Charlotte can't sleep.
Jasper has his head pillowed on her shoulder and is snoring softly in the darkened husk of an elevator. She lays her head on his and sighs. At least one of her boys can sleep. One of her boys...one is all she has left. Charlotte closes her eyes and sees images that make her heart stop - an explosion, a fire-blackened Kid Danger mask, a crumpled form - she opens her eyes and shudders. Enough of that. Sleep can wait.
She's not sure how long they've been trapped in this elevator, just her and Jasper. Her phone is sitting somewhere in the ruins of the Man Cave and Jasper's is dead. Fat lot of good it did them even when it had a charge, though - no signal to be found. It's dark and lonely, even with Jasper's arm thrown around her shoulders, pulling her close. Charlotte keeps thinking about Henry out there, all alone, and wants to cry. But she won't let herself - not now, not here.
Something creaks ominously and Charlotte looks around nervously. She's not sure how much longer this tiny shaft will hold together and there is no way of knowing when - or if - they'll be rescued. How horrible would that be - getting away from a collapsing Man Cave only to be undone by the collapsing of the elevator that was supposed to bring them to safety? Henry would never let Jasper hear the end of it. Henry…
Outside the elevator she hears a murmuring and then something that sounds like their names. Something shifts - a loud scraping noise this time - and then there's silence. Charlotte's almost convinced herself she's hearing things when it happens again. She nudges Jasper. "Hey. Hey, wake up. Do you hear that?"
Jasper sits up, rubs at his eyes. "Hear what?"
This time, the scraping noise is louder and their names are clearer. "Charlotte…? Jasper…?"
"That, do you hear that?!" She stands, bangs on the elevator door. "Hello! Help!"
The voice is louder now. "CHARLOTTE?! JASPER!? Where are you?!"
Jasper joins her in banging on the door. "Ray, is that you? Here, we're in here!" he yells.
"Jasper! Charlotte! Oh, thank God!" The relief in Ray's voice is evident as it gets closer to them. "Hey, I found them! They're stuck in the elevator!"
Charlotte leans heavily onto Jasper, who hugs her tightly in return. Ray is here. He's going to get them out. They'll be okay. There's still the two of them. Two, there's only two of them now… Ray is saying something to someone else now, something she can't hear. "Ray, can you get us out?"
"Working on it right now, kiddo," he replies. "Are you both okay?"
Jasper nods like Ray can see them. "Yeah, we're okay. Just stuck."
She can feel the tension seep out of Ray and she can't even see him. It's evident in his voice. "Great, that's...great. Okay, hang tight, we'll be right back. Just...don't go anywhere."
They can hear Ray move away from the elevator. Jasper looks at her. "Do you think he knows…"
"About Hen?" she asks. He nods and Charlotte swallows hard. "He must. Henry sent him away from the blimp. He knew what that meant." Jasper nods again, looking sadder than she's ever seen. This is usually where Henry would say something, direct Jasper's attention to something else, make him laugh at some stupid joke. She's never been good at that - she's great at listening, but not at redirecting. Jasper's great at bouncing your attention from one thing to the next, great at keeping things light and fun. But Henry - Henry was their balance, bringing them together somewhere in the middle and keeping the peace as needed. Will we be able to keep this together without him?
There's a groaning noise from above and a shaft of light beams down over them. "Heads up!" Ray calls, and a rope ladder comes flying down towards them, ending just a few inches above their heads. "Climb up!"
Charlotte pulls on the ladder experimentally. "Feels sturdy enough," she says to Jasper, who is looking at the ladder dubiously.
"Well," he says, "you go first. Just in case."
"Oh boy, thanks," she says, and slowly starts to climb. The ladder sways left and right slightly with her weight as she gets higher and she looks up. She can't see Ray, just a place in the wall where the ladder goes up and disappears into a bright light. Her foot slips a bit and her heart stops as she scrambles to get it back on a rung without slipping any further. Jasper reaches up from below and steadies her, which steadies her heart a bit, too. She takes a deep breath and keeps going.
Finally, she reaches up and is met with concrete floor instead of another ladder rung. A hand reaches out and she grabs on tightly. Charlotte doesn't think she's ever been so relieved to see Schwoz's face in her life. He pulls her up out of the elevator shaft and onto the landing of the stairs. Ray is there, holding the ladder to keep it steady as Jasper keeps climbing, grinning at her. And there, behind Ray, a hand in his hair and the other in his mouth, gnawing on his fingernails is -
"Henr-Jasper! It's Henry!" Charlotte stumbles over her feet rushing to get to Henry. She can hear Jasper shouting as he climbs, asking questions that she can't answer and wouldn't if she could - she's too busy grabbing Henry and reeling him in tightly.
"Charlotte," he sighs in her ear, tension easing out of him as he pulls her close. She buries her face in his chest, tears coming against her will but she is powerless to stop them. "Hey, it's okay, we're all okay," Henry soothes. Jasper is there then, dragging both her and Henry into his arms. The rest of the tension leaves Henry's body and he lets go of her with one arm to pull Jasper closer into them. There are questions, so many questions, but they don't seem to matter right now.
They're together. Tired, aching, but together. That's all that matters.
