A/N: Thank you for all the nice comments! It really makes my day!

The shock blossomed in his face in slow motion. It was like watching a portrait being painted in fast forward and now the disbelief lay in thick colors on his face. For a second or two he just stared at her, increasingly confused. There wasn't much of anything else in his face. Just the surprise. Cordelia had feared anger would come second, but nothing came.

"I have a kid?" Even his voice was pure shock.

She nodded. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner", she said again.

Something seemed to dawn him then. For a while he was lost in some thought and then he looked at her. "You tried didn't you? That night? And I shut you down, because you told me to leave."

She nodded again, remembering the hesitation to tell him and the guilt from refraining to go through with it.

He blinked as if to clear the slate, to let the message sink in properly. Then he eyed her again and said: "But I thought you, um, couldn't? But so I guess that treatment worked?"

"Yes that", Cordelia started to fidget uncomfortably with her shirt, "or perhaps Misty…" Thankfully, he held up a hand to stop her before she had to endure the embarrassment of finishing her sentence.

"I don't need to know."

She nodded in understanding. In reality the issues of her infidelity was only buried because he was, and even though that fight was over, it was still mortifying to speak of.

Hank broke the uncomfortable silence: "Can I see him?"

This was inevitable of course. For a long time Cordelia had only thought of the wrong in keeping this from him, and not the consequences of letting him know. But now that the moment had arrived she had an answer prepared:

"You can. But you can't tell him you're his father." Hank shot her a disapproving look. "This is all very sudden. I don't want to confuse him before we have this settled."

"What's there to settle?"

"Hank…"

"No I know, it's fine." He nodded to let her know he understood. He was different, she noticed. Far less emotional. The anger seemed father from the surface than ever, though he had every reason to keep it up front. He might have refrained from checking up on her health – and she really couldn't blame him for avoiding her in that state – but she had withheld something much bigger than simple care. With all that had happened, she thought it best to spare Cage the drama, but looking at this calm man, she used to know, she feared that had been a mistake.

So she let him in.

Misty stood waiting on the other side of the door. Her eyes went straight to Cordelia's and Cordelia let her know that everything was okay. Misty's gaze said she wouldn't believe that just yet, but she abandoned her protecting stance in the hall and went into the living room to Cage and Fiona. They followed her.

Hank came in last, walking like a stranger in his old house.

Fiona wasn't late to make a comment. "Well", she said with a taunting smile. "Look what the cat dragged in." Misty must have warned her. This was a front at which they could finally unite. Cordelia wasn't sure which of them hated Hank the most. It bothered her that they did, but she didn't have anything to say against it. She felt like protecting him today, but she couldn't find any words to counter her mother.

"Fiona", was all Hank said. His voice was even and devoid of that anger, which used to simmer in his words, whenever Fiona provoked him. Again, he surprised her with his calmness. There didn't used to be so much of it, that she could think of. But perhaps it was because he was always so agitated towards the end of their marriage. Or maybe the shock had sedated him. She didn't know and she didn't ask.

Instead, she went to sit down beside Cage. He had already glanced at the stranger and now looked up at her, question in his eyes.

"Cage, I want you to meet Hank. He's a friend." Her boy followed her motion and looked up at Hank again. Cage greeted him as he did any other stranger: With a shy smile and a tiny wave. He was too young to realize the similarities in their faces. They were vague, but now that they were in the same room, Cordelia noticed them. Like his chin. His chin was definitely his father's.

Hank crouched down in from him, his gaze shifting between Cordelia and the boy.

"Cage, huh? Hey little guy." He stretched a hand out to meet Cage's little fist and Cordelia felt a sense of longing. She already had exactly the family she had always wanted, even when she didn't know it, but something about the picture she saw right now just fit. She found herself wishing she could somehow include Hank. He was a part of it too and not just biologically. Cage deserved to know his father. But she wouldn't give into her wishes just yet. Hank was a stranger to her in a way. So much of him felt the same, so much that she could slip right into the comfort they had a long time ago, but she made herself realize that she had no idea what the years apart might have done to him. And more importantly, what coming back from the dead had done to him. Because he was different.

For that reason she didn't let him stay long. This wasn't the time either. Both Misty and Fiona kept quiet the whole time, hovering like two threatening sculptures of stone. As if rays of cold seeped from their bodies and into the atmosphere. She knew Hank felt it too. After half an hour, she led him out into the hall and promised that they would find another day for him to see his son.

On his way out, Hank lingered in the door for a moment, hesitant to leave.

"Do you ever think about me?" He asked.

Cordelia paused for a second, unsure of how honest she should be. In his eyes she found longing, not for truth, but for her to say what he wanted to hear.

"Sometimes", she admitted. "Though I try not to. I'm in a good place now and the end of us was… stressful."

He looked crestfallen for a moment, but cleaned it off with a smile. "I think about you a lot."

She didn't know what to answer. Hank didn't wait for one, but gave her arm a gentle squeeze and left the doorway.

Cordelia closed the door and went to the kitchen. A glass of water could maybe clear her head, while she tried to sort out how much of what she told Hank was just make-believe.

She didn't get to think long before Misty stepped in, looking less cold now and far more angry.

Cordelia sat the glass down and took in her anger. "I know you don't approve of him, you don't have to say it."

Misty scoffed, a rare habit she had picked up from Fiona. "Approve? I don't want him here at all."

"He has a right to see his own son, Misty. I can't deny him that."

Her eyes narrowed and her tone grew harsh with disbelief. "He hurt you. I don't just mean those bruises on your arm. This ain't his home no more."

"You're right, it's not", Cordelia agreed. "It's ours. But that doesn't change anything of what I just said."

Misty growled and turned to leave, when Cordelia stopped her, grasping her wrist to hold her back.

"Please don't be mad at me for this. I made a quick decision and I should have talked to you first, but it wouldn't be right to deny him this. I promise he won't come here." Misty was about to respond, when the front door burst open and Zoe came running in. Both of them immediately forgot their place in the conversation, as they took in the sight of the young girl. There was blood on her hands and tears streaming down her cheeks. She stood panting and her wild eyes scanned the room, flickered about until they found Misty. Then she said, with a voice trembling in fear:

"It's Kyle! You have to help me!"

O0O

Misty stood with one foot planted in the hall and one in the kitchen; split midway between two problems. Cordelia's hand was still around her wrist, pleading in its touch, but Misty's eyes were caught by Zoe's expression of absolute horror.

"What's wrong with him, Zoe? Is he back?" She ignored Cordelia's shocked gaze burning her right cheek.

"He um…" Zoe started, her voice shaking so hard she could barely get the words out. "God, I think he killed her… That woman from the saloon came to get me, said he already left then I went to his house, and… and there was so much blood and I just ran." She looked into space, as if she was talking to only herself.

"God", Misty heard Cordelia whisper. Her grip tightened around Misty's wrist. They both went to Zoe's side, their fight forgotten. They lost contact as Cordelia gently drew the trembling girl into her arms. Zoe barely registered it, too upset to move her quivering figure.

"Where is he now?" Misty asked. "Who did he hurt?"

"His mom."

Cordelia's eyes snapped up, pierced Misty's over Zoe's heard. They were full of terror. Misty could see her internal fight to keep composure for Zoe's sake, a battle she would soon lose.

Just then, Fiona came out in the hall with Cage dragging at her heels.

"What is going on out here?"

"Fiona, stay out of it! Get back in the room with Cage", Misty snapped and received a shocked look in return, one not without scorn.

"If you think-"

"Not now, mother, please."

Fiona looked from one to the other and to Misty's surprise she tugged at Cage's hand and turned around. "Come boy, your mothers are too busy for us, it seems."

Misty ignored the last comment and turned to Zoe. "I'll go find him."

"Misty, don't you think we should call the police-", Cordelia started, before Zoe spun out of her embrace and begged her not to.

"You don't understand! He's not himself! He was dead and now he's this, we can't call the police!"

"Shh, I know, Zoe. Misty told me. But if he's dangerous..." Misty had come home that night with clothes full of blood and while she had much rather spared Cordelia, she had to tell her about the bear attack and how Laveau's presumed powers might bring him back. That was all Misty had to share at that point, yet Cordelia suddenly talked like she was on top of the situation. Misty couldn't help thinking this was how she acted with Cage and all her kids at the school.

But she couldn't help this kid.

"I'll be careful", Misty said. "Trust me." She didn't expect an answer in words, only looked into Cordelia's eyes as she asked. Saw the torn debate and finally acceptance.

"I'll go with you", Zoe said and continued before Cordelia could protest again: "I think he still knows me. And you don't know the way." There was still tears in her eyes and fright in her face, but her look was determined. Misty nodded and said to Cordelia:

"I'll keep her safe."

They left the house and broke into a run. None of them spoke, only ran as if time was eating away at the ground they tread on. Kyle's mother's tiny house was at the outskirts of town as well, a little further south. Out where the trees of the forest wasn't as close and the landscape looked more broken by the harsh heat. It was a grey stoned house, one that looked ramshackle and drained by age. The door stood gaping, tattling of the intrusion, and a dark hall revealed itself behind it. No light was on, no life breathed from it. The air tasted the same as it did the last time with the scent of death hanging in it.

"What if he left?" Zoe whispered as they got closer.

"I don't think so", Misty said. She didn't know how she knew, only that she did. The two of them walked carefully towards the house, into the darkness.

The house was dead quiet except for a low grunting somewhere. They followed the noise, blinking to make their eyes adjust. Misty's adjusted quickly and her instincts set in. Living in the city hadn't robbed her of them yet and she crouched a little, moved her center of gravity in case she needed a quick escape. She felt Zoe follow her move behind her and they snuck towards the end of the house, from where the noise originated. It was a human grunt, yet not. There was no words in it, no humanity, yet it was a human voice.

Misty turned the last corner and the bathroom revealed itself. The blood made a glaring contrast to the white tiles on the walls. There he sat, crouched over a body, grunting as he hands smashed a rock from the garden down on what used to be a face.

Her body didn't speak. She was gone.

His body didn't speak to Misty either. It spoke at her. Mocked her. This was the first time she had ever encountered supernatural abilities like her own and what she found was an opponent. A complete opposite and it hissed at her without words. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise.

He was almost unrecognizable. His short blonde curly hair was full of dirt and blood, his naked upper body covered in stiches from more cuts than she remembered the bear had given him and his movements were crude, stunted and slow. But his face was the most different. When he turned to look there was no light in it anymore. It was a waxy mask of something unloving. Expressionless, blank, perhaps slightly confused. As if his body drove him on, but his brain registered none of the occurrences. Like a marionette of human flesh.

Behind her, Zoe threw up.

The noise made the creature of Kyle cringe and his hands stopped coming down on the skull of his dead mother. He looked beyond Misty towards the girl behind her and a fraction of emotion flickered over his face. Then he rose to his feet, slowly and insecure. He was taller than Misty in his full height and his shunted appearance made him look heavier. He took an effortful step towards them.

"Kyle…" Zoe whispered. "Please come back."

He growled for an answer. It sounded like it was meant as an answer to her words, but there was no meaning Misty could find. Every part of her instincts screamed danger, except for one. The hum of magic in her made her stay. She had promised to protect Zoe. This was not Kyle anymore and she didn't trust this voodoo creation. And something drew her to it, the hint of injury which called her to the waters again.

Kyle took another step and made a vague hissing sound. His glasslike eyes were still fixated on Zoe.

"He knows me", Zoe whispered with a painful kind of hope in her voice and she tread closer. Misty stopped her, before she got past her.

"Careful", she said and as soon as she spoke Kyle looked at her. She couldn't tell if it was out of recognition or something more sinister, but a new flicker of emotion entered his face. This was closer to hate. He snarled, a deep throaty sound and lunged at her.

Misty registered Zoe's scream, and the movement of her own hands, but nothing more, before her palm touched Kyle's cold chest. A stomach turning sensation spread through her entire body at once and the skin of her hands prickled with fire, the kind of fire one would feel as their hands stuck to ice for too long. The trance poked at her mind, but energy didn't flow out of her this time. It came into her.

"Stop!" Zoe pushed her away and Misty collapsed into the doorframe, groggy and disoriented. Kyle tumbled to the ground with a look of heavy sedation on his face.

When Misty found her vision again, she saw Zoe crouch down beside Kyle, who appeared significantly more dazed than before. He stared back at Zoe, pacified and unmoving, but still alive in his own sense. Misty wanted to stop her, but the thought hit her that Kyle didn't seem so threatening all of a sudden. Misty looked down at her hands and tried to understand what had happened. It felt different, as if she had taken something away instead of giving it. But it wasn't life that she took. She still felt the last of it simmer in her body like nausea, slowly fading. It felt like she had taken death into herself, not enough to kill her, but enough to make her feel sick.

"Be careful, Zoe", she said and Zoe looked up with hard, hurt eyes.

"Did you try to hurt him?"

Misty shook her head. "No. I don't know what happened." Zoe stared at her for a moment longer, before she accepted. Then she gently reached out and touched Kyle's cheek. His eyes followed the movement with unease, but he didn't move away.

"He seems calmer than before. I think you calmed him down. Kyle, are you okay?"

He tried to speak, but only the slow grunting came out. It was less agitated now, more like an insisting hum. He reached out and touched a strand of Zoe's hair, ran it between his fingers, smeared it with half clotted blood. Zoe sniffled and put her hand on top of his. It made him hum again.

Zoe turned to Misty again, eyes watered up with tears. "I'm sorry I pushed you. It just looked like… I don't know, like he was going to faint. I got scared."

Misty shook it off. "Don't worry 'bout it. But we needa go, or they're gonna take him away when they see this mess."

Shock came back to the young girl's eyes in an instant, as if she had for a moment forgotten all about the dead body by the wall in the small bathroom.

"It's too crowded by his own apartment. There's no way I can get him there. I'll take him to my parents. I'll just tell them he's sick. They are really busy at the moment, so they won't notice much."

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Zoe-"

"You don't decide! He's my boyfriend! You wouldn't let me take Cordelia away, would you?" There was a tiny fire in her eyes, an unwavering determination. She shot a glance at Kyle. She couldn't say what had happened to him, but the way he looked at Zoe made Misty think that she was safe. Cordelia would throw a fit over her leaving Zoe alone with this undead shade of Kyle, but Cordelia didn't understand these things like Misty did.

"No, you're right. But we don't know what Laveau did to him. I'll come visit once, try to find out, okay?"

Zoe nodded. "Yes, okay. Thank you."

"I'll help you get him to your parents' house. We gotta move now."

They worked together to get Kyle on his feet. On first try it seemed he had forgotten how to stand, but slowly he found footing and only swayed lightly in their hold.

"People will just think he's drunk, with the way he's walking", Zoe said and tried to smile through the tears. Misty agreed and thought of the way Jackson walked home on days where he had a little too much. He could stay on his feet, but he swayed. Now that she thought about it, the way Kyle looked right now wasn't much different from most of her customers. Except for the blood and the lines of stiches around his neck, where his head appeared to have been sowed back on. There were stitches around the hand hanging around Zoe's shoulder as well and two fingers missing. She wondered if Zoe had seen it, but decided not to bring it up.

Misty felt a battle going on within her as she helped carry Kyle to Zoe's house. Her ability wanted to touch Kyle, but it was different from before. Injury used to speak to her, plead her to fix it and she often did so without second thought. This wound in Kyle's entire being spoke to her as well, but with fear. It wanted her to stay away, to keep her hands off it. She recalled the first touch of his cold skin, how she had reacted without thought and started to suck whatever pseudo life Kyle now had out of him. She realized that whatever alternate state of living Kyle was now in, her ability wanted to take it away. It felt wrong, it made her nauseous. She had to constantly tell herself not to give in to the urge to take this undeath out of him. Because she feared if she did, there wouldn't be any kind of life left in him.

By the time they got to Zoe's house, Misty was so exhausted from the inner fight that she left shortly after making sure Zoe could handle the rest. She simply couldn't keep her thoughts straight anymore and only hoped Zoe would be okay. She was borderline sleepwalking on the way back to the Goode mansion. The night was black now and it made her feel like she was walking within some awfully heavy dream.

She pushed through the front door and barely registered the scraping of a chair. Seconds after, Cordelia came running out into the hall.

"Misty, are you okay, love? I was so worried."

Misty didn't answer, but instead pulled her close and kissed her. Cordelia didn't object, but gave back like she had an equal wish to disappear in it. All the frustration and anxiety, the fights and the nausea vanished for a moment and Misty felt like she could breathe right again. The air in her mind cleared and it was only the physical exhaustion that lingered.

Cordelia broke the kiss and looked up. Cupped Misty's face and rubbed her thumbs over her cheekbones. "What happened out there? You look so pale. Is Zoe okay?"

She gave a faint nod. "Let's just sleep now, okay? Tell you tomorrow."

The worry didn't withdraw from her eyes, but Cordelia nodded anyway. "Okay." She led Misty to bed, pulled the covers over her and as soon as Misty felt the other woman lie down beside her, she was gone.

O0O

Kyle sat in the corner of her bedroom and looked around with wild eyes, as if a bedroom was an entirely foreign and threatening concept to him. She knew he recognized her when he looked at her, but everything else seemed to have slipped out of his mind.

Zoe sat down in front of him, put a gentle hand to his face and directed his gaze at her.

"Kyle, can you say my name?"

He looked into her eyes and made the same hissing sound he had made all night. It sounded like he was trying to wrap his mind around the Z of her name and she clung to that hope.

"Kyle, do you understand me? Nod if you do."

His glasslike eyes held her captive, but nothing changed in them. Come on Kyle, please, she thought with all the strength of her spirit.

At last a muscle twitched at his mouth and he gave her a slow nod.

"Oh thank God", Zoe gasped and threw her arms around him. She forgot to be careful, for a moment she even forgot that he had killed his own mother. Yet she was nothing like his mother and he would never harm her. She felt the dazed movement of a hand on her back and almost started crying again.

She moved back, looked at him again and wondered just what Misty had done to him. She had only seen her use her strange ability twice and those two times had looked so different. With Cage, it had been a smooth exchange, a peaceful act and Cage had smiled in the end. This had almost looked like a battle.

And now he was calmer. The blind viciousness that had caused her to flee the house in the first place seemed gone for now. Perhaps whatever forces Laveau had used to revive him were much different from Misty's. She had never met Hank, but now she wished she had, so she could compare. Two resurrections, only one of them had committed murder as far as she knew. Murder. It was too much. She couldn't bear it.

So she pushed it away. She ran a hand through Kyle's hair. She would have to wash him before her parents returned tomorrow. If he didn't look so barbaric, maybe this ball of fear would vanish from her chest. She hated to look at him and be scared. He used to be the sweetest, most harmless guy she knew. She wondered if that boy was still in there.

"Kyle, we need to get you a shower, before my parents come ho-"

At the mention of 'parents', Kyle started to whine and thrash around in the corner, damaged hands banging into the wall and feet kicking the floor like a child throwing a tantrum.

"Kyle, what is it? Kyle!" He stopped and looked up at her with his blue eyes widened. "You don't want my parents to be here?"

He shook his head violently.

"But they live here! And you have to for now too. I can't get you all the way to the apartment, there are too many people there. People that know you. Listen to me, we are going to tell them that you're sick and we can't get hold of your mom-" at the word, Kyle started yelling and kicking his feet even harder and Zoe could barely outshout him, let alone avoid the thrashing arms and legs "- so you have to stay here for a while. It'll be okay Kyle, please calm down."

"No! No mom!" He shouted and Zoe stopped dead.

"You can speak again?"

"No mom, no mom, no mom!" Kyle continued to shout with slurred yet understandable words and he started to bang his head back against the wall, so hard she thought his skull might crack.

"Okay okay, no mom, no mom Kyle!" She had to yell it twice before he caught on and finally quieted. He stopped banging his head into the wall and mumbled one last time:

"No mom."

Zoe nodded and stroked his face. This was far too much. She had a brief sensation of watching herself from the outside, gazing down at this young woman, barely past her teenage years, suddenly burdened with this creature of a person she used to know. This huge responsibility she suddenly found herself carrying terrified her, but she loved him. And he was still in there. She could bring him out again, she knew it. It would just require some time.

She started by changing him out of his bloodied, torn clothes. Now she was determined to bring the human back to the surface of this creature. She got to work, too preoccupied to notice the shape of a person in the window. And when she turned around to find Kyle's spare clothes, the window was empty.