He was floating in emptiness. The darkness and the silence around him were so perfect that he couldn't tell if he had a body or was only a thought. He didn't remember what happened, why he was there if he actually was anywhere at all. All he recalled was the power, raw, uncontrollable power coursing through his body. No, not his body: a body belonged to someone who was he before. That someone had a name but he couldn't remember it. But it didn't matter. He didn't need a name.

In this new life of his, there wasn't night and day anymore. He didn't sleep, nor he was awake. Time itself ceased to exist here. But there was Below and Above. Above was the pain and the man who he was before, but Above was the Voice too, and he risked the pain of reality just to listen to it. He didn't understand what the Voice was saying, but he wanted to hear it. As he emerged, the Voice became clearer.

'I'm not finished with you just yet,' the Voice said.

He wanted to answer, he wanted to cast away the sadness in that Voice so he went up, but then pain attacked him, it lit up his throat and crushed his head and the man with the cane was there in his mind (or maybe he was in the other man's mind?) and he almost remembered his name and something beeped and he panicked and went back down where there was none of those things, only the forgiving, empty darkness.

He learned that there was nothing waiting for him near to the surface but suffering. Still, he couldn't help it, he had to go back to hear the Voice. It knew words he loved, and those words reminded him of books. The Voice read books! She read them to him, she… She? And like that he remembered the name of the Voice: it was Jenna. He didn't know who Jenna was, but he remembered music and he remembered a crooked half-sided smile and the scent, spicy perfume mixed with the smell of an old leather jacket.

A second, a year or a life later he started to think that he belonged up there, up in the world of pain and light and Jenna. Down there he was forgetting: he forgot his name, he forgot his books and the deeper he went the harder it became to remember Jenna. And even if he didn't know anything, he knew that he never wanted to forget her.

He could go all the way down. He wanted to. He was tired, so tired of being. He could go down, and it would be the last decision he ever had to make. No more questions, no more pain, no more doubt. No more responsibility.

No more Jenna.

Up he went, and this time the pain didn't stop him, he reached the surface and broke through and he was awake, and there was something in his throat that made breathing hard. He wanted to tear it out, but Jenna grabbed his wrists and she was yelling for a doctor.

'It's okay, Robert, it's okay, you are okay, someone's gonna come in a moment and everything…'

Robert did not hear the rest of it. He was up. He made it back. He was him again. And it was too much, way too exhausting so he just looked at the woman then closed his eyes for a moment and when he opened them, it was another day. There was no plastic pipe in his throat anymore but it left pain as a reminder.

He turned his head and it was surprisingly hard to do. He was in the hospital, but he already figured out that much. Next to his bed stood a big armchair and in it sat Jenna, looking at him.

'Hello,' she said. She smiled but her eyes were full of fear. 'How are you?

'J… J…' Robert's throat was too dry to speak. The woman got up and poured some water into a glass. Then she helped him to take a big sip. It was cold and fantastically refreshing, and he wanted to drink more, but Jenna didn't let him.

'Patience… Can you talk now? Do you know my name?'

'Jenna…' it was still painful, but the water helped a lot.

'And yours?'

That was a little bit harder to remember, but after a second he got it.

'Ro… Robert. Not a Montgomery anymore.'

Jenna let out a fragile laugh and gave him some more water. Even this wore Robert out, but he didn't want to go back to sleep just yet. He basically fought himself into a position that was a little more sitting than laying. He was sweating and panting but he did it.

'How… Long?' he asked then.

Jenna sat back into her chair and hugged her knees.

'Nine days.' she answered.

That wasn't so bad.

'What happened?' he couldn't remember why he was there. He recalled the big lunch they all had together, and being on Trafalgar Square, but nothing else.

So Jenna told him everything. After she finished, Robert needed a minute to process everything he just heard. Sounded like his awakening was the first good thing that happened in a while.

'Also the Commissioner said that we don't have to continue, and I told him to fuck off,' added Jenna.

Robert laughed and regretted it immediately. He wasn't ready for that.

'He was here?' he asked.

'Yeah, I don't know, two or three days ago,' nodded Jenna. 'Everyone is trying to tear a new asshole on him because he sent civilians into a terror attack, so he wants us out now.'

'He didn't send us,' pointed out Robert. He reached out for the water on the nightstand and managed to drink without any help. He was kind of proud of himself.

'No, but he didn't object either,' said Jenna. 'But it doesn't matter. Not like there is anyone else lining up to do the job… Or anyone else who could do the job for that matter.'

'We weren't able to, either' said Robert.

Jenna shrugged.

'It was only round one. Next time we are gonna be prepared. Now try to sleep, okay?'

Robert found that a good idea. But there was something he had to tell her before. It felt mandatory that the girl knew that.

'I… Heard you read.'

He drifted away, and even if Jenna answered anything for that, he couldn't hear it.

The next day Martin visited him. He looked grim, which he tried to hide very poorly, but he didn't want to tell them why. He just repeated again and again that 'It's nothin' to worry 'bout, Boss, you need your rest, everything's under control.' But of course, there were no living creatures on the planet who could have said no to Jenna when she really wanted something, and it didn't take a long time for her to wear him down.

'Alright, alright, I'm gonna tell you guys, but Boss, you have to promise me that you gonna stay put, okay? No need to be hasty, right?'

Robert promised him that with no intention whatsoever to keep his word.

'So the thing is… Benjamin's kinda missing.'

'What do you mean "kinda missing"?' asked Robert sharply.

'So he was after that Priest guy, right? Just you know, in his free time, I was with him mostly anyway. We just went to places, you know, pubs and whatnots, to ask around, if someone saw somethin'. You know how it goes. And one day he didn't come back. I figured he must be like "undercover", you know, following a lead, he is actually very good at that. I always tell him that he would be a good cop. You know, if he wouldn't be so hot-headed. Anyway, so it's been a while now since I talked to him and I am starting to worry, so I told Marcus an' Rose that we have a situation here, and they are on it, so you really just need to stay here 'til you got better, okay, Boss?'

Surprisingly, Jenna agreed with Martin that Robert needed to stay in the hospital. It wasn't really a question: after Robert decided that he would leave to look for Benjamin, but couldn't reach the wardrobe to put on clothes, the whole thing was pretty much theoretically anyway.

'He is a big boy,' said Jenna that evening after Martin left and she helped Robert back in his bed, 'he can take care of himself, don't worry.'

Robert scoffed, but he had to admit: even if Benjamin showed some signs of immaturity, he was good at staying alive. Otherwise, he wouldn't make it even to middle school with his temper.

A few days after he woke up, his physician, Dr Kimberly Kim ('I think my mother wanted to get back to me for ruining her figure,' she explained her name) brought a pack of plastic cards and said after he seemed to remember everything he should, and his motoric functions looked okay given the circumstances, it was time to test his magic.

Robert knew that it was a standard test after coma, and wasn't worried about it.

'Okay, so we are going to aim low, we don't want you to exert yourself. Let's start with something simple.'

She gave a card to Robert with the Rune of Movement painted on it, then put a box of green jelly at the man's feet. Robert smiled and touched the Rune gently as he poured energy into it. He missed magic down there, almost as much as he missed Jenna and books. Now he imagined how the power relieved the dormant connection between the Rune and the reality.

Nothing happened. The little green box remained still. Robert looked at it puzzled, then tried again. Nothing.

'I don't understand,' he said, looking up at Dr Kim.

'It's perfectly normal, don't worry,' she said in a calming voice. 'Sometimes it takes a while to get back on the horse. Why don't you try it again?'

Robert nodded. This time he gave more energy to the Rune, but it was fruitless. He looked at Jenna who didn't make her terrified expression disappear fast enough. That didn't help.

'Maybe try another one,' said the doctor cheerfully. 'Here.'

The next card had the Rune of Light on it. That was Robert's speciality, also the second Rune young sorcerers learned in school, after the Movement. The man really concentrated on this one, he even closed his eyes and his forehead started to sweat. The room went cold all of a sudden, the EKG machine died, but then Robert's shoulders stooped and he groaned. Again, nothing happened.

Dr Kim looked a little more concerned now. She took the plastic card back and didn't offer another one.

'Do you have any intolerance?' she asked.

'Not that I know of, no,' he answered frowning.

Robert was familiar with the theory stated that some sorcerers weren't able to do magic with a particular material, or was more efficient with some of them. Plastic, as it was as far from anything natural as it gets, was the most common material claimed to be an "allergen". But Robert never had any problem with it or with any other sources: ever since he was very young, Runes obeyed to his wishes regardless of where they were painted or carved.

'Here, try this,' said Jenna, and took off one of her silver bracelets. It was still warm as he found the Rune of Movement on it. Still nothing.

'Alright, I think that was enough for a day,' said Dr Kim. 'Don't worry, it was only the first try. Tomorrow we will give it another shot.'

They did try it again on the next day and the day after that and even though it was against the doctor's order, Robert tried it in between too, accompanied with Jenna's worrying gaze, but there was no change.

Looked like Robert Montgomery's days of using magic were over.