By the time Grace had woken up she couldn't remember who long she'd been asleep. Her dream had been illuminating but waking up from it she was met with the reality of the situation she was in. She wanted to protect the Apex kids, to get them home safely, but how could she do that from the inside of a cell. She hadn't even talked to any of them since she'd been locked as she was sure Simon had made them swear not to talk to her or something like that. She was sure if she could just talk to even one of them, if she could explain to them that she'd been wrong about numbers and wanted to help them the right way, Grace was sure that they'd listen.
But it was unlikely that a situation where that would be possible was going to arise. After all with the kids being on a no talking order against her it was unlikely that one of them would go against Simon and reach out. And with her leg being in the state it was… Grace looked down at her leg, the swelling had gone down but it was still fairly busted up and without access to some crutches even if she did escape her restraints again she would be stuck here for the time being. Which of course was exactly what Simon had intended. Grace sighed, at least until her leg healed, getting even one chance to convince the children was going to take nothing short of a miracle.
Grace heard the door creak and cringed at the prospect of having to interact with Simon once again. The only interaction she wanted with him at this point was one that she made sure would be their last but without a plan for the time being it seemed as though she'd be doomed to suffer through however long of Simon's seemingly never ending cavalcade of torment until he was satisfied. However as the door opened that was not what Grace was greeted with. Rather in front of her stood one of the Apex's own. Due to the darkness Grace found it a bit hard to make out exactly who stood in front of her but she quickly determined that the girl who had entered her prison was Serina. That was a thing about Grace, all of the Apex kids blended together for Simon who constantly had to be reminded of names but Grace; Grace never forgot one of her kids.
"I-I was just supposed to bring you your food and I know I'm not allowed to talk to you but something happened and Nick is hurt and Simon's not here and I don't know what to do-" the girl started crying. Grace didn't even register that Simon had left, one of the kids was hurt and that was far more important. However she couldn't do much from the position she was currently in to fix that. In her most calm voice she did her best to instruct the girl.
"Hey, hey, Serina it's okay. I'm going to help you, everything is going to be okay. What I need you to do is bring me the key to these," she moved her hands in the handcuffs to demonstrate. "And I need you to bring me some crutches. Is that okay?" she asked in her trademark soothing voice. The girl seemed more calm and nodded.
"I already have the key," she said wiping her tears. "I'll go get the crutches." she said before scrambling off. As she did Grace held her breath. The timing of everything had been incredibly convenient but she wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. Besides that Grace had no clue what it was that could have possessed Simon to leave the car unattended. Knowing him it was likely something that was going to be used to try and ruin her life but that wasn't what she wanted to think about. Serina returned with the crutches and freed Grace from her restraints. Grace knew she could have gotten out without the girls help but in case this was a trap it was likely in her best interest to not give away exactly the level of freedom she was able to acquire. Grace struggled a bit on the crutches at first but with a bit of help from Serina she was able to exit her prison.
"Where is he?" she asked the girl. As she led her towards where the injured child was Grace felt oddly calmed and disturbed by being within the mall car properly. The few times she'd been out of her prison since Simon's takeover she'd been being held by the children before promptly being made unconscious so simply walking around the car and seeing how both familiar and foreign it felt was certainly a change. As she approached the infirmary she found it crowded with children who were concerned for their friend and as more of the Apex caught sight of her an even larger crowd developed of children some who were frightened some who were excited and most who were confused. Grace resisted the urge to give each of them a hug and approached the cot where Nick was holding his arm in pain.
The first thing Grace noticed was the extreme amount of blood, likely what had made Serina concerned enough to go get her in the first place. Grace wasn't squeamish about blood but that level of bleeding wasn't pretty. Methodically Grace grabbed a washcloth, wet it in warm water and moved toward him. When the child uncovered his eyes and his arm he looked like he'd seen a ghost. Grace supposed that was a fair reaction as she cleaned the blood off and silently prayed. "Please let this be a surface injury, please let this be a surface injury." Grace finished wiping off the cut to see that her prayers had been answered as despite the level of bleeding the cut wasn't very deep. She sterilized the wound with peroxide and put gauze and medical tape over it. Now there was silence as no one could seem to decide what to do at seeing Grace freed from her prison least of all Grace herself. Still, she spoke anyway.
"Apex, i've missed you all." she said to them. It seemed that she'd discovered some kind of code phrase with how quickly the children devolved into tears at hearing her address them so fondly. Many of the younger ones ran up and hugged her tears in their eyes as they squeezed her so tight Grace was sure she'd fall over. The older ones, considering themselves to cool for that simply wiped their tears and pretended not to be happy to see her. Many of the kids tried to offer explanations for their heel turns. A chorus of,
"We're sorry we hurt you, we didn't want to upset Simon." and all it's variations could be heard coming from the children as they seemingly felt shame over their role and guilt for her predicament. Grace refused to allow them to feel responsible for the things that had happened to her when they'd simply been acting out of fear rather than malice. Grace knew she'd have to make an address towards the children as she had no clue how much time she'd have before the return of Simon. She had so much she wanted to tell the children, so much she wanted to explain. Looking into the eyes of the people who Grace had wanted to protect, who she had led astray she came up with a plan.
Out of habit after freeing herself from the countless hugs she was receiving Grace made her way over to the escolato with the intention of ascending it to give an address before realizing exactly how much she was unable to do in her current physical state. Not wanting to dwell on that Grace instead simply turned towards the Apex to give her address.
"Apex, I know that many things have happened and first I want you all to know I'm not mad at you for everything that happened. You all are kids, and you all did what you thought you had to do. But, there is another important thing I have to tell you. And that is that I was wrong, about nulls, about numbers, about the train. I was wrong about a lot of things and I passed that wrong information on to you all. I want to fix that, I want to help you all the right way. But first, I need you all to leave, and go as many cars away as you can." As Grace finished her speech many of the kids whispered confused at the information they'd just received which Grace expected.
"I know it's a lot to take in but I need you all to trust me. I'm going to do what I should have done a long time ago." she said. Once again the children whispered however this time one of them actually addressed Grace.
"If we leave won't Simon get upset?" she asked. Grace understood that by upset the child had actually meant mad. It made Grace angry to think about how she'd manipulated the kids and it made her even angrier to think about how Simon had used fear to keep the kids in line. To deal with the first Grace was going to help the kids get home and make sure they learned what they needed to learn in order to grow. As for the second;
"I'm going to make sure that Simon isn't a problem for you all ever again okay." she offered. As she hoped most of the kids didn't know what she was referring to and those who did kept it to themselves. "Now, go pack your stuff and get as far away as you can, as soon as it's safe I'm going to come find you. Everyone,watch out for each other, and no one leave anyone else behind."she said. The kids seemingly agreed as they all scrambled off to grab their stuff and prepare to vacate the car as Grace had requested. She was happy to see the first part of her plan go off so smoothly and as she saw the Apex kids leave she could at least be content in the knowledge that however her plan ended up she'd at least have put some distance between them and the car.
Now she had a choice to make. As she'd determined in her dream she didn't really want to consider how she would kill Simon but Grace understood that not having a plan would lead to disaster. Considering the state of her leg she knew that a fair fight wouldn't be favorable, she'd have to catch him off guard and then do something sighed as she realized that the best way to do that would be to return to her prison. Whatever Simon had left the car for it almost certainly had something to do with her and he'd likely go see her as soon as he returned.
In addition, if he noticed the absence of the children he'd also likely find her and demand an answer as to where they were. After making sure that each of the kids had left the car Grace found herself a weapon and returned to her prison leaving her crutches off to the side, out of Simon's field of vision but close enough that she'd be able to leave quickly. She hated this room, hated that she had to stay here even a second longer but it was all a part of her plan. At the very least as she sat within her prison cell Grace could take comfort in one thought. "Simon has no idea what he's walking into.