Sebastian has been in the hospital for a week now.

He almost died.

I curl my arms up under me, resting my head against the hard hospital mattress, the beeping of the machines lulling me into a fitful sleep.

A hand settles on my head, thumb smoothing over my hair in a soothing gesture and I lift my head.

Sebastian stares back at me, his face tired and drawn but eyes shining.

"Hi." I murmur.

"Hi." He husks back.

"You almost died." I whisper.

"Did I?"

I sit up more, "Yes."

"Well, I guess I'm quite lucky then."

"Why are you being so calm about this?"

"I'm alive." He shrugs, the movement tense with the way his shoulder is strapped. "You're here. Death pales in comparison to life without you."

I laugh, the sound incredulous. "You are such a shit talker."

He chuckles, the sounds washing over me.

He lifts his arm, "Come here."

"I'm still angry at you." I state.

His brows lift. "Well you can be angry closer."

"God, near death experiences make you bossy."

His lips tip up into a smirk. "Are you going to move?"

"I'm only doing this cause you almost died." I say as I climb up on the bed, settling next to him.

"Yeah, yeah." He mutters, curling him arm around me, "Believe what you want."

I settle in next to him as his thumb begins to draw circles on my hip, as if I'm the one that needs comforting.

"Why are you comforting me?" I ask, "you're the one that almost died."

"I feel fine."

I look up, staring into his face as he looks down  at me, and I narrow my eyes. "It's the drugs."

He grins. "Maybe."

"It is, nobody can be this calm after that ordeal."

He shrugs, curling me further into his body. "Sleep."

I breathe out slowly, resting my head on his uninjured side and close my eyes, the feel of Sebastian's chest moving up and down killing me to sleep, his heartbeat under my ears.

• • •

I sit up when the door open, Archer and Holland walking in.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, looking at my sister, quickly checking over her body to be sure she's okay.

She throws her hands up as if this is the second time someone has said it.

"I'm not an invalid."

"You're pregnant." I state, "and meant to be on bed rest."

"I'm pretty sure this is a good reason to leave the bed." She replies.

I huff and her mouth pops open.

"I'm allowed to go for walks. Am I did, to the car. And then from the car to here, and I'm in the hospital. This is the best place to be if anything happens."

I told my arms, looking over her, seeing the exhaustion even as she tries to hide it.

"Sit."

She widens her eyes as if to say, 'really?' And she turns to Archer but he only shirts, looking towards the chair.

"You guys are idiots." But she doesn't fight it more, sitting down and I notice her relax immediately.

"We're the idiots." Archer mutters, stepping up to stand behind her, "Right." Most likely noticing the same thing I did.

The door opens behind them, Liam waltzing in.

He looks around the room, whistling lowly. "What's with the tension, guys?"

He doesn't wait for a response before turning towards Holland and Archer.

"Look, guys, I've been thinking."

"Huh-" Seb murmurs behind me and Liam cuts a glare his way.

"I've been thinking and I really believe the best course of action is to mane your child after me, that way we know they'll succeed in life."

"We're not naming our child Liam." Archer says, shaking his head.

"Why not?" Liam asks, serious. "It's a completely reasonable requests and if I hadn't escaped and found Lilac-"

"You didn't even know who I was." I interrupt.

"Besides the point." Liam holds up a hand, palm outward. "If I hadn't escaped, none of you-" he encompasses the room, "-would be having your cutesy little family reunions."

"We are not doing that." Holland says, "and what if it's a girl?"

He gasps, affronted. "Liam is a unisex name."

"No, it's not." We say at once and Liam looks between all of us, betrayal written clear on his features.

"And who made these rules? Hmm." He crosses his arms. "Exactly. Besides if you call a baby girl Liam, the name is automatically unisex then."

I rub the space between my brows, sighing.

He turn puppy dog eyes on Holland.

"Okay, fine. We'll think about it." Holland say, waving him off, ignoring Archers probing gaze.

"Do you know the gender yet?" Liam asks, taking a seat on the end of the hospital bed.

"No, we've decided not to find out." Holland says.

"Well that's selfish." Liam mutters, "I wanna know."

"We don't." Archers says.

He stands up, "Well, why I'd your opinion the only one that matters?"

"They made it." Sebastian speaks up, and I chuckle at the disgust written on Liam's face.

"TMI, Johnny boy. TMI." He turns back to Holland, "so is that a no to finding out the gender?"

"No!" Her and Archer day together and Liam's shoulders fall. "You can wait."

He huffs, "How far along are you?"

"Eight weeks." She mutters and he groans, "I have to wait another 30 weeks, that's torture. I am not a patient man."

Hollands lips quirk at Liam's dramatics. "Well, time to learn."

"I am not good at learning, I failed school," He runs a hand through his hair, huffing frantically again. "What if I just found out?"

"No."

"That's mean, Holly." He pouts, "this is what our friendship has come to. I get captured for you, almost die for you, escape for you and find your sister."

"Again, you didn't know who I was." I say and he shushes me.

"No," Liam says, "I am the saviour. So therefore I should know the gender, I can keep it a secret."

The door opens and Clay and Cleo walk in.

"Are you asking for the gender of my Brice of nephew?" Clay says and Liam's splutters.

"They're my niece or nephew."

"I'm blood related." Clay counters.

"Well, I'm the favourite."

"They're not even born yet,"

"We share a name, of course I'll be the favourite."

"We are not calling them Liam!"

"Fine." Liam groans, "I can keep a secret."

"You have not kept one secret ever, you're like a ticking time bomb of gossip."

"Excuse me, I kept John a secret."

"Yeah, you need to catch us up on that." Cleo mutters and Liam winks, "You got it."

Clays eyes go to Sebastian at my back and he quickly scans over his body, "Speaking of, how are you feeling?"

"I've been through worse."

"When have you had worse?"

"Well-"

"Well, let's move on." Liam interrupts and I look back to Sebastian and he shrugs. "Hell, would be an apt term for our childhood."

"It wasn't that bad." Liam murmurs.

"You we're quite young when it started, I doubt you remember it all." Seb mutters.

"No, the recurring nightmares are pretty vivid." Liam says nonchalantly.

"Recurring nightmare?" Cleo sounds, stepping forward.

"I'm kidding." Liam says, rolling his eyes, "They don't happen that often."

"You need to see a therapist."

"You guys keep saying that, but I'm completely  fine." He spins in a circle, "See, I'm sane."

"Every second I spend with you makes me question my own sanity, so no I don't think you are." Andy says as she walks through the door.

"I knew you found me irresistible."

"No."

"You love me." He replies.

Andy pulls to a stop, glaring at him before ignoring his words and walking towards me.

"What's so we do now?" Cleo asks, her words quiet.

"What do you mean?" Holland asks, turning to face the doorway where Clay and Cleo stand in-front of it.

"Director is dead." Cleo says, "who's going to take over the agency now?"

Almost at coke, our eyes all go to Clay and e looks between us. "Why me?"

"You're the golden child." I answer.

"Dad trained you for it." Holland replies.

"It makes sense." Archer adds.

"What about Holland, she's a natural leader and she won't listen to anyone else anyway."

"Excuse me?"

"You don't, too headstrong."

"Why don't you take a vote?" Andy says, stopping the squabble before it really starts. "When it gets to you, just say who you think should take over."

Archer starts, Clays name falling from his lips and when clay narrows his eyes, Archer shrugs. "Hollands pregnant."

Holland goes next, "Clay."

Liam, "Liam."

We blink looking at him, "What?" He asks staring around at us. "I would be a great leader."

Moving to the next person, Clay says Hollands name and Cleo the same, leaving Andy, Sebastian and myself to choose.

Andy looks around before looking to Holland, "From what I've seen, Holland."

Seb looks back and forth, "I don't know enough about either of you." And he shrugs, before looking at Clay, "but to make it interesting, Clay."

"Now it's three for three." Archer says before looking at Liam, "And one."

Everyone turns to look at me and I look around, "Why does there only have to be one leader?"

Every starts, as if they didn't think of that.

"Hollands about to have a baby and she needs to think about that. Clay was raised for the role but we all know nobody can do it alone other wise the power trip gets to them. Why don't we spread it between the eight of us or however and focus on building the agency up to its potential?"

The silence stretches before Holland asks, "Are we all in agreement?"

Every murmurs and nods.

"We all take over the agency, make it better than before."

"If we don't, someone else will." Archer says.

"Whose going to take the seat before we start the changes?"

We all turn to Clay then and his shoulder ms drop, "Why me?"

"You're the oldest." I say and he narrows his eyes, "Plus you were raised for the role and the agents know you're Directors son, they'll take to you the easiest, they don't know about Holland or I and the rest are strangers to them."

He nods, "Okay, I'll organise a conference or whatever to spread the change of leadership.

"We knew you could do it, Clay." Liam says, fist pumping the air.