The Super Jerk Trilogy (Now 3-in-1)

21. Don't Go Yet

{Sarah}

My mind's sluggish as I come back to my senses. I have a hard time really remembering what happened in the seconds before Hank pulled his time-stopping trick. I hear the guards groaning around me, and as they stir, I hear Hank making the rounds, telling them to get lost or else. If they were expecting sympathy or cooperation, it looks like they're going to get neither. Especially after what's happened, which I can't exactly put together in a logical order in my head.

I push myself to my elbow, my side throbbing worse than before and my head spinning. I have to physically force myself to think, and that's when I see Hank, motionless and staring at the spot where Green and Cam were just minutes ago. Now there's no sign of them. Beyond him I see Kitty, her clothes stained with Trevor's blood and trembling with quiet sobs.

"Hank?" I croak, clearing my throat. Merlin, even that hurts.

He doesn't even move, giving no indication that he's heard me.

"Hank," I try a second time, raising my voice a little more. The effort makes my body throb with pain.

Again, nothing. He seems fixed on that same spot, like he can bring them back just by thinking about it.

"Hank!" My vision flashes white as I raise my voice, and then I sag back to the ground. I know I've just expended all my energy.

Finally he turns around, his shoulders slumped. I can't see his face, but I can hear it in his voice when he speaks. "I'm sorry, Sarah."

"For what, exactly?" I try to take a deep breath, but my throbbing wound prevents me.

"I tried to get to him in time. Blue Bolt. But now that the Mayor's taken him to God-knows-where–"

"You did your best, Hank," I say, even though I'm stunned. How could we have come this far, with so much planning, only to fail in accomplishing the one thing we'd come here to do? "You tried, that's all that counts."

"But not hard enough," he says, his hands closing into fists. "I can't believe I've failed her again."

"Who?" That briefly sparks my curiosity. There was a different note to his voice, a sadness I've never heard before.

"Raina," he says through a heavy sigh. "I promised her I'd keep her kids safe. She made me their godfather, just in case something happened to her. And now look..."

"Hank, don't–" I can already tell he'll be beating himself up about this for weeks, even though it isn't his fault, not completely. We all underestimated the mayor, and our pride seems to have gotten the better of us again.

"Let's get you kids out of here," he says gruffly, shaking his head and coming over to me. "Can you walk okay?"

I try to stand up, grabbing his hand and letting him pull me to my feet. But the ground dips and sways like a ship on a rough sea. That makes my knees buckle, and I'm pulled down into blackness before I can say a word.

A soft constant beeping noise wakes me, and when I try to crack my eyes open, a bright white light stabs into them. I squeeze them shut again, giving up on trying to figure out where I am now.

"Sarah?" says Kitty's voice, next to me and slightly above.

Again I open my eyes, slowly this time, and see her sitting in a hard wooden chair near me. I seem to be in a hospital bed, and just past her I see the door, cracked slightly open. She looks much worse than I do, her bruises dark and face haggard.

"Kitty..." I twitch my hand, and she leans forward and grasps it. "Hey..."

"It's good to see you awake," she says, with a one-sided flicker of a smile. "The doctor said you got just a graze from that bullet, but you'd lost so much blood already. It's a miracle you were even walking and talking at the end."