Healing Hearts

Chapter 18 - They've Adapted

January 8th, 2025 - 5 pm

Later she found herself walking hand in hand with Ezra into the mess hall with a tray piled high with food. She found Herc in the crowd and made her way over to him, ignoring the dead silence the room had fallen into the moment she had stepped into the dining hall. She looked up and stopped walking. There in front of her was Raleigh, giving her a sympathetic look. He knew she hated the attention. 

"Let's go somewhere else to eat." He said to her in a low voice. She just nodded and followed him out of the hall. She gave Herc a sad smile as they left and he just nodded his head. She knew he understood that they had things to talk about. She followed her husband through the Hong Kong base to a scaffolding across from Gipsy. They sat down far enough from the edge that Ezra wouldn't wander over and possibly fall off. 

"I'm sorry, I should have warned you. First drifts are rough. You weren't just tapped into my memories, you were tappin' into my brother's too. When Yancy was taken we were still connected. I felt his fear, his pain, his hopelessness and then...he was gone." He described. 

"I felt it, I know. You described it so often but I never imagined it like that." She told him, not making eye contact. 

"You know you live in someone else's head for so long the hardest part to deal with is the silence. To let someone else in, to really connect, you have to trust them. And today the drift was strong." She nodded her head and he smiled at her but she couldn't seem to return it. She couldn't get the memory she had relived out of her mind. 

"I should have told you about what happened. That was not how you should have found out." She apologized feeling the guilt sinking into the pit of her stomach. 

"Hey, don't worry about it ok?" He reached over and cupped her cheek, bringing her to look into his eyes. "I understand why you buried that memory. I wouldn't have wanted to talk about it either." 

"You won't think of me differently?" She asks hesitantly. 

"No. Seeing that today helped me understand everything that happened between us. If anything it makes me love you more." He told her. She looked up at him, shocked.

"Really?"

"Definitely." He smiled at her and gave her a sweet kiss. Knowing that he still accepted her made her feel more loved than ever. "I do have one question though."

"What is it?" She looked over at him, curious about what was on his mind.

"What happened to the..." He trailed off, almost afraid to say the rest of his sentence.

"The baby?" She finished for him. He nodded and she sighed. She lifted her shirt to show him the scar on her stomach. "I was in a really bad car crash at about six months pregnant. Someone hit me head-on in a much larger vehicle and completely crunched the front end of my car. They had to do an emergency c-section on me." She let her shirt fall back into place and she looked away from him. It was a painful thought but one she had come to terms with a long time ago. Her gaze found Ezra who was just sitting between them, gazing up at Gypsy in awe. She smiled down at him and leaned over to kiss the top of his head. "Is that her heart?" She asked him, changing the subject. 

"It's been a long time since I've seen it." He told her. 

"We should probably go take Ezra to bed. He's probably really tired." She said, scratching the back of her head. 

"Probably." He got up and put his hand out for her. "Shall we my lady?" 

"We shall." She replied and not a moment later the alarms start going off. She sighed in defeat. "Or not."