Nero was slumped in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the hospital's waiting area when Kyrie found him. He blinked up at her. "Hey, you got here fast."

"I left the house as soon as Lady called. Trish is staying with the boys." Nero's chair was at the end of a row, sandwiched between a heavily pregnant woman and a potted tree, so Kyrie knelt on the floor in front of him and took his hands. "Are you all right?"

"Me? I'm fine. We're all fine, except that girl." Nero leaned forward and laced his fingers with hers. "Well, Nico's got a couple scrapes that she won't shut up about, but she'll be fine after a couple aspirin. Or a stiff drink." He let his head sag. "Or maybe it's me that needs the drink."

Kyrie tipped her forehead to rest against his. "It wasn't your fault, Nero. Lady told me you tried to warn her."

"Maybe. But I can't help feeling like I should have handled this whole situation better. I still don't even know this kid's name, and now maybe she's scarred for life."

"She made a lot of choices that led her to this point." Kyrie's voice was soothing. "She chose to steal the bullets, she chose to run and fight instead of talking, and she chose not to listen to your warnings. It's tragic that she was injured, but you can't bear all the blame yourself."

The nurse at the admissions desk called a name, and the pregnant woman beside Nero stood and waddled through the door to the examination rooms. Kyrie slipped into the vacated seat. "Have they told you anything yet?"

Nero shook his head. "They took her back for treatment right away, but she's only been in there for about half an hour. The nurse asked me to stick around so they could get some more information, but…" He gestured to the waiting room, packed with dull-eyed patients waiting their turn. Most had been there since before Nero had arrived. "Fortuna's five-star health care in action. They haven't even asked me to sign the firearm injury report yet."

"Sister Benedicta told me once that the Order provided more than half the hospital's annual operating budget. Once the disaster relief funding ran out, they had to let a lot of the senior medical staff go." Kyrie glanced at the admissions desk and stood. "Let me see what I can do."

She returned a few minutes later with a clipboard and pen. "That nurse is the only one handling check-in for the entire emergency department, poor thing. But she gave me the papers they need filled out." She sat beside Nero and frowned. "Oh, dear, I don't know any of this."

Nero leaned over and scanned the form. "Patient's name, home address, personal physician… Yeah, that's gonna be a problem."

"Did she have any identification?"

"I didn't search her, but I doubt it. No bag, no obvious wallet. Just a beat-up revolver and some spare rounds in her pockets."

"Well, I'm sure they have some protocol for admitting unknown patients. They have to be able to help accident victims, after all." She ran a finger down the page. "Age. How old did you say she looked?"

"Sixteen, maybe seventeen. It's hard to tell; she's pretty petite. Could be eighteen and underfed, I guess."

"But she's probably a minor." Kyrie hooked her lower lip with her teeth. "How likely is it that she has a legal guardian?"

Nero gave her a cautious look. "Not very, given that squatter's nest we found. What are you thinking?"

"That if she doesn't have anyone to claim her, she could be released into the care of the orphanage."

"Right. Because the orphanage needs more kids. Especially ones who go around stealing guns and shooting at people." Nero rotated in his seat to stare at her. "And don't forget that she's most likely the one who summoned a horde of demons in the orphanage's back yard."

"I know." Kyrie sighed. "I was just trying to think of some place she could go that wasn't a detention cell. She'll need time to recover from her injuries."

"Maybe a cell is what she needs, if she's in this much trouble. It would give her time to think about her life choices and where they'll land her."

"Maybe she wouldn't be in this much trouble if she'd had somewhere to go in the first place."

There was no arguing with that; Nero knew his own life could have turned out very differently without Sister Benedicta's discipline, Credo's mentoring, and Kyrie's unfailing affection. Given his rough personality and violent occupation, he knew many people still thought him a borderline case. "I think you should talk it over with Sister Benedicta, at least."

"Oh, I wouldn't do anything without her approval. I was just trying to plan."

Nero could see the gears turning in Kyrie's head. "She's not coming home with us. I don't want her anywhere near—"

"I wouldn't think of putting her under the same roof as our children," Kyrie assured him.

"I was going to say 'my gun,' but that, too." He grinned and ducked as she swatted at him with the clipboard. "What? You know how attached I am to Blue Rose."

"I know. You have three great loves in your life, and two of them are made of steel." Kyrie shot him a look. "Given my lack of demon-killing power, I suppose I should just be grateful to have made the top three."

"You are at the very top of the list," he assured her. "A whole line item above Red Queen."

"What a relief." Kyrie glanced over his shoulder as though she expected to see the sword on his back. "Speaking of which, where is she?"

"Out in the van with Nico and Lady. After what happened last time, we didn't want to leave that much firepower sitting unattended in a parking lot."

"That's probably for the best." Kyrie sighed as she looked over the clipboard again. "Look, why don't you three head home? Lady told me everything that happened, and I can fail to answer these questions as well as you can."

Nero frowned. "But as slow as this place is running, you could be here for hours yet. That time Carlo sprained his wrist, we were here until four in the morning."

"That's why I'm suggesting you go. Whenever the Nilepoch returns, you need to be ready for it. I don't want you going into a fight tired and unprepared because you had to spend twelve hours in a plastic chair." She smiled. "The most strenuous thing I have on my agenda for tomorrow is cooking, and I can do that in my sleep."

"You won't have to," Nero assured her. "I can boil water too, you know." He leaned over and kissed her cheek. "You sure you want to stay? Because I was already planning on it, so if you'd rather be home…"

"Nero, it's fine," she insisted. "Really. I don't mind, and I know you'd be climbing the walls within an hour. If they ask me anything about what happened that I can't answer, I'll just call home. And this way, if I need to make any special arrangements for the girl, I'll already be here."

Nero wasn't sure he liked the sound of "special arrangements," but he knew better than to stand in the way of Kyrie's charity. "All right. I'll see you at home, whenever you get out of here."

"I'll call if I'm going to be late," she promised.


Kyrie was, indeed, late.

She called several hours later to say that she would miss dinner, then called back an hour after that to say that there were complications and she didn't know when she'd be home. "The girl is being very evasive," she sighed. Nero heard the frustration seeping into her voice. "She won't even give us her full name."

"Did she give you any name at all?"

"She says her name is Gigi, but I don't exactly believe her. Gigi is usually a French name, unless it's short for something, but she has a definite Italian accent."

"She could have had a French parent, but grown up in Italy," Nero offered. "Or her folks could have just picked a name they liked."

"True. But she also won't give a home address or her parents' names. She claims she's eighteen, but she had the same look on her face when she said that as when she told us her name, so I think she's probably younger."

"Has she said anything about what she was doing, or why she was summoning demons?"

"Not a word. Right now the hospital staff are just trying to figure out what to do with her. They can't turn her over to the authorities as an unattended minor unless she admits that she's under eighteen. They can't release her from the hospital until someone agrees to be responsible for her, since she can't care for herself until her hands heal. She has no proof of residency, so they can't provide ongoing medical treatment, beyond the basic first aid they're legally required to give, unless someone steps up to cover the cost of her hospital stay. I spoke to a constable, who said the police can't take action on any firearm-related charges or the theft and vandalism without official statements from you and Nico. If you want to press charges for any of the crimes she's committed, you can, but they can't proceed with booking until she's able to be taken into custody, and that goes back to someone being medically responsible for her. Which is beyond their purview." Kyrie sighed. "As long as she refuses to identify herself, there's really nothing anyone can do."

"Which ties our hands, too. Even if we wanted to question her ourselves, we don't have the time to take care of her, and we certainly can't pay for her medical bills. Especially given how much she's already cost us in repairs to the van," Nero added under his breath. "Anyway, it sounds like there's nothing more you can do there."

"I'm afraid I can't come home just yet. I'm on babysitting duty."

Nero stared at the receiver for a few seconds before placing it back against his ear. Nico had disconnected the wiretap when they'd returned home, so the sound was clearer than it had been, but he still doubted he'd heard correctly. "Did you just say babysitting?"

"You can call it guard duty, if you prefer. One of the nurses caught our young friend trying to sneak out a fire exit after the constable left. She was attempting to disconnect the alarm. Fortunately for us, she couldn't quite manage it with her hands bandaged, but it means she can't be left unsupervised. The ward supervisor is trying to arrange for a volunteer to come in and keep an eye on her overnight, but until they find someone, I'm sitting in the ward to make sure she doesn't do anything foolish." Kyrie's breath huffed across the mouthpiece. "Well. Anything more foolish than she already has done."

Those were strong words coming from Kyrie, and Nero wondered how much of a pain the girl had made herself throughout the day. "Can't they just lock her in?"

"The ward doors don't lock. It would violate fire code. Besides, there are windows, and I wouldn't put it past her to try to climb out of one, even from the second floor." Kyrie's voice went faint for a few seconds as she turned away from the receiver. "Oh, the nurse who was covering for me is waving; I'd better go. I'll be home when I can, but it will probably be late. Don't wait up."

"All right." Nero didn't like any of this, but he didn't know what else to suggest. If they lost track of the girl now, they'd likely never find her again. "Make sure they feed you, okay?"

"I'll be fine. Tell the children I'll see them at breakfast."

"Will do. Love you."

"I love you, too. Good night." The connection cut off, and Nero sighed as he replaced the receiver. He didn't enjoy sleeping apart from Kyrie, though he was resigned to the occasional lonely night when it was made necessary by his work or her duties at the orphanage. This lost night, however, he resented. There was no reason that Kyrie, who worked harder and was spread thinner than anyone he knew, should have to give up her precious hours of sleep to watch over a delinquent teenager who seemed determined to interfere with every part of Nero's life and livelihood. If it were left up to him, he'd just handcuff the girl to a piece of furniture and leave her to work out how to get an entire bedframe down the fire escape.

The children were piled in the living room, absorbed in various homework or play activities when he joined them. Nico had gone home after dinner, but Lady was seated on the couch with Flavia perched in her lap, practically purring as her copper hair was brushed. Scipio, Kyle and Rosso had the art supply box spread out between them on the floor; Scipio and Kyle were coloring, while Rosso navigated a complicated maze he'd found in one of the puzzle books. Julio frowned at a math problem, while beside him, Zaffiro was deeply ensconced in a hardback book. Only Carlo was missing, which meant he was the one Nero had heard splashing in the bath.

It was so quiet and peaceful, Nero hated to break the silence to tell them about Kyrie. He perched on the arm of the couch beside Zaffiro and glanced down at the dense book in his lap. "Whatcha reading?" he asked quietly.

Zaffiro lifted the book to show him the cover, and Nero's eyebrows rose. "Wow. Jules Verne, huh? I thought you'd finished all our books. Where'd you find that one?"

"Julio got it for me." Zaffiro's eyes returned to the page, skimming the text with almost supernatural speed—which, Nero realized, it might well be.

Nero's questioning gaze shifted to Julio, who had looked up at the mention of his name. "School library," he answered the unspoken question. "Since he stays home all day, I thought he might want something longer to read."

"That was thoughtful of you." Julio beamed at Nero's praise. "Have you read this one?"

Julio nodded. "I liked it a lot. Mr. Bellini says Jules Verne wrote a whole bunch of books, but the library only has two of them."

"Huh." Nero's eyes shifted over one place on the couch. "I bet Lady can find them somewhere on the mainland."

"Jules Verne? Oh, definitely. His works are in the public domain, so they're pretty easy to source." She looked up from Flavia's hair, which she was now twisting into a French braid. "Have you ever read any H. G. Wells?"

Julio shook his head. "What did he write?"

"A lot of early science fiction. Time travel, space aliens, that sort of thing, but written around the same time as Verne. I'll look for some of his books next time I'm back home."

"That would be great! Thanks!" Julio tapped his pencil against his math homework. "I wish we had a real library here. Mr. Bellini said there used to be one as big as our whole school in the city center."

"Yeah, I remember going there when I was a kid. It was a nice place, big domed roof and everything. It got destroyed in the, uh, earthquake." Nero had seen the damage firsthand. Part of a hellgate had fallen on the building, collapsing the beautiful dome, and flooding from broken water lines had destroyed the stacks. By the time cleanup efforts had been organized, standing water and black mold had ensured that there was nothing left to salvage.

Mention of the disaster had dampened the comfortable mood, and Lady changed the subject. "So what did Kyrie have to say? I assume that was her on the phone."

"She's staying late with our friend Gigi at the hospital." At that, two of the heads on the couch twisted sharply toward Nero.

"Easy there, Little Miss." Lady gently turned Flavia's head to face forward again and resumed the braid. "You almost took my fingers off, whipping around like that. Hold still; I'm almost finished."

Julio's concern was more predictable; hospital had been a trigger word for him ever since his father's death. "But Kyrie's just visiting someone, right?"

"Right. This girl got hurt today and needed someone to look after her, so Kyrie volunteered."

Carlo, damp-haired and clad in pajamas, had rejoined the group while Nero was speaking. "Kyrie's not coming back tonight?"

"Don't worry; she'll be back by morning." Nero glanced around at the rest of the children. Only Scipio seemed to be following their conversation closely. "She said to tell you all good night, and she'll see you at breakfast."

Lady tied off Flavia's braid with an elastic band. "Gigi, huh?"

"Yeah. That's what she said." Nero expressed his own disbelief with a movement of his eyebrows. "Nothing else to report."

Lady took his meaning and nodded. "Well, if Kyrie's not here, I guess that means I'm on tucking-in duty, right?" She tickled Flavia's ribs lightly, and the little girl squirmed and laughed in her lap. "It's almost time for bed, Little Miss. Why don't you go get your jammies on?"

Flavia twisted around, her brow crinkled in the expression that appeared whenever she encountered a novel word. "Jammies?"

"It's a fun way of saying pajamas."

"Jammies," Flavia repeated as she jumped down. "Pajamas. Jammies." With this new item fixed in her vocabulary, she trotted off to the bedroom.

"Hey, now that Carlo's out of the bath, some of you could be brushing your teeth," Nero said to the room at large. "We've got ten people to cycle through one sink." Nobody moved, and Nero decided to run youngest to oldest. "Kyle, Scipio, you go first."

The boys reluctantly abandoned their activity books and left the room, and Nero did a quick head count. "Wait a minute, there should be seven people here. Who's missing?"

Lady looked around. "Besides Kyrie?"

"She's number eleven." Nero blinked. "Trish! Where's Trish?"

"Oh, right. I didn't know you were counting her. She went out for dessert."

"Dessert?"

"Pie, I suspect." Lady gave him a look. "You know, the thin kind that comes pre-sliced."

Nero sighed. Trish hadn't seemed as enamored of Nero's thrown-together spaghetti Bolognese as she had been with Kyrie's lasagna, so it came as little surprise that she'd gone out in search of pizza. "I guess she…" He trailed off as something occurred to him, and consciously bit back an expletive. "I'm an idiot."

Lady's eyebrows arched. "I'm not commenting either way until I know what prompted that thought."

Nero stood and beckoned her to follow him into the hall, lowering his voice so the children wouldn't hear. "Gigi tried to break out of the hospital earlier. The police won't take her into custody as long as she's injured, which is why someone has to sit up all night in the ward to keep her from trying to run again. But the hospital couldn't find anyone on short notice. That's why Kyrie's stuck there overnight. I didn't even think of Trish."

"You're right; that's the perfect job for her. She doesn't need sleep, and she could even keep her feet up the whole time."

"And eat all the pizza she wants. That place even delivers to the hospital." Nero glanced toward the front door. "I don't suppose you know where she's likely to have holed up?"

Lady shook her head. "I'd say lurking on someone's roof, but I suspect that's too much jumping for her leg right now. She was moving pretty slowly. She might just be parked on a bench somewhere."

"Damn. If I could find her, I could have her relieve Kyrie early enough that she could still get a decent night's sleep." Nero sighed. "I guess we'll have to wait until she comes back on her own. If she even comes back tonight."

"Even if she doesn't, it's just one night. Kyrie said she'd be back by morning, and we know Trish won't miss breakfast. We'll sort it out then." She stood aside as Carlo and Kyle emerged from the bathroom. "Meanwhile, I'm inclined to hit the hay early, myself. It's been a long day, and I have a feeling we're going to need to stockpile as much sleep as we can. It's only a matter of time until things here dial up to our usual level of excitement."

It was, of course, only a figure of speech. But long after that night was over, when the screams and sobs no longer rang fresh in his ears, Nero would reflect on Lady's words and wonder if they had been prophetic.


NOTES:

(Yes, getting the bedframe down the fire escape was a Goodbye Piccadilly reference. I couldn't resist.)

This chapter was pretty light because the next couple chapters are a bit more… intense. You've been warned.