Days went by with Muse staying at Aaron’s side. She would disappear from time to time - running ‘errands’ or things like that - fetching him clothes or other amenities. Muse liked the big man - he was quiet, hard to figure out sometimes, but nice. He worried about her if she was gone for too long. He had already become so protective of her in such a short amount of time. It was a little odd, but Muse shrugged it off. The guy was obviously lonely, and she knew what that was like. So he developed attachments a little too fast - whatever.

He was slowly progressing, the doctors still amazed at how well he was patching up. He could now get up under his own power and walk across the room, although it was hard. She kept reminding him that he was stubborn, but he insisted on walking at least to the bathroom and back without any help.

Muse was set on folding bits of paper into little origami swans. She had a small army by now sitting on the table, and had given Aaron a good laugh by naming every single one of them. They both looked up as a nurse walked in with his lunch, which was, in truth, two lunches. Muse quickly discovered that Aaron had an appetite that could have fed a horse.

The nurse looked over at Muse and smiled. “You should go downstairs to the cafeteria, hun. Get yourself something.”

“Huhn? Oh, no - I already ate. But thanks.”

“I bet this one eats enough for two of you.” Before leaving, the nurse patted Aaron on the hand, which made the corner of his eye twitch.

Turning his attention back to Muse, he furrowed his brow. “You already ate?”

Muse shrugged. She hated lying to him, she really did. But she had no choice at this point. Explaining to him that she was dead would be more than a little awkward. Especially when he put two and two together and realized she was the source of the haunting. “Yeah - picked up a sandwich when I went to pick up your laundry from downstairs.”

“You were gone less than twenty minutes.”

“I’m a fast eater,” she lied. “You. Eat. Stop being silly. I’m really not hungry.”

Muse saw him ready another battery of questions. She knew what was coming. ‘Why haven’t I ever seen you eat?’ ‘Why haven’t I ever seen you sleep?’ Luckily she never had to worry about it as she heard a familiar set of voices coming from the hallway.

“Ow, Mother- Vic you get yer sorry as back here, you little pencil neck imma break your fang-face in sidewar-”

“Maaaal, we’re in a hospital, dude… watch your language.”

“Don’t get on my case, fang-face.”

Muse groaned and slapped her hand over her eyes.

Aaron was still chewing. “Hmf?” he grunted in question.

“The Goons. I’ll go intercept.” Muse walked to the door and stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind her.

“Muse!” Victor yelled and ran down the hallway, scooping her up in a hug and twirling her around in a circle. She yelped and clung onto him.

“Waugh!” she laughed as Victor put her down and began to mess up her hair. She punched him playfully and glared up at him as she did her best to straighten it, although she didn’t know why she cared. It always fixed itself.

“Ey, Blue,” Mal pushed Victor out of the way to nudge her in the shoulder hard enough to make her pop back half a step. “You missed your turn at dishes, woman. Three times!”

“Missed you too, Mal.”

The large man grinned broadly and bellowed out a laugh, hugging her tightly - she knew he would have broken a bone or at least dislocated something if she could have felt it.

“Where’s Eric?” she asked with another smile.

“Eh, little techno-dweeb had to babysit his car. Doesn’t trust it in parking garages. He said to say hi, though,” Victor replied, taking off a dark set of designer sunglasses, squinting in the light. He cleaned off the lenses and put them back on.

“What’re you doing out here in the middle of the day, Vic? Aren’t you going to catch fire?”

“When Isaac told me they were coming to visit I hadda come. Sides, I can sleep later tonight. No jobs planned. And the whole sunlight thing is really just if I stay out in it too long. Five minutes and I start to hurt. It’s like flash-sun-burning. Car-to-hospital isn’t bad,” Victor grinned down at her mischievously. “Besides. I just had to tell you in person I beat your score at pinball.”

“You jackass.”

“Yep,” he said with a broader smile.

They all turned as Isaac made his way down the hallway, donning a long black trench coat that just dusted the floor - dark grey trim at the cuffs and down each side of the long collar. He looked like something out of a nightmare, the sheer darkness of him contrasting with the bright fluorescent hospital lights. He had apparently chosen to walk while the other two rushed ahead. Isaac approached, looking more and more like an inkblot on a white page. Several employees scrambled to get out of his way.

“Hello, Muse.”

“Hey.” She looked up at him a little nervously, having a hard time trusting him when he looked almost friendly.

“Have you been taking care of him as I asked?” Isaac’s tone of voice sounded like he was asking her if she did her homework. Muse tried not to snap at him. He was being nice. Well, sort of. He was being nice by his standards, and she didn’t want to ruin it too quickly.

“He doesn’t like doctors, but hasn’t broken any necks yet. He should be fine in a few days - or at least good to leave. He can get up and walk around under his own power. It’ll be a while before he’s a hundred percent, but he won’t have to stay here anymore. He seems more than mildly excited about that.”

“You gave him the envelope?”

“Yep,” she said shortly.

“Did he read it?”

“Mostly.”

Isaac paused, expecting her to continue. When she didn’t, he sighed quietly and took off his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose and then slowly replaced them back onto his face. “I am going to go talk to him.”

Her small victory of annoying Isaac was dashed away at the idea of him provoking Aaron’s already sensitive temper. “I… is that a good idea?”

“Why, pray tell, would speaking to my own brother be a bad idea?”

“He… really hates you,” she said nervously. “He’ll probably pop a stitch - literally.”

Isaac walked around her to the door and knocked on it. “He will cope.” Isaac heard Aaron yell inside for whomever it was to come in. Without a parting glance at Muse and the others, Isaac entered and shut the door behind him.

Muse didn’t move as she expected the sounds of glass shattering and the sound of flying furniture. When none came, she simply shook her head. She would have paid money to be a fly on the wall, but she knew better than to phase out and hide in the room. Isaac would know, and for the time being, he wasn’t absolutely unbearable. She wanted to keep it that way.

“Go away,” Aaron snarled. Shifting, he pulled himself up to a seated position. He moved to get off of the bed, but Isaac held out his hand.

“Please, stay where you are, brother. I don’t want you to - as Muse so eloquently put it - ‘pop a stitch,’” Isaac finished quietly with a faint smirk. “We must talk, and that is all I’ve come here to do.” Isaac walked over to the seat. Moving like a black shadow, he sat down next to the bed, folding his hands in front of him.

“No. Go away,” Aaron repeated, ignoring the pain as the IV in his hand pulled on his flesh as he turned a little too suddenly.

“Despite what you may think, I do hope you recover. We are family, and though we have our issues, I do not like to see you in pain.” Isaac pushed his glasses up on his nose gently with his ring finger.

“Liar,” Aaron replied bitterly. The veins in his arms began to show as he clenched his fists tightly at his sides.

“Why would I lie to you now? What have I to gain?” Isaac crossed his legs idly, clearly unfazed by Aaron’s agitation. He watched the other man with a pensive look - like a therapist’s. Aaron hated therapists with a violent passion.

“I won’t trust you. You don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

“Perhaps.”

“If you do anything to hurt Muse, I swear…”

“So soon you’re protecting her? We’ve been through this routine before with your other ‘friends.’ You don’t know anything about her. You barely know her - she’s been here a week and a half.”

“She’s been nice to me. She cares.”

“You should know better. You don’t know who she is,” Isaac said matter-of-factly.

Aaron remained silent. He always grew quiet when he was defensive and knew he was losing the argument. Muse was his friend. He cared about her, and she obviously cared about him. Isaac was lying, and he knew it.

“Come home, Aaron. I can protect you from the demons that did this to you,” Isaac spoke almost too quietly to hear.

Startled, Aaron’s head snapped to look at him. “How did you know?!” He hadn’t told anyone about what had landed him here in the first place.

“You forget who I am. I could feel them that night you fell. You didn’t fall, did you? You were chased.”

Aaron could only nod once.

“I protected you from them when you were a child, I can protect you from them now. Come home.”

Aaron growled and shook his head no. “You scared me with ghost stories and stupid magic tricks when I was a child, brother.” Aaron spat out the last word, glaring at Isaac with his one usable eye. “You lied to me about the demons then. You’re lying now.”

Isaac’s face stayed unreadable, almost emotionless. “Do you think they will leave you alone? The only thing keeping you safe is Muse, who I put here to protect you.”

“Muse keeps them away?” Aaron asked slowly, she seemed so normal. Normal for Isaac’s standards, anyway.

“She has her ways. She works for me, after all.”

Aaron growled quietly under his breath. He hated it when Isaac was right. If she was involved with his brother, there must be something strange about her. Isaac only collected freaks.

“Once you are out of here and she is not by your side, the demons will return. You may not be so lucky next time. They tried to claim you when you were a child. Didn’t you think they would come back for what they missed?”

“No. No. It’s a lie, it’s not real!”

Isaac sighed sadly. “They are very real, my brother. I do not want to have to bury you with your parents.”

“Our parents…” Aaron corrected, the bitterness never leaving his voice.

Isaac paused for a moment and shut his eyes. “I do not want to have to bury you, regardless. Take some time to think on it, Aaron.” Isaac opened his eyes and stood up, walking back to the door. Pausing at the door, he turned his head to look at Aaron with a rare look of sadness. “Get well, please. I do mean that.”

“Go to hell.”

“Oh, brother,” Isaac said with a sarcastic smile. “You know how foolish that is to say.” Isaac opened the door and stepped into the hallway, shutting the door again behind him.

The conversation between Victor, Mal and Muse stopped abruptly as Isaac made his entrance.

Mal rubbed his hand across his bald head. “So how’s the freak?” he asked, with a surprising amount of interest in his voice. Muse looked up at him curiously, wondering why the big man cared.

“He will be fine.” Isaac walked up to Muse and looked down at her. “Continue to stay here with him. I will return on Thursday.”

Muse nodded once. It was Tuesday now, and she didn’t mind the idea of another few days without Isaac bothering her.

Isaac turned and walked down the hallway, and gestured his hand. Victor hugged Muse goodbye before following Isaac down the hallway. Mal simply whacked Muse on the back hard enough to make her stumble forward. He grinned lopsidedly down at her and took one big hand and tousled her hair. Laughing at the look she shot him, he turned and followed the two other men around the corner.

Muse watched the men leave, but she really didn’t know quite what to think. She used to believe her ‘life’ couldn’t get any stranger, but here she was. She had to admit she was sad to see the ‘boys’ go. They were growing on her. Like mold, she thought to herself with a small chuckle. She wondered why they put up with Isaac like they did. Shrugging it off, she turned and walked back into Aaron’s hospital room.

Aaron was obviously less than happy. She shut the door behind her, and walked up to the bed and sat down. “Stupid question warning. What’s wrong, Aaron?” She knew Isaac - as was his nature apparently - had said something to upset him.

“Nothing. Nothing’s wrong,” he clipped.

“Liar.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Aaron shuffled to lay down, keeping his eyes shut. “I’m tired.”

Muse went silent for a long while. Isaac had said something awful, clearly. “I’ll be here.” She watched as he fell into a fitful sleep. Not knowing what else to do, she decided she was also pretty tired. Vanishing, she floated up into the corner of the room and fell asleep.

Muse watched as Aaron was standing by the window with only a few remaining bandages around his midsection. Gripping his hands behind his back he stretched, groaning as his muscles whined from lack of use.

“Christ,” Muse laughed, watching his muscles ripple in his back. The man was built like a tank. “How much do you bench?”

“A lot. Less than Mal,” Aaron said with a wide smile. “He’s bigger than me.”

“He doesn’t count. Mal is bigger than most construction equipment,” she laughed again, glad to see Aaron in a good mood. She tilted her head slightly, thoughtfully. “Hey, Aaron, can I ask you something?”

“Sure. But I might not answer it,” Aaron warned, the humor fading from his voice.

“Fair enough. Isaac is… okay, Isaac isn’t short. He’s… like… what… 6’1? 6’2? What’re you?” Muse had guessed at just under seven feet before, she wondered how close she was.

“6’9,” he replied, and she heard the relief in his voice. She tried to figure out what he thought she was going to ask, and supposed that he was paranoid about the scars. It wasn’t that she didn’t notice, or wasn’t curious - god knows she was curious. But she knew better than to ask. It was obviously a very, very personal subject, and she didn’t want to bust their budding friendship.

“He’s not nearly as broad as you are. You two are seriously brothers?”

“We are,” he said begrudgingly. “We’re born of the same parents. That’s about where the ‘brother’ thing ends.”

“You’re nicer than he is.”

Aaron pulled a green t-shirt over his head, pulling it down around him - carefully tugging it over the bandages. “You don’t know what I’ve done,” he finally answered, sadness darkening his features.

“I just said you were nicer than Isaac. That’s really not hard to accomplish.”

Aaron had to laugh despite himself. “Good point.” He looked over at her with a warm smile. He stretched again, scratching at the bandage absent-mindedly.

“I’m so glad you’re up and around. You feel okay?”

Aaron nodded wordlessly and turned to look at her. “You already eat?” Aaron asked rather darkly.

Muse returned the silent nod, knowing that the man must be getting concerned by her habits by now. She could only pray quietly to whoever would listen that he wouldn’t call her on it. At least not yet.

Aaron flopped down onto the bed and smiled. Muse had brought him lunch from downstairs - he had been craving a burger and fries, and she finally gave in. He had barely shoved a few fries into his face before there was a knock at the door. Getting up, she jumped aside as a man wearing every tell-tale sign of ‘Doctor’ swung the door open and brushed passed her.

Looking into the hallway, she noticed that the doctor had come with friends. A lot of friends. Heavily armed friends. She swallowed hard, wondering what the hell was going on.

“It seems we have… an issue.” The doctor was peering at his clipboard from behind his glasses.

“Oh?” Aaron asked quietly. Muse walked around the doctor to stand near Aaron, hoping she wouldn’t have to restrain the big man. If she had to, she could wrestle him to the ground. Being dead made her a hell of a lot stronger than she should be, but she really didn’t want to explain that to him.

“Yes. Aaron, your medical records just arrived.” He made a small clicking noise with his tongue as he flipped through the paperwork on the clipboard. “It took us a great deal of time to track them down. You should be pleased the police, the Vatican and their Crusaders haven’t been notified,” the doctor continued, looking narrowly at him. Aaron looked like he was trying to set the Doctor on fire with his mind. “A team of specialists is on their way from a private institution that is very interested in speaking with you.”

Muse yelped as she got shoved aside abruptly, landing roughly against the wall. She looked over at Aaron who had pushed her away, growling deep in his throat at the doctor. Aaron was radiating rage and hatred - she could quite literally see it. For the first time in the short period of time she had known him, she realized Aaron was dangerous. There was a glassy, soulless, heartless quality to his eyes, a look that was barely human. Every muscle in his body was taught, and his breathing was hard and shallow.

Muse jumped, startled again as the tray on the stand next to her startled to rattle and vibrate like it had a mind of its own. It only got worse from there. The tray shot across the room, shattering against the wall. The pictures on the walls began to rattle where they hung, and the window blinds tore loose. The doctor recoiled in fear as the metal frame of the bed suddenly shuddered, crunched, buckled, and folded in like an accordion with a horrendous noise.

Muse stared agog at the bed. She frantically looked around the room for the source of the chaos, and the only thing she could think of was… Aaron. It seems the security guards thought the same thing, as their guns were drawn and aimed directly at him.

“Aaron! Aaron, relax!” Muse ran over to him, putting her hand on his arm as the glass in the frames in the room began to shatter one by one.

Aaron’s head snapped to look at her, and she pulled back reflexively as there was no recognition in his eyes. It was like he had never seen her before. In fact, he was barely focused on her - it was like he was looking through her. Everything was vibrating, and from the cries in the hallway, it wasn’t just the room.

Muse opened her mouth to speak but nothing happened. She looked back at the doctor, whose eyes were wide staring at Aaron with the same fear.

“I’ll sign his release,” came a calm voice from the door. The doctor squealed and turned in shock. In one instant, all of the rattling cut short and came to a halt.

Isaac stood in the doorway, leaning lightly against the frame. He picked himself off of it and stepped forward and repeated himself to the doctor. “I will sign for him and will be taking him home.”

“This isn’t a matter of signing a release, Sir - there are specialists-“

“I am his older brother,” Isaac glared down at the smaller man and tore the clipboard out of his hands. “And I am more than capable of dealing with my brother’s tendencies. You may tell the specialists when they arrive, Sir, that their quarry has exited the building. Do you wish to argue with me?”

Aaron collapsed onto his knees onto the floor, doubled over. Muse approached him slowly, trying to comfort him. She went to go put her hand on his shoulder. Aaron swatted her hand away. Muse stayed there but didn’t reach for him again, afraid of angering him any further. She once again had no idea what the hell was happening, and only seemed to be along for the ride.

Isaac was reading the paper patiently, seemingly ignorant of what was happening in the room. Flicking the pen deftly around between the fingers of his right hand, he was signing and checking certain boxes as he went through the pages.

“Sir, this man is… you can’t possibly understand what you’re doing! Security will stop you!”

Isaac raised his gaze but didn’t lift his head, staring a hole into the man above the rim of his glasses. He held the glare for a long moment before he spoke flatly. “Try me.”

Aaron stood up abruptly and snarled in rage. He had a look like he was going to pound someone into the ground – either the Doctor, Isaac or both.

“It is this or another hospital,” Isaac said dryly.

Aaron moaned in pain and backed away, kicking the crumpled remains of a bed hard enough to send it crashing into the wall, punching a rather large hole in the wallpaper. He started to pace the room again, his head lowered.

Isaac sighed and resumed reading the papers, unaffected by his brother’s spurt of anger. He spoke as he continued to flip through the pages. “Brother, this is for the best you realize. It solves both of your problems.” Muse had no clue know what he meant by ‘both problems,’ but now was not the time to ask. Aaron only moaned in reply. “And you, Doctor… if you, or any of your armed ‘security guards’ attempt to interfere with our exiting his building… you will sorely regret it. Get your things, Aaron.” Isaac finished the last page, folded it back to the first, and slapped the clipboard onto the chest of the doctor hard enough to sting. Judging by the look on Isaac’s face, if it were worth the trouble, the doctor would be dead where he stood. “It’s time to go.”

“Where?” Muse asked quietly, her hands stuffed into her pant pockets.

“Home.”