Canvas & Keys

1. Don't Mess With Me When I'm Pissed

Emmy sat down on the armrest of my chair and pushed my hair back from my face. "How long has it been since you've slept, Hattie?"

"I've slept," I said stubbornly, looking up at her. "Sure, it might be just naps, but it's sleep."

"Don't you want to go sleep in your own bed? You need more than just a nap or two..."

"No," I said through my teeth, shaking my head. "I'm not leaving her. What happens if she wakes up? She won't know what's going on or where she is..."

"You said it yourself. She hasn't changed in two weeks," she sighed, running her hand over my hair again. "Go get something to eat, take a shower, and go to bed. We'll stay here with her. If anything changes, we'll come get you immediately."

"I'm not moving, Em."

"You're just about as stubborn as John is."

"Funny, since he says I'm just as stubborn as you are."

"And the combination of stubbornness between the two of you is astonishing," John said as he walked into the room. He stepped up beside Emmy and kissed the side of her head.

"How did it go?" she asked, looking up at him. "Anything?"

I looked between the two of them. "What do you mean? What's happened?"

"Nothing, unfortunately," he answered, shaking his head. "I've just been on a conference call with Juliet and the others to see if they'd made any progress in tracking Vince and the Order. But for now, they've all but disappeared. They had one lead a few days ago, something about Brazil, but they think it was a false trail. Drake and Cruz agreed."

"But how can we just lose them?" I grumbled, looking back down at Ash. "We've had a lock on them for weeks and now..."

"That's the one thing about all of us," Emmy sighed. "All three groups have ways of disappearing."

"You'd think it'd be a little easier trying to track an entire group of people."

"And we are," John nodded. "We know of several groups and where they're located currently, but it's nothing to go on. Because wherever Beau, Gage, and Savannah are, that's where Vince will be." He stepped toward me, sitting on the side of Ash's bed before taking my hand in his. "We're going to find them, Hattie. No matter what. And once Ash is awake..."

"What if she doesn't remember what happened?" I whispered in a panic. "What if the same thing happens to her as it did to Emmy?"

As soon as the question was out, the three of them were shaking their heads.

"She's going to be fine, Hattie. The tests we ran..."

"Emmy's was an extreme case. But if it does happen..."

Emmy was the last one to speak, taking the hand that wasn't in John's. "She's got you, babe. She's got all of us," she told me. "We'll see what happens. It can go one way or the other, but it's going to go the way we want it to." She reached up then, brushing my hair back from my face. "Your thoughts are running away from you since you haven't had much sleep or anything to eat."

I shook my head, looking between them and Ash. "I'm fine. I don't want to leave her."

"You haven't left her side in two weeks," John smiled slightly.

Emmy nodded. "And you know she's going to be pissed for not taking care of yourself, right?"

"Maybe."

She rolled her eyes, but gave me a stern look. "You need to take care of yourself, too, Hattie. How can you take care of someone else if you can hardly stand from exhaustion and lack of food?"