He didn't mean to come back to the island.
He'd waited three weeks at his house, milling about and doing farm work, throwing himself into repair projects as though fixing a fence or refinishing an old cabinet or mending a torn quilt would somehow mend the damage that she'd done to him over the last two years.
She.
Her.
That woman.
Guinevere Haze.
The stuffed horse was sitting on his dresser and starting at him. He tied her ribbon around its neck, but sometimes, in a moment of weakness, he'd peel it off the horse and fall asleep holding it like a rosary, whispering prayers he didn't understand. He always felt ashamed in the morning and he'd slip it back onto the horse and never think about it again.
But then, Lochlann had his own phone call, and he remembered what she'd said to him, to his family, right before she'd packed her bags and left: "There's been an emergency."
They called with questions about Dani.
And Dani led to his parents having some very uncomfortable questions for him.
It wasn't something he wanted to think about.
He wondered if that phone call was Guinevere's fault, some kind of last-ditch effort to get him back to the fucking academy, and he hated her, because it worked.
He was going to confront her. He was going to tell her that enough was enough and that they were done.
Those last words hurt him more than they should have.
No knife could ever hurt as badly as this: "I love you Lochlann. Goodbye."
There was a commotion at her apartment but Lochlann didn't think anything of it until he was almost in the doors when someone was stopping him.
"Sir there's been an--"
Lochlann caught site of the woman they were carrying out on the stretcher and Lochlann felt his entire body go numb. He didn't wait to verify that it was her. he didn't have to. He could always pick her out of a crowd. She was all he could see in his life.
And he ran.
When he realized his human legs could only get him so far, Lochlann dropped the glamour.
He'd never done something so brash in public before, but he was a monster, and this was an island full of monsters, and some monster had done something to her.
He didn't think.
He just ran.
He was human when he burst into the hospital and he was human when he screamed at the nurse, and he was human when he demanded information from the desk, but no one would tell him anything. He was human when he jumped over a medical cart and fucking punched the doctor in his face, and he was human when he looked down at his hand and saw it was throbbing.
He was human when he looked up at Aiden Hart and Aiden Hart hesitated, then set the syringe he'd been about to plunge into Lochlann's neck back down onto the cart.
He was human while he paced the waiting room.
He was human while he sat with his head against the glass window.
And he was human when they finally let him slip into the chair next to her bed. He laid his head on the bed next to her, his arms folded beneath it, and Lochlann closed his eyes, and he waited.
@Kyros
He'd waited three weeks at his house, milling about and doing farm work, throwing himself into repair projects as though fixing a fence or refinishing an old cabinet or mending a torn quilt would somehow mend the damage that she'd done to him over the last two years.
She.
Her.
That woman.
Guinevere Haze.
The stuffed horse was sitting on his dresser and starting at him. He tied her ribbon around its neck, but sometimes, in a moment of weakness, he'd peel it off the horse and fall asleep holding it like a rosary, whispering prayers he didn't understand. He always felt ashamed in the morning and he'd slip it back onto the horse and never think about it again.
But then, Lochlann had his own phone call, and he remembered what she'd said to him, to his family, right before she'd packed her bags and left: "There's been an emergency."
They called with questions about Dani.
And Dani led to his parents having some very uncomfortable questions for him.
It wasn't something he wanted to think about.
He wondered if that phone call was Guinevere's fault, some kind of last-ditch effort to get him back to the fucking academy, and he hated her, because it worked.
He was going to confront her. He was going to tell her that enough was enough and that they were done.
Those last words hurt him more than they should have.
No knife could ever hurt as badly as this: "I love you Lochlann. Goodbye."
There was a commotion at her apartment but Lochlann didn't think anything of it until he was almost in the doors when someone was stopping him.
"Sir there's been an--"
Lochlann caught site of the woman they were carrying out on the stretcher and Lochlann felt his entire body go numb. He didn't wait to verify that it was her. he didn't have to. He could always pick her out of a crowd. She was all he could see in his life.
And he ran.
When he realized his human legs could only get him so far, Lochlann dropped the glamour.
He'd never done something so brash in public before, but he was a monster, and this was an island full of monsters, and some monster had done something to her.
He didn't think.
He just ran.
He was human when he burst into the hospital and he was human when he screamed at the nurse, and he was human when he demanded information from the desk, but no one would tell him anything. He was human when he jumped over a medical cart and fucking punched the doctor in his face, and he was human when he looked down at his hand and saw it was throbbing.
He was human when he looked up at Aiden Hart and Aiden Hart hesitated, then set the syringe he'd been about to plunge into Lochlann's neck back down onto the cart.
He was human while he paced the waiting room.
He was human while he sat with his head against the glass window.
And he was human when they finally let him slip into the chair next to her bed. He laid his head on the bed next to her, his arms folded beneath it, and Lochlann closed his eyes, and he waited.
@Kyros