Chapter Quote:
"Her walk is like a shot of whiskey, neat and strong, and full of purpose, and so many people underestimate her punch."
~JmStorm
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Chapter 16

Spencer

When Elsa shouted my name, everything else seemed to happen in slow-motion. I turned around to look at her only to see my girlfriend sliding from the tree branch she sat on, eyes rolling in the back of her head. I lunged forward, catching her just before she slammed onto the dirt and rocks below. I sank to the ground, cradling Elsa in my arms while the others rushed to our side, panicked.

"Oh my god!" Anna exclaimed, placing two fingers on her sister's neck. She breathed a sigh of relief moments later. "She's alive."

"I think she passed out," Dom said.

"From what?"

"I don't know."

"Spencer, get her back to the compound. Anna, Dom, go with him," Arya ordered. "Caleb, Lily, stay here while we reach out to Babatunde."

"Who is that guy?" I asked, nodding to the head Ren had been kneeling next to. "He looks familiar."

"Jason Argent. He was with Kit, Anna, and Elsa during the battle. He was a big supporter of ours. Now get going. Take care of her."

Without further discussion, the three of us trekked through the woods back towards the compound. I was careful to keep Elsa close to me, making sure her head didn't loll back and smack into a tree. Anna walked in front of us while Dom watched our six.

"Wh-what happened?" Elsa murmured.

"Hey," I said softly. Anna stopped at the sound of her sister's voice, coming over to us. "You passed out."

"Oh..." Her eyes fluttered back shut, and her hand drifted to my chest, resting just above my heart. I wondered if she could feel how hard it was beating.

"We should go in through the back door, so we don't freak the others out," Anna said as we started walking again.

"Not to mention, Elsa wouldn't like all the attention," I added. Anna nodded in agreement.

It took a while to get back to the compound. By the end of it, my arms were exhausted, and Guardian strength or not, I'd be sore later. At least I didn't have patrol tomorrow.

The three of us snuck in through the back door to my house, managing to avoid any straggling party-goers. Anna and Dom decided to go tell Hunter and Josilyn what happened with the limbs and Elsa, leaving me to take care of my girlfriend by myself. Part of me didn't mind because I ached to have some alone time with her (when she woke up). The other part of me didn't want to put her in danger like I had before. I didn't have a good track record with people I loved.

I gingerly set Elsa down in her bed and covered her with the blankets. I began to walk away, but her hand gripped mine. I stopped and looked at her, expecting Elsa to be awake. But her eyes remained shut, and her hand soon disengaged from mine. Sighing, I grabbed a chair and placed it next to her bedside.

At that moment, Josilyn and Hunter burst in with Anna and Dom on their heels. Seemingly sensing their distress even in her unconsciousness, Elsa groggily woke up.

"Where am I?" She asked, sitting up and nearly toppling out of the bed. I caught her once more, and she clung to me for dear life. I decided to stay next to her until she became oriented again.

"You're back home," Anna said. "You passed out when you were in the tree, and Spencer caught you."

Elsa turned her blue eyes on me as if she suddenly realized I was there. Giving me a small smile, she said, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," I replied.

"Do you remember what happened?" Hunter asked, sitting at the edge of my bed. Josilyn replaced me so she could hug the living daylights out of Elsa.

"There was a head there. I recognized the man, but I couldn't place from where. I tried too hard to remember, and by the time I realized I was going to knock myself out from trying, it was too late. I called out for Spencer because he was closest, and the next thing I know, I'm here."

Anna pinched the bridge of her nose. "And you decided to do this while you were still in a tree?"

"It's not like I knew it would happen."

"You've got to be more careful, Elsa."

"I know."

"I should've gone up instead of her," Dom said. "It's my fault."

"No, it's not. You didn't know either," Elsa said, getting up and distancing herself from all of us. "None of know anything about what this memory loss potion does to me, and until then, we can't predict what it'll do to me. But I also can't sit around and do nothing! I can't just watch and wait while the rest of you go out and risk your lives to find a cure for me. I should be allowed to do that too. I should be allowed to hunt down these bastards for doing this to me! I am tired of being treated like I'm going to break by every little thing that happens to me. The only ones who haven't really treated me like that are Dom, Josilyn, and Spencer, and I only include Spencer because he barely talks to me anyway. It's like I barely exist with him."

I flinched at her words, despite knowing them to be true. At least I wasn't the only one shell-shocked by her outburst.

"Elsa-" Hunter began, but she cut him off.

"Don't," she warned. "You're one of the worst. You and Caleb both. You discovered a potential cure for me, and you didn't think to tell me about it?"

"What?!" Anna and I exclaimed simultaneously.

Hunter blanched. "How do you know about that?"

"I went to the library one night when I couldn't sleep. Josie was there, passed out on the desk with a book in front of her. It was open to the page for Le Mur Briseur. I read what it can do."

"Did you read the side effects for it?"

"Yes."

"So you understand we didn't want to tell you about it until we exhausted every other opportunity, right?"

"Probably to the same extent as you realizing that this is my life, and I get to choose what to do about this. I mean, for Christ's sake, I already lost my memory, what more do I have to lose?!"

Hunter snapped. "Us! You have us! You have Anna and Ember and Spencer and me and Caleb and Dom and Josie and Lily and-"

"I have no memory of any of you!"

"You have feelings for us. You told me that yourself," Anna said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Just because I have feelings for you doesn't mean I have memories, and memories are a hell of a lot more convincing than feelings." Elsa spun around, storming out of the room.

Anna reached out for her twin. "Where are you going?"

"Anywhere but here," Elsa retorted, snatching her arm out of Anna's grip. She slammed the door behind her, leaving us in a stupor.