Chapter 17- The Monarch

I looked at the stripes; The monarch flies; I halt my cries. If, my friend, if you can change, perhaps then so can I. I looked at the markings and I looked down to my own. You're here, I thought. Transform, I said and show them how you've grown. –The Monarch by Delain

The weeks had flown by and Leah was finally being released from the hospital. Cabe was going to be there to help her get set up in her new apartment. She had chosen a place close to a rehabilitation center that was going to help Leah get her full range of movement back. She was still in her leg and arm casts, so rehab would go slow at first, but since her ribs had gotten better, Doctor Whistler had signed off on Leah getting to work.

Cabe was worried he'd miss her check out time given Scorpion's current case. They had left for Seattle two days ago to help solve a crisis regarding a bridge. The case had taken much longer than they originally thought it would.

Luckily, as the sun rose, they were on a plane back to Los Angeles.

Still, Cabe worried Leah would have to leave the hospital on her own. She was capable, but Cabe wanted to help. And it was hard to do things in a leg cast, especially if your right arm was also in a cast.

He felt like they had grown close over the past few weeks. He continued to visit her twice a day, when he could, and looked forward to seeing her each day. The former assassin had been surly at first, but had opened up. It was easy for Cabe to make her smile now. And boy did he love to see her smile.

Once the flight landed at LAX, Cabe bid his farewells to Scorpion and took a taxi to the hospital. He had hoped to go home and change, but looking at his watch, he knew he didn't have the time. So Cabe and his travel bag headed up to the third floor to find Leah, who was hopefully still there.

Stepping out of the elevator onto the floor, Cabe shouldered his bag and headed down the hall towards Leah's room. He stopped at the front desk to say hi to the Nurse on duty, Jenna Franks.

"She's got a visitor!" Nurse Franks said, her eyes wide with glee.

"A visitor?" Cabe repeated, confused.

"She is very ready to go, Agent Gallo. She's been complaining that you're late," she added, ignoring his question.

Cabe smiled and kept on to Leah's room. Getting to the door, he slowed.

"I wish you hadn't come to the hospital," he heard Leah say.

"I'm not getting MRSA or whatever," a young female voice replied.

Cabe peeked around the door and saw Leah in her wheelchair with a small suitcase on her lap. Standing in front of her was a younger woman. While Leah was a brunette, the other woman was a redhead. Her hair was far longer than Leah's and slightly wavy and thin, compared to Leah's flat, thick hair.

"Agent Gallo!" Leah said, seeing him.

Cabe smiled. "I hear you're ready to leave."

"I was ready weeks ago. Nobody should have to stay in a hospital for more than a couple days. It's hell," Leah said.

The young woman turned and upon seeing Cabe, she broke into a wide smile, her green eyes almost shining.

"So this is Agent Gallo, hmm?" she asked in a knowing voice.

"Oh for fucks sake, Mary," Leah admonished the woman, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, I am Agent Gallo. And you are?" he asked as he extended his hand to shake hers. The young woman took his hand in hers and held it in a firm grip.

"Mary Hudson," she answered.

Cabe dropped her hand in surprise, looking between the two women. Leah seemed to have gotten her eyes stuck in a rolled position. "Hudson?" he questioned.

Mary nodded. "Yeah. She's my mom," she replied in a matter of fact voice.

Cabe could have been knocked over by a feather, he was so shocked. "Mom?"

"Sorry, Gallo. She's my husband's niece," Leah explained, looking annoyed by Mary's bombshell.

It all clicked for Cabe and he visibly relaxed. Leah had explained to Cabe that her late husband's brother and wife had died in a car accident. She left out the part where Leah and her husband apparently got custody of the child.

"Sorry about your parents," Cabe said to Mary.

She shrugged. "I don't remember them. My brother and I were a year old. To us, mom and dad were always Leah and Jeff." She looked back at Leah. "But Mom has always been bothered by it," she said in a teasing tone.

Leah looked at Mary pointedly. "I'm not bothered. Just slightly annoyed by the way you always say it. Now, can we go? I don't want them to get the idea I should stay for longer," Leah said.

"I'll drive," Mary said as she walked behind the wheelchair.

"Do you have everything?" Cabe asked, moving out of the way so Mary could push Leah out of the room.

"Sure do."

"Then let's go."

Mary Hudson, who was a 20-year-old college student at the University of Michigan with her twin brother, was quite a talker, Cabe was learning. Once they were in Mary's rental car, she let Cabe know she knew just who her adopted mother was.

Leah spent the whole 20-minute car ride from the hospital to her apartment groaning and complaining from the back seat.

"I thought I taught you to keep shit to yourself," she whined.

"You said Agent Gallo can be trusted. So I'm trusting him," Mary shot back.

Leah replied by groaning loudly.

"So, Agent Gallo. Tell me, what's it like working with those geniuses?" Mary asked. "It's got to be amazing, right?"

"It can be. It can also be frustrating," he answered.

"Really? How so?"

"They lack a certain amount of self awareness, you could say."

"They can be assholes," Leah answered from the back seat. "That Walter kid hates me, I'm pretty sure."

Cabe chuckled. "Yeah, yeah he does."

"To be fair, you did come here to kill his friend. So…," Mary pointed out, trailing off.

"Semantics. I was never actually going to kill Gallo."

"Walter couldn't know that. You've got to remember to see it from other people's perspectives," Mary said as she pulled into the parking lot at the apartment.

Cabe looked back at Leah. "It's something we have to remind the geniuses of, you know."

Leah grimaced at him. "Great. You can tell your friends I also lack a certain EQ. Then we'll be best friends," she joked, throwing in a wink.

Cabe laughed and turned back around. Once Mary parked the car, Cabe got out and unpacked Leah's wheelchair, keeping it in place as she threw herself out of the car and into the chair.

"The one positive of my casts is I need people to take care of me," she commented as Cabe wheeled her into the apartment building.

"Yeah, but you've got to be nice otherwise no one will help you," Mary said, walking behind them with Leah's suitcase.

Leah shrugged. "I can be nice," she said quietly, almost like a child being scolded.

Cabe smiled. He liked seeing Leah and Mary together. It wasn't necessarily that Leah was a different person, but there was more gentleness to her.

Inside the apartment, Cabe set his bag down near the door and wheeled Leah into the sparsely furnished living room.

The trio looked around the room, none too impressed.

"At least you have a couch," Mary finally said.

Leah sighed loudly. "I'm going to need to borrow your government issued SUV, Gallo."

"Oh, and why's that?" he asked, looking down at her.

"Going to need to pick up a few things. Speaking of," she looked up at him, "where the fuck is your car?"

"We just got back from a case. I didn't have a chance to get back to my place," he explained.

"Oh, was it fun?" Leah asked, seemingly interested.

"It was…different," Cabe said. "Like they usually are with Scorpion."

"Why don't I go get us something to eat and you can tell us all about it?" Mary suggested, looking as excited as her mom.

Cabe looked between the two women, both silently asking him to say yes. "Yeah, why not?"

Author's Note: Thank you all for reading! This brings us to the end of this story. I've already got at least two more stories planned. Next up is a quick one shot and then I'll do the next story, which will be longer and more involved than this one. I was still figuring out the characters. We'll be seeing a lot more of Scorpion in the next story, that I promise!

Season two will be on DVD this week and that will help me write future stories.