Truth & Lie

Chapter 29

Louie slipped on a fresh hoodie after his shower. It felt nice to be clean again after spending what felt like forever on that island. He looked over himself in the mirror. He was home.

The adults were in the kitchen discussing plans and such while the kids were left to their own devices. Louie and Dewey had decided to take a shower first.

Through the mirror, Louie could see Dewey walk into their room, a blue towel wrapped around his waist. The green triplet frowned. His older brother still wasn't talking to him since their argument. He wanted to make amends, but he didn't really know how.

What would he apologize for? Being mad at Huey? Wishing that this whole thing hadn't gone so south?

Louie shook himself. They were alone now. Maybe this was his chance. He coughed into his fist. "So, Dew..." He spun around to face Dewey.

Dewey gave him a glance before tuning to his dresser. He pulled out on his blue shirts and wiggled it on. He moved to leave the room.

"Dewey wait." Dewey stopped and raised an eyebrow at him. Louie sighed. "Don't go yet, I wanna talk to you... about our fight. I'm sorry for yelling at you." Biting his lip, he fiddled with the hoodie strings. "I know that this isn't really Huey's fault, but..." He found his voice cracking at the mention of their oldest brother. Louie's eyes watered. "I'm still mad at him. Hopefully, after all this is over, I can forgive him, but not yet. And Dewey." He stopped, his breath shaken. His eyes met Dewey's. "I don't want to lose you too, okay?"

Louie was scared snot would start running out of his nose, so he quickly wiped it with his sleeve and said, "Look, I'm not good at emotional stuff, can you just talk to me!" It came out louder than he wanted, but he shook the feeling. A hopeful smile crossed his face.

And for a moment, Dewey opened his mouth like he might say something. And then there was a loud crash.

...

To Katie's relief, Bradford with a team of Eggheads came down and broke the door off Cell 25. With the keypad all messed up, there was no other way. Katie tried to walk out the cell herself, but she was too lightheaded and ultimately collapsed in her grandfather's arms.

He embraced her, making her feel warm and safe. "Katie, are you alright?"

She nodded against his chest, a soft smile crossing her face. "Yes, now I am." Her voice was soft, lacking strength to be anything louder.

Bradford turned to one of the eggheads. "Get her to medical quickly. And how's the extraction team?"

"At the mansion now sir," the Egghead said. Bradford nodded.

Katie didn't know what that meant, but she didn't care. She was finally out of the cell. She still had a bit of a headache, so maybe stopping by the med room would be good. An Egghead helped her make her way to the room to get checked up.

While they looked her over and asked her to do random things, her mind wandered to Huey. He had hurt her, left her there, not caring what happened. She had thought they were friends, but maybe she had been wrong. Maybe it had been foolish to trust anyone not her grandpa.

But then again, FOWL were the ones who had trapped Huey there, treated him like an animal. Tricked him into hurting his family. Katie frowned, still torn. Why did this have to be so difficult?

She just wanted to do what was right, but it was hard when everyone was giving her a different definition of what that meant. FOWL just wanted to put a stop to all chaotic adventures that put the world in danger, right?

The headache didn't help. By the end of the checkup, they gave her some pills and told her to rest. The Egghead offered to walk her back to her room, but she refused it. She needed to be alone. She needed to think things over.