Hannah had caught up to her in the lobby and the women had ridden up in silence. Upon exiting the elevator on the hospital level, they were greeted with a whirl of flurry. It was organized chaos, and Archie was there to meet them. They didn't know where Aaron was; he had driven away from them pretty quickly, and Cadence could only assume he was there somewhere. He had shut his IAC off once they had left the scene.
"Ladies, first of all, I am so very sorry for your loss," Archie said a sympathetic look on his face. "I know Cale is taking good care of your friends, but I'm going to show you directly to the showers," he informed them, eyeing Cadence in particular.
She glanced down, seeing herself in the light for the first time. She was covered in blood. She knew she still had some on her hands from when she had tried to help Aaron stop the bleeding, but she had no idea just how profuse an amount she'd collected. Without question, she followed him down the hall. Though Hannah was not spotless, she looked nothing like the horror show Cadence represented.
The shower was communal, but Cadence said nothing to her teammate in the next stall as she let the hot water run over her. Even after twenty long minutes and several applications of body wash, the water was still pink; she began to wonder if she'd ever remove the stains from her hands. She didn't want Hannah to hear her lose it, so she sobbed quietly to herself until she heard the Guardian turn off the shower, dress, and exit the room. Then, Cadence couldn't contain her tears any longer, and she spent quite some time lamenting her beloved companion as her tears mingled with the bloody water and slowly disappeared down the drain.
It wasn't until she got a message from Meagan asking where she was that she pulled herself away from the solace of the shower, dried herself off, put on what she hoped were her big girl panties, along with jeans and a T-shirt, slipped on her sneakers, and went out to face the world, hoping that she could find a way to put her despair behind her for a few hours.
It didn't take her long to find Meagan's room. She could tell her friend was still in a lot of pain. She gave her a gentle hug and brushed the hair out of her eyes. Meagan immediately burst into tears, and Cadence cradled her friend's head against her shoulder, hushing her and assuring her it would all be okay.
After a few moments, Meagan seemed to collect herself enough to speak. "I just can't believe..." she started, but whatever the end of that sentence was supposed to be, it was lost. She tried again. "He died protecting me."
Cadence nodded "Of course he did, sweetheart. That was his job." The tears were at the precipice, ready to crest, but she fought them back. "Meagan, I know how upset you are. Believe me, I am devastated, too. But you've got to get some rest so that you can get better. We've got a lot of work left ahead of us to track those two bastards down and annihilate them."
She nodded, the tears threatening to overcome her again. "That jackass looked him right in the eyes and pulled the trigger as Elliott begged him not to shoot me. He never said anything about himself...."
Cadence smiled meekly at the thought of him. "He was amazing." She brushed those wayward bangs away again. "Let's ask the nurse to give you something so that you can sleep. The sooner you get better, the sooner you can get back to headquarters and see Shane."
At the mention of his name, Meagan's face lit up a bit, and Cadence knew she was on to something. "All right," she finally agreed, resting back. "Where's Aaron?" she asked as an afterthought.
"He's around," Cadence assured her. She leaned forward and kissed her friend on the forehead. "I'm so glad you're all right, Meagy. I love you. Now go to sleep."
"I love you, too," she whispered. Cadence wasn't sure the meds would still be needed, but she decided to request them, just in case.
She spent the next hour or so addressing issues as they arose. Eliza was on her way in from California, though Cadence wasn't sure why. She'd have to make sure Aaron was aware of that; he'd have to handle Eliza himself. She ran into Hannah in Christian's room. The tech guy was recovering very well, and so she sent Hannah to find hotel rooms for the four of them for the night; it appeared that Christian would be discharged in an hour or two if he continued to stabilize.
Jamie was still in surgery, but Cale sent her a quick message that he was doing really well. He estimated they'd be closing within a half an hour. She didn't want to do anything to distract him during the surgery, but she did take a moment to ask why his choppers hadn't arrived when they were supposed to, and he explained he couldn't get the pilots to leave when he directed them to because they were afraid of the distant lightening. She didn't push him further, but she couldn't help but consider how things would have been different if they'd had the spotlights when they expected them. The renegades would have had no chance of getting away--if they'd even been brave enough to attempt their ambush under such close observation.
Cadence was considering stopping by to talk to Laura, who was being held in a back office on the top floor awaiting transport back to Kansas City. She had a lot of questions, like who was the Vampire at the scene, since clearly it wasn't Giovani. Did she have any intel on Giovani at all? How did she manage to get so many Hunters and Guardians to give LIGHTS false information? In the long run, however, she decided against it. She would likely not be able to control herself, and her team needed her right now.
There was all sorts of chatter on the IAC, and she realized Aaron, in all of his wisdom, had made a smart decision in turning his off. Eventually, she was able to gather that Eliza thought she was on her way to run the operation. She had called for a vote of no confidence against Aaron, stating he had botched the job. Cadence knew that would get nowhere. Many of the other Guardians and Hunters who were discussing the incident had already determined that Eliza must have been cooperating with Laura; she was in a sinking ship, lashing out in all directions, trying to grab on to anything to save herself. Cadence wouldn't hesitate to poke a hole in her life raft.
Once she was sure everything was under control, she took a deep breath and went about what she'd wanted to do since she'd stumbled into the hospital a few hours ago.
