"Hey."
Hal looked up from his chair in the dining room where he was eating.
"Brought your baby back, safe and sound," said Maggie with a teasing smile, handing Hal his automatic. "Thanks."
"No problem," replied Hal, taking it and setting it down next to his chair.
"Mind if I sit with you?" continued Maggie, nodding to the empty chair next to him.
"Help yourself," replied Hal.
Sitting down, Maggie set her handgun on the table, leaving the other strapped to her belt.
"Where is the rest of your family?" she asked.
"I think Ben and Matt are in our room. Dad's around somewhere, probably talking to Weaver. They'll be here soon," said Hal, eating his soup.
"Anne said she and Lourdes would be by as well," said Maggie.
Silence fell. This was precisely why she and Hal didn't usually attempt to make small talk, because neither one was particularly good at it.
"How's Ben doing?" asked Maggie finally.
Hal shrugged. "He's fine. He's a little out of the loop but he'll adjust sooner or later."
"It must be tough," said Maggie sympathetically.
"He'll be fine," said Hal shortly. "He's here now, unlike- the others that are still out there."
There was a pause. "We'll find Karen," said Maggie, uncharacteristically gentle.
Hal just scoffed. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we talk about your life now?" he shot at her.
Maggie raised her eyebrows. "Point taken, I'm sorry."
Silence fell again.
Finally, rescue came. "Hi Hal. Maggie," came a familiar voice. Lourdes stood by Hal's other side, looking at them hesitantly. "Do you mind if I sit?"
"Not at all," said Maggie with a friendly smile.
Lourdes set down her tray and started eating the soup. It was mostly water with a few beans at the bottom and spices that were who knew how old. Lourdes grimaced, wondering if she and Anne were going to have a camp full of people with food poisoning on their hands. But she reminded herself to be grateful that there was any food at all and that they could be a lot worse off.
"So how's Ben?" she asked, spooning up the liquid and trying not to taste it.
"Is that all you guys talk about?" demanded Hal, clearly not over his bad mood thanks to Maggie bringing up Karen.
Hurt passed over Lourdes's face. "I'm sorry," she said, flustered.
Maggie sent Hal a look.
"It's not your fault," he said, though it sounded like he only half meant it. "Ben is fine. He's still adjusting but he'll be okay."
"Your dad wants Anne to talk to him," said Lourdes.
"Good luck," replied Hal. "He's not opening up to me or Dad or Matt." He paused. "He might talk to you though." Hal raised his eyebrow.
"Why?" asked Lourdes.
"He thinks you're pretty," said Hal nonchalantly, reaching for the salt.
"No subtlety, per usual, I see," remarked Maggie dryly.
Lourdes didn't respond but both Hal and Maggie noticed her face turn red. "I should go relieve Anne," she said, picking up her tray.
"Is she coming to lunch?" asked Maggie.
"Probably. That's why I'm going back to the trailer to see."
"See you later then," said Maggie.
"Bye, Lourdes," said Hal, with a cheeky smile.
As soon as Lourdes was out of sight, Maggie smacked him on the shoulder.
"You are so mean!" she laughed. "Wait till Ben finds out you told her that," she said, smiling.
"How was lunch?" asked Anne, back in the medical trailer.
"Oh, you know," said Lourdes vaguely, going to stand next to Anne beside the mystery girl. "How's she doing?"
"Pretty much the same as when you left. I checked the bandages and they seem to be holding up pretty well. Her pulse is weak but it's getting steadier. Like I told the boys, I really don't think anything will happen for a while."
"You should go get some lunch then," said Lourdes. "I can stay here for a while."
Anne looked like she wanted to refuse, but she had to admit that she really was getting hungry. "I'll be back in half an hour," she promised.
Lourdes nodded and Anne headed to the door. "Don't forget Ben might stop by," she called over her shoulder.
"No problem," Lourdes replied.
She looked down at the girl. She lay silently on her stomach, her head turned so that she faced Lourdes. Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful. She might have been sleeping if Lourdes didn't know better.
"What happened to you?" the young doctor murmured.
Ten minutes later, she heard the door open.
"Is Anne here?" came a boy's voice.
"You just missed her. Can I help you with something though?" Lourdes looked up and saw Ben standing there. "Oh. Hi!" she said brightly.
"Hi," said Ben quietly, looking uncomfortable.
"Um, so Anne just left for lunch. She should be back in about 20 minutes. Or I can chat if you want to, until she gets back," she offered.
"I don't want to bug you," said Ben.
Lourdes smiled. "It's fine, I don't mind. Or you can wait for Anne. Whatever makes you more comfortable."
Ben shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me. Might as well get it over with."
"I need to stay in here to monitor her," said Lourdes, motioning to the girl. "Is that okay with you?"
"I've seen worse," said Ben in a low voice, staring at the unmoving shape.
Lourdes paused. "Okay. Um, do you want to sit down?" she asked, motioning to the chairs in the back.
Ben didn't answer. He was still staring at the girl intensely, an unfocused look on his face.
"Ben?" asked Lourdes nervously.
He didn't respond.
"Ben!" she said loudly.
He flinched and pulled his gaze up to meet hers. "Sorry," he said. "Um, seat. Right."
He walked to the back of the trailer, a little unsteadily.
"Are you okay?" asked Lourdes, walking around the table to follow him. She purposely put herself in between him and the table holding the girl, hoping this way he would actually concentrate.
He looked up at her with tired eyes. "Do you know how many people have asked me that since I got back?"
"A lot?" she guessed, with a sheepish smile.
"5. Hal, Matt, my dad, Anne, and now you. Everybody else just assumes that I'm okay or is convinced that I'm a dangerous freak." He said the words calmly, but Lourdes picked up on the anger lying underneath.
"You're not a freak, Ben," she said steadily. "God doesn't make mistakes. This happened for a reason and it's for the best. Something good is going to come out of this, I know it."
Ben looked at her with an empty smile. "Yeah. Well, I wish I could believe that too. It's easy when you're not the one being talked about. When people aren't leaving the room because you walk in."
Lourdes's heart almost broke, listening to the bitterness in the young boy's voice. She'd never met Ben before, but he was too young to have such an antagonistic relationship with the world around him. Tom didn't talk about Ben much, but when he did it was to tell stories of how innocent and light-hearted Ben had been. Now, looking at the defeated face of the boy in front of her, she had trouble connecting the two versions.
"When I was younger," said Lourdes in the stillness. "I got picked on a lot."
Ben raised his eyes to look at her, not quite interested but definitely not uninterested either. "Really? Why?"
Lourdes smiled a little sadly. "I was different," she said simply. "I wasn't the prettiest girl and I lived in an area of town where nobody was very religious. I'll spare you the specifics, but I was mocked constantly. I still remember going home every day after school and crying. Begging my mom to home school me. To not make me go back."
"What happened," asked Ben, getting drawn up in her story.
"It wore off after a while and I grew up. New kids came and I wasn't the new girl anymore. People got tired of making fun of me once I stopped reacting to it. It still hurt but I learned to focus on more important things. I didn't lose my faith just because a few people couldn't accept who I was. And you shouldn't either."
Ben didn't respond. Lourdes continued: "There are good people here. Anne risked everything to figure out a way to get that Harness off your back. If she had failed, she could have lost every bit of credibility and trust she works so hard for. But she didn't care if it meant saving one more life."
Ben looked at her again but this time his gaze was hard. "She shouldn't have bothered," he said in a detached voice. "My life wasn't worth saving."
"Don't you ever say that," said Lourdes, and Ben couldn't help but flinch at how fierce her voice suddenly became. "There are so many people here who love you. Your father never stopped looking for you wherever he went. He did everything he could think of to find you. Your younger brother made himself sick from crying so much while you were gone. And I mean literally sick. Anne had to give him medication so that he would stop throwing up. And your older brother volunteered to walk straight into a Skitter's nest to get you back. He knew he had a pretty good chance of getting caught but it didn't matter to him. Did you know Weaver had to physically restrain him from rushing in there without a plan the minute he spotted you?"
Ben still didn't look convinced. "What do you think happened to her?" he asked, nodding towards the girl.
Lourdes sighed in frustration, fully aware that Ben was changing the subject. But she reminded herself to be patient. Ben would talk when he was ready and clearly it wasn't then.
"I'm not sure," she said. "Skitter attack?"
Ben got up and walked over to the table. Lourdes followed, wondering if he should see the girl, given Tom's clear reservations. But she didn't stop him and Ben stood by the side of the table, staring not at the girl's back but into her face.
"Something happened, that's for sure," he said, not talking to Lourdes anymore but to the air around him. "Something bad."
Ben reached out to the touch the girl, almost as if he were being possessed. Right before he made contact, the door opened and Anne walked in.
"Oh, hi," she said, surprised. "Was I interrupting something?"
Lourdes shook her head and turned back to Ben. The younger boy had withdrawn his hand and was looking uncertainly around him. He backed away slowly before turning and making for the door.
"Bye, Ben!" called Anne, surprised at his sudden departure. But Ben didn't look back. Anne turned to Lourdes who looked unsettled. "So how did it go?" she asked.
"I'm not sure," said Lourdes, still looking frustrated and shaken. "I'm going to get some air, is that okay? I'll just be right outside."
"Sure," said Anne, worry in her voice. But she didn't press the issue and Lourdes walked quickly out the door without another word.
Shaking her head, Anne turned to the girl lying behind her. She checked the bandages which seemed to be still be holding up. She reached for the girl's wrist and checked her pulse again. She frowned suddenly; sure that she had made a mistake.
She quickly walked to the door and stuck her head out. Lourdes was sitting right outside, as promised.
"Lourdes, can you come here?"
Lourdes got up and walked inside, looking a bit calmer.
"Can you take her pulse for me?" asked Anne.
"Sure," replied Lourdes, her voice questioning but she walked over to the girl as Anne had asked.
Her eyes suddenly widened and she looked up at Anne uncertainly.
"It's racing," said Anne, nodding.
"That's not possible," breathed Lourdes. "She doesn't have enough blood to pump it that fast." But even as she spoke, she could feel it slowing down again. "It's dropping," she said.
Anne stepped forward and took Lourdes's place. The girl's pulse got slower and slower until it was back to where it had been before. Anne let go of her wrist and simply stood there.
"What just happened?" asked Lourdes, sounding slightly scared.
"Did anything happen while I was away?" asked Anne.
"Ben stopped by about ten minutes after you left. I had checked the girl's temperature and pressure, but everything was the way it is now."
"And nothing out of the ordinary happened?"
Lourdes thought back. "Ben did get a little weird around her. He zoned out a couple of times and he couldn't stop staring at her. But I figured it was just because of the circumstances."
"We need to bring him back in here," said Anne, her back still to Lourdes. "I could be wrong, but I think something happened while he was here and maybe he knows what it is."
I hope you all liked the chapter! I would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading!
~moviegal101~
