Authors: Denise Townsend
Sheriff White will tell the story of the criminal who held out his wrists to her, begging her to arrest him and apologizing profusely, for many years to come.
Chapter Nineteen
“I’d feel more comfortable if we kept him in for the night, just to be sure,” Jason’s doctor told River.
Turns out that Rick had gotten Jason on the ground by sneaking up on him, then cracked him in the back of the head with the rifle butt. Her brother had a concussion, and as much as River hated the idea of leaving him in the hospital, she also didn’t want to take any chances.
“If you think that’s for the best,” River replied. “But can we see him now?”
“Of course. He’s in good spirits, and has been asking for you. Just don’t let him get too excited.”
River nodded, and she headed in the room with Fen and Leo.
Jason beamed at her from where he lay in bed. They hung back, though, till the nurse stopped fussing and took her leave, patting Jason on the arm as she did so and telling him to call if he needed anything.
“River!” Jason hollered, way too loud for the small room. “I get pudding!”
When River had been in the hospital for so long, Jason had taken a bizarre but nearly obsessive love of the hospital pudding she was served every night. Even now, Leo sometimes snuck him some out of the kitchens if the paramedic had free time at the hospital between delivering patients.
“Shhh,” River warned, but laughed as she did so. “I’m glad you get pudding, but don’t forget you’re in a hospital.”
“You’re right, I’m sorry. But pudding!”
“Yes, pudding.” And then River did what she’d been itching to do for the past hour and leaned over Jason’s bed to give him a fierce hug.
“Hey, sis, I’m all right,” he said, patting her awkwardly on the back. “Nothing was going to happen. You were there, you wouldn’t let it.”
River felt tears well up in her eyes. She had no doubt that Rick was completely serious about the intentions Fen had sussed out of the boy–to kill Jason, then her and then suicide by cop. The fact that Jason thought he’d been safe that whole time was laughable.
“Oh God, Jason,” she said, letting him go and then sitting on the edge of the bed. “I wish I could believe that. But if Fen and Leo hadn’t been there…”
Jason looked over at the two men, who’d been hanging back to give River and her brother space.
“They’re our friends,” Jason told River, and she realized that’s how he saw the whole situation. To Jason, it was obvious that Fen and Leo had saved them, just as she imagined it was obvious he’d saved her from Trevor.
It’s what people did when they loved someone—they saved them.
“But thanks anyway, guys. You rocked. Fen, that was so cool. How did you do that?” Jason asked, eyeing the selkie avidly as Leo turned to Fen as well.
“Yes, Fen. Exactly what did you do?” the paramedic asked. Since Sheriff White had shown up, they’d been surrounded by others at all times, and this was the first chance Leo had to ask the questions burning in the back of his mind.
Silence fell on the room as Leo stared at Fen, then River, then Jason. River and Fen avoided his gaze, obviously trying to figure out what to say. Only Jason seemed at ease, grinning openly at each person in turn.
“Geez, guys, it’s not that complicated,” he said, obviously growing tired of the uncomfortable silence.
“Fen’s magic, Leo. And it’s so cool. He can turn into a seal and he lives in the ocean and he can like feel what you feel but he doesn’t pry, it’s not weird or anything and…”
Leo held up his hand, silencing Jason.
“What,” the paramedic asked Fen, sounding angry, “have you been telling them?”
River sighed.
“He’s not been telling us lies, Leo. Think about it. Was anything that happened today normal?”
“No, but things usually aren’t normal when there’s a neighbor trying to kill us. That doesn’t mean there was magic…”
Fen stayed quiet, letting River and Jason talk for him.
“What about knowing Rick was with Jason? And making Rick collapse like that?” River asked.
“That could have been anything…I mean, how could it be magic. Magic doesn’t exist…right?”
This time, when Leo looked at Fen, his gaze was inquisitive, not accusatory.
“All kinds of magic exist,” the selkie told the paramedic, “including me.”
And with that, Fen dropped his glamour.
Leo stared at the obviously inhuman form before him, his eyes wide and his fists clenched. But he reacted with neither fear nor anger when he finally did speak.
“I’ve seen you,” Leo whispered. “I’ve seen you…” His voice held only wonder.
Seeing Leo accept what, for a lot of people, would have been unacceptable made River love him even more.
“I thought I was crazy, but there were times it was like you were wearing a blond man like a mask. Which is creepy. So what are you, really?”
“I’m a selkie, a…”
“Seal shape-shifter,” Leo said, joy now lacing his words, along with wonder. “That’s why River was asking about selkies. And you’ve got…other powers?”
“My people are empathic. We can sense the emotions of others, and transmit our own. We can also broadcast the emotions we feel from one person, to another.”
“Wow. That’s some pretty powerful mojo.”
“It can be,” Fen said, nodding at Leo’s words. “But it makes us vulnerable, in other ways. It is difficult, if not impossible, for our kind to lie, although we still sometimes suffer the kinds of mental illnesses that skew our versions of truth. And it is difficult to go through a long life, feeling so much.”
River had never thought about that–about how much Fen must suffer, feeling others’ pain. She’d never really stopped to think why the selkie had shown up to help her, but it made more sense now. She wondered how many other mortals he’d helped, and whether his methods were always so…hands on.
She was surprised to find herself a little turned on by the thought. Then she smiled when Fen glanced over at her, undoubtedly feeling her little twinge of lust.
He does bring it out in me
, she mused. And while she wasn’t entirely sure what “it” was, she was more than willing to indulge.
“So what did you do to Rick, exactly?” Leo asked.
“I’m one of the more powerful empaths of my people, and there are times when really traumatic events create a bond between the emotions felt at the time, and the memories of what happened. I figured what happened to River and Jason with Trevor had to be traumatic enough to create such a memory. And it was. So I broke Rick down to the point where he was as far gone in his anger and pain as he could be, then I piggybacked Jason’s memories of finding River into Rick’s mind, through Jason’s own amped up emotions.”
“Wow,” Leo said. “I’m not sure I get that, totally, but wow.”
“Basically, I made Rick see what Jason saw, and feel what he felt, when he saw Trevor trying to kill his sister.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yes. It was effective.”
“So what’s going to happen to Rick?”
“I should ask you that. I’m not entirely familiar with human justice, in this century.”
Fen frowned as he spoke, making River realize that the selkie was actually worried about the boy.
“Don’t worry,” she told Fen. “This century is pretty understanding of things like trauma, and we’ll help Rick avoid prison and get the help he needs, if he’s willing to get it.”
“And what do you mean ‘this century’?” demanded Jason, excitedly. “How old are you, Fen?”
All eyes were on the selkie as he smiled. “Old. But not a dinosaur.”
Then Fen shook himself all over, like a dog shaking off water, and suddenly he was back to blond, and clothed and blue-eyed.
“Now, Leo. How about a cup of coffee? I think River and Jason need to talk.”
“’Kay, bye guys! I’ll see you tomorrow! I’m going to get pudding!”
Both Leo and Fen laughed. Then they each stepped forward, Fen to hug Jason and Leo to engage him in a complicated handshake that ended in a series of high fives. Jason loved every second, and when they were done, Leo also gave him a hug.
“Bye, bro. See you tomorrow. We’ll take care of River till you’re up and about.”
“I know you will,” Jason said, and for once it wasn’t only Fen’s eyes that glowed with a wisdom no one would have expected.
Leo and Fen left, closing the door behind them. River turned to Jason.
“What’s up?” she asked, cutting to the chase.
“I just wanna see how you are, and let you see how I am,” Jason said. For once, he spoke slowly and carefully, as if he wanted to get every word right.
“I’m fine. You were the one who was attacked…”
“But I’m fine too,” Jason interrupted. “I’m really fine. I think this is all over now.”
“I hope so.”
Jason shook his head. “I felt him, Riv. We were connected, and I felt what he felt, just like he felt me. I know what Trevor did for him, growing up. They have a bad father…” Jason’s words trailed off, and he was visibly trying to keep it together. River laid a hand on his, where it lay on the bed.
“They had a bad father,” Jason said, when he was ready. “But Trevor made sure that Rick never got hurt. He took all the pain on himself, and he took all that hurt on himself, for lots of years. It ended though, and they were growing up and Rick thought it was over. But they both ended up not right. And I think Rick knew that, but he couldn’t admit it, ’cuz I guess that would make it all real…”
River sighed, not knowing if she wanted to hear this. She felt like she’d just been able to really blame Trevor, rather than herself, and here she was discovering her attacker was also a victim.
Jason looked up at her with his piercing brown gaze, and she wondered if he hadn’t been left with a little of Fen’s leftover empathy still scooting around in his brain.
“That doesn’t make what Trevor did better,” her brother warned her. “Don’t think that. That’s what Rick saw, what I felt him see. He saw his brother wasn’t right no more.”
“Any more,” River corrected reflexively, her mind trying to process everything she was hearing.
“So Rick gets it, River. He knows Trevor was something I can’t say ’cuz I can’t swear. But he knows. And he knows I only was saving you, ’cuz I love you and I was so scared…”
Something hot and wet dripped down River’s cheeks, and she realized she was crying. But she kept her gaze leveled on Jason’s.
“You did the right thing,” she told him. “You did the right thing.”
Jason held out his arms, and then enveloped her in a bear hug when she leaned into him.
“You never said that before,” he whispered, his own voice thick with tears.
“I’m so sorry, Jason. You saved my life. Thank you so much.” Jason big hand patted her back, his signal he accepted her gratitude.
“I just couldn’t tell you,” she said, sitting up and wiping her eyes. She really wanted him to understand her reasons, stupid as they were, for doing what she did.
“I felt like it was all my fault, and that I’d been so stupid, and I couldn’t thank you for something that ruined your life.”
Jason snorted. “Riv, you’re so smart but so dumb sometimes. My life wasn’t ruined. It’s just like it was, but I still have you.”
“But the town, everyone thinks you’re dangerous…”
Jason rolled his eyes. “The only people who think bad things about me are the people who always did. Only instead of thinking I’m just some big retard, they think I’m a big strangler-retard. But the people who had got to know me for real, they thought I was the same person.”
Despite herself, River giggled at her brother’s appraisal of their fellow Eastporters.
“I think you’re smarter than the rest of us, Jason,” she told him, going in for another hug.
“I do too, sometimes,” he said. “But I’m not. I need help with a lot of stuff. But I can do a lot of things on my own, sis. And you can’t not live ’cuz of me.”
“What?” River said, her body gone stiff in the circle of his arms.
“You keep not living, ’cuz of me. But that just makes me feel bad.”
River sat up. “What do you mean?”
“Like you don’t let anybody near us, ’cuz you think everyone’s bad for me. But they’re not bad for me. And I’m happier when you’re happier.”
“What about Trevor?” she whispered, looking down at her own knees.
“Everybody liked Trevor. Trevor was like even more popular than me, till he went nuts and tried to kill you.
“So here’s what’s going to happen,” Jason said, knowing he’d finally made his sister hear him.
“We’re going to have a lot more friends. You’re going to have a lot more friends. Eastport is going to be our home, not just where we live. And you’re going to date Leo, ’kay?”
River blushed. “Jason!”
“Ohmigod, River, Leo really likes you and you guys should date. Fen has to go back to the ocean, anyway, and he wants you to date Leo too. And you can probably date both at the same time, and they won’t care, just don’t tell Mrs. Fontanelli, because she would totally freak out. Well don’t tell anyone that, around here actually, and I won’t either.”