Chapter Thirty-Four: Moving On

Judith carried Yuri into a sitting room where Flynn sat next to a sleeping Estelle. Flynn had been watching her, but looked up when Yuri and Judith entered. He scooted over to make room for Yuri on the couch.

"I'll go get your chair," she said after setting him down.

As she left, Yuri leaned forward and frowned at Estelle. He dress was splattered with blood. "How is she?"

Flynn rested his hand on her leg. "She's going to be fine. She closed the wound, but wore herself out. She's just resting now."

"I hate that bastard," Yuri muttered. Carter didn't know how to keep things private. He was like a thrashing animal, harming anyone that got close regardless of motivation.

"Can't say I'm fond of him myself."

Yuri looked away from Estelle to take in Flynn's swollen face. His nose was crooked, blood stained his lips and chin, and his eyes were puffy and red. This reminded Yuri of his own sore face with its fractured cheekbone already swelling below his eye. "Are you doing ok?"

"I'll live."

"What about your leg?"

Flynn's hand rested on his left knee. "It's fractured. My torso is pretty banged up, too. He used me as a punching bag for a little while, but nothing life-threatening." He looked away with a frown. "Nothing like what he did to you."

"Good." Yuri rested a hand on Flynn's thigh. There was no need for Flynn to suffer like he had. "But you didn't know he wouldn't when you gave yourself up. Hell, Flynn! He could have killed you, or mutilated you, or stabbed you in the spine just to see what would happen." He clenched a fist but held back on punching him, since Yuri was sure Flynn was in more pain than he was letting on and dozens of bruises must be concealed under his clothes. "You could have been killed."

Flynn rolled his eyes. "You're one to talk. Who barged in there in the first place?"

"Yeah, well we already know I have mental problems, so are you saying you're as brain damaged as I am?"

"You instigated this. I was just doing damage control."

"By sacrificing yourself? The commandant can't just throw his life around like that."

"It's my life and I'll put it on the line for whomever I want."

"Oh, that's real smart. Send the general out on the front lines to protect all the privates. That's definitely how wars are won."

Flynn folded his arms. "I wouldn't sacrifice my life for just anyone."

"What, am I so special?"

Flynn turned to look at him and then snapped, "Yes."

Yuri breathed in to start a retort, but he wasn't quite sure what to say to that. "Well - well so are you."

"You're an idiot for trying to break in here alone."

"And you're an idiot for trading places with me."

They glared at each other for a heated thirty seconds. It was one of their more pathetic glare-offs, since both of them were looking through swollen eyes and puffy faces. Flynn lost his anger first. "Thank you for rescuing me."

Yuri had to give him a lopsided smile back. "And thanks for getting me out of here."

Flynn wrapped a hand around Yuri's neck and pulled him close to lay a kiss on his lips. The growing bruise on Yuri's cheek throbbed when Flynn's broken nose bumped it, which made both of them hiss in pain. Flynn was too stiff and sore to move with any grace and Yuri was incapable of shifting his lower body into a more accessible position. In the awkward fumbling, Flynn bit his lip, the hand around his neck stung against the wound, and Yuri could taste the remnant of foul cloth and blood in Flynn's mouth. In all honestly, it was one of the worst kisses Yuri had ever had, but he wouldn't have traded it for the world. Besides, it had been today that Yuri fully embraced the idea of starting over with a new identity and a new life, so in a way this was sort of like a first kiss, and those weren't supposed to be any good. The only part he regretted was that it eventually had to end.

"You're bleeding." Flynn pulled his hand away from Yuri's neck and frowned at the red smear.

Yuri reached his hand around. "Because you disturbed the clot. Thanks a lot, asshole."

"How deep is it?"

"Can't be that deep. Your vertebrae are pretty close to the surface in the neck and I know he didn't manage to nick them."

"But it's still bleeding, and your face is, too. You should see a doctor."

Yuri groaned. "I hate doctors."

"For me?"

Yuri heaved a dramatic sigh. "As long as this one focuses only on this cut."

"Good. Do you have any other injuries?"

"Well, I…" he looked down and lowered his voice to deadly seriousness. "I think there's a problem. I… I can't feel my legs."

Flynn shoved his shoulder. "Shut up, Yuri."

Yuri lost his balance from that fell into the side of the couch, still laughing.

The knights showed up after about ten minutes. Karol and Judith led them to the sitting room where they found Estelle fast asleep and Flynn and Yuri close to it. They sat slumped together, but Yuri opened his eyes when the knights arrived.

"Hey, guys. Good of you to turn up. Carter's in the basement."

Some of the knights tromped off to deal with him while others rushed to Flynn and Estelle. It took a while to assure the knights they were not in immediate danger, but they still were eager to get them to a doctor. Yuri could tell by the looks on the knights' faces that they wanted to say more about the commandant and the princess going into danger without telling them, but didn't want to overstep their boundaries.

Yuri pulled himself off the couch and into his chair, which Judith had brought him. Then he wrapped his arms around Estelle and pulled her onto his lap. He held her tight, still furious with Carter for hurting her. She shouldn't even have gotten involved, but if she hadn't held Carter up, Yuri probably wouldn't have made it to the basement before he did. "Judy, can you push me while I carry Estelle?"

She nodded while the knights stepped forward to support Flynn hopping on one foot.

The other knights were still downstairs tending to Carter while Yuri left the building, but Yuri wasn't worried about him. In the months between seeing him last, a combination of memories and nightmares had built Carter up as some powerful demon. He was the only person to ever leave Yuri feeling truly defeated and knowing he was out there had been like confirming the boogieman was real.

But in reality, Carter was just… pathetic. It must be a horrible existence, Yuri thought. Zagi was insane, but seemed blissfully unaware that he was a raving lunatic. Carter, though, knew that he was screwed up. What must it be like to grow up knowing society viewed you as 'evil'? To always have to hide your true feelings or risk being branded a monster? No wonder he tried so hard to convince himself everyone else felt the same way as him, and he was the only one brave enough to admit it. All his bravado and needling was just an attempt to get others to show their inner monsters. When the monster inside him was forced to confront the reality that monsters didn't live inside everyone, well… even a monster was afraid of being alone.

It was like what Yuri had tried to tell Karol about spiders: don't freak out; they're more afraid of you. How could Yuri be so afraid of a man who did nothing but try to run away from his reality? There was no reason to let him rule his nightmares.

Estelle woke up halfway to the clinic. After a brief explanation from Yuri, she curled up on his lap and hugged him tight. At the clinic, a nurse tended to Estelle to make sure her wound really was closed while Flynn was taken by the doctor to treat his injuries. Yuri sat in the waiting room with Judith and Karol, too tired to chat. After a few minutes, Repede found his way to them and disgruntledly plopped at Yuri's feet.

"You didn't catch Zagi?" Yuri asked.

Repede growled.

"Aw, man." Karol sat next to Yuri and kicked his feet. "I hate to think of that psycho on the loose."

Yuri shook his head. "You know what? I don't even care. After everything he's survived, I think he's just a staple of the universe."

Judith nodded. "A force of nature you mean?"

"Yeah. I don't think we even can kill him. It would be like killing a hurricane. Besides, by this point I feel like life would be boring without him popping up every now and then like some demented whack-a-mole."

About fifteen minutes later, Flynn limped into the waiting room on crutches, his lower leg in a white cast. With a straightened nose, washed face, and apple gels numbing his pain, he looked a lot more like himself.

"Look who's back among the living," Yuri said with a grin. "Doing all right?"

"I'm on my feet. I can't really complain. Estellise fell asleep again, but the doctor can patch you up now."

The doctor was curious when Yuri rolled in and eyed the chair with questioning eyes. He restrained himself while bandaging the cut on Yuri's shoulder and gently washing the wound on the back of his neck, but while carefully giving Yuri a row of stitches, he couldn't help interrogating him. Yuri didn't really mind. It gave him something to think about other than the needle in his neck, and maybe educating the doctor on these types of injuries would help some other poor sap who got himself in this position.

They trudged back to the inn. After such a wild night, it seemed weird to just head to bed, but they were exhausted. Estelle woke up as they arrived and they all shared a sombre goodnight before parting. Estelle leaned on Judith on the way upstairs, while Yuri led Flynn to their first floor room.

In their room, Flynn didn't bother trying to pull pyjamas over his cast. The doctor had already ripped open one leg to get to the injury. Flynn stripped off his clothes and collapsed into bed in his boxers, revealing a chest covered in red and purple splotches.

Yuri followed suit and crawled under the sheets beside him. They'd done all of this in an exhausted silence until they were finally lying side by side with only their slow breaths to fill the room.

Flynn's hand snaked under the covers to find Yuri's. "Thank you."

"I'm the one who should be saying that." He pushed himself onto his side so he could move closer to Flynn. "I shouldn't have gone in there by myself. It was a really bad move."

"Yeah. It was. Loving you is going to give me a heart attack."

Yuri wrapped his arm over Flynn's chest. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine, Yuri, really. He beat me up, but then he tied me to a chair and ignored me for a few hours. It wasn't fun, but I'm not dying."

Yuri pressed his head against the crook of Flynn's neck. "I really am sorry."

"What are you sorry for? You're not the one who beat me."

"It was my fault you were there in the first place. You got hurt saving my ass from my own dumb mistake."

Flynn pulled his arm up to sandwich Yuri's hand on his chest. "Yes, but… it all goes back to my fault, anyway. Carter would never have targeted you in the first place if it wasn't for me, and then when I picked you up…." Flynn grimaced. "It's my fault you've suffered for the past few months. If it wasn't for me, you'd still be walking. Getting you out of there was the least I could do to make it up to you."

Yuri thought about this for a few seconds. He could feel Flynn's tense muscles under his hand; it was obvious Flynn was still deeply upset by his guilt. "You know… I remembered something tonight."

"What's that?"

"Not something I forgot, exactly, just not something I ever put much thought into. Maybe it's because I always tried so hard to avoid thinking about that night, but recently I've been forcing myself to confront it and then tonight Carter reminded me again. I remember being stabbed."

"I know you do. I wish you didn't, to be honest. I wish you could forget about those days and wash them out of your mind for good."

"No, but this is a good memory. Well… ok, it's not, but it has good results. Because I remember the knife sinking into me, and I remember falling to the ground, and then I remember Carter kicking me."

Flynn's frown deepened. "I remember all that too."

"He kicked me pretty hard, right in the back."

Flynn nodded slowly. "Right… I watched this happen, Yuri. It was the worst night of my life."

"What I'm saying, if you could get over how upset you were, is that I don't think a solid kick to the spine immediately after stabbing me was good for my back."

Flynn's frown slowly faded to shock as his head turned to face him. "Wait… are you saying…?"

"I think it's possible that it wasn't you picking me up that snapped my spinal cord. It could have been him kicking me."

"But… you would know when it happened, wouldn't you? Could you still feel your legs between then and me picking you up?"

Yuri shrugged a shoulder. "I honestly don't remember. I blacked out pretty shortly after that and I was too out of it to really think about any of my limbs."

"But… but still, you can't know for sure. The doctor said picking you up must have been what did it."

"Yeah, but you didn't tell him I'd been kicked before that, right? Geeze, Flynn, do you want to take credit for this?"

"Of course not! But I want to be held responsible for my actions. If I hurt you, that's something I have to live with."

Yuri shook his head. "You didn't hurt me. You saved my life. It was Carter's kick that broke my back; all you did was get me out of there so Estelle could stop the bleeding fast enough."

"But you can't know for sure."

"No, but it doesn't matter. Whether you did or you didn't, it's over. What happened, happened. Shitty things happen in life sometimes, and nobody gets to choose what circumstances they fall into. The best we can do is make the most of what we got, and the exact reasons we fell into that hole won't help us get out. Maybe you picking me up broke my back. Maybe it was Carter kicking me. I'll never know for sure, and knowing won't make my spinal cord any less severed, so why can't I pick the one that makes me happy?"

Flynn seemed to think Yuri was saying this for his benefit, so that Flynn wouldn't feel bad. Actually, Yuri wanted to believe this for himself. As much as he knew Flynn hadn't done it on purpose, he had been unable to shake that thought from the back of his mind. He wanted to forgive Flynn and move on, so he was more than happy to find an explanation that got Flynn off the hook. After all, it could be true, just like Yuri could have died if Flynn hadn't risked carrying him up. There were a lot of variables and a lot of things they simply would never know, so if he had a multiple choice past, he'd pick the option he liked best. Carter had been the one to paralyze him. Carter stabbed him and then kicked him hard enough to snap the weakened cartilage. That explanation was sufficient for him.

"Yuri…"

"What?"

"I've been carrying this weight for months. You can't just wipe it away like that."

"Sure I can. It's gone. Stop worrying."

Flynn sighed. "Everything is always so simple with you."

"Fine. If you won't let it go right away, just know I hold no resentment toward you. As far as I'm concerned, you're in the clear."

Flynn thought for a minute and then leaned close to bump his forehead against Yuri's. "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"Well, I can think of lots of crappy things I've done to deserve you."

"You idiot."

"You're an idiot."

"I'm glad you're not dead."

"I'm ok with you still being alive, too."

"Let's never do this whole hostage and torture thing again."

"Agreed."

When Flynn woke up, he found himself alone. For a long minute, he didn't move. The events of yesterday replayed through his head and he closed his eyes again from exhaustion. Everything came hurtling back at him as his aches and bruises woke up and got around to their job of making him miserable. But then, there had been what Yuri said last night. Had that actually happened? Had Yuri really absolved him of guilt for paralyzing him? It was so unreal it could have been a dream.

But Yuri had said that, which meant Flynn didn't need to feel guilty anymore. He'd done nothing wrong. Yuri had been paralyzed before Flynn even had a chance to touch him. Or, at least, that was what Yuri claimed. Flynn wasn't so sure. As nice as it would be to accept Yuri's version of the truth, it just felt like cheating to absolve himself of any guilt. If it made Yuri happy… well, it was his back. Didn't he get to decide what had happened to it? Or at least, decide what the official story was. Flynn would let him believe whatever he wanted, and he could spent some time working through his guilt on his own. It would be much easier to live with himself knowing that Yuri didn't blame him, at least.

He couldn't just lie in bed thinking about this all day, though. He had already missed a meeting yesterday and he needed to arrange for Carter to be transported back to Zaphias to once again stand trial for his new crimes. Flynn just hoped it would be easier to pin charges on him when he'd assaulted the princess herself. Before he could deal with any of that, though, he needed to get out of bed.

Flynn started to move and then regretted it. His bruises had settled in last night and every joint felt in need of a can of oil. The urge to lie still and hide under his blanket all day nearly overcame him, but it would be pretty hypocritical after he'd spent all winter preaching at Yuri about getting out of bed even when you didn't feel like it. He slowly worked himself upright and then grabbed his shirt from the floor to cover himself. He could just reach his bag with his uninjured leg and tugged it forward to find a pair of sweatpants that would fit over the cast. Once dressed, he grabbed the crutches and dragged himself to his feet. Putting his weight on his arms sent aches through his torso, but he clenched his jaw and made his way out of the room to find Yuri and maybe breakfast.

Yuri ended up being in the hall, on his way back to the room with a tray of food on his lap. "Good morning."

"That's debatable."

"I made you breakfast." Yuri stopped and motioned at the pancakes on his lap. "Go lie down."

"I can't. I have to go to work."

Yuri rolled forward and tugged Flynn's wrist. "You can eat breakfast in bed and then go to work. Come on, you're a wreck."

Flynn awkwardly turned around and then hopped back to the room. He had to admit, lying down to eat sounded nice. They both returned to bed and lounged among the blankets while eating Yuri's pancakes.

"Did you make these yourself?" Flynn asked as he balanced a plat on his knee.

"Yep. The innkeeper let us use the kitchen."

"Us?"

"Karol helped. Well, mostly he got things off shelves for me, but it was still help."

Yuri's pancakes were as delicious as ever. They were light and fluffy with just enough syrup and, since Yuri had made them, some chocolate chips scattered throughout. Flynn pointed this out, which naturally led to an argument about the pros of sugar and whether Yuri was actually a child. The bickering didn't stop until Yuri had thrown bacon at Flynn's face and they were both laughing.

"Ha…" Flynn panted, clutching his chest. "Stop. That hurts."

"You started it." Yuri lay on his back now, his plate cleared.

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Did not. And look out, you're going to smear syrup on your arm."

Yuri moved the plate to the bedside table. "Always looking out for me."

"Of course. But I do need to get going now. I have things to do with the knights and I can't spend all day lying around." He looked to the crutches leaning against the bed and concealed a scowl. He wished Estelle nothing but the speediest of recoveries, but he couldn't help feeling a little resentment that she'd exhausted herself right when he needed her healing the most.

"Hey, I was thinking." Yuri propped his head up on his hand. "You should take my chair to the office."

"What?" Flynn pulled his gaze from the crutches. "I couldn't."

"Go for it." He waved his other hand. "I don't want to see you kill yourself on those crutches. It would be one thing if it was just a broken leg, but you're aching all over and it's obviously causing you pain to use them.

Flynn shook his head. "You need it more than me. You wouldn't be able to leave bed if I took it."

"Yeah, I already talked to Estelle about this. She needs to spend the day in bed to recuperate, so she's going to come down here and we're going to lie in bed and play board games and stuff. I won't be using it, so you might as well save yourself some pain and roll to work."

"Well… I guess, but I'd feel bad restricting your movement. I'm not hurt that bad."

Yuri rolled his eyes. "I told you, it's fine. I'm one-hundred-percent cool with you taking my wheels for a spin today."

Flynn frowned and looked to the chair. "But…."

Yuri narrowed his eyes. "Is there something wrong with going out in a wheelchair?"

It suddenly occurred to Flynn that he would feel silly using the chair. He'd be gawked at and he wouldn't have a way to quickly explain he was… what? Not a real cripple? That this was just temporary? And why did that matter? He'd spent so long being frustrated with Yuri for not wanting to leave the house, and now he felt the exact same way. "Of course not." He pushed himself off the bed and then leaned on it to hop around to the other side. There was absolutely nothing to be ashamed of to be seen using the chair, and it would be a pretty shitty demonstration to Yuri to make it look like he thought there was. He eased himself into the seat and got settled. He had an easier time of this than Yuri did every day, since he didn't have to go through the hassle of leaning down and manually adjusting his legs.

"You're sure you wont need to get up?"

"I'm positive. If there's an emergency, Judy can carry me." He leaned over the bed and pecked Flynn's forehead. "Go get your work done and take care of my ride, ok?"

"I will. I'll try to be back by lunch." Flynn rolled backward and then took a moment to figure out how to turn around. When he finally managed, he'd only gone a few seconds before reaching the door and getting stuck again. He leaned forward to grab the handle, but when he started to open it, it bumped his feet. If he scooted back far enough to give the door room to open, he couldn't reach the knob. Flynn moved himself sideways, which itself was a complicated manoeuvrer that took over a minute of rolling back and forth to get the angle right, and then managed to pull the door open and then push it wide enough to get the chair through. Once in the hall, he leaned back to reach the doorknob to close it, but it was too far away.

"Er…." He glanced at Yuri, who was watching him with a smile. Yuri was enjoying this far too much. Flynn recalled that Yuri always grabbed the doorknob on his way through the door to shut it behind him, and he wondered how long it took him to get into that habit and learn how to streamline this process. He felt guilty, actually, that he didn't know the answer to that question. He remembered opening doors for Yuri in the hospital at first, but when had that stopped? He hadn't made note of it because going through a door was such a basic thing that it didn't stick out in his mind, but now that he had to figure out how to do this himself, it became clear that this was a much larger deal than he'd considered.

"Lady Estellise will be coming down soon. I'll just leave the door for her."

Yuri laughed. "Suit yourself."

Flynn felt the innkeeper watching him as he crossed the lobby but kept going to the door. He could feel himself being watch as he struggled with it again and was a little too excited at remembering to grab the knob on his way out. Once he was on the street, even more people looked at him. Flynn had never felt so self-conscious, even while walking through a crowd of knights all saluting him. Being looked at with respect was much different from being looked at with pity or curiosity. The going was slow and every time he got the wheel jammed on a bumpy piece of road or paused to rest his arms for a moment, he wanted to look around and see who was staring at him. No wonder it had taken so long for Yuri to get comfortable going outside.

Even more annoying was when he arrived at the Knight headquarters and rolled up to the main information desk to ask about Carter. The edge of the desk was level with his nose, forcing him to roll back and crane his neck. "Excuse me."

"Eh? Can I…" The knight on duty leaned over and looked down at him. "Oh! Commandant, sir!" He straightened up and saluted. "Sorry, sir, I wasn't expecting you down there."

"It's quite all right. I'd like to meet with your captain at his earliest convenience, and also talk to whoever is in charge of the prisoner Timothy Carter."

"Right away, sir!"

The knight ran off and Flynn sat by the desk to wait. Knights who walked by paused to greet him with a salute, but most of them had at least a small look of pity. He couldn't blame them, considering he was sitting in a wheelchair with a leg encased in plaster and twin black eyes, but it was just a small irritation on top of the indignity of having to look up at everyone. There was just something wrong with being saluted when you had to look up their nostrils. He had no right to be grumpy, he knew. He'd dealt with this for all of twenty minutes, while Yuri had been doing this for months.

A few minutes later, the knight returned to tell him the captain could see him in fifteen minutes and that he could see Carter now if he wanted. Flynn nodded and followed the knight through a back door to a row of cells.

At the end of the hall, the knight handed Flynn a folder and then left. Flynn let the file sit on his lap as he faced the cell. Through the bars, he saw Carter huddled on a bench, glaring at him.

"I'm honoured," Carter said. " A visit from the commandant him…" He wheezed for air and then grumbled, "Himself."

Flynn didn't say anything at first. He picked up the file and started skimming through the pages.

"What's with the chair? Did I manage to cripple you, too? Now that's an unexpected boon."

"Surprisingly," Flynn kept his eyes on the paper, "there are a number of reasons someone might use a wheelchair other than permanent paralysis."

"Heh… well… hope this one lasts for a while."

"Unlikely." Flynn closed the folder and rested it on his lap. "This is just temporary because my leg is broken. No long-term harm done, I'm afraid. I see you're to be transferred back to Zaphias to stand trial."

Carter held up his hands. "The justice system is so… so unfair. Always out to get poor little me."

"You can't honestly expect to get off again when you stabbed the princess."

"An innocent man always has hope."

"And so does a guilty one. The last time you imprisoned me, you were able to worm your way out of the charges with a blindfold, but no such luck this time. I had a very clear view of your face while you beat me, and there's little room for ambiguity in Lady Estellise's story."

"I found out that some dour criminal was using my family home to hold the commandant hostage so I came… came to rescue him. When I arrived, that deranged invalid Yuri Lowell attacked me in my own home and, sadly, the commandant suffered a…" he paused once more to pant, "...a head injury while being beaten that caused him to confuse the identity of his attacker."

Flynn's stare was wooden. "Uh-huh. And even if you convince a jury of that, you're still going back to prison with additional time for breaking out."

Carter shook his head with a frown. "This system is so corrupt."

"You'll be pleased to know that Yuri is doing well. I'd say at the moment, he's more physically fit than I am." Carter's hateful glare inspired him to keep going. "Lady Estellise is recovering fine, I have no long-term injuries, and I still haven't proved your hypothesis that any person could be driven to murder. It makes one wonder: what have you accomplished?"

Carter's glare narrowed and he panted for several seconds. "I'll always be remembered. I held Zaphias in fear for over a month."

"Except, hardly anyone knows your name. Most of the public just knows you by the nickname Heartbreaker. What was the point of anything you've done?"

He grinned. "You think the families of the victims will forget me?"

Flynn nodded slowly. "So was that it? You were suffering, so you wanted to make others suffer? You wanted to corrupt me to prove you weren't alone in that respect, and you wanted to make others feel pain and grief so you'd have company on that side, too."

Carter's infuriated silence was enough of a confirmation.

Flynn placed his hand over the file. "This says you only have a couple months left. It's a shame, really. You have wealth. You could have spent your final years supporting charitable causes, get your name on a plaque somewhere thanking you for your humanitarian efforts. You could have lived on in happy memories of hundreds of people. Instead, you're going to die alone in a cell while everyone else moves on with their lives and forgets about you. Have a good day, Mr. Carter. I'll see you in Zaphias."

As he left, Carter rose from the bench and staggered to the bars. "How dare you? You don't know anything! Y-y-you… hah… You're just trying to make yourself feel better. Don't you dare run away from me!"

Flynn looked over his shoulder. "It's too late to ask for that. I told you: the rest of us are moving on. You dug your own hole; now don't complain while we leave you behind."

Yuri lay in bed beside Flynn. It was the next day, and though they'd both be happy to lie here for hours, they had places to be. Flynn needed to head back to Zaphias for work, and Brave Vesperia needed to return to Dahngrest.

"How are you getting home?" Flynn asked. "Walking?"

Yuri gave him a look. "Well I'm certainly not."

"You know what I mean. Are Karol, Judith, and Repede walking?"

Yuri shook his head. "Ba'ul's picking us up. I don't think I could make the trip."

"I don't blame you." Flynn stretched his arms over his head. "I only pushed myself around for a few hours and that wore my arms out."

"Wimp."

"It's more strenuous than it looks."

"Yeah, well, we always knew I was stronger than you."

Flynn elbowed him in the ribs. "I can pretend to accept that if it makes you feel better. Anyway, Carter is coming back to Zaphias with me. Do you want to see him again before you leave?"

Yuri shook his head. "Nah. I don't have time for that waste of space. Besides, I have to see him again for the trial, right?"

"Yeah. You're all right with coming back for that?"

"Sure." Yuri folded his hands behind his head. "I'll help the justice system as much as I can. I just hope it works this time." He did feel a little weird about going to trial again. The last time had been such a disaster, and even though he was a lot more confident now, he still had nagging worries that everything would go pear-shaped again.

"I'm sure it will. He assaulted the princess and held the commandant hostage - there's no way he'll get off this time."

"Good luck." Yuri yawned and rested his head on Flynn's shoulder. "Damn. Why do I always have to get up on such lovely mornings?"

"Same here." Flynn patted Yuri's shoulder and then dragged himself out of bed. He balanced on the crutches and smiled down at Yuri in bed. "I've got to get ready to go, and you should too. It's been really nice to see you again."

"Even though you got your ass kicked?"

Flynn frowned. "Well… it hasn't been an entirely enjoyable trip."

"At least we got Carter. But yeah, it was bearable to see your dumb face, too."

"I'll see you in a month for the trial?"

Yuri nodded. "Yeah. See you in a month."