WARNING: This chapter contains gory descriptions.


Lydia

The crisp morning air had long since dissipated as the sun had risen higher into the sky, even if the clouds were still blocking its invigorating rays.

Lydia didn't have it in her to enjoy how the heat of day had warmed her enough for her body to stop shivering, just like she didn't notice how she could no longer see her own breath appearing in steamy puffs of air from her mouth and nose.

She was way too focused for that – even if she had now been awake for more than twenty-four hours.

The jeeps that the human group had arrived in were still parked where they had left them, but Lydia had immediately noticed that something was amiss about the scene where she had found the vehicles.

There was blood on the ground beside the driver's seat by one of the jeeps parked further inside the forest – the one Carver had been banished to, if Caesar's recount of the event served her memory right. And it wasn't just a few drops either, but huge splashes spreading over a wide area across the forest floor. Something, or someone, had suffered a violent death at this spot, the sheer amount of blood was enough to prove this.

Lydia had followed the trail as it lead into a nearby thicket and almost retched when she discovered the mangled, almost unrecognizable corpse of Carver.

The only way she could tell who this body belonged to was by the shredded remnants of clothes covering the… more intact parts of the body. The face, which one normally looked at to identify people, was in such a bad condition that Lydia almost couldn't bear to look at it, even if the guy had been a creep, a liar and an all-round prick from day one. The skin had been stripped off half of his face, his throat ripped open and his torso so bashed and bruised that Lydia couldn't rightly tell what his build had been like before he had ended up like this.

Nobody deserved to die like this. Not even someone like Carver.

But who had done it? Surely it wasn't any of the humans – they might not like him, but he was still one of their own. Besides, none of them had the strength to do something like this with no guns or knives at their disposal.

Lydia was quick to rule out bears and cougars as well, simply because the body didn't show any signs of having been eaten at.

No… This looked deliberate… And it was done by someone with animalistic strength… An ape.

Lydia shuddered at the thought. Had they done this to him after they had set out to chase her and Malcolm's group down? Was this what was in store for her if she ran into the apes?

She almost screamed out in frustration and hurt at the thought.

Could she trust no one anymore? Did these last five years she had spent with them mean nothing at all? Was she destined to be alone, getting one family after another ripped away from her until the end of her days?

Storm whimpered beside Lydia as these thoughts went through the woman's head, bringing her back to reality as she sat crouched behind one of the jeeps, waiting.

She had left Carver's body where she had found it, opting instead to hide and wait for Malcolm and the others. They might not have escaped the apes, but it was worth a shot in any event.

Lydia really didn't have many other options at this point.

It was nearly three hours later, by her estimate, before she heard voices coming from beyond the treeline. She recognized Ellie's voice first, then Malcolm's. They were both panting harshly and their footsteps followed each other in short succession, like they were carrying something heavy.

"Alex, open the door, we need to get him inside the car." Came Malcolm's voice. There was a desperation in it. Urgency.

So, one of them had been wounded. A heavy guy, if their pants and grunts of effort were any indication. Must be Kemp, then.

And yet, when Lydia snuck a peek over the hood of the jeep she was hiding behind, she almost choked out a gasp of shock at the sight that met her. It wasn't Kemp who was weighing down Ellie and Malcolm.

It was Caesar.

The Ape King was partially dangling between the two human adults, one long, hairy arm around each of their shoulders.

And he seemed to be alive, struggling to hold his head up and support his own weight on his legs as he was carried towards the jeep. There was a visible gunshot wound in the upper left part of his chest and his fur looked ruffled.

Now, it was really time for answers.

"What the hell is this supposed to mean?!" Lydia spoke out loud as she came forth from her hiding spot, her bow at the ready and her stance tense as she stared down the humans. Beside her, the dogs began to growl threateningly, recognising their master's pose. Lydia knew they would pounce the moment she gave the command – just as she had trained them to do.

At least she could still depend on her canine companions.

The three humans had only just finished placing Caesar in the backseat of the jeep when she chose to reveal herself, whipping around to face Lydia with wide eyes at the sound of her voice. The sight of her arrow pointed in their direction had Malcolm step in front of his son to shield him while Ellie backed up against the jeep with her hands up in a placating gesture.

It did nothing to calm Lydia's wrath.

"Lydia! What are you-?"

"Spare me, Malcolm. I'll be the one asking the questions here." She interrupted sharply, her voice filled with disdain. She didn't shout or scream at them, as she had initially wanted to. Instead, she spoke with dangerous calmness, her blue eyes trained on the trio in a stone-cold stare. She pulled the arrow further backwards in a threatening manner when Malcolm decided to step forward with his hands spread out, palms turned upwards.

She was not going to be fooled a second time by trusting these people just by their sincere looks. It had already cost her dearly to do so once.

"Okay… Ask us…" Malcolm replied slowly. Uncertainly. He wasn't looking for a weapon to defend himself with, but kept his eyes glued to Lydia's own ones. Perhaps he was at least smart enough to know that he wouldn't be fast enough to react if she chose to loosen her arrow or maybe he was genuinely trying to have a conversation with her. She couldn't rightly know.

And she wasn't going to take the chance.

"What happened back in the village?" She started out. She needed to get the big picture first – then, she could get into detail later and see if there were any holes she could poke in their story.

"I… I have no idea, Lydia… One moment, everything was fine, and then suddenly, it was all chaos and fire and, and we were running for our lives, and-"

"Malcolm…" She interrupted again, her voice dangerously low. She needed answers, not ramblings.

"Please, Lydia." Ellie spoke up next, though she didn't try to move from her position against the jeep. Her brown eyes were soft, yet frightened. "We don't know what happened. Whatever it was, we had nothing to do with it."

"Well, you'll have to excuse me if I find that a bit hard to believe." Lydia answered curtly. "You come here bringing guns while explaining you're only trying to fix a dam. Time and time again, you test your luck by bringing weapons when you're not supposed to and-"

"I swear to you, I didn't know Carver brought that gun!" Malcolm interrupted desperately. Lydia ignored him completely and continued her rant.

"Then, you barge into our village, seemingly trying to help us and later, when you have what you came for, our leader is shot down and our entire colony burned to ashes." She drew in a deep breath to calm herself, looking at the group as if to dare any of them to object to what she was saying. They kept quiet, for the time being.

"I was chased out because I'm also human. Because of you guys, I was hunted by the very people I thought were my friends. I had to leave my family because of you and right now, I don't even know if they're dead or alive… And then, lo and behold, who do I find coming out of the forest, carrying a wounded Caesar, when I go looking for answers?"

She knew her voice had taken on a vulnerable edge that she was in no way proud of. She just couldn't help it anymore. She was distraught, she was tired, in body and mind, and most of all, she was confused.

Malcolm's eyes took on a sympathetic look that she just hated at that moment. She didn't need his pity! She needed answers! An explanation!

"I know this looks bad, I do, but I promise you, the three of us had nothing to do with what happened back at the village. We found Caesar while trying to get back to the jeeps. We thought he was dead at first! But then he moved his eyes and began to react to our presence. We were going to take him back to the city and get him some medical attention, I swear to you." Malcolm defended, seemingly trying to stay calm. The only thing moving as he spoke was his mouth and his gesticulating hands. Everything else was dead-still in the face of Lydia's fury.

"Maybe… Maybe it was Carver… He might have brought another gun without me noticing or-"

"Carver's dead." Lydia interrupted Malcolm's attempt at a theory. The trio's eyes all widened and a frown appeared on Malcolm's face.

"Was it you who…?"

"No. I found him like that when I came here to wait for you. Followed a trail of blood into the thicket over there." She gestured to the scene with her weapon.

"But where would Carver get the gun from? Why would he do this?" Alex spoke up meekly.

"Ape…" Came a deep, gravelly voice from the backseat of the jeep.

Everyone turned to Caesar as he tried to straighten up against the backrest, panting. Malcolm, Ellie and Alex momentarily forgot that they were being held at arrow-point and now focused all their attention at the straining, wounded ape. Lydia did the same, lowering her bow a fraction as the Ape King began to speak weakly.

"Ape… Did… This." Caesar spoke again.

Now, it was Lydia's eyes that widened as an ice-cold feeling ran down her spine. She lowered her bow completely and let the string go as slack as her jaw while she stared at the Ape King. An ape had shot Caesar? How had that even happened? Who had done it?

And why?

Before Lydia could release the barrage of questions fighting to get out, Ellie turned to her with eyes full of concern and urgency.

"We need to get him somewhere safe. Somewhere we can take care of his wounds. He's lost a lot of blood already… Please, Lydia." The woman spoke softly.

Looking at the group properly for what seemed like the first time since they'd emerged from the forest, Lydia took in their appearances. They were all dirty and dishevelled like herself, grime covering their clothes. They didn't look to have slept either.

Then, her eyes met Caesar's. The look he gave her was pained, but tender, and there was something pleading in his gaze. Like he was silently begging her to just, one more time, believe in these humans.

Believe in him.

She relented without question.

"What do we do?" She asked tiredly as her eyes turned to Malcolm expectantly. His face lit up into a soft and uncertain smile. Lydia noticed how his shoulders slouched as tension left his body – was she really that terrifying when she was angry?

"We go to the colony in the city. We should be safe there if I explain everything to Dreyfus. Then, we get what we need to patch up Caesar." He said, taking charge. Lydia could only nod.

Then she noticed Alex eye the thicket where Carver's body was, shuffling his feet uncomfortably.

"You okay?" She asked. She knew her demeanour had shifted drastically and that it probably had the trio on edge even more than her plain anger had. The air of uncertainty radiating from Alex as he turned his gaze towards her told her as much. She really didn't mean to be so… bipolar. Unpredictable.

She blamed it on the fatigue that was slowly catching up on her. The horrible events of the night before and the sleepless, terrifying night that had followed had jumbled her mind. Coupling that with the conflicting emotions that had washed over her in such short succession in the past couple of minutes had left her feeling drained, exhausted and anxious to get on with what lie ahead.

"Yeah, it's just… I mean, shouldn't we… do something about Carver's body? Bury it or something? He was an ass, but…" Alex murmured quietly. Malcolm seemed to regard his son with a strange mixture of worry and pride. Lydia could understand the feeling – it was an incredibly mature sentiment the adolescent boy was displaying - and one that Lydia hadn't even given any thought herself. She had merely concluded that the poor fool had suffered a death he didn't deserve and left it at that.

How had she become this cold?

"It's a nice thought, Alex, but… I don't think we have time for it. Caesar needs medical attention as soon as possible. It can't wait." Ellie spoke as she laid a comforting hand in her step-son's shoulder.

Lydia nodded.

"She is right. Besides, I don't think any of you guys should go near that place… It's not a pretty sight…" She informed them with a frown on her face. "He… Well, there's no easy way of putting this… I'm pretty sure it was an ape who killed him."

"Right…" Malcolm spoke tensely. He probably didn't like for his son to hear such talk, but Lydia thought the boy deserved the truth. He seemed to be mature for his age and she honestly thought that there was no need to sugar-coat anything by now. The situation was way too dire for that.

"Let's get in the truck. You should probably sit in the back with Caesar and Ellie. Alex and I will take the front." The adult male spoke, no doubt eager to change the subject and get going. "There should be space in the far back for the dogs. We had our equipment back there when we first came to the forest, but I don't suppose we'll be needing that anymore."

Lydia placed the bow over her shoulder and threw her backpack into the back of the car before she led Storm and Blaze into the cramped space as well. They both seemed uncertain about the whole concept of getting into a car – an object they had been trained to react to as they came down the road. She wasn't exactly sure how well they were going to take the whole driving experience. She only hoped they'd stay quiet.

She then got into the backseat to Caesar's right side. He had been placed behind the driver's seat and the humans had agreed that it would probably be best not to move him too much around. It would only serve to aggravate the wound. The Ape King was quick to tuck Lydia under his right arm and pull her to his side, sighing deeply in what sounded like relief to Lydia's ears.

If not for the odd circumstances that had landed them in this situation, Lydia would have found the move to be an odd one. Sure, they were close friends and he had more than once held her hand or squeezed her shoulder in comfort or reassurance, but they had never been this close before. Not for more than a couple of seconds, anyway.

The memory of how he had saved her from an embarrassing fall down the muddy slope a few days prior came to mind, and Lydia almost blushed. He had held her so close and stared at her with such intensity that her breath had hitched. At that moment, she had almost felt guilty. They both had someone they loved, someone they trusted, waiting for them back in the village and there she had been, in the arms of another ape, feeling the distinct pull of attraction towards this strong, intelligent, and very much taken male.

She had buried the feeling deep inside her chest – as she had done quite a few times before during these last couple of years. It was a ridiculous notion that she just would not entertain.

In any event, the move was a welcome one right now and Lydia relished in the feeling of his warm body pressed against her side. She knew this ape. He was dear to her and being close to him brought a comfort she had craved ever since she had run out of the village the previous evening. Her fear and anger melted away for the time being by the familiarity of his presence and for the first time since last night, her body relaxed.

"Are you alright?" He signed as Ellie sat at Lydia's other side, closing the door behind her.

Lydia almost laughed at the question.

"I should be asking you that… Don't you dare die on me." She signed back, keeping the conversation private from the car's other occupants as Malcolm started the engine.

Despite his pain and the anxiety he must be feeling at the moment, not knowing if his family was dead or alive, he cracked a small smile at her and pulled her slightly closer.

"I do not plan to." Was all he said as the jeep began heading towards the city.

It was strange to ride a car again. The soft hum of an engine and the sense of moving with no physical effort, not even that of keeping upright on a horse, had become quite foreign to Lydia. She could hear Blaze whine quietly in the back, but a few licks behind the ear from Storm seemed to settle him down as the car approached the Golden Gate Bridge.

Even in its state of disrepair, it was quite a sight. When she had been younger, it had been one of the landmarks that Lydia had wanted to tick off her bucket-list, but she never dreamt that she would be seeing it quite like this. Beside her, Caesar was breathing shallowly as he looked up at the pylons through the car's window. Lydia could feel how his fingers dug into the upper part of her sleeve as they passed a bump in the road and out of instinct, she reached over to lay a hand on the uninjured side of his chest to steady him.

Goodness, he was warm.

Malcolm was driving rather slowly down the road. Lydia guessed it was on purpose so they wouldn't draw attention to themselves as they left the bridge and entered the city.

Even if she had never been in San Francisco and certainly not the human colony, she knew something wasn't right when she spotted black smoke rising in the distance. A lump started forming in her throat as she saw how the street leading to the colony was in a state of disarray – at least more so than expected. Adding to the dirty, broken windows and the weeds fighting their way up through the cracked asphalt, the rusted cars standing abandoned in the street and the faded graffiti on the crumbling walls, screeches of apes could be heard in the distance. As well as gunshots and human screams of fear.

"Look, the colony's on fire…" Alex's voice sounded, confirming what Lydia had already guessed at. "Where are we going to go?"

Caesar grunted beside Lydia, jerking her shoulder slightly to gain her attention. A pang of worry and sadness shot through her chest when her eyes met his. They were half-lidded and glazed with pain. She padded him softly on his uninjured pectoral and tilted her head to indicate she was listening. When he had finished signing his message to her, the corner of her mouth twitches into a barely-there smirk.

"Caesar knows a place." Lydia informed the other humans.

There was only a brief moment of hesitation, in which Malcolm's eyes met Lydia's in the rear-view mirror, before he backed up the car and went to go down another street. Caesar signed the direction he wanted to go to Lydia, who relayed the message to Malcolm.

Ellie had told the Ape King to save his strength and not overexert himself by speaking and, for once, Lydia was glad that he had followed the woman's advice.

It took quite a while before they reached the suburbs.

"Where is he taking us?" Alex asked as they drove down a street lined by trees. The houses here were mostly covered by dense vegetation, making it impossible to tell what the actual buildings might look like underneath. Still, Lydia could tell that this had been a nice neighbourhood once.

She didn't answer Alex's question. They would all know soon enough, and right now, Caesar seemed to be concentrating on pointing out the right house – she didn't want to risk him missing it.

Before long, Caesar began beating the window of the jeep softly with his fist and release laboured huffs as they came up to the place he had told Lydia about all those years ago on one of their sleepless nights. The story had stuck with her since then, saved in the back of her mind like a precious jewel. It had touched her deeply that he had deigned to share something so intimate and painful with her and now, she was there with him to see what had become of the home he left behind – without the human father he spoke so fondly of.

A shame, really. She would have liked to meet him.

"Malcolm, stop! We're here." Lydia spoke, making the man look at her in the rear-view mirror with eyes full of confusion. He stopped all the same, and everyone began getting out of the car.

Well, all except Caesar, for obvious reasons.

"I don't understand." Malcolm spoke as he stood in front of the abandoned house. It was, like all the others, covered in dense vegetation – only the very top of the building indicating that it was, in fact, a manmade structure. Lydia immediately recognised the symbol of the apes in the topmost window's frame.

So, this is where that symbol came from.

"What are we doing here?" Alex backed up his father as he closed the car's door.

"You'll know once we get inside, I'm sure. Come on, I can't carry him by myself." Lydia spoke as she rounded the car to first let out the dogs, then open the door for Caesar on the other side. Naturally, he didn't get out on his own. He was far too weakened for that still.

"Right." Malcolm nodded as he went over to help Lydia haul the Ape King out of the car. Caesar didn't make much noise even as he was being pulled and lifted by the arms and legs. He did grimace when the humans were being particularly rough, especially on the way up the stairs, but Lydia guessed that his pride would not let him voice his complaints.

Either that, or he was simply not able to make any verbal protest.

Ellie and Alex cleared the way as they went and moved the furniture once the group was safely inside the house. Only when they had managed to place Caesar on the couch, releasing laboured sighs as they did, could Lydia straighten up to take in her new surroundings.

It was dusty. Very dusty and dark due to the greenery outside partially covering the grimy windows. The fact hat there had been a very sick person living and dying here was, luckily, not evident in the smell of the place. It had been far too long for that to still be the case.

"Dad, look." Alex's voice sounded as he approached the group kneeling beside Caesar. In his hands was a picture frame, dusty like the rest of the house, but clearly showing a smiling man together with a small chimpanzee. It was a lovely picture and made Lydia think of a very similar frame still stored in her backpack. She hadn't taken that out in years.

The eyes of the trio shifted from Caesar to the picture and back a couple of times as they pieced the puzzle together. Had the circumstances been less dire, it would have been quite amusing to watch.

The Ape King did nothing to confirm or deny what their collective stares were asking him. He only looked down wistfully at the picture in Malcolm's hands.

Ellie was the first to break the silence that had followed Alex's discovery.

"We need to operate." She spoke with renewed urgency. "I don't have anything. There's a surgical kit back at the place, but that's-"

"I'll go." Malcolm interrupted resolutely.

Before Ellie could protest, Lydia spoke up.

"No. You should stay here." She said, dumping her backpack on the floor before readjusting her bow across her shoulder. "I know the apes and will be better able to avoid detection by them. It's better if I go." She elaborated as everyone's stares turned to her. Caesar seemed to disapprove, if the weak frown and knitted brows he shot her was anything to go by.

Malcolm seemed to be of the same mind.

"I'd rather you stayed here and protected Caesar and my family. If anyone comes here, you'd be the only one with an actual weapon to defend them. We have nothing left from the forest." He replied.

Lydia crossed her arms over her chest and regarded Malcolm with a searching look. He didn't flinch under her scrutiny this time, as he had done so often before. He made a good point, Lydia knew, but there was something about the way he said it that nagged her.

"You don't trust me." She concluded. It wasn't a question, but a statement.

The adult man's eyes were weary and void of humour as he regarded her in turn, his shoulders slouching as he released a tired sigh.

"That's not the problem. You don't know the colony's interior. You've never been there and you won't know where to look for the things we need." He spoke gently.

"You're avoiding the subject." Lydia countered nonchalantly.

Just then, Malcolm's eyes got hard as he, too, crossed his arms across his chest, mimicking her.

"A bit hard to talk about trust when no more than two hours ago, you were threatening me and my family with a bow and arrow, don't you think?"

"Please keep in mind that back then, I had just been chased out of my home as it was burning to the ground and when I go looking for answers, I see you guys leave the forest with the only ape who could possibly save this whole mess, my friend, with a gunshot wound in his chest caused by a weapon that came from your colony!"

"You've been avoiding us like the plague the whole time we've been there! How could you possibly know if we were the ones behind this or not? We were just trying to help! We still are! And for all we know, this is the work of an ape gone rogue! Seriously, what is it with you that makes you hate other people so much?"

"Oh, I don't know, Malcolm, maybe the fact that it was people who took away the only family I had left? Slitting my brother's throat and stabbing my dad in the gut like he was a damn needle cushion because he didn't fucking want to play by their rules when they came and threatened us for our measly rations from the colony!" She almost shouted, feeling hot tears burn in her eyes. She would not let them fall.

Not here.

Not now.

And not in front of them.

"And now it would seem like I am in the same shithole again! Losing everything I love for the second damn time because some fucking humans came to the forest looking to go back to a bygone age!"

Lydia didn't notice Caesar casting her a sympathetic look from the couch as she vented her frustrations.

But she did notice how Malcolm seemed to completely deflate at her words and the revelation behind them. His blue eyes softened and his arms fell from his chest to hang at his sides loosely.

Beside him, Ellie, who had been trying to intervene (without much success) went slightly slack-jawed as all tension left her body. She seemed to be wanting to step forward and lay a hand on Lydia's shoulder, but thought better of it as the woman's eyes darted from one person to the other, almost as if she was challenging them to say something.

Alex had backed up against the mantlepiece during the row and was now shifting his gaze from Lydia to Malcolm and back, calculating each person's next move.

"Where was this...?" Ellie was the first to break the silence once again, her voice soft as a feather against tender skin. "This is the only colony for miles…"

Lydia took a deep breath as she redirected her stare towards the partially covered, dirty window. She could only just make out the outline of the jeep they had arrived in.

"The Minneapolis colony…"

"W-what…?!" Malcolm's voice, full of disbelief, reverberated against the walls of the room. "You came all the way from the state of Minnesota?"

Ellie and Alex also seemed more than just a little surprised by this revelation. Lydia only nodded her head, breathing steadily through her nose. The dust particles they had stirred from all their movements tickled on the inside and it twitched involuntarily.

"But… Minnesota is almost at the other end of the country. How did you end up here?" Alex asked softly. It was clear he was amazed with the achievement, but it was also very apparent in his body language that he didn't want to agitate her by asking too many questions.

Lydia shrugged and cocked her head to the side slightly as she replied.

"I walked. With Orion and Roy. The dogs too." Then, she regarded Malcolm with an almost pleading look. She didn't want to talk about her past right now. They had more pressing matters to attend to right now. "Listen, can we go over this another time? Caesar needs to have that bullet removed. Please?"

It wasn't often that she pleaded, but Caesar's injuries needed to be tended to and they were losing daylight fast.

"Right. Of course." Malcolm nodded, looking as if he had been pulled out of a deep thinking-session of some sort.

"Malcolm is still right, Lydia. You can't go alone. As he said, you don't know the layout of the place. You could get lost or captured." Ellie spoke, thankfully returning to the subject at hand.

"Perhaps you could go together?" Alex suggested.

Caesar grunted suddenly and everyone turned to the ape in worry, thinking the sound was from pain. When he had everyone's attention, he signed weakly. Lydia sucked in a breath at the message.

"Stay here, Lydia." His elongated, rough hands moved slowly as he continued to breath shallowly. "Stay… With me."

Those eyes. Those intense, forest green eyes, so full of emotion that they often made Lydia feel that he was stripping her of all the layers that covered her, her clothes, her skin, her tough façade, until he was staring straight at her soul.

She could not have said no to those eyes even if she had wanted to.

Luckily, the other humans hadn't noticed her sharp inhale as they turned to her for a translation.

"Caesar says I should stay." She said with honesty. "It wouldn't be ideal for the both of us to go, anyway. Malcolm doesn't know sign and would have to speak if he wanted to give me directions or warn me if something was coming. That would give us away immediately." She reasoned, a line appearing between her brows as she thought. "Besides, the risk of getting spotted is higher with two people rather than one…"

The other humans nodded in agreement. So, Malcolm would have to go alone.

It didn't sit well with Lydia, who felt restless at the mere prospect of sitting around, waiting for others to do the job that needed to be done. She hated being dependent on others.

At the same time, she could also feel how fatigue was clawing at her every muscle and her eyelids were getting heavy from lack of sleep. She doubted she would be able to hit anything with her bow and arrow anyway, being so tired that she could practically feel her heartbeat pounding behind her eyes.

It was no use. She needed the rest… and Caesar had told her to stay.

It sent a warm sensation through her chest that she would normally have squashed before it reached her heart. Now was not the time for this nonsense. Especially not since, if this all went well, she would soon be back in Roy's arms where she belonged.

If he isn't dead by then…, a stray thought flew through Lydia's mind as Malcolm began quickly gathering some things he might need on his dangerous mission to the colony. She almost visibly recoiled at the thought, as if she'd been stung by a bee.

No, she would not think of that now. It would only serve to rile her up.

And yet the thought prevailed as Malcolm headed for the door, kissing Ellie goodbye and giving Alex a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Before he left, he turned to Lydia one last time. She couldn't for the life of her discern the look in his blue eyes, so much like her own. But then he stuck out his hand to shake hers, making her gaze shift from his eyes to the offered limb and back in confusion before she grabbed it hesitantly.

His grasp was firm, but pleasant as he nodded at her.

"Trust." He spoke imploringly, and Lydia recognised the meaning behind his actions.

She nodded back in the same manner, showing him that she understood.

"Trust." She agreed.

And out the door he went, leaving Lydia with his wife and son, and the injured Ape King, who was still breathing shallowly in the living room.