Elizabeth McCord stormed down the corridors of St. Anne's, her terror and the harsh fluorescent lights tunneling her vision as her feet pounded the linoleum.
Stomping along beside her, her daemon's long legs matched hers stride for stride.
Casualties from the conference spilled out from every room and into the hallways of the isolation unit, and the two of them had to dodge countless gurneys and IV poles as they made their way through the labyrinth.
The ward teemed, too, with an endless stream of doctors and nurses and orderlies, but they and all their rabbit and spaniel and iguana daemons leapt out of the way at the sight of the Secretary of State and a very large, very striking bird bearing down upon them.
ooo
The motorcade was careening through the chaotic streets of Washington when Elizabeth finally managed to get a hold of her children.
"Mom," Jason cried. "Dad went back inside!"
Elizabeth's heart plunged all the way down to her stomach. On the seat beside her, Adrastos threw back his crested head and let out a single, shrill croak. "What?" she breathed, her faint voice hitching in her throat.
The car swerved wildly, pitching her against the door.
"After the bomb went off," her son sniffled, "he went back in to help."
The tires struck a pothole, the resounding jolt leaving her stomach spinning somewhere on the road behind them.
"Please," Jason whimpered tearfully, "Nobody will tell us anything about Dad. Please, you need to come find him."
"Negative, Ma'am," Jimmy replied, when she ordered them to turn the motorcade around. "We're under strict protocol to get you to the White House bunker."
Elizabeth and Adrastos demanded and pleaded and screamed obscenities at the front seat, they swung fists and clawed with talons, but Jimmy and his daemon fended them off, thwarting all their hysterical attempts to seize control of the vehicle. Undeterred, Frank hunched resolutely over the steering wheel, and kept them on their course.
His head down, his ladybug daemon in her usual spot on his shoulder, it was Blake and his backchanneling who ultimately broke the stalemate. Tuning out the commotion beside him as the Secretary and her daemon railed against her security detail, he merely jabbed away at his Blackberry, quietly sending out an urgent message to his counterparts right at the top.
Three minutes, one radioed command, and a squealing U-turn later, the motorcade was on its way into Virginia.
Panting, Elizabeth slumped back against her seat, the back of one hand pressed to her mouth; his feathers quivering, Adrastos clambered silently into her lap and tucked his head inside the collar of her blouse, right up against her racing heartbeat. She wrapped her arms securely around him and pulled him close, her knee bouncing up and down, her lips a grim line on her face.
Not waiting for the car to come to a complete stop, Elizabeth and her daemon threw themselves from the vehicle the moment it pulled up in front of the hospital, leaving half a dozen jittery DS agents to give chase in their wake.
ooo
Her heart battered relentlessly against her ribs, so hard that she thought it might explode like the bomb, but Elizabeth wouldn't, couldn't slow down even for a second – with Blake dispatched to track down the kids, nothing else mattered in the entire world except reaching her husband's side.
Just when it seemed that they would never find their way out of this maze, the passageway opened up, widening into a bustling reception area.
"Henry, where are you?" Elizabeth moaned, her chest heaving as she came to a halt, scanning the buzzing hive of activity. "Dras, do you see him?"
Adrastos craned his neck around, his keen eyes searching, but Henry and his daemon were nowhere to be found.
Spying a woman in a white coat, an osprey daemon perched on her shoulder, Elizabeth made a beeline over to the front desk. Beside her, Adrastos continued to scour the room.
"Where is my husband?" Elizabeth demanded breathlessly. "Henry McCord, where is he?"
The doctor glanced up from her chart. "Ma'am—"
An angry, desperate wildfire flared back to life inside Elizabeth. "No, don't Ma'am me," she snapped, slapping one hand down on the desk. "Just show me where he is."
Neither the doctor nor her daemon so much as batted an eye. "Your husband is showing symptoms of radiation poisoning," she said. "We're administering DTPA and Prussian Blue, but we won't know his prognosis for a few hours. Until then, I'm afraid you won't be able to—"
"Elizabeth," keened Adrastos, spreading his wings and half-running, half-flying towards a room at the opposite end of the hall, his feathers flapping against the glass.
Her daemon's flash of recognition seizing her heart a split-second before the words were on his tongue, Elizabeth sprinted only a couple places behind him.
Henry, her heart cried.
In a small, private room, on an enormous bed designed for the comfort of even the largest of bear and lion daemons, was her husband. The lights were dimmed and his eyes were closed, but his limbs spasmed with cramps so strong she could see them through the window.
His daemon, a beautiful grey screech-owl, trembled in the curve of his neck.
"He was agitated in the ambulance, so we've given him something to help him sleep," the doctor explained, reaching them.
But they were already fighting off the sedation, Elizabeth could see at once, watching Henry's head thrash about on the pillow, his daemon convulsing violently.
She fumbled for the door handle.
"Stop!" cautioned the doctor. "It's not safe to go in there, not until we get his test results back."
But Elizabeth paid no heed to the warning, wrenching open the door just far enough for her and her daemon to slip into the room.
Stirring restlessly on the bed, Henry whined but did not wake.
Though slumber should have held its sway over human and daemon together, the owl daemon's sharp ears pricked up, she and Henry floating just near enough to the surface now that she could sense the door thudding shut, the breath of air whispering through her feathers. Straining mightily against the pull of the drugs, she cracked open one heavy eye; her gaze came into focus in an instant, and she let out a soft, frantic shriek that sliced clean through Elizabeth's heart.
Then, before Elizabeth could take a single step towards the bed, before she even knew what was happening, the little owl daemon was hurtling towards her, hooting plaintively. Woozy from the sedative, she swooped unsteadily in the air, and Elizabeth dropped into a reflexive crouch just in time to catch her.
At the moment of impact, Henry let out a great, shuddering sigh on the bed.
Her stunned heart shattering in her chest, Elizabeth gaped at Adrastos, both of them wide-eyed with wonder.
"Phee," she crooned, pressing the shivering owl daemon close, "Phee, we're here, we're here, shhhhh, we've got you, everything's going to be okay."
But that little spurt of energy was enough to drain the daemon, who sagged heavily against her.
Understanding passing wordlessly between them, Elizabeth watched Adrastos hop up onto the far side of the bed, folding his long legs beneath him on the pillow. As she stroked Phoena's back and rained gentle kisses down upon her head, she watched her daemon peck at Henry's damp hair and his drenched hospital gown, watched him murmur softly into her husband's ear, and felt a familiar flush of pleasure low in her belly.
Cradling Phoena's body like she was made of the most precious and delicate glass, Elizabeth rose to her feet and made her way over to the bed, placing the daemon right over Henry's heart. Adrastos reached down to groom the little owl at once, gently straightening her ruffled feathers with his beak.
Quickly shedding her heavy coat and her blazer and tossing them onto a nearby chair, Elizabeth finally climbed up onto the bed, and curled her body around Henry's. Laying a protective hand over Phoena, she rested her head against her husband's and pressed her lips to his cheek, breathing him in, the first proper breath to fill her lungs since the bomb went off.
A sheen of sweat covered every inch of Henry's skin, and his muscles continued to spasm from the radiation and the drugs, but both he and his daemon trembled less violently now. Feeling Elizabeth and Adrastos there with them and knowing that they were safe, they surrendered once more to the pull of the sedative.
Still, Elizabeth reeled.
Phoena had flown to her.
Henry and Elizabeth had freely touched each other's daemons for decades, as most every couple did in private. The feel of your love's skin on your very soul was an intimacy so raw and safe and delicious that it ached, bringing comfort in those moments when nothing else in the world could.
But this was different.
When you were injured or sick or frightened out of your wits, when you believed that every breath you drew might be your last, instinct always sent your daemon burrowing as close to your heart as they could get. Not even the rosiest of fairy tales or the sappiest romance would conjure up a daemon who could be torn from their human's side for another, no matter how incredible the bond.
Only she'd just seen it happen, and what did that say about the love that she and Henry shared?
Lifting her head from Henry's, Elizabeth and Adrastos sought each other out once more with their eyes. There was so much that both their hearts wanted to say, but they only shuddered, overwhelmed, and nuzzled each other gently – some truths were simply too profound for words.
"We're here," she repeated, murmuring the words over and over in her husband's ear. "You're going to be fine."
Taking turns with Adrastos, Elizabeth kissed and stroked Henry and his daemon wherever they could reach. The two of them would stand guard over Henry and Phoena until they woke.
Whatever happened, they were together.