Work Text:
Eve hated hospitals; the smell of antiseptic that never quite succeeded at covering the rot underneath, the flickering fluorescents, the casual tone of nurses and doctors going about their normal days as people died around them. The worst moments of her life had been spent in the hospital. As they wheeled her around from test to test, x-ray to CT to MRI, she couldn’t help but think of following Cassandra’s gurney down the same paths. Her fingers twitched and she turned down kind offers of anxiolytics several times as the nurses mistook her unease for claustrophobia.
Cassandra’s hand had been so small and cold in hers as she had walked the halls with her, x-ray to CT to MRI. Her first brain surgery stood out stark and terrifying in Eve’s mind over ten years later. They had never gotten better, the continual operations to relieve pressure caused by the tumor. Eve’s heart still seized in her chest whenever the surgeon stepped out of the operating room, face carefully neutral. Even when Cassandra had given up on them, on the hospital in general besides monthly scans to monitor the progression of the tumor, the hospital remained the setting of Eve’s worst nightmares.
And it had to be this hospital. Cassandra had insisted on Dr. Nassir, her neurosurgeon who had known their family for years. And Eve hadn’t been in much of a position to argue, passed out in Flynn’s arms shortly after they banished Apep. She couldn’t blame them for panicking; just when they thought everything was all right, that there were no more secrets and no more surprises, Eve had helped Flynn to his feet and promptly blacked out.
“Blunt force trauma,” Nassir had said. “A concussion. Very lucky it wasn’t worse. How did this even happen?”
Eve had been too high on pain meds to pay close attention to Flynn’s bungled explanation of home renovation gone wrong. All that mattered was that if anyone asked, a beam had fallen on her head in an attempt to remodel the master bedroom. Familiar as all the kids were with hospitals, they knew that several people would be asking for Eve’s story every day she was admitted, and it was important to not raise suspicions. But they didn’t seem likely to leave her alone anytime soon, so there would be no slipups on her part.
As soon as Eve returned from CT, concussion diagnosis in hand, Cassandra crawled into the hospital bed beside her. She took great care not to disturb Eve’s many tubes and wires and bandages, and froze in panic every time Eve winced until Eve just pulled her into her arms. Cassandra stiffened, mindful of her injuries, but eventually burrowed into Eve’s embrace, red hair barely poking out above Eve’s blanket.
Jacob and Ezekiel dragged the visitor chairs right up to her bedside and stationed themselves beside her. Ezekiel looked a bit grumpy that Cassandra had gotten to the bed first, but Eve squeezed his hand, and his frown faded. Flynn and Jenkins abducted two more chairs from somewhere and settled in on Eve’s other side. Flynn scratched light circles into Eve’s back and she sighed.
“All right,” she said, and made a conscious effort not to slur her words or sound too hoarse. “Out with it.” Jacob and Ezekiel glanced at each other, and at Flynn. “I can hear you all thinking, so say what you wanna say.”
“I wasn’t-”
“I don’t-”
“Can you actually hear me? Because that’s not on purpose,” Cassandra squeaked. Eve swept her hair out of her face and smiled, swallowing down the scratchiness in her throat.
“Only metaphorically,” she said, and Cassandra nodded, relieved.
Eve met Jacob’s eyes and raised her eyebrows, and his insistent denial fell flat. He grimaced. “You should have told us you were tricking DOSA,” he said. “We could have helped.”
“That’s exactly what we wanted you not to do,” Flynn said. His hand wandered up her back and into her hair, and he lightly scraped his nails over her scalp. Eve closed her eyes in contentment. “We knew that if we failed and pure evil was released into the world, we’d need a fail safe.”
“We wanted you far away and safe,” Eve said, and opened her eyes. “Figures you’d solve the riddle in half the time.”
“Yeah, well, the hide was all wrong-”
“And garnet is extremely rare in that part of the country-”
“And a wooden carving exposed to the elements for decades would have had much more wear and tear-”
Eve let them ramble for a minute about the inconsistencies in their wild artifact goose chase. She and Flynn hadn’t tried too hard on purpose, to get them back in time to save Jenkins, but she had hoped for at least a few more minutes. Pretending not to see her three kids, one of them particularly brightly colored, sneaking around as DOSA scavenged through the Library had been one of the trickier points of Eve’s acting. That and keeping the general turned away from their position at all times.
She needed to work on their subterfuge.
“Still,” Jacob said over the rambling, “you should have trusted us.”
“We-” Eve cleared her throat. “We trusted you to save the world if we couldn’t.”
“What’s wrong with your voice?” Cassandra asked. “It’s all scratchy.”
“We all inhaled a bunch of dust,” Eve said dismissively.
“And I couldn’t have helped,” Jenkins said gravely, which was exactly what Eve hoped to avoid. “I can never apologize enough, Colonel.” Eve craned her neck to look him in the face.
“There’s no need, Jenkins.” She gave him a reassuring smile. “I’d have done the same for the Library. And Apep got a turn, too, so it wasn’t all you.” The self-deprecating darkness didn’t fade from Jenkins face, but he nodded.
“That being said,” Flynn muttered out of the side of his mouth, “if you ever choke my wife again-”
“-I can expect to become much better acquainted with Excalibur,” Jenkins finished. “Understood, sir.” Eve didn’t bother to protest. She just smiled to herself and ran her fingers through Cassandra’s hair. Cassandra’s fingers curled into her sleeves, holding her close as possible.
“Airway inflammation is very serious, Momma,” Cassandra said, pitch climbing. “It can lead to airway edema and suffocation-”
“I told the doctor I inhaled whatever crud was in the ‘master bedroom’,” Eve said soothingly. Cassandra only called her “momma” when she was very shaken. “They’re watching my oxygen, don’t worry.” She wiggled her finger and the pulse oximeter stuck to it.
Jacob and Ezekiel automatically looked to the monitor on the other side of the bed. It wasn’t beeping, so everything was in normal parameters, but they only relaxed after watching for a few seconds. Eve kissed Cassandra’s forehead.
“What else?”
Cassandra shifted. “Hmm?” Eve gave her a knowing smile.
“You’re still thinking.”
Cassandra curled a lock of Eve’s hair around her fingers, avoiding her eyes. Eve looked up at Jacob and Ezekiel, but they both shrugged.
“You tricked us,” Cassandra said eventually, and Eve’s heart tugged at the hurt in her voice. “But we believed you.” Eve opened her mouth, but closed it and frowned. Jacob grimaced. “We should have known something was up as soon as we saw you in that DOSA jacket.”
“We should have had more faith in you,” Jacob said somberly.
“We should have known you’d never betray us,” Ezekiel added, shame-faced.
“Don’t-” Eve frowned at all of them. “You know what, we’ll make a deal. I forgive you for believing me, and you promise not to feel bad about it.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Cassandra said quietly.
“Neither does you all blaming yourselves for us lying to you,” Flynn interjected.
“We just feel-” Jacob glanced at Ezekiel and slumped. “-a little silly, is all,” he said lightly, with a small smile.
“I’m feeling a bit foolish, myself.” Eve’s arms tightened around Cassandra as the others shot to their feet. The general stood rod-straight and commanding in the doorway of Eve’s hospital room. She cocked an eyebrow at the defense force rapidly forming as Flynn, Jacob, and Ezekiel converged on the door. “Librarians,” Rockwell said in a stiff voice. “Colonel.”
“General.” Eve nodded.
“How did you get in here?” Jacob demanded. “They only allow family.” Rockwell raised her eyebrows at the eclectic group, including the immortal knight hovering protectively over the bed. She raised her ID.
“The nurses were plenty reluctant to let me in, don’t you worry,” she said dryly. Eve didn’t doubt it. Susan, their favorite old nurse from years gone by, had said hello with a hefty dose of painkillers and a hug for all the “Baird Cubs.” Eve had no doubt she would have physically barred the door if they asked her to. Rockwell must have pulled some long and powerful strings to get in, and so must have had a reason.
“Colonel, we need to talk.” Rockwell looked through Flynn and the boys to pin Eve down with a stare. Cassandra huddled in her arms largely mitigated the effects, though Rockwell didn’t seem to have noticed her. “You used me.”
“Oh, because it’s totally different from how you planned to use her,” Ezekiel said furiously, and Jacob laid a calming hand on his shoulder.
“We needed a safe place for the artifacts during the battle,” Flynn explained, glossing over the Apep-possession Rockwell surely meant. “Now that it’s over, we’re most obliged to you, and we’re ready to take them back off your hands.”
Rockwell’s jaw dropped. “You can’t seriously think I’ll return them? They’re much safer in DOSA’s hands.”
Even Cassandra poked her head out of the blankets to give Rockwell an incredulous look.
“You really think, after everything you saw, that they’re safest with you?” Jacob asked. Rockwell flared her nostrils and opened her mouth to answer.
“I’m sure you’ll take great care of the Loch Ness Monster,” Ezekiel snarked.
“And that no one will open Pandora’s box,” Cassandra piped in.
“Or touch King Midas’s hand.” Jenkins stood to his full height, hands casually in his pockets, and locked Rockwell in one of his piercing stares.
Rockwell spluttered. “We are not incompetent!”
“Or open a cursed sarcophagus and release pure evil.” Eve raised her eyebrows, and Rockwell’s mouth snapped shut. She straightened her jacket and clasped her hands behind her back, avoiding the eyes of everyone in the room.
“Rest up, Colonel,” Rockwell said shortly, and strode away without another word.
“Yes, ma’am,” Eve murmured.
“Talk about nerve,” Jacob growled, clenching and unclenching his fists. Ezekiel crossed his arms, glaring fiercely out the door.
“She has every right to be upset,” Eve said, and beckoned them all back into the room. “Come on, sit down.” Flynn returned to her side, but Jacob and Ezekiel were slower to slouch over, still frowning. “We need to debrief,” Eve said seriously. “You’ve got some work to do.”
“We- what?” Ezekiel asked, stunned.
“We defeated Apep!” Jacob exclaimed, and any brooding on Rockwell vanished. “We saved the world!”
“Be that as it may, we need to work on your sneaking. You’re seriously out of standards.” Flynn chuckled under his breath, and Eve suppressed a smile at her children’s varying cries of outrage.
“Wha- we got past you!” Eve raised her eyebrows.
“I saw you the whole time. You were in the truck behind me when the general took me to the sarcophagus.”
“Well, that wasn’t my fault-”
“What do you mean, you’re the opposite of subtle-”
“I think we did fine under the circumstances-”
The kids descended into frazzled, exhausted, reassuring bickering, and Flynn started to gently scratch her back again. Eve sighed and closed her eyes.