut the door. Silence. Silence was good. For a few minutes he was alone with his pain, he and it, it and him, no one and nothing else. And it was better. There was no voice to listen to, no person to be aware of. Nothing to spend his energy on except existing. For a few minutes he enjoyed the quiet. In agony.

When the door opened again he lifted his head, irritated, and two bottles of energy drink were thrust towards him.

"Here. The energy will be good for you."

It would be. He knew that. Pain was exhausting, and the sugar would help. But he didn't want to hear that right now, didn't want to see it, wanted to be alone again with the blessed silence.

"Home."

"I know. We're getting there. Drink."

He didn't drink. His hand was hurting. Taking the cap off the bottle was too much. He felt stubborn and cold, cold inside. He wanted to be home. Minion would take care of him.

Perhaps he drifted off, and they were there, and he heard the door opening and Roxanne's voice as she moved away. Heavy metallic clangs as Minion hurried over, and a wave of relief passed through him because now he was home, and Minion would take care of him.

Roxanne hovered. She didn't like being a person who hovered. But what else could she do? She hovered, watching as Minion gently - gently - lifted Megamind out of the back of the car. Careful of his arm, she thought but did not say. Careful of his ribs, his neck, please. As if Minion would ever be less than careful.

When she had found him, following the distraught brainbots through Metrocity, he had given her a look of pure, unadulterated relief. His head had fallen back against the alley wall as he let out a sigh that was almost a sob. And she hadn't panicked, seeing him sitting there, bruised and battered and bleeding. Not Roxanne Ritchie. She was reliable. She was strong. So she had crouched beside him, a brainbot hovering at each shoulder, and asked him what he wanted her to do.

Moving him had been hell. Pain made him short-tempered, barking orders in a strained voice and then grimacing until finally his elastic face became a still mask as he withdrew behind it. He had let her help him to the invisible car, but would not let her touch his crushed hand, cradling it against his bruised chest with his other arm and leaning against her, shoulder to shoulder, the brainbots hurrying to open the door for them.

They'd gone to her. The idea filled her with a quiet warmth. Her place was closer than the Lair, and they had come to her for help instead of travelling the extra distance. Bowbing, pushing her toward the door, waiting in the lobby to usher her to her car. They'd come to her. Did he ask them to? Or did they make that decision themselves?

Minion hadn't been alerted, hadn't known. He'd been cooking while his boss had been lying in an alleyway, wracked with pain. The fish's expression when she'd run over from the car and blurted out "Megamind's hurt" would haunt her. Horror, and guilt, and terror, all at once. She rubbed her arm. He was efficient, she'd give him that. After a strangled squeal of fear the look had dropped from his face, his emotions pushed aside so he could work.

Watching the fish-in-a-robotic-gorilla-suit gently ease Megamind down onto his bed, she could understand why he put so much faith in him. Minion was devoted to the man. Keeping him safe was his job. She told herself this, chewing her lip as she watched the care with which Minion treated him. How relaxed he looked in those monstrous robotic arms, compared to how hunched and stiff he had been on the back seat of the car. Megamind trusted Minion, more than anyone else. Roxanne knew this, but it had still smarted when he had rasped out Minion's name followed by home, and then ignored her.

"I - I got him energy drinks," she said, when Minion had him settled.

Minion bobbed a nod inside his globe. "Good thinking, Miss Ritchie." But he didn't ask her to get them. Instead he fetched a syringe and filled it, Megamind's green eyes watching him in silence until the medication took effect, and they closed.