April's eyes open to the sound of a man's laughter. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the brightness, but finally they settled and she took in her surroundings.

She was in a bedroom, and besides a few stacks of books on the floor, some neatly folded clothes at the base of her bed and a television set in the corner, it was entirely empty. Almost entirely empty.

She focused on the source of the laughter that had woke her.

A man stood at the base of her bed, back to her, TV remote in his hand, chuckling at whatever was on the tv.

"Hello?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper. Her throat burned it was so dry.

The man span around. He stared at her blankly for a moment, before his mouth curled into a giant grin. "Are you okay? How are you feeling? Do you need anything?" He asked sitting down on her bed.

"Water." She croaked.

"On it." The man dashed out of the room. In the few seconds he was gone, April thought about her situation. She had no idea where she was, or how she had gotten there. This definitely wasn't her house, nor any house that she recognised. The man that greeted her seemed very familiar, and he didn't look like he intended her any harm. She took a deep breath and swallowed, her throat burning again. This was when the rest of her senses returned to her.

She didn't know what was going on, but she did know she felt like shit.

Suddenly the sound of running water, some quick footsteps, and the man returned to her room. Now she had properly woken up, his familiarity became apparent.

"Connor?" She asked gently.

Connor smiled and raised his eyebrows. "The one and only." He beamed.

He sat down beside her on the bed and leaned in. She instantly buried her head deeper in the pillow, trying to maintain her personal space bubble.

"Just trying to give you the water, its okay." He reassured.

April screwed her nose up at this. Why couldn't she do that herself? She went to lift her head up and instantly found out why.

A shock wave of hot pain shot through her body and she let out a small gasp. She instantly relaxed her entire body, letting it sink back down into the bed. She did not want to experience that pain ever again. She looked up at Connor and, begrudgingly, opened her mouth. He leaned in and pressed the glass against her lips. Slowly the cool liquid poured into her mouth, and April could have sworn it was the best goddamn water she had ever tasted. She eagerly gulped it down until the glass was entirely vertical, only then did Connor pull it away.

She gasped a breath of fresh air as Connor placed the glass on the floor beside her bed.

"What's going on? Where am I?" She asked, her throat hurting nowhere near as much as before.

Connor looked at her, confused. After a second, he spoke up, a lot less cheerful than last time. "What's the last thing you remember?"

She paused a second, recounting the events in her head.

"… we… were in Prospero… and I was attacked by some birds… I… I can't remember…" She grew quiet as the realization she couldn't remember her fate dawned on her. "Where are we?"

Connor gave a sad smile. "We're in Jess's apartment. I'm gonna tell you what happened okay? Just sit tight and listen."

"The Super Anomaly Philip created… it got out of control. It destroyed Prospero… I managed to get you out and called an ambulance. You went to the hospital, we shut down the Anomaly. And now… here we are." He told her.

She stared at him. "You closed the Anomaly?" April panicked, her body tensing up.

"Take it easy." Connor said calmly, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It didn't do what Philip thought it would do. The instructions on how to contain it that Helen gave him were wrong, he was tricked by her into opening it; she knew it was going to destroy the planet. Philip was non the wiser."

"That's not right, I checked the plans myself it was foolproof. Where is Philip? I need to talk to him."

"You can't."

"Philip wouldn't go anywhere without telling me in advance Connor, I'm his assistant. Where is he?" She asked.

His volume dropped. "He… I… He was killed when Propsero was destroyed."

April's stared at him.

"That's not true." She said sternly.

He gave her a sad look. "It is. He died saving us, he went a hero's way out."

April's panic vanished.

She was quiet for a second. Then, her lip began to quiver, and liquid filled her eyes. She looked away from him, attempting to hide her face from view, but it was hopeless. April wasn't the type of girl to normally cry, whenever Connor worked with her she had maintained an ice cold professional attitude. At best she would give him a sarcastic smirk in response to one of his jokes. He'd never seen her display any human emotion, much less seen her in a vulnerable state such as this. But as he watched the tears drip down her face, he knew that had all just been an act.

Leaning in, he placed his cheek on her forehead and started stroking her arm. It was the best position that closest resembled a hug that the two could currently get into. Surprisingly, April turned her head to face him and started crying silently into his neck. With what little strength she had she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him in closer to her.

He struggled to find words of comfort.

"You two were pretty close?" He asked.

"Since Collage." Came her muffled response.

Then, it caught on what she had said. "How? Isn't he like twenty years older than you?"

"He was my tutor."

Connor sighed and continued rubbing her side. Philip never really was the bad guy, he was tricked by Helen. Even two million years after her death, she is still putting the world at risk. Philip had honestly thought he was doing the right thing, but then again don't all villains? It was true that he wasn't the nicest guy, Abby would more than happily testify to that. But at the end of the day Philip was a great man, and the world lost one of its best scientists the day he died.

"What am I going to do?" She sobbed. Connor knew the question wasn't directly towards him, but he decided to answer it anyway.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"My rent, now that I don't have a job there's no way I can pay it. I'm going to be kicked out, and then I'll have nowhere to go because Philip…"

"You can stay here!" Connor said. "At least until you can get a new job."

April pulled away and looked him in the eyes. "Connor, I couldn't ask you to do that."

"No no you can!" He sat up. "This is the guest room, Me, Abby and Jess have our own bedrooms. This used to be our storage room, I've just been cleaning it out now for you."

April looked around, still teary eyed. "Why am I here? Why aren't I in the hospital?"

Connor shrugged.

"They couldn't get hold of any of your family. And apparently ARC members have the right to detain people, so once they gave you the all clear I brought you home. I thought it would better here with someone who you could explain stuff to you than locked up in that hospital with no idea what's going on."

April nodded. "And what's wrong with me?"

Connor winced at this question.

"Apparently you had serious concussion when they brought you in. That's cleared up now but… You've got a fracture in your back. You're looking at not being able to walk for at least a month."

She zoned out upon hearing this.

"And how do Abby and Jess feel about me being here?" She asked, looking past Connor and into empty space.

It confused him how she so suddenly changed the subject of her injury, but deciding she probably wanted to avoid that topic after learning the severity of it, he obliged.

"They're… fine with it." Connor said nervously.

"Really?" April asked, looking him back in the eyes.

"Well, they don't actually know yet. Only Jess is staying here, and even then she's only here during the night. Abby's off visiting off her family in Brighton." He said, shrugging her off.

April was blank.

"You snuck me in?"

"Well, yeah," Connor said sheepishly, "Jess hasn't noticed, you've been unconscious since I brought you back yesterday."

April sighed and relaxed back into her pillow. "I'm not even going to begin to tell you what's wrong with that."

"The only people who know about you being here is you and me, Jess is working really long shifts, she crashes the second she gets home." He said, smiling weakly.

April sighed and hung her head.

This was all a lot to take it. For anybody, simply hearing that their mentor had died would have been enough. But no, she's also bedridden and squatting. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. It was like ripping off a bandage, now all the bad news had been broken to her things could only get better, surely? She shakily raised one of her hands to rub her temple, and then noticed that she had a bandage wrapped around her forehead. She trailed her hand to the back of her head, only to feel a slightly damp bandage. She pulled her hand back. It was damp with her blood.

"Connor can I wash up?" She asked.

"Sure, the bathroom's through there." Connor pointed to a second door, one she had not noticed before.

She looked at him, then at the door.

"I can see that." She replied, annoyance obvious in her voice. "But I can't get there on my own."

And in less than a few seconds, April had transformed from a venerable crying girl back into her professional ice queen persona.

"Oh, yeah, sorry." He mumbled.

Connor stood up and bent down. April sighed, and lifted her arms up. He gently began to lift her, and she gasped as a shockwave of pain rippled down her spine.

"Sorry!" He sounded genuinely apologetic.

"Just get it over with." She commanded.

A few minutes later, and after a lot of cursing, threats and one emotional breakdown, April was lay fully clothed in an empty bath. She breathed steadily, reassuring her body that the worst was over. Connor stood awkwardly beside the bath, not sure what the next move to make was.

"Now what?"

"Get me a towel and some clean clothes. I'll do the rest."

He obeyed her instructions and rushed out.

She did feel bad for the way that she was speaking to him, but for once she couldn't help it. She was in a lot of pain and extremely stressed. She was positive once he left her she was going to another cry to herself. She made a mental note to apologise to him for the way she was acting. Bless him though, despite her attitude he was being very cooperative with her.

He returned, and placed a towel and some pyjamas on the side of the bath. He gave her an awkward smile and a nod, and turned to leave.

"Connor." She said, un-buttoning her blouse.

Connor turned back to her. "Yeah?"

April gave him a sad smile. "Thank you."

Connor smiled at her, a lot brighter this time, and left the room.