Beginnings - Un1te_Cosm0s - 9-1-1 (TV) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter Text

Hen realized that she could die for the first time when she was seven years old. Which, by all accounts, was a very young age to have that realization. It all happened very quickly too, between one breath and the next, or, more accurately, between one silly band trade and the next.

"I'll trade you the rhino for the microphone." Hen offered her best friend, Jasmine Saab, otherwise known as Jaz.

They were walking home from the bus stop, only about halfway to both her and Jaz's apartment complex. Joseph and his little sister Estella had already split off towards their house, so it was only them left from their bus stop crew.

"I dunno..." Jaz considered, eyeing Hen's bracelet-covered wrist, "I think I'd rather have the bear."

"No way!" Hen scoffed, "The bear is way rarer than the microphone!"

"Is 'rarer' even a word?" Jaz asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, of course it is." Hen stated confidently, even though she wasn't actually a hundred percent sure. "Anyways, what about a star for the microphone?"

"Deal." Jaz agreed, immediately forgetting about the grammar questions in favor of pulling the microphone off her wrist and replacing it with the star.

"Alright, now what'll you give me for the swan?" Hen asked, holding up the bracelet. She'd gotten a new animal pack yesterday and it'd had three swans and she wanted to see what she could trade for one of them.

Jaz opened her mouth, about to reply when there was this sort of very loud popping noise along with tires squealing against the pavement. Hen went to turn and look on instinct, but before she could even move there was this sharp penetrating pain that bowled her over onto the pavement.

Her side hurt. Actually, her whole body hurt, but especially her side.

"Help! Help us! Help!" Jaz was screaming, Hen lolled her head to watch the other girl sprint across the street and grab... something.... from a lady walking her dog.

Hen watched, gasping for breath as Jaz beelined back over to where she was laying on the sidewalk. She tossed her backpack to the side and crashed to her knees next to Hen.

"Hello?! 9-1-1?!!!" Jaz called into a cell phone, which must've been what she'd grabbed from the lady across the street. "My friend has been shot!!! Yes, Ma'am, we're on Coronation street near house number 19774."

"Jaz." Hen choked out, not entirely sure what she wanted from the other girl, her vision starting to get blurry around the edges and the pain getting sharper somehow.

Had she really been shot? She hadn't realized that that was something that happened outside the news or on TV. She certainly hadn't thought it was something that could happen walking home from school. Wasn't she supposed to have some big dangerous quest that she gets shot during? What the heck was this?!

"Ok, ok, yeah, I can do that!" She vaguely heard Jaz saying to the 9-1-1 operator.

Hen’s vision was going black around the edges, but she could still see enough to see something she never thought she'd witness. Jaz was taking her hijab off in the middle of the street.

"N-no Ja-Jaz." Hen tried to get out, raising a weak hand to stop her. She didn't know too much about it, especially not with how hazy everything was at the moment, but she knew that Jaz's hijab was important, that it wasn't supposed to be taken off like this.

"Shhhh, it's alright Hen." Jaz soothed, pressing the cloth to Hen's side.

"Ah!" Hen screamed, the pain sharpening, startling her back from the edge a bit.

"It's ok, it'll be ok!" Jaz was saying, her breaths almost as short as Hen's as she held the pressure on Hen's side, "The lady says they'll be here any minute, ok? They're almost here, you just have to stay awake! That's all Henrietta, stay with me!"

Things got really hazy after that, the world and its sensations fading in and out, all except the terrible pain in her side. She was pretty sure she'd never feel a pain like it again. She heard sirens in the distance, accompanied by Jaz speaking in a language she realized later must've been Arabic. Jaz stopped praying once the sirens got closer though, instead turning to scream for help. It was the last thing Hen heard before her vision faded to black.

This is it. I'm dead. Was her last conscious thought.

..........................................................

Hen woke up to bright lights, a ridiculously dry throat, and machines surrounding her.

She was not dead, her subconscious was apparently just overdramatic. Although, to be fair, it had felt like a fair assumption that she was going to die after getting shot.

She peeled open her eyes, groaning at the sharp pain it caused, and instead tried to curl up under the blanket again.

"Hen, sweetheart, are you awake?" Her mom's voice filtered through, sounding more worried than she'd ever heard it.

"Mom?" She choked out around how dry her throat was.

"Yeah, sweetheart, it's me. I'm here." Her mom said, running a soothing hand over her head, "Oh, you had me so worried."

"Sorry." Was all she managed to get out around the scratchiness of her throat.

Her mom shushed her though, "No, baby, it wasn't your fault. Here, have some water."

She helped Hen sit up a bit and held a straw to her lips. Hen drank greedily, or at least tried to, but her body wasn't fully cooperating. She was really tired, and everything felt really floaty, plus there was an undercurrent of pain radiating from her side. She flopped back against the pillows exhausted, but there was still a burning question in her mind.

"Jaz?"

"She's alright, she wasn't hurt." Her mom assured her, "You don't have to worry about anything other than getting better right now, alright?"

Hen nodded, relieved to hear her best friend was ok. Once the relief had washed over her though, it was hard to fight off the exhaustion, eyelids already drooping which her mom noticed.

"Go ahead and rest, Hen." Her mom said, rubbing a soothing hand up and down her arm, "I'll be right here."

...........................................

She ended up having to stay in the hospital for a couple days after that. On the second day, they let visitors other than her mom in to see her though, so she got to see Jaz.

Jaz rushed into Hen's hospital room like the floor was falling away behind her, skidding to a stop once she reached the open door and saw Hen sitting there eating Jello.

"You're ok!" The other girl exclaimed, a big grin overtaking her face.

Hen grinned right back and nodded, patting the bed next to her and Jaz scrambled up until the two of them were sitting side by side against the pillows.

"Here, you can have my rhino." Jaz said, holding out the silly band to her, "Since you survived I figure you earned it."

Hen took it, "You can have my bear too, if I ever find it. I'm pretty sure the hospital took all my stuff."

"Cool, cause I was not looking forward to stealing it off your body at the funeral." Jaz replied, and then they both burst into giggles.

"Ow ow ow!" Hen groaned, her side hurting at the laughter, "Ok, no more making me laugh."

"Are you ok?" Jaz asked, looking concerned all of a sudden.

"Yeah, thanks to you." Hen replied, voice serious, "I'm sorry about your hijab, by the way."

Jaz just waved her off though, "It's fine, I'm pretty sure Allah thinks a person's life is more important than my hijab."

That was probably true, Hen's family wasn't religious but she'd heard enough about different religions to know that human life was considered valuable in all the ones she'd heard of. Still though, Jaz had made a sacrifice for Hen.

"Your parents weren't mad, were they?" She asked, hoping she hadn't gotten her friend in trouble.

"Are you kidding, they barely noticed! I was covered in blood in a hospital." Jaz laughed, "They're just glad I'm ok, besides, I have another one."

Hen could see that that was true since she was literally wearing it. She still felt like there was something that she needed to do though, Jaz had literally saved her life. Hen felt like she should apologize or thank her or something.

"I just- thank you. You saved me, so thank you." Was what she settled on saying.

Jaz just shrugged though, "What else was there to do?"

She said it so easily, like it was a simple truth of life. Something exploded in Hen’s chest upon hearing the words, although she had no idea what it meant. In hindsight, she realized later that that was probably the moment she fell in love with Jaz.

"You could've done literally anything else." Hen pointed out, "And I'm pretty sure I would've died if you had, so thanks."

Jaz still didn't seem to think Hen needed to thank her though, instead she just shrugged and said, "Well, best friends don't just let each other die, so it's cool. Deal."

Jaz stuck out a hand for a shake and Hen felt like a bit of a weight had been lifted off her shoulders as she stuck out her own hand.

They shook on it, "Deal." Hen agreed with a grin.

They lapsed into a happy silence after that, Hen knowing that one day she'd get to pay Jaz back.

"Y'know." Jaz said, breaking the silence, "I've been thinking about it, and I think I want to be a paramedic."

Hen shot a glance over at her friend who was looking back at her thoughtfully, "Because of what happened to me?" Hen asked, though she already knew the answer.

"Yeah, I mean," Jaz shrugged, suddenly looking bashful, "You weren't awake for this, but the paramedics told me that I did an amazing job. One of them even said I should consider becoming one when I grow up, and I have been. I want to do it."

Hen considered that for a moment, she and Jaz had had an agreement since they were four that they'd get the same job and work together when they grew up, so she knew what Jaz was really asking. Hen was ok with it though, riding around in an ambulance and saving people sounded like a pretty cool career to her.

"Sounds good to me. Paramedic buddies for life." Hen agreed, and a grin exploded across Jaz's face.

.........................................................

The first thing she did after being released from the hospital and from her mom's order of bed rest for a week, was get her giant coin jar that she'd been saving up for the last three years. Then she took it to her mom who'd just finished cleaning up from lunch and begged to be taken to the shops downtown. It'd taken a while, but eventually her mom had allowed it, and they headed downtown.

Hen was a girl on a mission as she walked into Taj boutique. She quickly browsed through their options and settled on a purple hijab to get for Jaz. It might not match with everything, but it was her favorite color so Hen thought it was a good choice.

The lady working the counter seemed confused when she brought it up for checkout along with her jar of coins.Once Hen explained though, the lady seemed to think it was a very sweet gesture.

Hen had half expected to feel a bit sad at seeing her years of coin savings all gone, but she wasn’t. This felt better than buying a wii ever could. Jaz had sacrificed something more than just a piece of cloth that day, and the least Hen could do was sacrifice something in return.

So she walked out of the shop with a new purple hijab and went right home and wrapped it up as nicely as she could in their leftover Christmas wrapping paper. Then, with her mom's hesitant permission and a 'don't push yourself Henrietta, you're still healing!' she marched to the elevator, went two floors up, and knocked on Apartment 418.

Mr. Saab opened the door and looked down to see her standing there.

"Hey, Mr. Saab." She greeted.

"Hello Hen, it's nice to see you up and about." The man greeted warmly, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright." Hen shrugged, "Is Jaz here?"

"Yeah," He said, moving aside to let her in, "She's in the kitchen."

Hen moved through the apartment that was as familiar as her own at this point, easily making her way into the kitchen.

"Hey." Jaz greeted from where she was sitting at the little table, homework out in front of her while Mrs. Saab stirred something in a pot on the stove.

"Hey." Hen replied before tossing the messily wrapped gift on top of Jaz's homework, "Open it!"

Jaz did not need further prompting, immediately tearing through the wrapping paper. It took her a second to realize what it was since it'd ended up all bunched up while Hen was trying to wrap it. Once she did figure it out though, her face lit up in excitement.

"Mama look!" She exclaimed, jumping up and down and waving it around, "It's purple!"

"I see that." The woman chuckled, smiling warmly at Hen, "That's very nice of you sweetheart. Jaz, make sure you thank your friend, please."

Jaz immediately threw her arms around Hen, and she eagerly returned the hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" Jaz exclaimed, "It's going to go so well with my new dress!"

Jaz broke the hug to grab Hen's hand and drag her towards the room she shared with her older sister. Marjan glanced up from her phone upon their entry.

"Look Marjan! Hen got me a purple hijab!" Jaz announced, immediately unwrapping the one she'd been wearing to replace it with the new one.

"I see that." Marjan said, seeming uninterested before turning her attention to Hen, "Nice to see you're still alive, kid."

Marjan was 13 and eternally intimidating. She was like what every girl wanted to be, amazing clothes, shoes, and makeup, plus the surly teen attitude to go with it. Sometimes she and Jaz played dress up in her closet. The one time they'd gotten caught they'd had to hide behind the rose bush outside for hours.

Still though, that was a very nice comment for Marjan so Hen smiled appreciatively, "Thanks. It's because you have the best sister ever."

Marjan just groaned, rolling her eyes and getting up from her desk chair, "Mama! Is dinner ready?" She called into the kitchen, already walking out the door.

"Almost." Mrs. Saab called back before asking, "Henrietta, are you staying for dinner?"

She was tempted to say yes, Mrs. Saab was an amazing cook, but her mom had given her specific instructions. Her and Jaz walked out to the kitchen to join them.

"No thanks Mrs. Saab, my mom said I was only supposed to give Jaz the gift then come home." Hen explained.

"Hmm, you better get going then." Mrs. Saab instructed, "You've given your poor mother enough of a scare already, no need to worry her by staying late."

Hen nodded and Jaz walked her to the door.

"See you tomorrow?" She asked hopefully.

"Right after school." Jaz promised.

.....................................................

The summer they turned ten was the best of Hen's life to date. Her and Jaz had both managed to convince their parents to let them attend summer camp. Not just any summer camp either, no, they were going to be junior lifeguards.

It was exciting for a number of reasons. They'd get to go to camp at the county's local water park and get to play there every day. Plus, although they were too young to receive an actual certification, they'd still be given some CPR and first aid training. Also they'd have an in with the lifeguards who worked there.

Their dreams of being paramedics when they grew up were still solidly in place. They'd even gotten to talk to one of their classmate's dad on career day and he was a firefighter paramedic. He'd told them that a lot of the people he worked with were lifeguards at one point. So they'd decided to do everything they could to prepare for being lifeguards at 16.

This was the first step, and both her and Jaz were immensely excited, practically vibrating in the back of Mrs. Saab's minivan. She dropped them off with a fond grin, telling them to be careful and listen to their instructors.

There were only three other kids signed up to be junior guards because, in a shocking twist of events, it wasn't a very popular program. Hen didn't get it, she and Jaz had been working on convincing their mothers to let them attend since they'd heard about it last summer.

"Hey, Derek." She said, recognizing one of the kids from one of the other fourth grade classes at their school.

"Hey Hen, Hey Jaz!" He greeted them, and they took the two remaining seats next to him.

"Hi, Derek." Jaz greeted before turning to the other two kids, "What're your names?"

"I'm Josiah, and this is Jillian." The boy greeted.

"Are you guys siblings?" Hen asked, because they looked really similar.

They both nodded and Jillian added, "We're twins."

"That's so cool!" Jaz said, "What school do you guys go to? I don't recognise you."

"We're homeschooled." Josiah answered.

"Wow, I've never met someone who's homeschooled, what's it like?" Derek asked, all three of them curious.

Before either of the twins could answer though, two older boys wearing lifeguard uniforms walked in.

"Hey guys, welcome to junior guard camp, we're going to be your instructors for the week." The boy with sunscreen streaked across his cheeks announced, "I'm Garret and this is..."

He gestured to the other boy who waved a hand in greeting, "I'm John."

"Now, who's ready to get in the water?" Garret said, both boys grinning.

They all cheered at that, "Alright guys follow us out this way." John said, waving and the two boys led them out to a pool that had three lap lanes.

"Alright guys, if you have goggles and want to wear them you're more than welcome to." Garret said, "We're going to be starting with something we call the pre-rec. It's the swim test we all had to pass in order to start training as lifeguards. It's a three hundred meter swim, a two minute tread, and the brick test."

"This isn't an actual test for you guys, so don't worry if you can't do everything, just do your best." John picked up, "We just figured it'd be fun for you guys to see the kind of physical standards we have to achieve. There's no passing or failing here, it’s just a fun challenge to see how you guys do. Sound good?"

They all nodded, Hen was excited to see how she'd do, and by the looks of it so was Jaz.

"Before we start, everyone knows how to swim, right?" Garret asked, looking them all over.

They all nodded, "Who would come to a water park if they didn't know how to swim?" Josiah asked, the idea sounding ridiculous.

"You'd be surprised how many people jump into the deep end knowing they don't know how to swim." John laughed.

"Alright, you guys ready to start?" Garret took over again, and they all nodded, "Good, we're going to start with the three hundred, that's six laps in the pool. One lap is there and back. You can take as long as you want to swim it, the only rule is you can't stop."

"Also if you feel sick or like you need to stop, please do. If you throw up in the water then we have to shut the pool down for a whole day." John told them all.

"Do people really throw up?" Hen asked, six laps didn't really sound that bad.

"All the time." Garret said, "You'd be surprised how many people don't practice before they take the test. Swimming can be a lot harder than it looks."

John nodded along, "This is for fun though guys, nothing’s on the line. So don't make yourselves throw up, just go ahead and hop in and have fun."

They did as told, all hopping into the lanes. She and Jaz shared one, the twins shared one, and Derek got one all to himself. As Hen started swimming she realized that the two boys had been right. By the time she got to her third lap she was super out of breath, and she ended up tapping out after her fourth. Jaz made it halfway through her fourth, and Jillian tapped out after her third. Josiah finished after his fourth, gasping for breath along with the rest of them. Derek managed to finish it, although he was gasping for breath too by the time he was done.

"How'd you do that!" Jaz asked.

Derek shrugged, still trying to catch his breath, "My parents made me join the youth swim team. That was a lot though."

"Yeah it was, you guys did awesome for a first try with no training!" John announced, him and Garret giving them all high fives, "You guys see how people throw up now?"

They all nodded, exhausted chuckles coming from them all.

"Alright, take a minute, grab some of your water, and then it's time for the tread!" Garret told them, "That part’s usually a bit easier than the swim."

They all did as instructed, catching their breath and getting some water before it was time for the next challenge.

"Alright guys, it's a two minute tread, which means you must maintain a vertical position, no floating on your backs, and you can't use your hands. You can put them under your armpits, on top of your shoulders, or you can have them up in the air if you want a challenge." John announced, "If you need to stop then go ahead and grab the wall. Any questions?"

They all shook their heads no, "Great, your time begins now!" Garret announced holding up a stopwatch.

They all pushed off the wall and started kicking to keep their heads above the water. Hen chose to put her hands under her armpits. It wasn't too hard, or at least not at first, after the minute marker she started to get tired, and she could tell the others were too.

"You guys got this!" John called, "Only forty seconds to go."

Hen was starting to realize just how long forty seconds could be.

"You guys are doing great!" The guard who had taken the stand since the park was now open called in encouragement.

"Twenty seconds!" Garret said, eyes flitting between them and the stopwatch.

It was really a struggle to keep her head above water now. No one else had tapped out yet though, and she wasn't going to be the first.

"Ten seconds!" John called, "You guys are so close, keep going!"

Hen sucked in a big breath and held it, suddenly finding it slightly easier. She supposed air did make things float so that did make sense, she just wished she'd figured that trick out sooner.

"Five, four, three, two, and one!" Garret called, "Back to the wall guys! That was great!"

They all swam quickly back to the wall and caught their breath as John, Garret, and the guard on-stand cheered for them.

"Go ahead and hop out, take a minute then we'll start the brick test." John told them before he turned back and started chatting about something involving high school with the other two guards.

They all pulled themselves out of the pool and headed over to where their water bottles were sitting on one of the chairs.

"This is crazy!" Josiah laughed, "I knew it had to be hard, but isn't this just the pre-test to even do the lifeguard training?"

"Yeah, that's what they were saying. It makes sense though, the rescues have to be hard too." Derek agreed, though he seemed to be faring better than the rest of them so far.

She wasn't jealous, not exactly, he did have the clear advantage of having already been a swimmer. She sure as heck was determined though. Whatever this brick test was, she was going to pass it. Jaz looked equally determined, both of them exchanging a nod, just as in sync as always.

They'd also need to find a way to convince their parents to let them have access to a pool with lap lanes to practice. That 300 had definitely kicked their butts and they'd need to get better to make it into the actual lifeguard training when they turned sixteen.

Suddenly, there was a long loud whistle. There'd been a few sparse whistles before that, short quick tweets, but not many seeing as the park had just opened half an hour ago and things hadn't gotten very crazy yet. This whistle was different though, it stuck out, and even if she hadn't noticed the difference in length then the dead sprint that John and Garret suddenly took off at would've been a dead giveaway.

They all looked around startled at the sudden change, Hen saw a stream of lifeguards pour out of the break room taking off at a dead sprint, some carrying bags or tubes, others with just themselves.

"What's going on?" Jillian said, looking around wildly, "Our instructors just took off!"

"I don't know." Hen said, shooting Jaz a grin, "But let's find out."

She took off running, following in the path the other lifeguards were making through the small crowds of people. She could hear the smacking of bare feet on the pavement behind her as the other kids followed.

Hen had run before, she'd run a million times before playing sports or on the playground or just generally playing, she'd sprinted before too, but never like this. She was running towards presumably some sort of emergency, along with others who were coming to help. Her bare feet slapping against the rough pavement in a way that made her wonder if she'd end up tearing them open a bit.

It felt like flying somehow.

The five of them skidded to a stop by the catch pool at the bottom of the slides. There was a lifeguard already in the water holding a woman who seemed to be shaking quite a lot, convulsing actually. Seizure her mind supplied from having watched a million medical dramas with Jaz.

"Got the backboard!" A voice called, and then suddenly Garret was pushing through the crowd with another guy on his tail, the two of them carrying a large wooden backboard between them.

"Alicia, hit the E-stop!" The girl in the water called.

A lifeguard, presumably Alicia, pushed past them to slam her fist down on a big red button on a pole behind them. Suddenly the slide tower gave a groan and shook before stopping, the water cutting off from where it'd been pouring out of the slides into the pool.

"Yes, we need an ambulance." A cool and collected voice came from their left. "We've got an in-water seizure. No, she's still seizing, been that way for 67 seconds."

Hen glanced over to see John with a phone pressed to his ear. Clearly talking to a 9-1-1 dispatcher.

"Hello?! 9-1-1?!!!" Jaz called into a cell phone, which must've been what she'd grabbed from the lady across the street. "My friend has been shot!!! Yes, Ma'am, we're on Coronation Street near house number 19774."

Hen shook off the memory quickly. She hadn't been shot and Jaz wasn't looming over her looking panicked with blood on her hands. She was at a waterpark training to be a junior guard with Jaz confidently by her side.

Garret was in the water now, the backboard being handed to him by the boy who'd carried it over with him.

"Alright guys, back up!" Another lifeguard was saying to the rapidly growing crowd around them, "Give us room to work!"

They shuffled back a few steps with the rest of the crowd.

"Let me through!" One of the boys standing to their left called. "That's my sister!"

The lifeguard's gaze snapped to the boy, and she gave a nod to another lifeguard who stepped forward, "Come with me."

They watched as the boy was led through the crowd and over to a lifeguard whose shirt read supervisor and who seemed to be overseeing the scene from the steps of the catch pool.

The woman had stopped seizing at this point, and Garret was sinking the backboard under the water and the lifeguard holding the woman was guiding her on top of it. They strapped her in quickly before guiding the board over to the ledge where the guy who'd carried the backboard with garret was waiting. He got a good grip on the edge and then there was a '1,2,3’. He lifted it up to rest on the ledge of the pool before there was another '1,2,3', and he pulled the board and woman backward, dragging the board until it was a few feet from the edge.

Three lifeguards moved to crouch near the woman, talking to her. One even brought an umbrella over so she was shaded from the sun. It was an oddly considerate gesture, one she hadn't considered would be done during an emergency. Still, the woman was awake and talking, so Hen supposed it couldn't be too bad now.

A couple of the lifeguards split off, some heading out to the front entrance of the park to flag down the ambulance when it came, and some of the others went back to pools that'd been left with only one guard in their absence. A few stayed by the woman and the rest seemed to be making a wide ring around the scene to keep the crowd back.

It was all startlingly efficient seeing as how all the lifeguards weren't that much older than herself and the others. Not as old as the paramedics and firefighters she'd met were. She couldn't wait till she was one of them too.

Soon enough there were a couple of police officers who responded to the 9-1-1 and after talking to the supervisor woman, joined the couple of lifeguards who were keeping the curious crowd back. Then a minute later there were two paramedics rolling a gurney through the crowd that was being split by the lifeguards leading them.

It all went very quickly from there, the paramedics lifting the woman, backboard and all, onto the gurney before rolling her away with the promise to return the backboard soon.

After that, the lifeguards were quick to gather their stuff and all head back towards where the break room was, a couple splitting off to return things to their normal positions. Hen and the others followed the lifeguards back to the break room since they weren't really sure what else to do. The AC was especially nice once they stepped into the small first aid room that was attached to the break room.

"That was f*cking crazy! Did you see how her eyes kept, like, rolling around?!" One of the guards exclaimed in amongst the chaos of the other guards all jumping in to add their two cents.

"Guys! Coconut!" One girl said suddenly and it got quiet for a second, everyone turning to look at them.

"Can we help you? Do you guys need life jackets?" A guard they hadn't met yet approached them.

Hen and Jaz looked at each other, "Uh, no, we're the junior guards." Derek spoke up.

Suddenly the door behind the five of them opened and John was standing there, "Oh, there you guys are. Come on, we're going back out to the dive well."

They all followed him back out the door, "That was so awesome!" Josiah told John, the rest of them nodding along, "Not that lady getting hurt obviously, but all the stuff you guys did."

"Yeah, you guys were so calm the whole time!" Jillian added her agreement, "I would've been freaking out."

Garrett jogged over to join them in time to hear that last bit, wrapped a friendly arm around John's shoulder, and grinned down at them, "Well kids, that's the number one rule in an emergency. You have to stay calm. If you freak out, then everyone else will too and then things won't end well."

"People in emergencies are like babies." John nodded his agreement, "They're usually too panicked already to figure out how bad things are so they read you, if you're freaking out then they know it's really bad so they freak out."

She shot Jaz a grateful smile, remembering how the other girl may have been freaking out when she'd been shot but she'd still kept it together. If there was anyone made for this then it was Jaz, and Hen was determined to be in lockstep with her the whole way. Jaz grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze in support.

"Alright, now who's ready for the brick test?" Garret asked, holding up a black brick before tossing it straight into the deep end.

Hen felt determined enough that she was ready for anything.

.....................................................

Day three at Junior Guard camp meant they were split up and sent to shadow the actual lifeguards on-stand. They weren't really actually allowed to do anything or save anyone though, it was just to see what the lifeguards did.

Hen was sent to shadow a girl named Amelie who was on the river. She seemed nice so far, and she let Hen take the lead sometimes if someone was breaking the rules. So far she'd told two people to unstack their tubes.

"This is a bit boring, isn't it?" Hen asked after the first hour had gone by.

Amelie laughed, "Yeah, not much action here. There's a saying 'Nothing happens on the river'" she paused quickly to knock on the wood of her guard chair, "It's next to a speaker playing music and it's in the shade, so it's not a bad stand to hang out at if you want a more chill day."

Hen could see the wisdom in that, she supposed, still, she was starting to get a bit restless. The rotation would be coming soon to replace them and she honestly couldn't wait for it.

"What's the craziest thing you've seen happen here?" She asked, just to have something to focus on.

Amelie seemed to think about it for a while, "I've only been here for two years, so I definitely haven't seen it all yet, but there was this one time when one kid split another kid's skull clean open."

"Really? How?" Hen asked, imagining some kid hitting the other with a bat or something.

"It was an accident, it was these two cousins and they were jumping into the pool together. Except, one of them jumped a little bit before the other, so when the other landed in the pool her elbow hit the little boy on top of his head and…" Amelie made a splitting motion with her hands, "His head split clean open at the top, cracked his skull too. You could literally see everything."

Hen was gaping at her, "Was he ok?"

Amelie shrugged, "He was still awake when they took him away in the ambulance. After that, I don't know."

"You didn't call to ask?" Hen asked, brow furrowed, not being able to imagine not knowing what happened.

"We don't really do that." Amelie shrugged, "We do our job here, the paramedics take them and do their job in the ambulance, then the doctors and nurses take them and do their jobs. We have to hand it off, same as everyone else. It isn't our responsibility what happens after the ambulance takes them, and if you focus too much on what happens after you then it starts to mess with your head."

She supposed there was a sort of logic in that, she still had trouble imagining just being ok with not knowing what happened. "So if I asked what happened to that lady who had the seizure on Monday? If she was ok?"

"I don't know." Amelie shrugged, "All I know is we did our job and we did it well. We gave her the best chance we could and that's all we could've done. It's no use fixating on what might've happened after."

Hen wondered if the paramedics who'd saved her in the ambulance three years ago knew that she'd survived. That was a dark road of thought to go down right now though, so she changed the subject.

"Do you guys get rewards for saving people?" She asked, knowing she'd do it anyway but still curious.

"Not officially, and not always. Sometimes if we all have a good save or something then one of our supervisors will let us pick out a new whistle, lanyard, or shirt." Amelie shrugged before perking up, "Oh, and sometimes if we have a good day and we aren't too tired then we get to rip slides once the park closes!"

"Rip slides?" Hen questioned curiously, "Don't you guys get to ride the slides anyway?"

Amelie laughed brightly at that, "Yeah, when we rotate from top to bottom we can ride the slide down if we want, but ripping slides is entirely different."

"How is it different?" She asked, not understanding.

"When we rip slides when it's just us lifeguards, we break every rule in the books and then some." She grinned, "Seriously, everything you've ever thought about trying we've done it and way more. It's awesome."

"Like, you go down with more than one of you at a time?" She asked, "or headfirst?"

Amelie laughed at that, it was a bright thing, her throat extending as she tipped her head back before she turned to smirk at Hen, it made her feel nervous for some reason. "Dream bigger kid, but yeah we do both those things."

"Like what?" Hen asked, a little bewildered at how much they could manage to do in the slides, "Do you climb up them too or something?"

"I mean yeah, we do that, we have a saying that 'you're not a real lifeguard until you've climbed up slide 4'." She shrugged, "Still though, there are way more exciting things."

"Tell me!" Hen asked excitedly, mind whirring, "I'm out of ideas. I know there's no way you jump out the sides."

"Oh, yeah, definitely not that." Amelie scrunched her nose, "That would go very badly. We do a lot of other stuff though, like tube wrestling, or the knot."

She felt her face scrunch in confusion, "You guys wrestle, in the slide? And what's the knot?"

"Yeah, tube wrestling is when two people shoot themselves down the slide after an inner tube, and whoever comes out with it at the bottom wins." She explained, a small grin on her face, like even the memory of it excited her, "The knot is where we all tie ourselves in a human knot, like the trust exercise, and then go down the slide like that and try to untangle before we hit the bottom."

Hen's eyes were wide, looking at the girl sitting next to her who'd just told a man twice her age to make sure he used the stairs to enter the river for safety, "That doesn't sound very safe."

Amelie laughed again, "No it isn't," a playful grin was on her lips, "but it sure is fun."

Even though she had never done any of that stuff, she couldn't help her answering smile, "Yeah it sounds like it. Can I do it?"

"Definitely not, you're just a junior guard and if you get hurt then it's a total mess of liability." Amelie shook her head, looking amused, "If you become a lifeguard later when you're sixteen, then I'm sure ripping slides will still be a thing that you can partake in."

Hen pouted but moved on quickly, she'd just have to be patient and wait till she was sixteen, that was all. She could do that. She was already waiting till she was sixteen to do all the other lifeguard stuff. What was one more thing to wait for?

"Are you any good at tube wrestling?" She asked, wanting to know more about ripping slides.

"I'm definitely not the best on staff, that would probably be Garrett or Kenny." She shrugged, seemingly completely unbothered by that, "I can almost always beat my girlfriend though, and we're pretty competitive with each other so that's all I really care about."

Hen felt her brows draw together in confusion. Girlfriend? She'd heard other girls in movies refer to their friends that way, like, 'hey girlfriends, let's go shopping'. That wasn't how Amelie had seemed to say it though, no, she'd said it like how a boyfriend said it.

Except? Amelie wasn't a boy?

"Huh?" She managed to get out, ineloquently.

"Not competitive in a bad way!" Amelie rushed to correct, even though that wasn't what had tripped Hen up, "We were always rivals in school, like who could get the better grades or do better in gym class or literally whatever. Then when we were sixteen we both ended up working here, and we were forced to learn how to work as a team."

Hen felt like her brain was imploding, because this sounded like- like a love story.

Amelie had a dopey grin on her face as she continued, "And what an amazing team we make. After we realized we could actually be a team it didn't take us long to realize that most of our 'rivalry' was just us having crushes on each other and being too competitive to know how to handle it any other way. And now we're together, and very happy, and still just as competitive. It's amazing."

The dopey grin had still not melted away when Hen finally managed to ask, "You can do that?!"

Amelie seemed to realize something then, and she gave Hen a searching look, "Do what?" She finally asked, "date your rival or have a girlfriend?"

"Have a girlfriend." Hen clarified quickly.

The older girl took a moment, just scanning the water, before answering, "I mean, it depends on who you ask I guess, but the short answer is yes. You can be a girl and have a girlfriend or be a boy and have a boyfriend, if that's what you want. Some people don't like that, and they'll even try to say it isn't allowed or that it's wrong, but those people are the ones who are wrong. There's nothing wrong with loving someone."

It sounded so painfully simple. It felt a bit crazy that she'd never considered it, not that she'd ever really thought about having a boyfriend either. It still felt just as crazy to hear that it was possible though, and maybe just a little exciting too if she was honest.

.....................................................

"Hey, Hen?" Jaz whispered into the dark between them.

"Yeah?" She asked, rolling over to face her in the dark of her bedroom.

They were having a sleep over at Hen's, and, as was common practice, they were up far past their bedtimes whispering to each other.

"Did you know that a girl can have a girlfriend?" Jaz asked, her voice both cautious as well as desperately exploratory.

The way it always was with new and potentially forbidden topics.

"Not until a few days ago. Did you know?" Hen replied, glad that she wasn't the only one to be wondering about such things.

"Same, I didn't know until Kara mentioned having a girlfriend to me during rotation." Jaz agreed.

"Amelie told me. I think her and Kara are girlfriends." Hen agreed conspiratorially, then for some reason more carefully asked, "What do you think about that?"

Jaz shrugged, though there was something a bit cautious about her too, "I don't know. I guess it sounds nice to not have to date some stinky boy someday, but..."

"But what?" Hen prompted when the other girl trailed off.

"Kara said something about a lot of other people not being ok with it. She said her own family wasn't ok with it so she can't tell them that she likes girls or that she has a girlfriend. She said it's because they're religious."

Hen saw what the problem was now, "Maybe her family isn't Muslim though, there are a ton of different religions, we learned about them in school remember? Maybe it's ok to like girls if you're Muslim."

"Yeah maybe," Jaz allowed, though she still didn't sound like she believed it, "But then why have my parents only ever talked about my sister and I marrying boys?"

Hen shrugged, she didn't really have an answer to that, "My mom's never talked about me marrying a girl, only a boy, and we aren't religious." She pointed out.

Jaz was quiet for a moment before letting out a breath, "Yeah, maybe."

She still sounded like something was off though, like something was bothering her.

"Jaz, do you... do you think you like girls?" Hen asked carefully, she didn't care either way, but something was clearly up with her friend.

Jaz let out an explosive sigh, "I don't know." She said, sounding frustrated, "I don't have a crush on anyone, all I know is that I like you more than I like our other friends."

"Well yeah, I like you more too," Hen smiled a bit, "That's why we're best friends."

She could just barely make out the other girl's smile back in the dark, "That's true."

"Look, you don't have to worry about it, we're too young to date anyway. Doesn't Marjan always say you have to be sixteen to properly date anyone?" Hen pointed out.

"Yeah, she says if you're young enough that your parents have to drop you off for a date then you shouldn't be dating." Jaz agrees, huffing out a laugh, "She says it's embarrassing."

"Exactly." Hen nods, "So it doesn't matter right now, we'll have it figured out by the time we're 16. I bet Marjan knows whether she likes boys or girls."

"True, I swear she knows everything, even if she is really mean about it." Jaz agrees, seeming far more at ease than she had been before, then adds, "Don't tell her I said that."

"Obviously," Hen laughs, "She doesn't need her head to get any bigger."

Jaz snorts, "Yeah, or else she won't be able to fit it in her hijab."

They dissolved into giggles after that before relaxing into easier conversation and eventually falling asleep.

They never mentioned anything about liking girls or having girlfriends again. Years later Hen would think back on that conversation a lot, but it was too late to do anything about what she realized.

..................................................................

The summer ended, as summers tend to do unfortunately, and soon enough Hen found herself right back at school. They were in fifth grade now, kings of the elementary school.

She and Jaz were lucky enough for another year in a row to end up in the same class, Mrs. Mullin’s. Even luckier than that, Derek was in their class too. It was shaping up to be a pretty good year, and they had the end of year field trip to look forward to and rumor was that they were going to the city zoo. Not to be mistaken with any other zoo, theirs had a carnival with rides attached along with the animal enclosures.

So things went smoothly. It was a normal school year. Jaz lorded it over her head that she'd already turned eleven while Hen was still ten, they did their homework together during class for the most part, and they spent a good amount of their time on the playground trying to see if they could do a full circle on the swing set.

The circle was their new way to entertain themselves after a couple of them got in trouble last year for climbing to the top bar of the swing sets and daring each other to jump.

Then November hit, and the first kid died. Not that Hen really understood the significance of that first death. At the time it'd felt like it hadn't really affected her. It was a boy from a different class, a different grade, who she'd never even met. Her school was big enough that she honestly wasn't even sure if she'd have recognised him if she saw him.

It hadn't felt real. Not in the way the adults said death was supposed to. It felt just like how it felt to hear about something on the news, except she heard about it on the morning announcements the next morning instead.

So that first death didn't mean anything. It didn't mean a single thing to her, if she was brutally honest, which sounded callous, but it was true.

That didn't mean that it shouldn't have meant something though. If she was honest, in hindsight, it should have been a warning.

So the first death, to her, was trivial, it was meaningless. The second death, however, was the opposite. The second death tore meaning from the face of the planet, away from life itself. The second death in her school was ground shaking and world ending.

The second kid to die was Jaz.

It was a normal day. Only a week after that first boy died, but none of them had known him, so it was all back to normal for them. They were in class, and it was the afternoon after lunch and recess, so they were on their science section of the day.

Science was easily Hen's favorite, Jaz's second favorite since her favorite had been art. They were learning about the solar system, which was overall a pretty exciting topic. Mrs. Mullins had already told them that at the end of this chapter they'd be doing a project where they were supposed to make a model of something from their solar system with a partner.

Jaz had been scribbling ideas for the project in her ideas journal for the last week because of it and Hen was quite excited to see what she finally landed on for them to make together. She was secretly hoping for it to be something to do with Pluto.

"Alright class, today we've got a special treat, you all have been doing so well with this chapter that I figured we could do something more fun today." Mrs. Mullins smiled at them all, "So we're going to watch an episode of the magic school bus where they go to space!"

The class cheered at that, as they always did when the magic school bus was involved. Mrs. Mullins went over to her computer to set it up with the projector.

"Jaz, sweetie, could you go turn off the lights please." Mrs. Mullins directed, and Jaz did as asked.

She got up and skipped over to the light switch on the back wall. Hen busied herself with putting her pencil back in her pencil case, waiting for Jaz to return to the seat next to her so they could joke about the video they were going to watch together.

The lights didn't go off immediately like Hen had expected though, and instead, they flickered for a brief moment. Hen turned around, curious as to what Jaz was doing, and found her dead still, staring at the empty air in front of her.

"Jaz!" She whispered, figuring that her friend had just zoned out for some reason and needed a snap back to reality.

Nothing happened, Jaz didn't move or otherwise acknowledge that she'd heard Hen.

"Jaz!" Hen hissed, louder this time, and still nothing.

There was a sinking feeling in her gut, something wasn't right about this. She stood slowly, walking towards her friend, and by now the kids in the desks around them had noticed that something was happening.

"Jaz?" Hen asked, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder and shaking her lightly, "Hey, what's-"

She didn't get to finish her question because suddenly Jaz was tipping forward, and taking them both to the ground. The rest of the classroom burst into action, kids shouting to get the teacher’s attention. Suddenly Derek was there, helping to roll Jaz off of her, and Hen gasped at what she saw.

Jaz was staring up at the ceiling with wide empty eyes. She wasn't moving, not a single twitch of a muscle or subtle rise of her chest. There was just nothing.

Fingers were at Jaz’s throat, Derek's fingers Hen realized, and his head was covering her face, his ear tipped down towards Jaz's mouth. She knew, in a logical sense what he was doing, had learned how to do it at the same time he had. Hen felt frozen now though, eyes wide as she waited those 7-10 seconds for Derek to assess.

He popped up suddenly, staring at her with wide eyes, "No pulse, no breathing." He announced, the words that might as well have ended her life.

And then she unfroze.

"Mrs. Mullins! Call 9-1-1!" Hen yelled, not even turning to look and see if she was being listened to.

She dove for Jaz's backpack, ripping open the smallest pouch and pulling out the white plastic case. She scrambled back across the room, dropping to her knees next to Derek who'd already started compressions.

"23, 24, 25" She ripped open the case, grabbing the mask inside and placing it over Jaz's mouth, "28, 29, 30!"

She blew into the mask, once, twice, saw Jaz’s chest rise and fall "Breath goes in, starting cycle two."

"1, 2, 3, 4" they counted together, the world ceasing to exist around them as Derek made Jaz's heart beat for her and Hen made her lungs breath.

They finished cycle five, "Rotate to the left." Hen called and they did, "Reassessing." This time it was her fingers at Jaz's pulse point and her ear over her mouth.

"No pulse, no breathing. Continuing CPR." She announced, hands one on top of the other as she pushed them into her best friend’s sternum, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5"

On cycle eight a third person joined them, though Hen hardly noticed. It was Mrs. Mullins with an AED. She placed the pads around where Hen was still doing compressions with shaking hands.

The tinny robotic voice of the AED started calling things out, though she paid them no mind, not until she heard the "Stand clear!" Called out by Mrs. Mullins.

Hen still might've ignored it if Derek's hand on her shoulder didn't pull her back.

"Shock advised." She heard the AED say, and she glanced up to look at Derek.

He had tears streaming down his face, and so did Mrs. Mullins, though that hadn't slowed either of them down.

"Push the shock button." The AED instructed.

"Pushing button." Mrs. Mullins announced, "Stay clear."

Jaz's body jolted sickeningly. Nothing else happened.

"Continue CPR." The AED instructed, and so they did.

They did two more rounds under the AED's guidance with no change before the paramedics showed up. Derek and Mrs. Mullins had to pull her back, and she watched with mounting horror as the paramedics went for another round of CPR before one of them shook their heads and they all stepped back.

They'd given up. How could they give up? Jaz had been alive and she'd been fine. She couldn't be dead, not really, not when her eyes were still open.

They brought out a body bag. Hen screamed when they tried to put her in it, and Mrs. Mullins had to hold her back as Derek sobbed and Hen just kept on screaming.

Why were they doing that? Why were they saying she was dead? Jaz wasn't dead. She couldn't be dead. Her eyes were still open. Why were they giving up? Why was Jaz dead? She wasn't dead.

Her eyes were still open.

Why were her eyes still open?

.................................................

Jaz was buried before noon the next day.

Hen hadn't known that it was common practice for Muslim people to be buried very quickly after their death because they didn't use embalming fluids. She hadn't even known what embalming fluids were before last night when her mom had explained it to her.

Hen wanted to go back to not knowing those things.

It almost felt entirely unreal. It happened so fast, Hen just woke up for the first time in a world that didn't have Jaz in it and that same morning buried her body. It didn't really feel like Jaz was actually gone, she couldn't be. Hen kept waiting to see her sitting with the rest of her family when they were in the mosque, or walking alongside Hen during the procession to the graveyard and chatting about the math test they were supposed to be taking this morning.

She wasn't though. Jaz wasn't in either of those places or anywhere else really. Her body was buried, and her spirit was gone. Which was how Hen and her mother ended up in the Saab's apartment after the burial along with the rest of the Saab's extended family, some of whom Hen knew only vaguely.

It was uncomfortable in the Saab's living room, too crowded and the air too heavy with grief. She felt like she could barely breathe, which is why she took the first opportunity to slip away from her mother's side and take refuge in Jaz and Marjan's room.

Well, she supposed now it was just Marjan's room. Funny how that worked out when she and Jaz had spent years planning what they'd do with the extra space in the room when Marjan left for college. Now Marjan was the one who would need to figure out what to do with the extra space.

There wasn't any extra space now though, because the room was exactly the same as it'd been yesterday when Jaz had left it to go to school. Everything of hers was still there, like Jaz was just running out to the kitchen to grab a snack instead of gone forever.

Hen still didn't understand what had happened. When she'd asked her mom she'd said that Jaz had been sick, but that made no sense because Jaz hadn't been acting sick at all. Certainly not sick enough to drop dead. Her mom had said that there was some new sickness though, and that that was what had happened to Jaz, but even that still hadn't made sense. What sickness had no symptoms? Who dropped dead without anything actually wrong with them?

Then again, it didn't really matter, did it? Nothing really mattered anymore when Jaz was dead.

She skimmed her hand along Jaz's unmade bed, trying to feel the warmth of an imprint, but there wasn't any. Jaz hadn't slept here last night, she'd been in a morgue. Hen idly hoped that they'd given her a blanket, those metal trays they put the bodies on in the detective shows Marjan sometimes watched must be really cold.

She got to the dresser, and folded messily on top was the purple hijab that Hen had given her all those years ago. She grabbed it, letting the fabric lay gently across her arms as she sat down on the bed that she'd slept over in a million times before. She hugged the fabric to her chest softly, burying her face in it as she let the tears fall quietly.

The door creaked open and Hen's head shot up. She felt a bit like she'd been caught, though she wasn't sure for what, this had always been a room that she was as welcome in as her own bedroom.

"What are you doing in here?" Marjan asked, voice unreadable as she closed the door behind her.

"I- I was just." Hen tried, stuttering through an explanation that she didn't have, "I don't-"

"And what are you doing with that?" Marjan cut her off, voice demanding enough that Hen flinched.

"I don't know, I just- I miss her." Hen stuttered out, big fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

"You don't get to miss her." Marjan spat, and Hen has seen her angry at least a million times but never like this, "And you especially don't get to keep that."

"What?" Hen sucked in a breath in shock, "But- but I gave this to her."

"Yeah, I remember. I remember you giving it to her along with a promise." Marjan practically growled at her, "She told me all about it, 'Oh Mar, Hen and I are just the best of best friends aren't we? We even have a pact to always save each other's lives!' Some best friend you are, making promises you can't keep."

Hen choked on a sob, "I- I- I tried!" Hen forced out, breaths quickening.

"And yet not hard enough. She's still dead." Marjan said, enunciating the last word in a way that made something in her stomach jolt. "That's not the only conversation she told me about either, you know? She told me about what you two said about the two guards at your stupid summer camp. She didn't understand what it all meant, but I did, and so did you, didn't you? I know what you are, Henrietta Wilson."

The way Marjan ground out Hen's name made her feel sick, even though she wasn't really sure what the other girl was saying.

"W-what am I?" Hen couldn’t help but ask, feeling so sick and so confused that it was dizzying.

Marjan straightened up, looking down at Hen with her gaze cool and suddenly entirely unruffled other than the red ringing her eyes, "You are not good enough for her. You never were."

Hen let out a desperate sob at that, gasping for breath around it as she tried so hard to find even a shred of the girl who had been like an older sister to her too.

Instead she was met with a simple, "Get out."

Hen couldn't bear to do anything other than comply, couldn't stand the idea of being trapped in this room without Jaz or even just the Marjan she'd always known for any longer. Hen stood on shaky legs, moving to dart for the door quickly, but Marjan reached out a hand lightning fast and grabbed onto the purple hijab still clutched tightly in Hen's hands.

"You don't get to keep that." Marjan snarled as she yanked hard on it.

For some reason, instead of letting go like she probably should have, Hen's fingers tightened in the material. Marjan had yanked it hard enough though that Hen went tumbling onto the floor while still holding it, and somehow the force was enough that a tearing sound echoed through the room.

Hen froze, staring with wide eyes at the torn fabric in both her and Marjan's hands. They'd broken it, they'd broken Jaz's favorite hijab. It felt like they'd torn Hen's heart in half instead.

Marjan's stunned gaze lifted to Hen's for one frozen moment before the teenager's expression erupted in anger.

"I don't ever want to see you again!" Marjan spat at her, and Hen didn't wait around to find out what else was going to come out of her mouth.

Hen booked it out of the room, and then out of the apartment with the piece of Jaz's hijab still clutched tightly in her hands. She didn't bother telling her mom she was leaving or anything, just bolted and didn't stop running until she was flinging herself into her own bed in her own bedroom and sobbing violently.

................................................................

More kids died after that.

As it turned out, Jaz was not in the minority when it came to her abrupt ending, but instead was just the first of the majority. Hen idly wondered when it would be her turn.

After a month, she finally started to feel like she was resurfacing a bit from the fog she'd been in since Jaz died. She didn't resurface to anything good though. It was like having been underwater and unable to hear anything only to swim up to the surface and poke your head out only to hear screams and see that the world around you was actually on fire.

"How many kids have died?" Hen had asked Derek one day after she realized their classes were emptier than she remembered them becoming.

Derek had given her an odd look, but answered dutifully, "28 in our grade, although I guess I should say 27 now."

"27?" She questioned, and he shrugged.

"Yeah, I've been counting you too. Ever since-" he cut himself off and sucked in a sharp breath of air, "Looking at you this past month has been like looking at a ghost. That's all."

"And what do I look like now?" She asked, morbidly curious.

He just shrugged again, "Alive."

..................................................

Three months later they'd rearranged their school so there were only three 5th grade classes left. At 5 months into the disease, there were only two classes left with 30 students each. Hen was very grateful both that her original teacher had gotten to keep her job and was still their class’s teacher and that Derek was still alive and still in her class. She honestly wasn't sure what she'd do if she didn't have Derek through all of this.

They hadn't really been close last year, but ever since the summer junior guard program they'd all done, Derek had been folded into her and Jaz's group of two very easily. That was until Jaz had died and then their numbers were back to two and missing a founding member.

It wasn't fair to compare them though, especially when they were so thoroughly incomparable. It would be like pitting two different people against each other in two different types of races. Jaz had been and honestly still was Hen's everything, whereas Derek was all that she had, and she wasn't quite sure how else to verbalize that difference.

She wished that Derek lived in her building too, or at least closer to her. Instead, he lived in a different part of town and even took an entirely separate school bus to get home. That was how far away he was.

This meant two things, the first was that they didn't get to hang out outside of school nearly as much as either of them would've liked. The second thing was that Hen had to face her apartment building alone, and more than that, she had to face the Saabs alone.

There were Mr. And Mrs. Saab who, despite everything, had never been unkind to her, even though they couldn't really look at Hen either, not anymore. Then there was Marjan, who had glared at Hen those first couple weeks anytime the older girl had seen her around their apartment building. Then, after that first couple weeks, the loathing in Marjan's gaze turned to something far closer to disinterest and apathy as she proceeded to pretend that Hen basically didn't exist.

Hen couldn't really decide if the hatred or the not caring was worse.

....................................................

It was the day after their school shrunk again until there were only 2 fifth grade classes left that Hen finally realized a blatantly obvious truth that probably everyone else had figured out already.

She was going to die.

It was a very distinct realization, different from the one she'd had at seven years old lying on the pavement bleeding. It wasn't the realization that it was suddenly possible for her to die, no, this was the bone-deep understanding that she was definitely going to die, and probably soon.

They all were, that was the truth that the adults were all terrified of. It was the reason her mom had a hard time looking at her sometimes, and the reason she heard her mom crying in her bedroom at night sometimes. It was the reason all their teachers looked so tired all the time, even though there were less kids to look after and therefore less work. It was the reason all the other fifth graders struggled to reach the levels of excitement and energy they used to reach on a normal day.

Everyone knew it. Hen and the other kids were all going to die.

It should've been a far more upsetting truth, but it wasn't.

"Do you think I'll see her?" She asked her mom one night.

"See who?" Her mom asked, a bit distracted as she bustled around the kitchen to get dinner ready.

"Jaz." Hen clarified, and her mom stilled with her back to Hen at the counter, "Do you think I'll see her when I die?"

Hen really hoped she would. Dying would be worth it for that.

"Hen, honey, you aren't going to die." Her mom said, turning back around and coming to sit next to Hen at the table and cup her cheek, "Where'd you even get that idea?"

Hen shrugged, confused as to how her mom hadn't reached the same conclusion, "Everyone my age is dying Mom. It'll be my turn eventually, statistically, at the rate we've been going, it'll probably be in the next three months. Oh, and speaking of, I don't want to be buried in a coffin, can I just be buried in the earth without it like Jaz was?"

"Henrietta!" Her mom cut her off sharply before sucking in a breath and visibly calming herself, "Honey, where'd you even get these 'statistics' from?"

Hen just shrugged, "I just figured it out in my head."

"Alright, well that's math that's way above your level, which is how I know your math is wrong." Hen frowned and her mother rushed to add, "That's a good thing, it means you aren't going to die, honey. Honestly, forget the math altogether. Every doctor and scientist in the whole country is working on a cure, and they'll find one honey, so you don't need to worry about dying, alright?"

Hen wasn't entirely sure that she believed what her mom was saying, but it seemed like her mom needed this so Hen simply nodded and said, "Alright."

"Good." Her mom stood with a quick kiss to the top of her head and headed back to the pot on the stove, "The only math you need to be worrying about is the stuff in your homework."

And if later that night after her mom had gone to bed, Hen had pulled out a piece of paper and a calculator and redid the math to find that she'd been right, then that wasn't really important.

......................................................

Hen was walking home from the bus stop, a very lonely walk now that Jaz wasn't here to share it. It was a warm afternoon considering the time of year, which she was grateful for since the sun felt nice against her skin.

She approached the block that always made her pause before she stepped onto it. Well, not always, but ever since Jaz had died at least. It was the block Hen had been shot on.

She used to be fine with it, strolling along with Jaz at her side on their way home without a second glance most days. Now though, without Jaz here by her side, Hen felt a wave of terror overcome her every time she went to step foot on that block.

The first time she'd tried walking home alone after Jaz died it'd taken her an hour where she just sat on the sidewalk on the block before it, trying to find it in herself to walk across it. In the end, she'd held her breath and sprinted across that block like hell itself was on her tail.

It'd worked, for some reason, holding her breath. So now that was what she did every time. She took a big gulp of air and then walked as quickly as possible all the way across that block. It hurt her lungs quite a bit, and she always ended up gasping at the end, but she made it across the block without some sort of freakout, so that was that.

Last week she'd found a shortcut though, through one of the alleys between houses on that block, and it cut her time on that block in half, which meant she wasn't usually as much of a gasping mess at the end. She'd taken it every day the last week without incident, so she assumed it was probably alright, even if it might've sort of been trespassing.

Today she went to do the same, but found that she didn't have nearly as much luck.

"Hey!" A boy's voice called out harshly, making her flinch as she went to step into the alley, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Hen gasped in a breath against her will as she found herself suddenly lying on her back in the dirt. She wasn't entirely sure if her breathlessness was because she'd been holding it or because the breath had been knocked out of her when the boy now looming over her had jumped out of the window next to them and knocked her over.

Hen blinked up at the teenage boy in shock as she fought to catch her breath, only just now realizing how big of a mistake she'd made with her shortcut. Standing over her was none other than Gerrard Kinard. Oh, she was so screwed, because, where Gerrard was.... She glanced behind her at the sound of feet pounding against the dirt to find Sal and Tommy Kinard standing blocking her off from exiting the alley.

Yep, so screwed, but at least there were only three of them and Hen wasn't dealing with the other Kinards too. So small mercies, she supposed, even though she was definitely still screwed against three of them.

The Kinards were well known for two reasons. The first was that they were a large Italian family that came to America 20 years ago, settled in Henderson on the outskirts of Las Vegas, and opened up a chain of Italian restaurants. All in all, on paper, the Kinards seemed like a nice, successful, immigrant family that were stimulating the local economy and culture. The Kinard children made you question how good their family could really be though because somehow every single one of them were assholes. They were assholes who made it your problem too, they harassed their classmates, were general bigots, and there were a lot of them.

The second reason they were a fairly well-known family was because of how many of them there still were. Only one of the Kinard boys had died, Nico, the rest, all seven of them, were still alive. Admittedly, Gerrard was 15 and therefore too old to die, but the others were all within the age range, which made them a statistical anomaly.

"Tommy, keep watch." Gerrard ordered, and Hen glanced over to see Tommy Kinard take up station at the end of the alley.

Tommy was the Kinard that was in her grade at school, and she, Derek, and Jaz had all privately agreed that they'd been lucky with which Kinard they'd gotten in their grade.

Gerrard was part of the first branch of the Kinard family, the oldest and de facto leader of the kids, and debatably the worst.

Then there was Marco who was a year younger, part of the second Kinard family branch, and only slightly better because he channeled a lot of his aggression into football. Then there was Sal who was Marco's younger brother and a Gerrard-in-training. Lorenzo and Antonia were the youngest and in the grade below Hen, and seemed to be mean kids who were prone to starting fights on the playground from what little she'd seen.

Camilla was part of the third Kinard family and was reportedly a catty bitch who had a habit of slicing people open with her nails. Camilla's younger brother was Nico, and he was the least problematic seeing as he was dead.

Then there was Tommy, the second youngest overall and Gerrard's younger brother. Alone, he was relatively harmless, and to be honest, when she, Derek, and Jaz had discussed it months ago, none of them could come up with an instance of him antagonizing others when he was on his own.

Generally, Tommy minded his own business and focused on his schoolwork, which he excelled at, evidenced by the fact that he'd skipped a grade. He never ever stepped in if it was one of the other Kinards harassing someone though, and he even participated sometimes when told to. So the consensus was that, of all the Kinards to have in their grade at school, they'd lucked out with Tommy, even though the boy was still very much not someone they liked at all.

Hen didn't really feel very lucky right now with Tommy's back to her at the end of the alley. Standing watch so that no one could come to help her. She was so screwed.

"And you!" Gerrard sneered at her, kicking her when she tried to get to her feet, "I asked you a question! What the hell are you doing back here?!"

"I- I was just- just trying to get home!" She stuttered out, trying to remain calm and think of a way out of this. "I thought I'd found a shortcut, I'm sorry! I didn't know this was your house!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know!" Gerrard spat down at her as he mimicked her in a terribly high voice and Sal laughed at her misfortune, "God, get a load of this stupid girl! You people are always looking for shortcuts and making life harder for everyone else!"

Hen had a sinking suspicion about who exactly 'you people' were supposed to be, and she really didn't appreciate the implication. She wasn't sure what she could really do at the moment to make that displeasure known, not without inciting a violent response.

"Hey, assholes!" A startlingly familiar voice called out behind Hen, "Get away from her."

Hen turned to see something that she never thought she'd see again. There was Marjan, standing by Tommy at the end of the alley, a full foot taller than the boy, and looking incredibly menacing as she stared down Gerrard and Sal.

"You bitch!" Gerrard growled at her, "Get out of here, it's bad enough I have to see you at school, I have a right to not indulge terrorists on my own property."

"Right, and you do that by harassing eleven-year-old girls?" Marjan shot back, "Better be careful Gerry, keep sniffing around little girls and you'll get a nasty reputation. Henrietta, get up, we're going."

Hen scrambled to her feet and moved to stand by Marjan who put a hand on her shoulder and started to guide her out of the alley as they turned back to the road.

"I swear to god I'm going to rip that hideous scarf off your head!" Gerrard growled, which caused Marjan to whip right back around and glare the other boy down.

"Try it, I dare you." Marjan ground out, shoving Hen behind her and seeming to brace herself for something.

Hen realized she was standing at the mouth of the alley right next to Tommy, who hadn't made any move to interfere. She shot him a puzzled glance and he just glanced back with wide and worried eyes. Not for the first time, Hen idly wondered what kind of boy he actually was.

In her momentary distraction, she'd missed seeing Sal and Gerrard take menacing steps toward Marjan, who still didn't even look scared. Hen hoped that when she grew up she was as fearless as Marjan was. Then she remembered that she wouldn't be growing up at all anyway.

Marjan stood with her feet firmly planted, watching the two boys approach, hands outstretched, clearly preparing to rip the hijab off her head. If it weren't for the fact that Marjan didn't appear to be in the slightest bit worried, Hen would be trying to plan a way to help her.

Instead, she watched as Marjan waited for Sal to take the first swipe, which she easily dodged. Then, she pulled out a small spray can from her back pocket that Hen hadn't even noticed and sprayed the liquid right into Sal and Gerrard's eyes.

Judging by the choked screams and the way they started clawing at their eyes, Hen guessed it was probably pepper spray or mace.’’

Marjan rolled her eyes and scoffed at the pathetic mess the two boys made as they started trying to stumble their way back into the house, presumably to try and wash their eyes out.

"Hen, get in the car." Marjan ordered, putting the spray bottle back in her pocket.

Hen turned and found that there was, in fact, a car idling by the curb. It was clearly old, and kind of beat up with a dent in the right side of the back bumper and a scratch along the side of it too. It was a car though, and clearly Marjan's judging by the fact that while the car was empty of a driver, Hen could see a pair of keys hanging on Marjan's belt loop. She wondered idly as she headed over towards the car when Marjan had managed to get her driver's license.

"Try milk or water mixed with baby soap!" Marjan called out after Sal and Gerrard as they managed to make it to the front door and were now facing the obstacle of getting it open, "See you at school tomorrow, Gerry!"

"You bitch!" Gerard yelled, face pointed vaguely in their direction as Marjan didn't even bother to turn back around, instead just flipping him off over her shoulder.

She strode over to the driver's side of the car and unlocked the doors with an easy and practiced motion, "Get in." She told Hen, "We're leaving."

Hen went to do as she was told, not even remotely willing or wanting to argue with Marjan, but she was stopped short by a hand on her arm. She turned around to find Tommy standing there, and she was curious enough as to why he hadn't run inside after the others to not immediately shove him away from her.

"I'm sorry." Was all he said, eyes wide and regretful for a second before he turned and ran into the house after his brother and cousin.

Sometimes she really wondered about that boy. He never quite managed to fit in with the rest of his family, and sometimes he managed to seem like the kid who was most scared of his relatives, but only in the tiniest of flashes.

"Get in, Hen, unless you want to wait until they clean their eyes out enough to come after you again!" Marjan said, rolling her eyes at Hen's temporary stall.

She didn't need to be told twice, sliding into the passenger seat and closing the door behind her. She made sure to lock her door too for good measure before she even bothered with the seatbelt.

"Are you alright?" Marjan asked, glancing over at her as she pulled them onto the road, "They didn't manage to get any hits in, right?"

Hen shook her head, "I'm ok. Thank you."

They settled into an awkward silence after that, the last words Marjan had spoken to her ringing in her mind. She wasn't really entirely sure why Marjan had done that considering how much she hated Hen now. She stayed quiet though, not exactly wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth.

It wasn't until Marjan drove past their apartment that Hen spoke up, "Where are we going?" She asked.

Marjan glanced at her and seemed to take in her clear nerves before replying, "Relax, Hen, I'm not taking you anywhere bad, and I'm not going to hurt you." She said, rolling her eyes, though it was performative sarcasm at best, "We're going for ice cream."

"I don't have any money with me." Was Hen's immediate response, but Marjan just scoffed.

"You're 11, I didn't expect you to. It's my treat." She waved Hen off, before adding in a falsely light tone, "Consider it my apology for the last time we talked."

Hen jolted, turning to look at Marjan at that, "Why would you apologize? You were right. Mean, but right."

That got Marjan to stare at her with wide eyes before she shook her head, "Listen carefully Hen, because I never like admitting to this in any context and I won't be doing it again. I. Was. Wrong. You were a good best friend and you did everything you could to save her. I was just upset about losing my sister and I didn't know who to blame so I took it out on you, which wasn't fair. So I'm apologizing."

"Oh." Was all Hen could manage to say, "But I broke our promise."

"You didn't. Not really." Marjan shook her head, "You know, a couple of days after we buried her I found your teacher's address and I showed up to bang on her door until she let me in. I made her tell me everything that happened and she did. She told me what you did, and the truth is that I don't think that even I could have done all of that, I mean, I don't even know CPR. It kills me to admit it because I was her big sister, I was supposed to protect her, you know? But you did more than I could have and it still wasn't enough. And now there's all sorts of fancy research articles about I.A.A.N. and still no one has managed to do anything to save anyone, so honestly I don't think there was ever anything that could be done. Hen, you didn't break the promise because you tried even though there wasn't a single thing you could have done. Jaz wouldn’t blame you."

Hen felt tears spring to her eyes, and when she turned she saw tears streaming down Marjan's face too. How the older girl had managed to keep it together while driving Hen would never know, but she admired her so much for it.

"Thanks. I think I needed to hear that before I see her again." Hen nodded, trying to scrub the tears off her face with a napkin that'd been shoved in the cup holder.

Marjan jolted, and Hen wasn't entirely sure why until the older girl turned to face her while they were at a stop light, "I wish I could say that that won't happen for a long time..."

"Don't try to lie to me. I'm going to die soon." Hen stated firmly, "I have to hear the lies from my mom already, and I let her because I think she needs to lie to herself too. You're the bravest person I know, Mar, I can't hear it from you too. Otherwise, I'll start thinking it's ok to be scared of it, and I don't want to be. I don't want to be scared of the only way I'll get to see her again."

"Oh f*ck." Hen heard Marjan mutter under her breath before adding louder, "I'm really not that brave, Hen. And I'm not that selfless either. I don't want you to die."

Hen cried a bit harder at that, for the first time letting go of the fear and the anger and the sadness that's been banging at her rib cage to be let out for months. For as much as she really did want to see Jaz again, she was still scared of dying. Nothing could ever make her forget how it'd felt to be laying on that pavement with a bullet hole through her gut, and it was difficult to ever want something that would make her feel that way again.

"I don't want to die either." She sobbed, "I don't want to live without her, but I don't want to die either. I'm really scared."

She was too busy sobbing to notice when Marjan pulled the car off the road and into some parking lot, but she noticed when there were suddenly arms around her. She buried herself in them easily, crying her little heart out as she felt Marjan's shoulders shaking as she cried too.

"I don't know how to fix this." Marjan cried, clinging tighter to Hen, "I don't know how to save you. I'm so sorry."

Hen shook her head, even as she buried it further into the older girl's shoulder, "It's ok. This is enough."

Hen felt Marjan sob against her at that, but neither of them said anything else. Instead, they just cried themselves out and eventually settled back into their own seats. Marjan flipped the rearview mirror towards herself and grabbed a pack of tissues out of the center console. She handed one to Hen and then grabbed one for herself to try cleaning her face up again.

Hen tried to follow Marjan's lead, dabbing under her own eyes and nose carefully, but she wasn't sure if it had the same effect since she wasn't wearing makeup. Marjan managed to clean herself up pretty decently though, muttering something about how nice waterproof mascara was, but Hen was pretty sure her own eyes were still pretty red and puffy.

Marjan pulled them back onto the road easily, and drove them the rest of the way to the ice cream place with the radio playing a pop music channel softly. It was nice, just being in the same space as her again after having gone so long completely cut off.

It wasn't until they were sitting outside on the empty patio with their ice cream cones that they spoke again.

It was Hen who broke the silence this time with an easy, "So I guess you got your driver's license."

She had known that Marjan had wanted one for a while now. That and a car. Her parents had been hesitant seeing as they couldn't really afford another car but they'd helped her get her permit and started teaching her to drive a bit so she could at least have a license. She must've gotten her license at some point since they'd last spoken though.

"Not quite. I've still got the permit." Marjan shrugged, and Hen blinked at her in confusion.

"I thought you needed an adult in the car until you get a license?" Hen asked, "I also thought you needed a licensee to own a car."

"Both of those are true." Marjan nodded, "But I did it anyway."

"How'd you get a car?!" Hen couldn’t help but whisper now that she knew they were talking about illegal things.

"Some guy's grandma died and he was selling all of her stuff in a garage sale over on Keelar Street, and the car was only 2500, and I'd saved up 2700 from working so.... Now I have a car." Marjan shrugged, "Don't tell my parents though because they totally don't know."

"I- how have they not noticed? A car isn't exactly something you can hide under your bed. Besides, where do they think you are when you're out driving it?!" Hen asked, because last Hen checked, the Saabs weren't exactly inattentive parents.

And now Marjan shrugged, though she looked almost bitter, "Uh, yeah, they don't really notice much about me nowadays. They've been like ghosts ever since Jaz died. They're still, like, putting food on the table for dinner and stuff, and they both still care about me. It's just been hard. That's kind of part of the reason I wanted to talk to you."

"What do you mean?" Hen asked, confused.

"I'm, um, well, I'm leaving." Marjan told her, looking away from Hen and out at the parking lot as she said it, "I'm moving to Miami."

"What? Why?" Hen asked, Ice cream forgotten, "Why move and why to Miami?"

"It's- my parents are- I just can't stay here anymore. It isn't good for me." Marjan tried to explain, huffing in frustration, "They're trying, but they're struggling too much with everything, and to be honest I'm struggling too. I have family in Miami though, my parents already approved me going to stay with them for a while."

"What are you going to do in Miami?" Hen asked, doing her best not to openly sulk at the idea of missing Marjan as soon as she'd gotten her back.

Marjan just laughed though, "I'm going to finish high school, and then I'm going to apply to the fire academy. I've never really known what I wanted to do with my life, not like you and Jaz, but I figure this way I can feel a bit closer to her for the rest of my life."

"You're going to be a paramedic?" Hen asked hopefully, glad that at least someone was going to live out her and Jaz's dream when they couldn't.

Marjan shook her head though, "No, paramedic isn't really something I can see myself being. Fire and rescue though? That's something I can do."

Hen could see it now that she'd said it. Marjan was brave and she was a badass. Not even an hour ago she had walked into an alley with three boys who had a history of hurting people like them with her head held high and she'd walked out unscathed. Hen remembered one time when one of their neighbor's cats had jumped from their window and into one of the trees by the building and got stuck. Marjan had been the one to climb up and get it down without a single sign of fear at being so high off the ground. Plus, she was Jaz's sister, they were cut from the same cloth. Hen knew without a shadow of a doubt that Marjan would be a great firefighter if that was what she decided to be.

She said as much too with a simple, "I think you'll be great at it."

Marjan smiled at her, pleased, and the rest of their conversation flowed easily from there with Hen catching her up on what she'd missed in her life and Marjan telling her about Miami.

............................................

The last time she saw Marjan was at 7:36 AM on a Saturday a week later when she knocked on Hen's door.

Her mom was still sleeping while Hen entertained herself with the cartoons so she got up to answer the door. She dragged the stool over so she could check the peephole and saw Marjan standing there with a backpack slung over her shoulder.

Hen hopped down and opened the door easily, "Hey." She greeted, "Today's the day?"

"Yeah." Marjan nodded, smiling even though she looked kinda sad, "I sold my car, and I transferred my school and everything. Now I just have to go."

Hen nodded, "Miami isn't ready for you. You're going to kick it’s butt."

Marjan laughed at that, eyes tearing up for a second. "I'm going to miss you."

And that was the thing that made Hen tear up too, because it wasn't just that Marjan was moving away and that Hen probably wouldn't see her for a long time. It was that this was probably the last time she and Marjan were ever going to see each other again since Hen would probably be dead soon. In the next month if her calculations were to be believed. She idly wondered if Marjan would come back for her funeral, before banishing the thought.

"I'm going to miss you too." Hen said, meaning it with everything she had, because this was basically her big sister and she wasn't going to ever see her again.

A tear slipped down Marjan's cheek, and then one slipped down Hen's and suddenly they were hugging painfully tightly in the doorway.

"It'll be ok." Marjan said, pulling back and swiping her thumbs under Hen's eyes to catch her tears, "Everything will be ok. They say it doesn't hurt at all, and Jaz will be waiting for you in paradise, I know she will. Allah would not turn you away when you are only a child."

Hen nodded, trying to stem the flow of tears. She wasn't sure if she believed in any sort of god or anything, but she believed in Jaz and she believed in Marjan.

Marjan straightened up a bit, swinging her backpack off her shoulder and reaching inside of it to grab something before handing a package to Hen.

"Here. I should hurry because my parents are waiting in the car, but I wanted to give you that." She said, shoving the box towards Hen.

Hen took it and opened it to find a purple bracelet made of cloth braided together. "Is this..?"

"I made it out of part of her hijab, yeah." Marjan nodded, holding up her own wrist with a matching bracelet on it, "We match." She said with a sad smile before adding, "Oh, and there's an index card in there with my cell number and the number for my aunt and uncle's landline. I'm only a phone call away, alright?"

Hen didn't call her on the false bravado, and instead just nodded and slipped the bracelet onto her wrist.

"Thank you." She managed to get out around the tears in her throat begging to be let out,

Marjan was ducking down to hug her again, and Hen clung on for a good minute before letting the older girl go. Marjan gave her one last watery smile and a nod before she turned and headed down the hall towards the stairs.

Hen barely made it through closing and locking the door behind her before she was darting into her mom's room and diving into her bed as the sobs poured out of her.

"Hen? Sweetheart, what's wrong? What's happened?" Her mom asked immediately, having woken up as soon as Hen jumped into bed with her.

Hen just cried harder as she told her mom, "Marjan's gone. She left."

"Oh, honey. I'm so sorry." Her mom crooned as she scooped Hen up and held her close, "I'm right here, just let it out honey, I've got you. I'm right here, I'll always be right here."

......................................

"We don't have enough for soccer." Derek said one day while they were at lunch.

"I don't think this is really the place anyway." Hen replied, gesturing around the cafeteria.

"No, I mean we literally don't have enough kids to play soccer in gym class anymore." Derek gestured around them to the nearly empty cafeteria. "I mean, all the schools in the county have shut down and the rest of their kids were sent here and even now there's only one classroom per grade. We need twenty-two people to make two soccer teams without subs and we're down to twenty. Not enough to play soccer in gym class anymore."

"Aren't you a swimmer?" Hen reminded him, arching an eyebrow as she took a bite of her sandwich.

"Yeah, but I liked playing soccer in gym class." Derek said mournfully, "Why do all the joys have to be taken out of life before we're taken out of it?"

Hen couldn't help but laugh at his dramatics, "I don't really think anyone other than you is worried about gym class soccer."

"Their loss then." Derek shrugged, "It was fun, and will be missed."

"Whatever weirdo." Hen laughed and rolled her eyes.

...................................................

"Hey, Hen." Marjan's voice greeted her, slightly tinny on the other end of the phone, "What's up?"

"Hi, Marjan." Hen greeted, trying to keep her emotions under control.

Today had been a bad day, another in a series of months of them, and Hen just couldn't handle it today. She'd wanted to crawl into bed with her mom as soon as she'd gotten home from school, but her mom was still at work at the Casino downtown where she dealt cards. She wouldn't be home till at least 6 which left Hen alone in the apartment.

On afternoons like this, when the apartment felt too empty, she used to go over to the Saab's apartment and do her homework with Jaz at their dinner table while Mrs. Saab made dinner. That wasn't really an option though, so she'd done the next best thing and called Marjan. Plus she had something she wanted to ask the older girl anyway, something that'd been stuck in her head for months now.

"Can I ask you a question?" She asked Marjan over the phone, curling up in her bed with the landline pressed tightly to her ear.

"Shoot." Marjan said, and it sounded like maybe she was chewing on something, maybe an afternoon snack.

"What did you mean when you said that you knew what I was?" Hen asked the question she'd been wanting to ask for months now.

"What?" Marjan asked, confusion evident in her voice, "I said that? When? And about what?"

From what Hen could tell, Marjan really wasn't sure what Hen was talking about. It meant that maybe she could drop the subject now and then whatever Marjan had been implying that was so bad it had the older girl's lip curling in disgust could be forgotten. Never to be known, not by Hen, and not by anyone else.

It was tempting, but, unfortunately, she knew that this was a question she needed to ask, lest it drive her crazy for as long as she lived. Which wouldn't be long, but still.

"Back in your room, after the funeral." Hen said carefully, not wanting to upset Marjan with painful memories, "You said that Jaz had told you about the conversation we'd had about the lifeguards we shadowed at camp. Then you said you knew what I was, and I was just wondering what it is that I am?"

Marjan let out an explosive sigh on the other end of the phone, "Look Hen, what I said and what I implied were way out of line, ok? I don't believe any of the stuff I said, I was just lashing out at you because you were there."

"No, I know." Hen shook her head, even though Marjan couldn't see it, "But I still don't even understand what you were implying."

"Oh, really? You don't know?" Marjan sounded genuinely surprised, "I thought that- well after the conversation Jaz told me about, I just assumed you knew."

"That I knew what?" Hen asked, a bit of frustration at feeling so out of the loop seeping into her tone.

"Uh, well, and I may be completely wrong about this," Marjan started sounding a bit awkward, "But I kind of assumed that you liked girls. Specifically that you had feelings for my sister. That was what I was implying."

"I swear Marjan knows everything, even if she is really mean about it. Don't tell her I said that." Jaz had said to her once, and Hen had agreed easily at the time.

This was no exception to that rule, Hen realized as so many things started to slot into place. She couldn't help but gasp as a tear slipped down her cheek.

"Oh." She couldn't help but whisper into the phone.

"Hen?" Marjan called, "Are you ok?"

Hen felt another tear trace its way down her cheek, "I think you're right." She said and heard Marjan let out a breath.

"Hen, I'm so sorry." She said, "I'm sorry for saying it, and for implying there was anything wrong with the way you felt about her. I didn't mean any of it, not really."

"You said I didn't deserve her." Hen pointed out.

"I was wrong." Marjan said fiercely, "You were her best friend, and you loved her in every single way you possibly could Hen. And the truth is that you couldn't have saved her any more than I could have. I was wrong to lash out at you, and the things I said were as far from true as I could have gotten. Listen to me Hen, I wouldn't be here talking to you if there was even a chance that there was something else you could have done for her, do you understand me?"

Hen nodded, then belatedly added a watery, "Yeah." And as much as it hurt, she believed her.

...........................................................

"I don't even understand how it happened!" Derek was telling her as they walked into school together on Monday. "It was like one second I was lighting the candles like I always do, and then the next second-"

"The whole altar was on fire?" Hen cut him off skeptically, "That makes no sense, Derek."

"That's exactly what I told my mom!" Derek exclaimed, "She didn't believe me, and neither did the priest. They fired me from altar serving! Can you believe that?"

"I dunno, I'm not Catholic, I don't know what goes on in those fancy buildings.” Hen shrugged, "It seems reasonable enough considering you set the altar on fire."

"But I didn't set it on fire! I swear I didn't!" Derek immediately exclaimed before spotting her teasing grin and groaning, "Ugh, you suck."

"And you swallow." She replied immediately, not even entirely sure what it meant but knowing that that was the given response Marjan had taught her, "Anyway, so they fired you? Were you even getting paid?"

"No, altar serving is a volunteer thing." Derek replied as they made their way to sit against the wall outside their classroom as they waited for school to start.

There were only 16 of them left in the class. All the fifth graders left in every public elementary school in the county and they were only left with 16 of them. Their time was running short, and yet they still had to go to school and do their homework.

"How do you get fired from a volunteer thing?" Hen asked.

"I don't know, but they fired me." Derek shrugged, "It's so stupid too, because it's not even like they have anyone to replace me, I was the only altar server left except this one boy who's fifteen."

"Sounds like they're the ones suffering then." Hen pointed out with a shrug. "Their loss."

"Yeah, except now my mom is freaking out and she won't let me play video games anymore, like that somehow caused the altar to light on fire at mass." Derek groaned. "First gym class soccer and now this!"

Hen laughed at her friend's apparent misery, "I'm sure you'll be alright. There's still the cafeteria jello."

"That's true." Derek said, perking up immediately, "I hope they have lime today."

......................................................

The next Monday they had off school for a teacher planning day. Tuesday they went back to school like normal, except their class only had 14 students in it this time.

Derek was one of the one's who was missing.

She waited, hoping against hope that he was just late that day. That he hadn't died over the weekend. When Mrs. Mullins skipped over his name when she called attendance though Hen couldn't help but raise her hand.

"Yes, Hen?" Her teacher asked.

"Um, you skipped Derek's name, is he...?" She couldn't even finish her question, but Ms. Mullins knew what she meant anyway.

"Oh, no. He and Caroline were both accepted into government run I.A.A.N. treatment programs that their families applied for them to be a part of." Mrs. Mullins explained kindly, "They're both still alive and receiving the best treatments medicine can offer, but they're going to need to stay in the facilities for a while until they can get better."

Something about the strain around their teacher's smile was making Hen doubt what she was saying. Although she wasn't sure what her teacher could be lying about. If Derek and Caroline were really dead then she would've just said so. The adults had given up a long time ago trying not to expose them to their peers' deaths.

"The same treatment facility that was on the papers you sent us home with on Friday?" Tommy Kinard spoke up from the back row.

It was a shock to hear him speak, and so disrespectfully at that, to their teacher. Tommy generally wasn't a trouble maker, but right now he genuinely sounded angry. The way that Mrs. Mullins' gaze snapped over to him told Hen that she was definitely missing something.

"You were instructed not to open those envelopes and to give them straight to a parent or guardian." Mrs. Mullins snapped at him, "I was under the impression that you were not as much of a rule breaker as the rest of your family that I've taught, but perhaps I need to reevaluate my impression of you. Stay after class so we can have a chat."

Hen felt shocked, and turned to see what Tommy would do, and was even more shocked to see him roll his eyes and open his mouth like he was going to talk back again.

"Say one more word and you will be sent to the principal's office to wait for your Father to come and pick you up." Mrs. Mullins threatened, and Tommy's mouth snapped shut.

Hen could barely believe what she'd just witnessed. She'd never seen their teacher be that harsh with any of her students. Not even when one of them had actually been acting up and not just talking back a bit. Whatever it was that Tommy knew, Hen needed to find out.

.............................................

Unfortunately she never got the chance to ask Tommy about whatever it was that had been in those forms the school had sent home the week before. Every time she tried he was either with his cousins at lunch and recess, in class with Mrs. Mullins watching him like a hawk, or Gerrard was picking him up as soon as school ended.

In a last ditch effort Hen tried asking her mom about it, except her mom had said that the forms had just been a list of I.A.A.N. symptoms and said that if your child experienced any then they should be brought to a hospital. Then when Hen had asked what the symptoms were, her mom had just answered with normal symptoms like fever or a cough.

Except none of those were symptoms of I.A.A.N. because there were no symptoms of I.A.A.N. Besides, Hen had seen plenty of kids die of the disease, none of which had had a fever or a cough.

She was missing something big. And it wasn't until two weeks and another teacher planning day where three more of their classmates were sent to treatment facilities later that she got the slightest hint as to what.

"Something is going to happen." Tommy whispered to her as they sat outside their classroom on a Wednesday morning.

She wasn't as surprised as she would've been even a month ago that he was talking to her unprompted. After all, She, Tommy, and Derek had been the only survivors from their school's original fifth grade class. The rest of the kids in their class had been from other schools, and even though Tommy generally kept to himself he was more likely to talk to Hen than anyone else.

"What do you mean?" Hen asked, not that she didn't believe him, she just needed a bit more of an explanation.

"There were three cop cars in the bus loop this morning." Tommy said, "Usually there's only one."

Hen nodded, having also noticed that but not having thought it meant anything. "What do you think that means?"

"I think they're gonna try and take us all to those government facilities." Tommy whispered, eyes flitting around nervously, "Whether our parents signed off on it or not."

"Can they do that?!" Hen hissed back, his nervousness rubbing off on her.

Tommy just shrugged, "Gerrard said to be careful cause they might try."

Hen scoffed at that, "Your brother is a jerk, Tommy. How do you know he wasn't just saying that to mess with you?"

Tommy shook his head though, eyes wide and practically begging Hen to believe him, "No. He isn't messing around about this." Then at Hen's disbelieving look added, "Look, I get it if you don't want to trust him. He's mean, and he's been mean to you, ok, I get it. He didn't know I'd tell you this though, he only told me and Sal to warn us. It's, like, the only thing he ever takes seriously, looking after me. He isn't messing around about this."

As much as Hen loathed the idea of taking anything Gerrard said seriously, including a warning, the earnestness in Tommy's eyes made him more than believable.

"Alright." She nodded slowly, "So what exactly do you think we should do? Tell everyone? Tell no one and make a run for it?"

"I don't know." Tommy shook his head, "I was kind of hoping you might be able to help me come up with something. Plus, Mrs. Mullins really likes you, but she watches me like a hawk. Maybe you can get away with stuff I can't."

"Like what? Run from the police?" Hen asked, eyebrows drawn together, "I'm pretty sure that that's discouraged whether or not your teacher likes you."

She didn't bother denying that their teacher liked her better, they all knew it was true even though their teacher did strive to treat everyone fairly in the classroom. Mrs. Mullins had done a very good job of it, even with Tommy despite him being a Kinard, until two weeks ago when Tommy had brought up the forms in class.

"Look, what if we tried-" Tommy was about to suggest something when the bell rang and Mrs. Mullins opened the door.

"We'll come up with something at lunch." Hen just barely had time to whisper to him before they had to stand up and file into their classroom.

.........................................

They never made it to lunch. In fact, Hen had left her classroom only an hour later to go down the hall to get to the bathroom. She'd tried to hold it for fear of missing something important, but apparently her anxiety about what Tommy had said in the hallway had given her an impossible to ignore nervous bladder.

It was ok though, because nothing happened to her while she was in the bathroom. No one came and kicked the door down to kidnap her, she didn't hear screams or anything. She just peed and washed her hands.

Then she opened the door to the bathroom and froze when she saw a man with a gun facing the opposite way as her by her classroom door. She felt her breath quicken in her chest at the sight of the weapon.

He wasn't a police officer, she knew that much even if she wasn't sure what exactly he was. The man was arguing with his teacher too, who was facing Hen in the hallway.

Hen could swear she saw Mrs Mullins look right at her over the guy's shoulder, though she didn't say or do anything to alert the man to Hen's presence. A quick glance also showed that the classroom behind her seemed to be empty.

Had they taken all her classmates to one of the government facilities Tommy had been talking about? She'd honestly mostly thought that Tommy had been wrong about that, but she also couldn't ignore the conclusions the signs around her were forcing her to draw.

"You can't just take all these kids without permission!" MRS. Mullins was practically yelling at the man, "What am I supposed to tell their parents when they come to get them at pick-up?"

"You tell them what's on the script we gave you." The man replied, "Nothing more, nothing less. They don't need to know about all the guns and the dogs. All they need to know is that their children are being taken to secure and safe facilities where they can receive treatment for I.A.A.N."

'We' the man had said, along with 'dogs' and 'guns'. Something was very wrong here. Why would anyone need that much power to come pick up a small group of kids? Tommy had been right, something was very wrong, and Hen knew that she didn't want to find out exactly how right he was by seeing how much worse it might get.

"No! This is all wrong!" Mrs. Mullins exclaimed, looking at Hen over the guy's shoulder like she was the one her teacher was really talking to. "I might as well march out to those buses right now and tell all those kids that they'd be better off if they ran away!"

Alright then, message received, loud and clear, Hen thought as she slipped back into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She did not need to be told twice to run away from some guy dressed in all black with a big gun, especially not after Tommy's warning this morning.

Once the bathroom door was closed behind her, she turned the lock as quietly as possible just in case. Then she headed over to the window over the sink. It wasn't very big, an adult definitely couldn't fit through it, but taking into consideration her dimensions and her approximation of cross measurements, she should be able to shimmy through it with little to no issue.

A minute later she found out that she was right as she tumbled out the window and onto the ground between the school building and the gymnasium. Once she'd stood up and dusted herself off, Hen crept towards the mouth of the alley between the buildings and poked her head out carefully. She was a decent distance away from the bus loop, where the action seemed to be happening.

There was a school bus pulled up in the loop, and all the students left at their elementary school were being herded into the bus by the adults dressed in all black who had big guns. She watched with bated breath as her grade was the first to be loaded onto the bus, although it was a bit difficult to make out seeing as she could mostly just see the back of the bus.

Apparently the adults in black hadn't thought their operation through completely though, and didn't have anyone already on the bus and watching the kids because a minute later the emergency exit door in the back of the bus swung open. She watched with bated breath as none other than Tommy and Sal Kinard hopped out the back, closed the door behind them, and took off running towards the parking lot and the street beyond it.

None of the adults in black even noticed, they were all too busy corralling the kids on the other side of the bus and trying to load them all into it without any of them escaping to consider that the bus had several exit points. None of the other kids took advantage of the emergency exit door though, and Hen realized that she needed to get away from here before the adults in black realized that there were some kids missing.

She turned and ran back towards the other end of the alley, coming out onto the playground and then running towards the field behind it that had a massive storm drain. She climbed inside it quickly, hoping that no one saw her and sat down.

She wasn't really sure what she was going to do now. How long would the adults with guns be here for? Would Mrs. Mullins come looking for her when they left? Would she even be able to find Hen here? Probably not seeing as the whole point of her hiding here was that no one would be able to find her here.

She wondered about Tommy, and even though she couldn't quite bring herself to like him, not when she knew that he could stand there and do nothing when other people were being hurt, she found that she did still care enough about him to hope he'd made it somewhere safe. He wasn't her friend, but he was the only person left other than her from the beginning of the school year. And he'd cared enough about her to pass on Gerrard's warning this morning.

She wondered how Gerrard had known what was going to happen, but she was also pretty sure that she was never going to get an answer to that question. Actually, she wouldn't be surprised if she never saw any of the Kinard kids again. Maybe that made her lucky.

....................................

She stayed down in that storm drain until long after the sun had set. It had to be well into the middle of the night when she finally ventured to peek her head out of the drain and look around. She didn't spot anyone, or hear signs of anyone being nearby either, so she carefully climbed out.

Carefully, she crept her way back to the alley she'd been in before, and looked out over the bus loop and parking lot. There wasn't anyone there, not even any car in the parking lot.

She was terrified, but she knew that this was probably her best chance to get away so she took off running. She streaked across the parking lot and towards the road beyond, heading in the same direction she'd seen Tommy and Sal run in before. It wasn't until she was a couple blocks away from the school that she slowed down to a walk. She didn't know exactly how many miles of walking she needed to do, but she knew it took about 30 minutes to drive to the school so it was definitely way too far to run the whole way.

It was dark, and they lived in a desert city, which meant that by this point in the night it was cold, and Hen couldn't help but wrap her arms around herself and shiver. She hoped her mom wasn't too worried about her. Hen had no idea what her mom must have thought when she didn't come home from school. She really hoped her mom didn't think she was dead or anything like that.

Hen was too distracted by her thoughts, and trying to make sure that she was making the right turns to get home that she didn't notice the cop car until it had pulled up right beside her. She immediately started to back away from it. Hen didn't particularly like cops, at first it had just been that they carried guns, but then her mom had given her the talk last year and her fear had gotten worse.

Her mom had taught her what to do though. Stay calm, be polite, and no sudden movements.

"Hey kiddo, are you lost?" The officer said as she climbed out of the patrol car.

Hen wasn't exactly lost, but she nodded anyway, "I'm just trying to get home." She answered.

"Ok," The officer nodded, a very intentional soothing tone that Hen could see right through, "Why don't you hop in and I'll help you get where you're supposed to be."

She didn't say 'I'll help you get home.' Hen noted, and she remembered that Tommy had pointed out the extra cops at drop off this morning for why he thought they were going to be taken away somewhere. Alarm bells were blaring in her head.

Her mom had taught her to stay calm, to be polite, and to comply. She'd told Hen not to run, but Hen was pretty sure that if she got in the car with this officer then she'd never make it back to her mom.

So, she let her gaze slide to somewhere over the officers shoulder, pointed, and screamed. The officer whipped around, looking for the danger and Hen turned around and booked it.

"Hey! Get back here kid!" She heard the officer yell just as she was disappearing between two houses.

The officer was definitely chasing her, so Hen cut straight across the backyard of the house and ran back down the alley on the other side of it, coming back out onto the street where the cop car was parked. Hopefully that'd be enough to trick the officer and buy Hen enough time to make it far enough down the street to be out of sight.

She kept running down the street, knowing she didn't have much time before the officer figured out the trick. She needed somewhere to hide, or some way to get out of here quickly.

It wasn't until she made it to an intersection where there were a couple cars parked at a red light that she noticed the best chance she'd have. There was a pickup truck at the back of the line of cars waiting to turn left, and she ran for it, climbing into the bed of the truck and pulling the tarp over her head.

She waited with bated breath, hoping against hope that the police officer hadn't seen her and that the driver hadn't noticed a random child hopping into the bed of his pickup truck. A minute later though, the truck started moving, and she let out a relieved sigh.

She planned to give it a few blocks, maybe a turn or two before the truck hopefully stopped again and she could hop out and continue her trek home. Except, the truck didn't stop. She felt it make two turns, and then it was speeding up. It was speeding up a lot actually, and she risked sitting up and popping her head out of the tarp to look around.

They were on the highway, she realized with a jolt, they were on the highway headed East. They passed a speed limit sign that said 70 mph and she knew that that was way too fast to try and jump out of the truck while it was moving.

Hen had no idea what she was going to do as she ducked back down to lay beneath the tarp again. She had no way of getting out of the bed of this truck, and it was clearly taking her further and further away from her mom every minute that went by.

Florida is East of here. She thought a bit nonsensically. Maybe this truck would take her all the way to see Marjan. It was a desperate and very unlikely hope, but Hen didn't know anyone else who lived outside of the Las Vegas area, so it was all she had.

She felt like she was in that truck bed for hours, waiting and waiting for the driver to finally pull off the highway, but he didn't. Eventually, the late night and the adrenaline crash combined so she drifted off to sleep without even noticing it.

...........................................

When Hen woke up it took her a moment to remember where she was, and then another to realize that they were no longer moving. She wondered what woke her, but soon noticed the voices getting closer and closer to where she was.

There were two men with thick southern-ish sounding accents and they were saying something about unloading the truck bed.

The same truck bed that Hen was presumably laying in. She only had another second to freak out about that fact before she felt the latch getting unhitched and then the tarp was pulled off her.

She screamed as the men stumbled back in surprise.

"What the hell?!" One of them exclaimed, and Hen didn't wait around to see what else they said.

Instead, she launched herself out of the back of the truck and ran into the woods behind the house they were parked in front of. She heard yelling from behind her, but didn't dare slow or turn around. Instead she just ran and ran and ran until eventually she was sure that if anyone had been following her then they definitely weren't anymore.

She slowed to a stop, nearly keeling over as she braced against a tree and fought to catch her breath. She looked around, trying to find anything even remotely familiar, but even just standing in the woods, the air felt different, and the dirt beneath her feet looked a long ways away from the desert she was used to.

Henrietta Wilson was a long way from home.

She needed to keep on moving. She knew that much. Just pick a direction, and keep heading in it. She told herself. Find a pathway, natural like a river or man made like a road or trail.

She started walking, forcing herself not to cry from fear and grief. The dawning realization that in the last twenty four hours she'd lost the last of the world she'd known and now there was a decent chance she'd lose her life too. Not from I.A.A.N., but from getting lost in a forest that was likely very far away from the only home she'd ever known.

The ground started sloping downwards, and Hen dared to hope as she followed the decline. Water tended to be lower, following a decline was her best way of finding a body of water. She had to be careful though, the decline was sharper in some places and she wasn't used to this kind of terrain. She couldn't help but stumble a few times, so by the time she heard the distant sounds of running water she had more than a couple bruises.

Not that she cared though, not when she found herself on the bank of a small river, or was it a stream? She wasn't entirely sure. Either way, it was about thirty feet across, and there were plenty of rocks sticking out of the water and a visible current, so not a body of water that she felt safe crossing alone.

She didn't have to though, she didn't need anything that was on the other side, she just needed to follow the path of the river back to civilization. What she would do once she got there, she had no idea, but she knew she couldn't stay out here alone.

So she walked and walked and walked, and tried not to worry about the sun's slow descent in the sky. It must've been hours that she walked before the sun truly started setting, and then all the worry she'd been holding at bay came rushing out. What was she going to do if she had to spend the night out here? She didn't know how to build a shelter or light a fire or anything like that. Plus there could be predators out here, she had no idea because she still had no idea where she was.

It didn't end up mattering though, because just as the last dregs of the sun were disappearing over the horizon she spotted a cottage house along the river's edge. She practically ran up the river's edge towards the cottage. She knocked on the door, but no one answered, and as she got over her excitement she realized that there weren't really any signs of anyone being here. None of the lights were on, and there was no car anywhere.

The cabin wasn't run down or falling apart by any means, but there also didn't seem to be anyone inhabiting it. There hadn't been for at least a couple days either if she took into account the amount of twigs and leaves on the tarp covering the firewood at the side of the house.

Hen had to break in, she realized, it was the only way she could hope to have any shelter out here tonight. Plus she was hungry and thirsty and tired. The only chance of her fixing any of those problems was inside this cabin.

She tried the front door, but it was locked so she moved on quickly, walking around to the back of the cabin to find the back door which was also locked. The next thing she tried was the window, which creaked and groaned, but opened enough for her to climb in before she shut it behind her.

The cabin was dark on the inside, and not that big. She was standing in a living room area of sorts, but the only things in it were a small coffee table and a couch with tears in it. There were little kid drawings scattered across the table too, along with a sippy cup and a bunch of crayons. The kitchen to her right didn't have much in it other than a sink, a small fridge, and a toaster oven. It wasn't particularly clean either, and there were bowls of dried cereal scattered across the floor, some of them more empty than others, which was really weird.

Then she heard a noise, like a small whimper and Hen stiffened. Was she not alone here? Had she been mistaken in thinking there was no one home? If she was wrong then why had no one answered the door and why had there been no signs of life until now?

She heard another faint whimper, clearly coming from the door on the other side of the living room. She quickly walked towards it only to realize that it was already cracked open. She peaked through the crack and it took her a moment to realize that the dark lump on the floor was actually a little boy curled up on his side and whimpering.

She barely wasted a moment before she was swinging the door open the rest of the way. The little boy jolted and his eyes flew wide as he stared at her for a breathless moment before he burst into loud and unrestrained sobs.

Hen rushed forward quickly and scooped the kid into her arms, the little boy's hands coming up to clutch at her shirt as he cried.

"Shhhhh hey, it's ok, it's ok." She tried to reassure him, not really knowing what to do with a little kid, "Where's your mom?"

The boy wailed at that, "sh' gone!" He cried before burying his head against her shoulder.

Hen didn't like the sound of that, this kid was way too young to be left alone for any amount of time, and it hadn't looked like anyone had come or gone from the cabin in at least a couple days. Had his mom really left him here all alone? And for how long? Was she planning on coming back at all?

These were all questions that she didn't know the answer to, and knew better than to ask the little boy in her arms. Hen was so unqualified to deal with this situation. She really had no idea what to do with kids. She'd been an only child after all, she'd never even babysat another kid before.

It took a while, but eventually the distressed little boy calmed down enough that Hen could take him into the kitchen to figure out if she could feed him. There were a couple of clean sippy cups in the cupboard and Hen easily filled one up and handed it to the kid that she'd sat on the counter. Then she began rifling through the cabinets, and she found that there was actually a decent supply of non-perishable foods there.

There wasn't any power, so she ended up choosing some protein bars out of a box in the cupboard. She broke one into pieces and laid it out on top of the wrapper next to the kid before pounding back three without stopping to take a breath. God, she'd been so hungry. Now that she'd eaten though, and had two full glasses of water, she felt a lot better.

She noticed the kid had drunk the whole of his sippy cup so she refilled it quickly, "I'm Hen." She told him, "What's your name?"

The kid blinked at her for a second before garbling out something that sounded like, "De' Zel."

"Denzel?" She asked, not entirely sure, but it was the closest name she could figure to the syllables the toddler had muttered.

The kid just stared back at her blankly, which wasn't a yes, but also wasn't a no, and since she had no other ideas she went with it.

"Well, alright then Denzel, you and me are friends now. Do you know what friends do?" She asked, and the kid shook his head, "Friends call each other by nicknames. My nickname is Hen, and I think yours should be Denny. What do you think of being called Denny?"

The kid co*cked his head to the side a little bit, before sounding out the name carefully, "D'nny." he enunciated as best he could and Hen nodded encouragingly.

"Yeah, there you go!" She told him, a grin stretching across her face.

"Denny!" He exclaimed excitedly, pronouncing it much better than the last time.

She clapped for him, and Denny clapped his own hands together too, looking elated. In his excitement he knocked his sippy cup off the counter, which she handed back to him. A tired grin playing across her face. If someone had told her earlier, even just this morning, that she'd end the day in some random cabin with a toddler, then she probably wouldn't have believed them. Here she was though.

She let out a sigh, letting herself relax for the first time in the last two days as Denny babbled his new name and clapped happily. "Well, Denny, looks like it's just me and you, kid."