Hare and Hatter
Why on earth did this chapter take so long? Well, mostly because we've reached the fallout and the finale of this story and I've been working on it for so long that the thought of that is quite intimidating. It has to be right! I have to know what I'm doing! And that takes some planning (plus I somewhat changed my mind about where I'm leaving this story thread-wise). So, sorry about that guys, I'll try to make sure the next chapter doesn't take quite as long. Thanks for sticking with me folks!
This is also known as the chapter where everyone holds each other's hands a lot. Well, there was some almost dying going on so I don't blame them.
Part Three
Chapter Fifty
Liam could hear that there were people around him, though everything they said was muffled as if he was hearing it through several layers of cloth. For some reason he couldn't open his eyes, his body felt too heavy to move but he wasn't overly worried about it. He usually preferred to be always occupied with something or other but at the moment it felt incredibly good to just lay where he was and drift.
Sometimes he recognized the voices, once he even thought he distantly heard a hissed argument in voices that sounded like Lord Barma and Break, another time he definitely heard Miss Sharon reading something that sounded like a romance novel out loud. Other voices sounded more like a doctor and a nurse conversing in low tones and once he heard Miss Alice's voice whispering something about the price of lending power.
It was a long time before he could find the motivation to pull his eyes open, to rouse himself out of the comfortable drift he was caught in, but eventually he followed the words of a scintillating tale of romance up into consciousness.
When he opened his eyes he didn't recognize the ceiling above him, it looked nothing like the cracked plaster of his own quarters at Pandora. He tipped his head to the side, toward where the romance narrative coming from and saw Miss Sharon sitting in a chair pulled up to his bedside, a book she was reading from held delicately in her hands. She looked like she hadn't gotten much sleep lately.
He must have made a noise because Miss Sharon glanced up and dropped her book into her lap. "You're awake."
"Does-" Liam had to break off to clear his throat before continuing, "Does she actually run off with Lord Gency?"
For a moment she blinked at him, then she glanced down at the book in her lap and gave a weak chuckle. "She comes to her senses halfway through and realizes he's a short sighted idiot and that running away with him will cause her family no small amount of distress. So she does the sensible thing and stays. Then she works toward getting her family to accept him."
"Really?" he asked.
"No. This is a romance novel." She scooped the book up and laid it aside, "She runs off with him and the family is at wits end trying to figure out what happened to her until it's too late for them to stop her getting married to him. But it all works out to a very sweet romance in the end as these things tend to." Standing Miss Sharon briskly smoothed her skirts. "How do you feel?"
He carefully levered himself into a sitting position, surprised to find how much effort it took. Something throbbed on his shoulder and his head ached. "As if I had decided to run four miles while being chased by something very unpleasant," He shifted and his leg sent up a violent protest, "Something unpleasant with teeth. What happened?"
Miss Sharon moved to shift the pillows behind him so they helped prop him up, answering his question with one of her own. "What do you remember?"
"I remember…" he cast his mind back, looking for the last thing he could call up. It felt harder than it should have. "There were Baskervilles in the headquarters, they were led by Lord Vincent. One of them set their Chain on me…" which explained the wounds, now he remembered exactly what those teeth had been attached to, "Then I got to the ballroom… there was someone, they helped me… there was a fight, Lord Vincent fought Break and… it didn't go well…"
"…and?" Miss Sharon prompted gently when he paused.
"I used my Chain." he said quietly.
"Yes," she said, "You did. It was… quite the surprise." The look she gave him was guarded. "You lost consciousness, after you dismissed Hare, I mean. We all worried… you've been asleep for five days."
That explained why Hare was chittering quietly in the back of his mind. It had been a long time since his Chain had done more than murmured sad bits of words to him at infrequent intervals. He couldn't quite catch what it was that Hare was saying but the overall feeling of contentedness he got from him made him not that worried about it.
"It feels like it's been longer." He gingerly put a hand to his shoulder, feeling where the bandages started, "How badly…"
She took his hand away from his shoulder, holding it carefully between hers. "Don't poke at it. Mister Erikson came back from the field two days ago so he was able to heal a great deal of the damage but you know his Chain's power has limits. Your shoulder still needed stitches when he was done and he said you shouldn't put weight on your leg for a few more days. The muscle needs time to heal without stress before he could take out the stitches from it as well. Everything else," Her thumb stroked the back of his hand, there had been a bruise there, Liam remembered but it was gone now, "Mister Erikson was able to heal. Except for whatever your Chain did to you."
"What my Chain did to me?" He echoed, frowning, "Hare didn't do anything to me."
"You collapsed." Miss Sharon said and there was the slightest hint of tears in her voice, a slight over-brightness about her eyes, "Whatever March Hare and Mad Hatter did together it didn't draw power from Xerxes at all, it drew it from you. We were so worried that it had hurt you, that you wouldn't wake up or would be-" she cut herself off and drew a deep breath before shaking her head. "You gave us quite a scare."
He covered her hands with his free one. "I'm sorry. I didn't intend to. I was just… Break was in trouble and I had to help him."
"I know." she said. "You're… not wearing your earrings at the moment, is that going to be a problem? Because Xerxes is probably going to be back soon."
Reaching up he checked his ears and was surprised to find that she was right, he'd worn them for so long that he'd taken for granted that the earrings would be there. But, no, he remembered now taking them off, he'd had to before he could even contact Hare. That explained why Hare hadn't faded back to a shadow in his mind.
As if roused by the thought Hare made a pleased noise in the back of his mind and went back to chattering to himself. "No," he said, "I don't think it will be. The power they had… I don't think it's needed anymore."
"Good." Miss Sharon said, "Xerxes has been visiting quite often, honestly the only reason he isn't here right now is that I made him go get something to eat. Something that isn't a sweet."
"How is he?" He asked.
"Using his powers didn't seem to hurt him as much as it normally would," she told him. "And I think most of the after-effects were from when he used his power before you let your Chain loose. Before destroying two Chains would have had quite the toll on his health. Now… now he's not perfectly healthy, but he we both know he never was to begin with."
"That's good. He can't afford to loose anymore of his health to using Hatter."
Miss Sharon set his hand back down and sighed. "He told me, you know, about his eyes. Right before the party." At Liam's frown and nod she gave him a small smile, "I knew you would have known. You're too close to have missed it. I'm just glad he trusted me enough to finally tell me what was wrong."
There was a pause and she took a breath, "I knew something was going on- with you and your Chain and Xerxes. I've known for a long time. I'm sorry I never tried to help you with your Chain… and with Lord Barma."
"I never asked for help… with either of those things." he glanced down at his hands, without gloves now, with the scars bare for the world to see. "I'd been working on the Chain problem, I almost had it solved before the party. I found records that would have told me everything but…" he touched his left ear, feeling again the lack of earring, "I kept forgetting everything I'd read, it was quite frustrating. If the Baskervilles hadn't been there I had planned to just steal the book and ask you to read it for me."
"I suppose we'll never know now if that would have worked." Miss Sharon said, "I wish this could have come out without so much hurt to others."
"What happened to Lord Vincent?" Liam asked, remembering now how he'd fallen after Hatter had destroyed his Chains.
"He's in a cell," she told him, her nose wrinkling in distaste, "But since the doctors have yet to get any words that make sense from him I don't think he's a danger to anyone at the moment. Surprise has been expressed that he is even still alive, two Chains' death would have usually killed a contractor and an illegal one should have dragged him back to the Abyss."
"Does anyone know why he survived?"
"Not yet." Her mouth twitched, "But I have to admit, no one has really looked into it deeply yet. Pandora is more concerned with how he managed to stay here so long without anyone finding out he was feeding information to the Baskervilles. And, more importantly, how he smuggled that many of them in. They've been looking into that very intently."
Liam glanced around the room, "Is this Pandora then… it… doesn't look like my room though."
"It is, but we didn't want to move you excessively so you're in one of the ground floor rooms. Of course now that you're awake Grandmother will no doubt make arrangements for you to come to recover in the Rainsworth household."
"That's very generous of her." Liam said and he caught the flicker of something odd that slid across Miss Sharon's face, "What is it?"
She laced her hands in front of her, "Lord Barma was very vocal in his demands to have you removed to the Barma household before you woke. Thankfully the doctors were just as adamant that you shouldn't be moved too much and no one wanted the healing Mister Erikson did to be undone by jostling your wounds too much. Oz and Gilbert are distracting him, I think Grandmother is helping, we won't let you be taken to that house again."
"I- you didn't have to go to that much trouble," he stuttered but she shook her head.
"Liam, we're all tired of seeing this happen, I'm tired of seeing you hurt. Friends are supposed to do this, they're supposed to help you when you're in trouble. So that's what we did." She gave his arm a gentle pat, "And we're glad to do it because you would have done the same for me or Gilbert or any of us. So don't you dare get all flustered about it. The doctors will be quite annoyed at me, none of us were supposed to upset you when you woke."
There was the scuff of a boot by the door and Liam looked up in time to see a flick of white. "Wait." He called and had to clear his throat to try again, louder, "Wait. Come back."
Miss Sharon gave a small smile and retook her seat, looking amused.
"I know you're there." Liam told the person who must have been standing just to the side of the doorway from the part of the white sleeve he could see. "Come in."
There was a long pause and then Break stepped into the doorway, pausing uncertainly before stepping in.
In the back of his mind Liam felt Hare rouse with interest and he couldn't keep the smile from his face as he reached out a hand to him, palm up. "Hello, Xerxes."
His sight seemed not to have faded so far that he couldn't see the hand offered because Break took it at once, holding his hand carefully between his. It was like a piece that Liam hadn't known was missing had slotted into place, like coming home after being gone for a long, long time, their hands fit easily together and their Chains both made sounds of contentment.
Both men breathed a sigh of relief and Break's lips curved up into a smile very unlike the wide, foolish ones he so often flash around. "Hello, Liam." he said quietly. "I'm glad you're awake."
TBC
