Hello everyone. Here is the next chapter.
I had fun writing Aunt Cass in this one, even though the rest took me longer than expected.
Are you guys enjoying the story? Anything you want me to add?
Well, anyway, I hope you enjoy.
I do not own BH6/100 or their characters
Tadashi and Aunt Cass had run faster that they'd ever had in their lives.
Aunt Cass had shorter legs, but somehow she kept up with Tadashi. Bellamy had to have fun Hiro and Octavia. He had to have found them!
They couldn't have gone to a shelter, the Ark was on lockdown by then. By the time they'd found somewhere safe, they were probably hurt in some way. That meant that they had to be in medical.
"They found somewhere safe. They found somewhere safe" Tadashi was repeating it to himself. It had to be true. Right?
"Of course they did" Aunt Cass said beside him. Tadashi had grown taller than his aunt, and has to tilt his head down to look at her. But still, he saw raw conviction in her eyes, and something that always reminded him that somehow, things were gonna be alright. But it was nerve wrecking. The flare had lasted over two hours, and if they didn't get somewhere safe…
When they were less than five meters away from Medical, two things became clear. There were people there, probably ones who were having some sort of side effect from the flare, and they were angry. Really angry.
They sprinted the rest of the way, landing them smack dab in the middle of a small crowd that was yelling things like 'They're criminals!' and 'We were here first!' and 'Ignore them!'.
Tadashi and Aunt Cass elbowed their way to the front, where they saw a sight the relieved and horrified them at the same time.
Hiro and Octavia were on cots with wheels underneath and oxygen masks over their mouths. Their eyes were being pried open by some of the staff, which looked as if they were covered in whitish webbing. Their heads were drooping to one side, as if they didn't have enough strength to keep them still, and their skin looked patchy and wrinkled.
Bellamy was being lowered down onto a similar cot by Clarke, and while he didn't have the same eyes as Hiro and Octavia, he did have patched skin all over his arms. Close to the cot was a bucket that reeked of vomit.
The instant Tadashi had taken a step towards them he was stopped by Abigail Griffin, who pushed both him and Aunt Cass back. "You both need to stay back so that we can treat them" she told them in a calm tone of voice "It won't help if you're crowding the treatment room"
"They're family" Aunt Cass protested.
"I know" Abigail didn't move to let them through "But we need space to treat them. We need to move fast to clearly asses the damage and act before anything becomes permanent"
"You can't treat them first!" a man yelled from the crowd "My wife has a cataract and we got here first. Screw 'priority one', they're criminals!"
"Suspected criminals" Abigail retorted "They haven't been convicted of anything"
"But it's against the rules" one of the doctors who had been examining Hiro's eyes spoke up "Medical is supposed to treat suspected criminals last, regardless of priority"
Aunt Cass started arguing with him, saying that he must've been the stupidest person she'd ever met.
"Like Hell!" Tadashi shouted "Look at them! They need to be treated"
"Oh, in exchange for what?" the doctor asked "All you four bring is trouble. Fights start because of you, you divide people, and what are we supposed to get in return? Less oxygen? Less rations? Huh, why should we treat you?"
"What about Baymax?" Clarke, who had been helping Bellamy lay down, met Tadashi's eyes "You almost finished him last week, right? That's why you wanted me to keep him here until you could finish that last bit of coding, so that Hiro wouldn't get too curious"
Of course. This could be the bargaining chip they needed. "Can you get him?"
Clarke nodded and went towards one of the cupboards. Tadashi swallowed nervously. One of the Hamada rules was to to show their inventions to each other before anyone else, and it was a good time to test any bugs in their newest robotic creation. Tadashi hadn't done any modification for at least a couple of days, even though Baymax was almost finished.
Hiro had gasped in pain when another one of the doctors had touched his arm, and Octavia hissed when a metal device was pressed against his forehead. Bellamy bit his lip when the cot was moved onto a wheeling platform and his body was jostled in the process.
Tadashi's robot had to work. They weren't going to survive the pain if they had to wait anymore for treatment.
Clarke brought out a large red case with a circle in the middle. "What is that?" Abigail, who had been debating with the other doctor, asked. Everyone in the room stopped fighting for a moment to stare at the case.
"A healthcare companion" explained Tadashi "He's triggered when someone says-"
"OW!" yelled Octavia. The doctor next to her had accidentally dropped a small box onto her eye.
Two seconds later, Baymax inflated. He was tall, made out of vinyl and whatever other light colour fabric Tadashi could find, and looked slightly pudgy.
His two black eyes, which were connected by a black strip, , he stepped out from the case, which had folded into a small box open at the top. He then stepped forward a couple steps and said in a voice which paused at each syllable "He-llo. I am Bay-max"
"An inflatable balloon?" someone from the crowd asked "What's that gonna do?"
"Baymax can scan any patient and then diagnose them. He can also treat them, if he has the medicine" That was the only reason he had Clarke join his project, since he could ask her to convince Abigail to use him in Medical Station. "Baymax, scan anyone"
Baymax then turned his head to Octavia, who was muttering 'ow'. A few seconds later, the screen on Baymax's plastron lit up "The pa-tient has been ex-posed to ra-dia-tion. Ca-ta-racts are forming in her eyes, and her skin has been bad-ly da-maged. Her bones and musc-le ti-ssue are weak, and some-thing has hit her left eye. Pa-tient must be trea-ted i-mme-di-a-te-ly, or fur-ther symp-toms could a-ppe-ar"
"Tadashi" Aunt Cass's voice was full of awe "You made this? This is incredible"
"His voice is annoying" the doctor who was fighting with Abigail complained.
"That can be fixed" Tadashi just hoped that they didn't focus too much on the bug "Baymax can accurately scan and diagnose any patient, and I am willing to give him to Medical"
"This could be really helpful around here" Abigail was inspecting the robot "We'd take less timing figuring out what's wrong and actually treat the patient"
"I can al-so treat pa-tients my-self, if I have the co-rrect me-di-ca-tions" Baymax stated.
"There is one condition" Tadashi interrupted her.
Abigail snapped her attention back to him "What's that?"
'Crap' He had to think. What could he ask for?
"You get rid of the rule that anyone that's called a criminal or suspected criminal by the Ark has to go after all the other patients. That everyone's treated by the exact same rules" Tadashi spoke quickly, with the words tumbling out of his mouth.
Abigail didn't hesitate for more than two seconds "Deal" she stuck her hand out and Tadashi shook it. He didn't know wether she accepted his deal because she thought that it would allow Hiro, Octavia and Bellamy to get treatment, or wether she thought that she was getting Baymax almost for nothing.
"But-" the doctor started to complain.
Abigail held a hand up to silence him "Enough of that. We need to get these three into the examination rooms, now. So either you help, or you're out of a job. Clarke, bring the robot. The rest of you, grab a cot and get moving"
The doctors started shuffling along, some grumbling and others working without question, towards the back rooms. Clarke pulled Baymax along as she followed her mother, giving a nod to Tadashi before she and Baymax disappeared behind a door.
"Fuck. You."
Aunt Cass and Tadashi turned back around towards the crowd. They were making way for a tall man with sturdy muscle on his arms, and as he walked his footsteps landed hard and echoed throughout the room.
"What, you didn't hear me?" the man looked directly at Tadashi, with something burning deep in his eyes "I said: Fuck. You." He then glanced at a woman who was right behind him, and jerked his chin at Aunt Cass.
The next few things seemed to happen all at once.
The woman ran at Aunt Cass, and the man ran at Tadashi. The woman wrapped her arms around Aunt Cass and pinned her against the closest wall, while Tadashi stumbled backwards as a fist met his chin.
Aunt Cass started screaming, and Tadashi was getting pushed down onto the floor.
Tadashi tried to get his head back into focus, and started flipping through everything that Bellamy and Wasabi had taught him. He was bad at blocking the first attack or two, but afterwards, it wasn't too hard for him to try and figure out a way to get the upper hand.
He could roll out of the way and make a break for it, but the crowd was blocking the door, and there's no way he could push through it in time. he could wrap his legs around the man's throat, though. Or kick out one of the man's legs out from underneath him.
"Don't fight back, kid" the man said, raising his right leg "You might get arrested"
'Crap' Tadashi's tried to change his chain of thought 'Suspected criminals don't have certain rights. He can legally beat me up. And if I fight back, they can arrest me'
As he saw the leg about to stop down on him, he rolled in the opposite direction of the door, barely avoiding the collision.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a few people from the crowd rushing to place any kind of equipment they could find in front of the doors where all the doctors were. Some of them had heard Aunt Cass' screaming, and were trying to get out to see what was going on
Tadashi got to his feet, hoping that he might be able to dodge the man until he got tired, that he could do. But one of the people who was helping to block the doors snuck up behind Tadashi and pushed him towards the man.
Tadashi barely managed to avoid the first punch, ducking down and moving to the side. One of the moves he could do well was grab his opponent's arm and twist it behind their back. But could they consider that to be fighting back?
As Tadashi kept trying to avoid the punched and kicks while not actually blocking any of them or using them to his advantage, Aunt Cass was trying to get out of the woman's grip.
"Let go!" she shouted, trying to worm her way out. But it was hard, the woman had all the leverage on her, and she could barely move her body.
The man feinted to the right while swinging a right hook towards Tadashi's cheek. Tadashi side stepped to his left, but didn't account for one thing.
There wasn't just one person who wanted to see him hurt.
Tadashi had moved closer towards the people who had been busy blocking the back rooms, and one of them decided to give him a little push that he was expecting.
It was enough to make Tadashi lose his balance for a moment, and that's all the man needed.
The man punched him right were his ribs were, and the sound reminded Tadashi of a screen being cracked.
"NO!" he heard Aunt Cass scream "Stop!"
Unlike her, the crowd that surrounded them only cheered.
Tadashi let out a sharp cry, and then felt another blow on his cheek. He staggered to one side, until he felt a large hand grab the side of his head and slam it downward, straight into the floor.
Immediately pain started to explode in his head. Lights seemed to dance in front of his eyes, as he tried to push himself up.
"Oh no you don't" the man said harshly. With one arm he pushed Tadashi down onto his back, making his ribs crackle and burn.
"Hm, which one should it be?" the man asked "The right or the left?"
The crowd behind him yelled "Right!" "No! The left!" "The right one hurts more!" "The right!"
A cruel smile appeared no the man's face "Hm, seems like the people have spoken" He grabbed Tadashi's right arm and put it between his legs, one underneath the arm, and the other above it.
There was a loud crack as Tadashi's arm snapped, but not as loud as his scream.
"AAAAAAAAH!" he cried out, cradling his arm against his chest.
The man didn't seem to care.
Tadashi vaguely noticed Aunt Cass keep shouting at the man to stop, and furiously trying to get out of the woman's grip. But what got his attention were two guards who had come in. He looked at them pleadingly, but any hope he had of them coming to his rescue disappeared when they started glancing around the room, as if he didn't exist.
The punches came first, heading towards his face. Every punch seemed to come stronger than the last, with more intensity and need for more.
Kicks came after, first just stomping down on Tadashi's chest and stomach, but then sending him rolling across the room when the man realised those hurt more. Every time Tadashi landed on the floor his broken arm and ribs took an extra beating, and the damn crowd couldn't stop cheering.
"You know,I don't need to hurt you. But I want to. Because all I can see when I look at you, is my mother getting floated"
"My mom died t-" Tadashi's sentence was stopped midway as the man kicked his jaw, which made his head bounce on the hard floor.
"Get him, Honey!" the woman who was holding Aunt Cass yelled. In her excitement, one of her hands let go of Aunt Cass to throw a fist in the air.
Aunt Cass didn't waste a second, and used the opportunity to break free of the woman's grip and twist herself away from the wall.
The man was getting a punch ready when she kneeled in between him and Tadashi. "You'll have to go through me before I ever let you touch him again" she told the man in an unnatural voice that sound like a knife.
He shook his head impatiently "Get out of my way!" the man yelled, ignoring the cries coming from the woman and the rest of the crowd, and brought his fist forward.
Tadashi closed his eyes and steeled himself for the incoming blow.
Crack!
And… nothing. The feeling of a fist hitting him didn't come again.
Slowly, he opened his eyes to see that Aunt Cass was still kneeling in front of him, and the blood that was dripping in front of her.
The man who had hit her didn't react at first, just staring at Aunt Cass and at his fist which was still closed tightly. Even the crowd, who had previously been cheering with gusto, was now silent.
The two guards who had been pretending not to notice were now glancing between each other. They seemed to be going 'You' 'No, YOU' 'NO, you do it'
"Get out of the way, bitch!" the man suddenly screamed, getting ready to swing again.
Tadashi tried to call out, and Aunt Cass was already steeling herself for another blow.
Just as he was about to hit her again, the man's arm was stopped. "Wait, WHAT?" he bellowed at the Ark guard who was cuffing his wrists behind his back.
"Reginald Jackson" the other guard was stating "You are under arrest by decree of the Ark, for Battery against Cassandra Hamada"
Jackson's and the rest of the crowd's eyes went wide and their mouths opened in shock. "What the Hell?!" Jackson struggled against the guard holding him back "You let me beat up the kid! Why are you fucking arresting me?"
"The boy is a suspected criminal" the guard said in a seemingly neutral voice, with an undercurrent of apprehension and anger "Which denies him certain protection under the laws. The woman, however, has full rights. The law requires that you be arrested immediately"
The crowd started screaming furiously, almost making Medical Station shake.
"You're arresting my husband?!" the woman who had been holding Aunt Cass roared "Him?! Are you insane!?"
Some tried to reach Tadashi, who was still lying in pain on the floor, but Aunt Cass refused to move. She put herself between the crowd and her nephew, her arms wide, turning herself into a human shield.
Right at that moment, more guards came walking in. They parted a way through the crowd to let in their superior, a tall man with brown hair and the beginnings of future wrinkles. Councilman Kane himself.
"What is going on here?" Kane demanded with an air of authority. He noticed the pounding coming from the still-blocked back rooms, and the people behind them asking the same question as him.
Aunt Cass didn't move from her position, only looking over Tadashi and whispering assurances to him. "It's okay. He's not gonna hurt you anymore, Sweetie. They're gonna get the doctors here and they're gonna help you. Okay? Everything's gonna be fine"
As a couple of the guards went to unblock the doors, the two who had witnessed Jackson beat up Tadashi informed Kane about the situation.
"There wasn't anything illegal being done to the boy" the guard had finished detailing what had happened "But when Mr. Jackson hit Ms. Hamada, we had to arrest-"
"I'm going to stop you right there" Kane silenced the guard "You mean to tell me, that you watched a sixteen year-old get beat up, and did nothing about it?"
"He's a suspected criminal!" Jackson spoke up. He looked less menacing than before, with his hands behind his back and surrounded by guards. To simply put it, he looked desperate "Who cares if he gets beat up-"
"I don't care about the boy" Kane's temper flared for a second as he raised his voice, but got it under control again before he continued "What I do care about is how every behaves concerning it. The laws don't protect siblings, that hasn't changed. However, if we let anyone here with a grudge be a able take it out on them, how much farther will all of you take it from there?
"We are the last of humanity. What honour do we have in that if we take advantage of someone who cannot defend themselves? The day we needlessly hurt children is the day we all lose what makes us all human" he nodded at Jackson "Take him away"
"No!" the woman looked at Kane with pleading eyes "Please don't. They'll float him. You know that! You know that and you're arresting him!"
Kane ignored her. Right as he was about to exit with his prisoner in tow, he saw two doctors run out of the back rooms "Get the boy the medical attention he needs" Kane told them "Call the guards if there's anymore trouble" And with that, he left, as quickly as he came. The woman ran after them, begging them to let her husband go.
Tadashi saw it all, still aching on the floor. He bit his tongue as the doctors started lifting him onto a cot, and tried to ignore the pain in his arm, head, and midsection.
"Screw honour" Tadashi heard someone mutter in the crowd. Although others muttered back, none of them seemed as interested to watch Tadashi get hurt as compared to before.
Apparently, Kane actually had something meaningful to say once in a while.
"Oh, Sweetie" Aunt Cass was now pushing Tadashi's hair out of his face. He saw that she had a broken nose, and she didn't seem to care that it was bleeding "The doctors are gonna take care of you now. I'll be right outside, ok?"
"What about you?" Tadashi whispered. It was hard to breathe, and he could only take in short breaths.
"Oh, Sweetie" Aunt Cass sighed "Let them take care of you. Please, don't worry about me right now. All of you are gonna be ok now, that's what's important" she said it softly and gently, like she always did whenever she comforted someone. "I'm always here for you. Remember that"
Tadashi nodded in silence, and closed his eyes as he felt the cot move away from the noises of the crowd.
"I hate them" Hiro muttered. He, Tadashi, Octavia, Bellamy, and Aunt Cass were in the recovery room. The doctors had worked on them for a few hours, to make sure that they'd be alright and wouldn't have any lasting side effects.
When Hiro opened his eyes, he already expected to be covered in bandages and aching all over. He didn't expect to see Tadashi in casts lying in a bed next to him. Aunt Cass insisted that he, Octavia, and Bellamy explain what had happened to them before they explained what happened to Tadashi. "I hate all of them"
"They beat up a sixteen year-old kid" Bellamy spat out. He looked similar to Hiro, halfway through the process of getting mummified "How heartless are these people?"
"Oh, they have a heart" Octavia's hair had been brushed and tied into a low ponytail, but that was the only thing that looked calm about her "It just doesn't actually care about anything. Much less Tadashi"
"Can you guys please stop talking about me like I'm not here" Tadashi called out from his bed "I'm still alive, you know"
"I still wanna kill them" Octavia tried to sit up but stopped midway with a series of hisses of pain.
"Lie down again, Sweetie" Aunt Cass, who now had a bandage over her nose, went over to her bedside and helped her down "It's gonna take you a while to heal, so you don't wanna stress yourself"
"Seriously Aunt Cass?" Octavia looked at Aunt Cass as if she had a third eye. "You don't want me to stress myself? Tadashi got beat up!"
"I know!" Aunt Cass started pacing between her and Bellamy's bed. The four beds and a chair had been crammed into a room, with Hiro and Tadashi's pressed against one side, Octavia and Bellamy's against the other, and Aunt Cass's chair pressed against the back wall where she could see the four beds from. There were small spaces between all the beds, just large enough for someone to walk (or pace) through.
"I know that Tadashi got beat up. I know that you, Bellamy, and Hiro could've died because of that solar flare. I know that some people can be mean and cruel and heartless. I know that all of you are currently in Medical Station. I know that all of you are bedridden. For some reason there is a talking/walking marshmallow nurse robot which is amazing but also kind of freaking me out. I'm freaking out right now!" she stopped herself from pacing and took a deep breath "Be calm. I'm supposed to be calm in situations like these, I'm the adult"
"I'm an adult, too" Bellamy said.
"Ok, correction. I'm the adult in charge and responsible for all you"
"Since when-" Octavia started
"Since the two of you came over to my home for dinner. No buts"
Octavia sank further into her bed, either not knowing how to argue with Aunt Cass or too tired to argue at all.
Clarke then entered the room "I know the doctors just came in here to give out medicines" she said "But I have some news for you guys"
"Let me guess, the Ark has either decided to undeclare us as suspected criminals or decided that we all need to be floated right now" Hiro said sarcastically.
Clarke raised an eyebrow at Tadashi who sighed. "Don't take it personally. I think he prefers sarcasm to actual english"
"Says the brother/traitor who broke Hamada rule #10, 'Hamada Brothers always show each other their work before showing it to anyone else'" Hiro shot back.
"Sorry for getting you guys treatment, knucklehead"
Bellamy groaned loudly "You said you had news, Clarke"
"Oh, right" she straightened her back and faced Aunt Cass "The man who they arrested, he was floated an hour ago"
Hiro knew that the Ark was fast with these kinds of trials, but he was still slightly shocked that it had happened so quickly. He looked over to Tadashi, who had a blank expression on him. 'I guess he doesn't know what to think' Hiro guessed.
"Also" Clarke continued "With the severe degree of injuries everyone has, we expect that you'll all be out of commission, at least physically, for at least a month and a half"
"I can't do that" Bellamy said "I don't have enough leftover rations cards to last that long"
"Mom's taken care of that" Clarke beamed "Med Station policy applies to all of you. If you have an injury that will take more than a month you heal, you're excused from work duty until medical approval. Also, that means that all of your rations are on the house"
Bellamy raised his eyebrows and shared a skeptical glance with her "Seriously? You aren't joking?"
"You don't have to worry about any kind of ration cards until your back in commission" said Clarke "Promise"
"Clarke!" Abigail called from another room "Can I need your help with something"
"Coming!" she responded "I gotta go, but don't worry about getting treatment. We've had Baymax for only a few hours and he's already been a huge help"
"I'm gonna have to get a better look at him later" said Hiro "You know, make sure everything's working right"
Clarke chuckled a little "Understood" She waved goodbye and exited the room.
"At least something came out of this. You get off work for the next six weeks" Octavia told Bellamy.
"You guys are still grounded for three" he noted.
"What?" Hiro was confused "Why am I grounded?"
"Maybe because you helped Octavia break into a guard's home on the Ark" Aunt Cass crossed her arms and ignored Hiro's shocked face "You've talked in your sleep ever since you were five, Hiro. Even more when you're on drugs"
Hiro's face turned red and decided that now would be a good time to look at the ceiling. "Do you know… why?" he asked, worried about the answer.
"You'll tell me later" she said "Once you've all gotten a proper rest"
"Technically, you can only ground Octavia" noted Tadashi "Not us"
"Uggggggh!" Octavia groaned.
"From now on, he can" Hiro turned his head to stare at his aunt.
"Wait, seriously, Aunt Cass!?" Hiro couldn't believe it.
"With my permission" she looked over at Bellamy "And you have my permission on this occasion. But you're grounded, too"
Now it was Bellamy's turn to stare at Aunt Cass "I'm an adult. You can't ground me"
"Don't care. All of you are grounded, and will explain this entire breaking and entering thing to me later" she sighed and looked around the room "Now, all of you need to rest"
All the half-smiles they'd had on faded. 'How did we even have a conversation this… normal?' he wondered, even though it only lasted for about five minutes. Then he realised 'Oh yeah, we all we like crap, so we're trying to pretend like we don't feel like crap'
For a little while, no one said anything, pretending to try and fall asleep. The painkillers that they'd been given only lasted for a while, and Hiro was starting to feel the pain that before had been buried under chemicals.
'Great' he thought bitterly 'Pain. Right on time to remind me that part of me doesn't want to exist anymore'. For some reason, he and Octavia didn't think about that when they escaped the janitor's closet, but everything the he thought and said hours ago was starting to come back to him in a flood of memories.
Octavia was clenching the sheets in her fist, ignoring Bellamy, who was trying to get her attention again. Hiro decided that this was a good strategy to follow when Bellamy tried to grab his attention too.
No, they could not have this conversation right now. Bellamy had saved them from the solar flare, but Hiro doubted that either he or Octavia knew what to say. Enough rough things had happened in the last 24 hours, Hiro didn't wanna say anything about for the next ten years.
Aunt Cass was sitting on the edge of Octavia's bed, saying something quietly to her. Hiro looked away only for his eyes to land of Tadashi's half-broken body, and quickly turned away.
'That shouldn't have happened' Hiro couldn't help thinking 'That shouldn't have happened'
"Hiro" Tadashi called from the other bed "This isn't your fault. Or Bellamy's, or Octavia's. I'm gonna be ok, you guys are, too"
'You don't know that' Hiro couldn't bring himself to say it out loud, so he just looked up at the ceiling and closed his eyes.
He felt the bed shift and heard Aunt Cass say to him "Get some sleep. You'll have to talk to everyone later, but for now, what's important is that you rest" Hiro felt her push his bangs out of his face and then walk over to Tadashi's bed.
After that she went over to Bellamy, and then back to the chair she had been sitting at the back wall.
Hiro couldn't fall asleep, even as he heard the others' breathing fall into a steady pattern that told you they were asleep. He kept his eyes closed, but couldn't stop thinking about… everything.
What was he gonna say later? Should he say anything at all? How were they going to explain to Aunt Cass about the incident with their parents? What did she think about what he and Octavia had said earlier? Why the Hell did Bellamy go looking for them? Or Tadashi get beat up for them? Why didn't he and Octavia just stay in that closet?
"Aunt Cass" Hiro heard Clarke say from the doorway "There's a woman here who wants to see you"
"I'll be right there" she told her. Hiro heard her get up from her chair and decided that he could now open his eyes. But before she left the room, she gave another look around and saw Hiro with his eyes wide open. She sighed and walked over to his bed. "Sweetie" she sat on the edge of the bed and threaded her fingers through his hair "I know this is hard, for the four of you-"
"No" Hiro cut her off "You don't know" Her fingers stopped moving "You don't know what it's like. You're not the one who gets called a criminal"
Aunt Cass closed her eyes for a second "You know, Hiro" her fingers started moving again, in the same rhythms as before "You're right. I'm not called a criminal, but honestly, I wish I was called that instead of you"
"Yeah, right" Hiro shook his head "Like anyone would want that"
"I'm gonna tell you a secret, genius" she leaned closer and began to whisper "Anyone who has ever acted like a mom, or been a mom, or has wanted to be a mom" she smiled "They would rather feel all the pain in the universe just so that anyone she has ever taken care of never has to feel any of it.
"Every time you came home with a cut or a bruise, I always felt a pain in the gut. When you care about someone, seeing them get hurt is as painful for you as it is for them"
"So how do you feel now?" Hiro asked, looking around the room "With us…"
"Remember when you were seven and your robot exploded?" She brought her hands together and then abruptly pulled them apart "Boom! When the entire room turned upside down? Imagine that happening inside my stomach, only ten times worse"
Somehow, Hiro laughed "That night we were having dinner at home, too. The rice landed in Tadashi's hair, and you got sauce on your jeans"
"The stain never came out"
Hiro laughed again, before he sighed into the thin mattress beneath him. "Do you really mean it?" he asked "About… you know… the exploding feeling in your stomach and the…"
Aunt Cass leaned over and pressed a kiss on Hiro's forehead "Every word"
Hiro closed his eyes as he felt tears falling down his face and onto the pillow "It's not fair" he croaked "It's not fair"
"I know, Sweetie" Aunt Cass started running her hand through his hair again "Cry as much as you need to. Shhhhhh" she soothed after Hiro sniffed "You want me to sing? That old song your mom used to love?"
Hiro just sobbed in response, and then heard a familiar melody being sung slightly off-key. Hiro couldn't really remember his mom, or how she sang that song, but hearing his aunt sing it reminded him of when he was younger. He'd come home dragging his feet and just wanting to fall asleep, and Aunt Cass would start singing. The best part was always her voice, which was kind, and quirky, and warm.
"Sleep through the night, with this lullaby. Let the world fade away, you've played throughout the day. Let this bed warm you, so you never feel blue. Hear my heart in this song, know that you are strong. So sleep and rest, so you can be your very best"
The song continued on, and Hiro laid down in the comfort that came with it. Yes, he was hurt. Bellamy, Octavia, and Tadashi were hurt. Aunt Cass was hurt. He didn't know what he was supposed to do now…
But he was tired, and somehow in this moment, he felt safe.
Sooo? Good? Bad? I have no idea!
Thank you to everyone who has read/reviewed/favorited/followed this story. It means a lot and you are all awesome and amazing.