Chapter 88: No one is ever going to blame you

Eventually, when Kellen and Sergei were working out the minor details of Kellen showing up to crash his press conference, Hill and Taylor came back.

Taylor looked terrible, even after she had used her own healing abilities on herself. Kellen stopped talking to Sergei, getting out of Rhys’ lap and moving towards the two women. He grabbed Taylor’s hand, even as the woman tried to turn away from everyone else.

“Taylor, what’s wrong?” Kellen asked softly, conscious of everyone else watching them. He knew his friend didn’t cry easily. It wasn’t in her nature. She tended to keep everything bottled up and let everything out when she thought no one was watching. Kellen didn’t hold that against her, which is why he sent her off with Layla and Hill, apparently.

So that she might have a moment to herself to get this out of her system before he asked her about it. Taylor’s expression shifted, looking ill but Kellen squeezed her hand. Kellen noticed for a second how close Hill was to Taylor before she slipped past, going to Rhys and Sergei. She spoke softly, so soft that not even Kellen could hear from where he was.

God, that was a superpower all of its own. Being able to speak quietly enough that only the S Classes in the room could hear.

“N-Nothing is-” Taylor started and Kellen squeezed her hand again. He gave his head a gentle shake.

“Taylor.” He admonished and Taylor closed her lips. She dropped her head, unable to meet his gaze. Kellen’s heart squeezed, and he had a feeling that he knew what was bothering her. They’d spoken about it before and she’d been so excited. So bright.

Now she was a mess and Kellen could only think of a few things that could be.

“Taylor, is it about the others? Did something go wrong?” Kellen asked, not judgement in his voice. “It’s okay. You can tell me. I’m not going to be upset.” Kellen told her. “Not even if you tell me that Gwen will never wake up.” Kellen was sincere. It was not her fault that this happened. It was the Gate’s, and Kellen’s fault. He’d failed his sister, not anyone else if she was unable to wake up.

Did Gwen have a small bit of accountability to what happened to her? Very, very small. 1 percent. That was all Kellen would give her since she had lost her damn leg to the thing.

“She’s going to wake up!” It was a burst of noise out of Taylor. Insistent. Urgent. Desperate. Kellen stared at her, shocked and Taylor sucked in, gasping. She looked shaken that she’d spoken like that, her hand raising to her lips to cover her mouth. Her blue eyes watered and Kellen didn’t stop.

He pulled her in, tucking her in against his shoulder and squeezing the poor girl.

“Taylor, it’s okay.” Kellen whispered. “It’s really okay. I’m not upset with you, I just don’t like seeing you hurt like this. You don’t like when I keep things in either, right?” Kellen asked and Taylor flinched.

Slowly, carefully, she wrapped her arms around him and Kellen felt his shirt got wet but he didn’t make a comment on it.

“The poison that took her leg won’t let the same method work.” She finally rasped. “I’m sorry, Kellen.” She apologised and Kellen felt his throat grow tight. Emotion filled him as he heard her words and processed it.

“Yet.” Kellen said, his voice shaky. “They won’t let the same method work yet.” Kellen said. “We just need more time, and that’s okay. We’re doing a damn miracle right now, Taylor. I’m not stupid enough to think that what I’ve survived isn’t crazy. To ask you to be able to do this in a few damn weeks is insane. You know that, right?” Kellen squeezed her. “You’re doing an incredible job.” Kellen told her.

A soft sob escaped Taylor’s lips and Kellen felt rather than heard Rhys approach.

“Kellen’s right, Green. What you’re doing is incredible. That’s why we’ve asked you to do it, because I’ve seen you be able to perform miracles before. You’re keeping Miro alive with incredible use of skill and talent, you’ve found a solution for Kellen and several of the others. So what if this method doesn’t work for Gwen? We all knew that she was going to be a harder case once you tested the nightmare of a poison that was on the bone of her leg, Green. You said it, Carlos said it, we all knew that. This is only a small setback.” Rhys’ voice was firm, confident, and exactly what Taylor needed right now.

She sobbed again and Rhys sighed, pulling both Kellen and Taylor into a hug. Kellen didn’t let go of the other woman, squeezing the Healer who was working herself to the literal bone and taking on the weight of everything onto her shoulders.

“I tried to tell her that, but she wouldn’t listen to me.” Hill muttered bitterly. Kellen felt Taylor twitch in his arms. Charlie responded before Kellen could.

“That’s because this is from Dad and Dad. It’s different.” Hill nearly choked.

“Dad and Dad? Who is Dad and Dad?” She asked, clearly already knowing the answer.

“Rhys and Kellen, silly. I’m their second born.” Charlie told her proudly and Kellen could almost see how the other man had puffed up, all proud. Hill let out a disbelieving laugh.

“What? Then what am I?” She asked. Rhys responded.

“A distant cousin.” He said flatly and Hill gasped, offended.

“A cousin? A distant cousin?! Not even a step-sibling? That’s so damn rude, Captain, and you know it!” Hill protested.

“What? You think I would allow any of my precious children commit incest? Absolutely not. Be grateful for the title you’ve received, or else you’re being upgraded to stranger.” Rhys warned and Hill coughed. Taylor stiffened in their joined arms.

“Am I one of said children?” Taylor asked stiffly and Rhys chuckled.

“Do you not want to be? How upsetting. You can be a friend of Kellen if you want.” Rhys offered easily and Hill sputtered.

“How come she is a friend of Kellen, one of the Dads, and I’m a damn distant cousin or a stranger?” Hill protested. She was getting loud and Charlie was laughing. Kellen thought he heard Sergei laugh as well.

“Because Green isn’t like you, Hill, and you’re too similar to me to not be related.” Rhys told her. That seemed to settle Hill down slightly.

“That means Brent is related to us too.” Hill muttered and Rhys gave a dark chuckle.

“Exactly. Hear that, Sergei? Brent’s a relative. You’ve been warned.” Rhys said like any of this was binding. Sergei let out a laugh.

“We’ll see what Brent says. I don’t know if he would want to be related to you.” Sergei told him. Rhys snorted, pulling back from his hug with Taylor and Kellen to give Sergei the middle finger.

“He would love to be related to me. Of course he would. It would mean he’d have another claim on Kellen, and he loves my boyfriend.” Rhys told him proudly. Like that was something to brag about. Kellen shook his head, sighing, and turned his attention back to Taylor.

She was still sniffing, not quite in a good condition, but she was better.

“Did you find this out recently?” He asked and she nodded miserably.

“Yeah. Pretty recently.” Taylor admitted. “I’m sorry for getting mean.” She apologised and Kellen tsked.

“You were barely mean, Taylor. I’ve dealt with worse. We were just worried about you more than anything else.” Kellen told her softly. Taylor sniffed.

“You can call me a bitch. I was one, according to Karen.” Kellen snapped his head towards the other woman, glaring at her so hard that Hill flinched, raising her hands.

“I-In my defense, she was being mean to Layla!” Hill protested and Kellen let out a soft, dangerous sound.

“Kellen.” Rhys warned and Kellen huffed.

“You’re not allowed to call Taylor a bitch again.” Kellen told her firmly. Hill’s mouth dropped, surprised that Kellen was getting so possessive. It was made worse by the fact that Kellen was getting so possessive of another person that wasn’t Rhys and Rhys wasn’t even batting an eyelash. After all, Kellen had made it clear he had no interest in anyone but Rhys romantically, and Rhys knew best what being possessive of his people felt like.

Kellen had his own people, and Taylor was one of them. So was Brent.

Rhys was a big enough of a person to allow Kellen to have people he cared about. If he didn’t? He’d lose Kellen, and that was an unacceptable outcome after how far he’d come.

“Captain, you can’t be serious in allowing this, are you?” Hill asked, incredulous and Rhys gave a noncommittal shrug.

“Don’t go around calling our Head Healer a bitch, and maybe I’ll consider it.” Hill’s jaw dropped before her eyes narrowed.

“She even said she was being one.” Hill complained and Kellen scoffed.

“You put the idea in her head, and right now, she’s vulnerable. Drop it, Hill, or I’ll go back to calling you Ms. Hill.” Kellen warned and the warning stuck. Hill vibrated as if she had been hit, raising her hand to her face in shock.

“That’s how much it hurts you? What about if someone called me a bitch?” Hill asked and Kellen scoffed again.

“No one would because you are incapable of being a bitch. I wouldn’t like that either.” Kellen told her. That seemed to soften the blow for Hill. “If anything, they might call you a terrorist and I can’t argue with that. You push the younger ones harder with a smile on your face.” Kellen told her, watching as Hill’s expression shifted again. She was pouting.

“You are being so mean to me! I’m the one who helped Taylor here!” Hill protested, upset and Kellen felt Taylor flinch in his arms. His eye narrowed. What the hell did that mean? Why was she flinching at that?

“While that might be the case, we need to move onto a different topic. Hill, you’re going with Kellen to the press conference. My Guide doesn’t know when to stay put, so you’re going with him to the Nemesis Guild when we’re storming the hideout.” Rhys told her, cutting off her pouting with hard facts.

Hill blinked once, twice, and then the Lieutenant was there, nodding at the orders that her Captain had given her.

“Understood. Is there a reason for this?” She asked and Rhys chuckled.

“Kellen wants to play bait, but secret bait. Make them sloppy. I hate it when he’s right.” Rhys muttered. Hill sighed. She looked towards Kellen and Taylor and then slowly shook her head.

“We need to work on better quality uniforms.” She muttered and Rhys let out a surprised noise.

“I’ll get the team working on that tomorrow.” He told her, clearly agreeing with her.

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