Dex is the first to move, rushing over to where Sophie and Stina are wrestling on the ground, and taking Sophie around the waist to pull her away. The teacher had taken Stina, her nose bleeding but not broken from what Fitz could tell. Which was probably for the best seeing as Biana had broken it a few months ago. Stina just wasn't having a good year.
Trying to get away, Sophie lashed out, but Dex held strong, whispering to her to calm down. Fitz was at his side before he knew it, taking Sophie's hand.
"It's okay, Sophie," he said. "Just calm down, okay? Talk to us."
Slowly, as if all her energy was leaving her like a popped balloon, she leaned back against Dex and closed in on herself. Her blonde hair was everywhere, the collar of her sweater pulled until the elastic had snapped. She looked to Fitz and it was then he noticed the tears in her eyes. Without another thought he spun on Stina.
"What did you say to her?" he demanded.
"Fitz," Dex tried to say, his voice calm and collected as usual, but Fitz wasn't having it. He glared at Stina, waiting for an answer.
"Me?" Stina snapped. "She was the one who punched me. What the hell is wrong with you freaks?"
Biana, who had been close, lunged, but Fitz caught her by the arm.
Sophie's homeroom teacher let out a loud, ear-piercing whistle. The whole class flinched. "Everyone settle down. Sophie, Stina, principal's office. Now."
Somehow, Dex and Fitz got roped into going. The two of them sat on either side of Sophie, and across from Stina, as they waited for the principal to call them in. Sophie had stayed quiet the whole time and Stina had taken the kleenex box from the front desk and was cleaning her nose. Not broken, Fitz decided. As far as he could tell, Sophie had one bruise along her cheekbone and her knuckles were battered. Stina, on the other hand, had a bruised and bloody nose, a black eye, and some kind of bruise along her collarbone. At least he knew who had been winning the fight.
"What happened?" Dex asked softly. Somehow, over the course of the five minutes being there, Sophie had taken his hand. Fitz wasn't sure what to think about that.
Sophie shook her head.
Fitz glowered at Stina, who noticed. "What are you looking at, Vacker?"
"What did you say to her, Heks?" he asked.
"I didn't say anything," she huffed, shoving her bloody tissues to the side. "She's the one that went crazy and started hitting me."
"Obviously, you said something because she wouldn't have hit you for no bloody reason," he snapped.
Dex sighed. "Fitz, please."
"No, she made Sophie upset on purpose and I want to know why."
"She asked why I was here," Sophie said, her voice small. "She asked why I wasn't in a mental institute. That I wasn't stable enough to be here with all the normal kids. I just...I just snapped."
"Because she's crazy," Stina replied.
Fitz was on his feet, but Dex was faster. He had let go of Sophie and placed himself between Stina and Fitz, his palms pressed against Fitz's chest. All he could see was red, his gaze locked onto Stina, who seemed so irritatingly smug regardless of the fact that she had just gotten her arse handed to her just a few minutes ago.
Suddenly, a warm hand found his chin and forced him to look away and down. He met Dex's gaze, blue and sharp. "Don't, Fitz. It's not worth it. Sophie needs you to stay calm. Come on, Wonderboy, okay?"
Fitz took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. He shouldn't have let Stina rile him up like that. Dex was right, Sophie needed him more. Upon noticing how close they were, Fitz felt his face heat up. He cleared his throat and stepped back. Dex immediately lowered his hand and moved to sit back in his seat, Fitz following shortly after.
"You do belong here," he said after a moment of silence. "Stina just doesn't know when to shut her mouth."
Stina frowned. "I can hear you, you know?"
"I'm well aware," he said.
"Both of you, shut up, will you?" Dex snapped. "Honestly, you're acting like children. Stina, finish cleaning up, and Fitz, control yourself, would you?"
Fitz wouldn't like to say he pouted, but Dex would. He crossed his arms and turned his head from Stina and toward his friends. Beside him, Sophie and Dex were whispering, hands now locked together once again. He didn't know why, but the action of Dex lacing his fingers through Sophie's made him frown and his stomach twist.
"Just tell the principal what happened," Dex was saying. "Don't worry about Stina. Everyone knows she's nothing but trouble."
"Pain in the arse," Fitz breathed. Apparently not quietly enough because Sophie glanced at him and Dex frowned. "Don't look at me like that. You know it's true."
Not long after, the principal came out. He took Sophie and Stina into the office and closed the door, leaving Dex and Fitz to wait.
"She's going to get suspended," Fitz commented.
Dex nodded. "Stina should, too. Sophie said Stina had thrown a punch or two. And with the things she said?" He gripped the arms of the chair. "God, she just knows how to push everyone's buttons. Poor Sophie doesn't deserve this crap after everything she's gone through."
"You really care about her, huh?" Perhaps his tone had come out slightly harsher than he meant it to. He wasn't really sure what made him say it. All he could see was the way Dex held Sophie's hand and kept just a little too close.
Raising a brow, Dex said, "Of course, I do. Don't you? She's been through so much. She deserves a much better experience."
Fitz glanced at the closed door. "This was definitely not what I wanted for her first day, that's for sure."
"Did they call your dad?"
"Yeah. He should be here soon."
Sighing, Dex leaned back in the chair. "And here I thought things would get less hectic."
"I guess we underestimated the situation," Fitz agreed.
The door to the office opened and Alden walked in. He was dressed in his police uniform and his eyebrows were pulled together with concern.
"What happened?" he asked immediately.
Fitz and Dex explained everything as quickly as possible. Alden lowered himself in the chair opposite them, eyeing the bloody tissues Stina had left behind on the table.
"They won't expel her, right?" asked Dex. "It'll just be a suspension?"
"Most likely. It's not like she's done this before. Not a great first impression though, I should say," Alden said. "Hopefully, this won't alter Grady and Edaline's decision."
Fitz perked. "They decided to take her in?"
Alden, rubbing his nose, nodded, "Yeah, I got them to agree this morning. Social services will need to finish up the paperwork, so she'll be with us for a couple more days, but then she'll be free to go to a more permanent home. Which will be good for her, I think."
Fitz agreed. What Sophie needed was stability and a distraction. Hopefully, her new foster parents could work that out for her.
*
Sophie came out twenty minutes later with a three day suspension. Fitz wasn't sure what Stina got, but he didn't care. He watched as Alden took her back to the house, and he and Dex returned to class. They spent most of their day defusing rumors and trying, with some difficulty, to make people unafraid of Sophie. It wasn't like she was a violent person as far as he was aware. She had just been through a lot.
Over the next three days, Biana returned home with Sophie's homework, only to hand it in the next morning for her. They didn't talk about the fight, or anything else that might stir up memories. The three of them hung out in the living room, watching movies mostly. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening, Sophie was to attend her therapy. That was another thing no one talked about.
Fitz, restless more so than not, kept glancing at the drawer he hit his case folders in. The one for Fintan was on the top; the last to be looked at and touched. He had promised Dex he wouldn't go near it, but that didn't mean he didn't want to. He desperately wanted to. At first, he had been sure he was over it. Over putting himself in trouble. But things had slowed down so much that he was actually missing the thrill now. As stupid as that sounded.
He sighed and set down his pencil, maths homework long forgotten. Slowly, he got up and headed to his dresser and pulled open the drawer. Underneath layers of clothes, he found Fintan's folder. There wasn't much in it, just the basic information they had gathered months ago, but it was still something.
Fintan Pyren. The man who had kidnapped Sophie, desperate for answers on something they still had no idea about. He had tortured her. But why? What he was so desperate to find? It was clearly something that he was willing to kill for.
He flipped open the folder. A man with messy blond hair–it could rival Keefe's, he thought–and sky blue eyes stared back at him. He had managed to snip the photo from an old yearbook. Clearly, Fintan was older now, but it was as close as he could get it. To Fitz, he appeared normal. Happy even. Who knew a torturer and killer hid behind that smile.
Slamming the folder closed and tossing it into the draw, he sighed. He wasn't going to do it. He had already promised he wouldn't. Still, Sophie deserved answers. And no one had found Fintan yet, no matter how hard they had been searching. Not to mention that Fintan's followers, including his own brother, were out there.
Oh, he was going to get into so much trouble.
Fitz hurried to his desk, grabbed his pencil and a scrap piece of paper, and began scribbling a note. Help me find Fintan.
He taped it to the outside of his window and stepped back.
Yep, Dex was going to kill him.
*
Luckily, after three days, Sophie's fight had dwindled down to idle chatter. They still watched her, still talked behind her back, but Fitz, Dex, Biana, and even Keefe kept close enough to distract her from it. Her day back moved fairly smoothly.
Even still, Fitz could feel her uneasiness. Because, after school, they were finally going to Grady and Edaline's veterinary clinic. No matter how much Biana and Fitz tried to ease her nerves, she still seemed tense, and he, honestly, couldn't blame her. These were the people who were going to look after her. Who would be her guardians forever now. That was a nerve wrecking thing.
So, after school, Fitz and Biana took her there.
The vet clinic was a small, humble looking building with cream siding and a red roof. There was a sign with a silhouette of a cat and dog on it. The lawn was green and freshly cut. Everything about it felt comfortable, Fitz noted. That would be good for Sophie.
As they got closer, Sophie slowed down. Biana kept by her side, giving a smile and hooking their arms together. "Don't worry," she said. "It'll be fine, yeah?"
When the door opened, the soft jingle of a bell echoed around the main room. The smell of pet fur and food hit Fitz right away. It was small, everything just a little too close, but strangely it wasn't claustrophobic. It was cozy, he supposed. As they headed in, the young woman at the counter lifted her head. Her sapphire eyes narrowed in on them, which were striking against her jet black hair that was pulled up into a tight ponytail.
"Can I help you?" the woman asked with a bored drawl.
"We're here to see Grady and Edaline," said Fitz as they moved into the middle of the room.
Biana plopped herself in a chair by the water cooler while Sophie crossed her arms and brought her head down, almost as if to hide herself. The action caught the woman's eye and she raised a brow before turning back to Fitz expectantly, waiting for him to offer up more information.
"Um, we're dropping Sophie off so they can meet her?" He couldn't help the way his statement curled up at the end like a question. The woman–Vertina, or so her name tag read–was slightly intimidating.
"Oh, so you're her, huh?" There was something the way she spoke, the way her nose wrinkled, that made Fitz feel on edge. Vertina apparently did not like the idea of Sophie at all.
Sophie turned her wide eyes on the woman behind the desk and nodded. "I guess."
Vertina eyed her. "You don't look special at all."
Fitz's jaw dropped slightly and Biana frowned, though neither of them seemed to be able to say a word; simply just stunned by the tactless statement. A blush rose to Sophie's cheeks.
Suddenly, one of the examination rooms opened. A man in a long white lab coat exited with a clipboard tucked under his arm. His blond hair was cropped short and when he smiled at the older woman, who was carrying a cat, his blue eyes sparkled with mirth. "Now, you keep Princess away from those rose bushes. She needs to keep herself prim and proper, right?"
"Absolutely, Dr. Ruewen," the woman said as she stepped up to the desk. "My Princess will be a good girl from now on. Thank you."
"Any time," Grady said. He turned and immediately spotted Fitz. "Ah, Fitz Vacker. Biana, as well, and–" His smile almost faltered, but he caught it. "You must be Sophie?"
Sophie, still watching Grady with an unreadable expression, nodded.
"It's nice to meet you." He offered his hand and, hesitantly, she took it. "Edaline is just in surgery right now, but she should be out fairly soon. Um, do you...Do you want to come to the back? We can get to know each other while we wait."
Fitz gave her an encouraging nod when Sophie looked to him. He had met both Grady and Edaline before. He knew she would be in good hands. She just needed to figure that out for herself.
"Uh, sure, yeah."
Fitz and Biana waited until Sophie had slipped into the back with Grady before leaving. When the door closed behind them Biana asked, "Do you think she'll be okay?"
"I'm sure it'll be fine. It's just dinner," he said. "Then she'll be back tonight and you can bombard her with questions."
"I wouldn't do that," Biana huffed.
"Uh huh, sure. Whatever you say."
Biana crossed her arms. "Maybe in the meantime, I can bombard you with questions instead."
They started toward their home.
"Like what?"
"Like Dex?"
Fitz felt his heart jump. "What about him?"
"What's going on with you two?"
This made him frown. "What do you mean what's going on?"
For a moment, Biana simply stared at him. Then she shook her head. "I knew you were slow, but I didn't know you were this oblivious."
Now, that hit him hard. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," she muttered.
"No, what's that supposed to mean?"
Biana tossed her hair over her shoulder and began to jog ahead. "Nothing, big bro."
"Biana! B? Come back here!"