Nolan jerked awake as the door opened behind him. He looked around at Sophie walking in. She smiled and closed the door again. "Just you?" she asked. "Where's the family?"

He stifled a yawn and sat up in the chair without letting go of Rhia's hand. "Maddox got recalled to his department. He took their mother home to get some rest. Or yell at Richard. Exactly which wasn't clear." He rubbed his eyes as Sophie pulled up a chair to sit next to him. "What time is it?"

"Five a.m." she grimaced. "You know we have a place you can sleep. That chair can't be comfortable."

"I'm fine. I want to be here when she wakes up." He looked carefully at her. Her finger tapped a steady rhythm on the files in her hands. "You sure you're alright?" he asked. "How bad are the voices?"

"I'm managing." She shrugged stiffly. "I'm not the first and I certainly won't be the last. Mithras sent out a radio silence order, but the communication teams are still reaching out to the dragons and the elders spend most of their time in their true forms. I am a conduit for the link. It comes with the territory."

"I always hated that term. Conduit. Your more of a badly tuned radio. You're just picking up on everyone else's link."

"How ever you want to put it, it's exhausting."

They sat in silence for a while, broken only by Rhia's raspy breathing. Nolan's thumb glided slowly over her knuckles. "I'm still trying to figure out how." He whispered. "I know you can't keep track of everyone, but she would have hatched in her dragon skin. There must be something that leads back to where she came from."

"We have a few theories." Sophie closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. "Mithras thinks her dragonkin parent was unbound, got themselves into trouble with Quin, and the human parent abandoned her to avoid being hunted down."

"What do you think?"

She opened her eyes and looked at him. "She's, what, twenty-five?"

"Twenty-six."

"There's only so much I can say, but..." her voice trailed off as she tried to figure out how to explain around her restrictions. "About thirty years ago there was... a mass unbinding. A bunch of kin were suddenly on their own. So, they went out and... found companionship. I wouldn't be surprised if there are others. We'll find out in about ten years."

"She's so young." His voice cracked. "Do you remember when we were hatchlings? You, me, Dáithí... the only yfeerie on the island. We would have done anything to awaken early. It didn't matter how many times our parents and the other kin told us it was dangerous."

"All we ever wanted was to be a part of the big dragon picture." She smiled.

"Yeah... Had I known it could be like this... gods, I still remember being so jealous of Dáithí's first shift."

"I remember." She chuckled. "You sulked around your palace for two straight weeks."

"I did not sulk."

"We were family, Nolan, we knew when our baby brother was sulking." She sighed happily. "I remember getting into so much trouble with you two. We were thick as thieves. The three goddamn musketeers."

"More like the three stooges." They looked around at Dáithí standing at the door holding a tray of coffee cups. He raised an eyebrow at Nolan. "You're not going to hit me again, are you?"

"Haven't decided yet." Nolan growled.

"Fair enough."

He stepped further into the room and handed out the coffee. Nolan took his and narrowed his eyes as Dáithí tucked a strand of hair back behind Rhia's ear. "Why didn't she tell me about you?" he asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Maybe she wanted to keep me all to herself." he smirked and dropped into a third chair.

Sophie grabbed Nolan's shoulder and shoved him hard into the chair. "Don't take the bait." She scolded. "Dáithí, stop being an asshole."

"Relax," Dáithí snorted. "I don't know why she didn't tell you. Ask her when she wakes up. When is that going to happen, by the way?"

"Hard to say. We'll take her off the medicinal sedatives in a few hours. As long as she doesn't light anything on fire, we'll start tapering off the magic tonight or tomorrow morning."

"Why wait? Just force her shift. You know the longer she's out the harder it'll be."

"You know it doesn't work like that." Sophie sighed and dug her fingers hard into her temple. "Even if it did, we already tried that."

"You did?" Dáithí frowned. "When?"

"Last night, were you not in the same healing room I was." She was getting irritated again. "That's what I came to talk to you about, Nolan."

She pulled out a large film and handed it to Nolan. He held it up to the light, trying to remember when the last time he'd looked at an x-ray. It was pretty obvious what he was supposed to see. Five bright white lines traced the lower ribs on her left side. "Fucking Church." Nolan snarled under his breath.

"Those plates are keeping her in her human form." Sophie explained. "She can't shift. Not until we remove them."

"So, remove them." Dáithí snapped.

"Have you ever tried to perform surgery on a shifter?" Nolan barked, coming to Sophie's defense. "In a normal case, we would need to make several incisions, remove the hardware, make sure the ribs are stable, then close up. Even in full control, their natural healing abilities make it damn near impossible to make an incision, let alone the rest of the surgery. If we manage to neutralize the healing, we better pray to any and all the gods that the ribs have healed enough to hold their human shape, otherwise they'll snap off when they shift and start shredding organs. That's with a shifter. Dragonkin are infinitely more powerful."

"I thought you were a hematologist." Sophie said, sounding impressed.

"Hemato-path-ologist. I did a surgical rotation in the early two-thousands."

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes and looked down at her watch. "I have a meeting in fifteen minutes with Keoni and a specialized healer. I'll let you know once I have more information."

"Keoni's here?" Dáithí suddenly went pale, and terror flashed across his eyes.

"No, he's in D.C. But he is coming." She got up and rested a hand on Nolan's shoulder. "If I leave you two alone, are you going to destroy my facility?"

"We'll take it out to the hall first." Nolan managed a smirk.

"I hate you both so much." She sighed heavily and left the room.

The silence was tense between the males. They didn't look at each other, instead focusing on Rhia. Her breathing was getting better, not quite so shallow. Her heart still beat too hard and too fast. He would have done anything to have her open her eyes. To see her smile. To hear her laugh and tease him. He had half a mind to crawl into the bed next to her, just to feel her body against his.

"You look good, Nolan." Dáithí said quietly.

Nolan looked around to meet his eyes. He had the same sandy hair and eyes he always had. Same look of resting skepticism. He looked uncomfortably like Quin, only shorter and without the illusion of placidity in his body language. When was the last time they'd seen each other? Fifteen... no, seventeen hundred years, at least. The last time they talked... Nolan couldn't even remember.

"You look... pretty much the same." He shrugged.

Dáithí chuckled and looked back to Rhia's unconscious form. "I was going to talk to you." His tone was strained, like he was trying to stay calm and modest. "I knew I couldn't just take up as her bodyguard without at least trying to make things right."

"Make things right?" Nolan scoffed. "It's going to take more than a conversation to make things right, Dáithí."

"Fine. Tolerable, then. Build a working relationship. Make it so we don't want to kill each other anymore. Take your fucking pick."

Nolan closed his eyes and forced himself to take a steadying breath. He reminded himself that he was holding Rhia's hand crushing it was not a viable option.

After another minute of tense silence, Dáithí spoke again. "Look," There was a definite edge to his voice now. "You don't owe me anything. If you want me fuck off, I get it. But, just let me see her wake up. I need to know she's alright."

"Why? You barely know her. Why do you care?"

Their eyes met. Genuine concern danced in Dáithí's eyes. "We got caught in a dark realm." He shook his head. "No... I got us caught. I should have sensed it. I shouldn't have..." A growl ripped from his throat. "I'm a fucking idiot! I should have just gotten her out of there!"

"What happened?"

A muscle in Dáithí's jaw twitched. "Our powers were locked. No shifting, no external magic. There were hundreds of changelings. I told her to run. Not that it mattered. There were more than I could have handled in my skin. We were dead."

Nolan's grip on Rhia's hand tightened. She must have been terrified. "How did you get out?"

"The demons just collapsed. The realm was collapsing, I could shift again. I went after her, but it was too late. She was already starting to awaken. I..." he hesitated. "Nolan, there were dark elves there. I think they forced her to awaken."

"Can they do that?"

"I don't know, but whatever that bastard did to her... We're lucky to have gotten out of there alive. The realm collapsed on us." Dáithí looked uncomfortable for a minute. "You've got connections, right?"

"It depends on what kind of connections you're looking for." Nolan narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"There were two others in the realm with us. A shifter and a human officer. I think the human was that Church guy you wanted to kill. The shifter's name was Nova. I didn't have time to see if they survived."

Nolan felt cold and a wave of pure exhaustion wash over him. He dragged his phone out of his pocket and dialed Maddox's number. After a few rings, he answered, sounding as tired as Nolan felt. "Is Rhia okay?"

"No change." He said. "The healers are going to start taking her off the sedatives in a few hours, but it could be another day before she wakes up."

"Good. I'll bring our mom back up there tonight so we can try to be there when she wakes up."

"Great. Maddox... I hate to ask this... did anyone Rhia know get seriously hurt last night?"

Maddox was quiet for so long Nolan pulled the phone away to make sure the call was still connected. "Yeah," he finally whispered. "Most of the casualties were humans, and most of them were cops who acted on bad orders. A few E.M.T.'s didn't make it out. I'll try to get their names from dispatch. Our godfather, Mark Landon, is dead. Our dad is taking it pretty hard. Church is in critical, but his doctors are optimistic. And..." Maddox cut himself off by clearing the emotion out of his through. "Nova. Nova didn't make it."

"Shit... Maddox, I'm so sorry."

"Yeah, its... she... Thanks." He sighed heavily. "This might be a really stupid question... But is Rhia safe there?"

"No!" Dáithí barked with a smirk.

Nolan aimed a kick at Dáithí's chair but couldn't reach. "Who was that?"

"An idiot old friend of mine, ignore him. The dragonkin take care of their own, Maddox."

"Don't give me that political bullshit. Rhia hates politics, and honestly so do I. Straight answer, Nolan, is she safe?"

Nolan shot Dáithí a glare, silently warning him to keep his mouth shut. "Honestly, without any of the political bullshit... I don't know." it was his turn to sigh. He could almost feel Maddox's tension through the phone. "Dragonkin are famous for their pack mentality. Everything for the sake of the group. If someone steps out of line to threaten the group, the dragons will not hesitate to remove the threat."

"Jesus-"

"Rhia is not a threat to them. She hasn't even officially joined them. It's hard to explain. She's young, and ignorant, and her powers are just starting to wake. There is a long way to go before they start even considering the possibility that she could be a threat."

Another pause. "What happens after she wakes up?"

"I don't know. They might want to keep her here a few days to make sure she doesn't blow anything up."

"I'm guessing it will be too much to ask if we can bring her home."

"Probably."

"Good. Our dad is dealing with his grief the same way he deals with everything else. He wants Rhia to come home right after she wakes up."

"No offense to your father," Nolan said carefully. "But I don't think he, of all people, should be anywhere near her right now. Magic runs deep within our emotions and tends to drag up a lot of memories. She might actually kill him if we're not careful.

"I'll pass on the message." Maddox let out a strained laugh before sighing again. "She won't be too happy about staying in the hospital as a patient. If she reacts anything like after her surgery, she's going to do everything to get out of there. Is there anywhere you can take her? Off the compound if you can? Give her a chance to come to terms with all this without the rest of them breathing down her neck."

"I can try," Nolan watched Dáithí for his reaction. "But this might be the best place for her in case she loses control. They can help her with that."

"Trying is all I ask. Just give her a choice. Trust me, that will mean more to her than anything else. I have to go. I'll see you tonight. Take care of my sister, okay?"

Nolan hung up. Dáithí looked miserable. "You okay?" he asked gently.

He squared his shoulders and nodded. "She won't want to be bound." was what he said.

"Not this again." Nolan groaned. "It's her choice."

"And she will choose not to. Being bound is the very essence of never having a choice. It barely has the illusion of one. I'll eat my left nut if she decides to bind."

"And I would pay to see it."

Nolan looked back down at his phone and tapped out another number. "Who are you calling now?"

"The only person I know who has contact with the dark elves and an extra property lying around. Two birds, one stone."

~