(Untitled)

[with_diamonds]

Most days, Lucy tried not to think about how much she missed her brother. It crossed her mind, of course, on a regular basis - living with Mathias, she had a near-constant reminder of it, which helped in that she'd gotten used to it, let it become normal - but it no longer held the enormity it once did. A year and a half down the line, and it was

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[findherwayback]

To a casual observer, Thalia looked like any other girl. Her hair was out of its usual braids, having grown even longer over her time here than it had been since she was a kid. There were no noticeable weapons on her, her solitary knife kept in a sheath on her upper thigh. Dressed in a flannel shirt dress, she was nearly casual as if she was trying to blend in with her surroundings to get a better angle.

Maybe she was. Some days even she had a hard time remembering where the Hunter ended and she began.

"Lucy?" Sandwich in hand, she slid into an empty chair at her friend's table. "Something happen?"

[with_diamonds]

Distracted as she was by the words on the page, details of injuries she probably shouldn't have wanted to know, Lucy was surprised to hear her name being called, less so to look up and see Thalia there. It was almost relieving, though. While she'd never bothered to keep much hidden, seeing no point in being anything other than straightforward with what had happened either before or after coming to this place, there were few people she could talk to as easily as the other girl, especially with what she knew already. Shaken as this left her, she'd have probably sought Thalia out to talk about it anyway. This just helped.

"Yeah," she said, a little absent, swallowing hard, then gesturing down at the folder with her chin. "One of those things from home that just show up. This is... my brother's medical records, from when he was in the hospital."

[findherwayback]

Reflexively Thalia winced, her posture shifting slightly as a wave of sympathy washed over her. It wasn't the pitying variety, but rather the sort that knew exactly how awful such an arrival had the potential to be. Even the picture of her and her baby brother had been difficult to deal with, all of those memories of that time of her life and the life her brother had never had a chance to leave. How would she had felt if he had gone off to war? Would he have worried about her?

There was no way of ever knowing.

"That sucks." She leaned against the table. "How bad is it? Like...was he okay?"

[with_diamonds]

"When he was here, he was from after that," Lucy answered, nodding slightly. "I mean, I'm not sure anyone's ever really... alright, after something like that, but physically, he wound up fine, yeah." Based on the papers in front of her, there was a lot she'd missed out on when he hadn't been okay, but knowing that he'd healed made this a little easier to stomach. It was the rest that bothered her, the fact that it had taken something like this to make her really think about it at all. "I never really heard much about this part."

[onlyapassenger]

Though Bucky doesn't frequent the kitchen as often as he once did, having enough of a social circle that he rarely finds himself without some kind of dinner plans, he still pops in now and then, mostly when he has other business to attend to in the Compound. Today, for example, it's laundry; an empty canvas bag slung over his shoulder, he's intent on getting something to drink while he waits for his clothes to dry, but gets distracted right away by a familiar head of blonde hair -- Lucy. Changing course, he walks over to say hello, only to catch a glimpse of her expression. Instinct forces his gaze to the folder in her hands, skimming through just enough of the information inside to realize he shouldn't be reading this. It's not the first time he's caught her with a folder -- she seems to come across a lot of them -- but medical records aren't much of his business.

"Your brother?"

[with_diamonds]

Lucy nodded even before looking up, a grim, halfhearted little smile on her face when she did. All things considered, this could have been a hell of a lot worse and she knew it. At least she knew the outcome of all of this; at least it wasn't like the first thing that had shown up for her, her brother's dog tags, the ones she still always kept under her shirt, making her think Max was dead. In a way, unsettling as this was, she was almost grateful for it, for reminding her of what she'd apparently lost sight of. There was no reason to be misleading and pretend otherwise.

"Yeah," she said quietly, fingertips tracing gently over the tea-stained page. "I never really heard much about this part of it; I'm from before and he was from after, when he was here."

[onlyapassenger]

"Does it help?"

Were he a smarter man, Bucky might live in trepidation of the next reminder the Island's forces will send to him, but while he can work up frustration and anger for his invisible captors, he refuses to give them the satisfaction of fear. Considering Lucy for a moment longer, he steps back, and goes to pull out a chair for her to sit on.

"Knowing?"

[with_diamonds]

"Yeah," Lucy said again, easy, instinctive, as she took the chair he'd pulled out for her, holding on to the folder all the while. After a moment's silence, though, she shook her head, the movement slow, more thoughtful than her initial response had been. If she had to guess, she'd say that this wasn't about his having gotten hurt at all. It ran a whole lot deeper than that, and for that reason, she wasn't sure it helped at all. "No. Not really. He's still... not here. I'll still probably never see him again."

[with_diamonds]

Caught up in the words on the page - not really anything new, though she didn't think she'd been expressly told any of it before - it took Lucy a moment to realize that she'd drawn someone's attention and was no longer alone. When she did, though, peripheral vision picking up a motion, she let out a breath as if she'd been holding it, taking a seat on the stool that had been placed behind her. This might not have been half as upsetting as other things the island had done, but it still left her shaky on her feet, the realizations it brought to light as disarming as the object itself, if not more so. How this always happened, she didn't know, but this, she was sure, was all she needed not to let it do so again. Max might not have been here anymore, but that didn't mean moving on.

There was still a balance to be struck, though. Makeshift family on the island was still family, and so it was that she summoned up a faint smile when she turned her head fully in Ishiah's direction, weak but heartfelt. "Thanks."

[with_diamonds]

"I'm not sure there's much to say," Lucy said, leaning into him even so, notably grateful. Ishiah wasn't Max, not by a long shot, but he was among the people closest to family she had without trying to be a substitute for anyone, and at a time like this, she could appreciate that. People came and people went, but at least she wasn't on her own.

She'd been happy, was the thing. And it was hard to gauge, in the moment, if this would really disrupt that or not, but certainly it put things in perspective. God, she'd gotten so far ahead of herself, thinking that everything was as it was supposed to be. It wasn't, not by a long shot. For that to be the case, a lot of history would have to be changed, and good though she'd become at taking whatever she could get, knowing it wouldn't likely last, it all still came down to one thing.

"He should be here," she continued, quieter than before. Four words was oversimplifying it, but she suspected he would understand. "He was always supposed to be here."

[wishesandsmoke]

Eden walked into the kitchen in time to see the tea spill and Lucy pick up the folder, hurriedly drying it and then presumably checking its contents were safe. With others in the kitchen, it was difficult to navigate to her side as quickly as she would have liked, but eventually she managed to pull through the crowd. She'd been headed for the counter anyway. "Everything okay?" she asked. "I hope that spill didn't ruin anything." She couldn't see the contents from this side; presumably it was some fashion of schoolwork.

[with_diamonds]

"Yeah," Lucy said, a quick, if absent, response, mouth set in a halfhearted smile as she turned her head in Eden's direction. This was practically habit now, getting found with paperwork, whether her own or someone else's - this, her police record, the dossier on Bruce, who'd actually been Bryce - and no matter how unsettling, how stomach-turning it was to see these things written down, she wasn't going to make more of it than was necessary. Max wound up fine; she hadn't forgotten that. Her guess was that this was just meant to be a message, and she was going to take it to heart. Holding up the damp folder for a moment, she lifted one shoulder. "Fine. Just one of those things from home, it completely startled me."

[wishesandsmoke]

"They do that," Eden said sympathetically. She'd only ever found the one, truthfully, and she'd made a point of keeping that one almost entirely to herself. Her own inexperience with the phenomenon was no reason to be unsupportive. Besides, once had been enough. Catching sight of the name on the side now, she frowned. "Is that your brother's?"

[with_diamonds]

"Mhmm," Lucy answered, chin dipping in a slight nod. "He was in a hospital for a while, got hurt while he was fighting. This is the medical record." Had she not known that he'd been from after that here, had there not been dates to demonstrate as much on the pages themselves, it would have been incredibly unsettling, the same way his dog tags had been. Instead, it left her shaken in an entirely different way. "I think it likes giving me papers, this place."

[prodigaljaybird]

There's something wrong with her. That much is apparent as soon as Jason's through the door, Lucy standing there over a soaked folder with a face so pale he's surprised she's not on the ground already.

Quiet but quick, Jason pulls out one of the kitchen chairs, appearing at her elbow in the next moment to give it a gentle tug.

[with_diamonds]

The touch came as a surprise, though Lucy didn't startle too much as she turned in its direction, drawing in a sharp breath but otherwise outwardly unfazed. None of this should have been a shock. She'd seen Max after, knew he wound up alright (or as much so as anyone could after being sent off to war like he'd been). It wasn't that. What got to her was what it meant, or what she supposed it did: that after taking him for granted when he'd been here, she'd let even his memory get away from her. It was, simply put, fucked up.

"Jason," she said on an exhale, grateful as she took the seat he'd brought over, hands refusing to leave the pages, like they themselves were one piece of her brother she had left. Them and his dog tags, still sitting under her shirt. "Hey."

[prodigaljaybird]

"Hey," Jason returns, dragging another chair over and perching himself on the end of it. They're in the way now, the back of Jason's seat jutting into the space leading to the kitchen proper, and god help anyone who dares comment on it while Lucy's knuckles are white around manila pages.

"You got something?"

[with_diamonds]

Lucy nodded, exhaling slowly as she held the folder out for him to get a look. Protective though she inherently was of it, there was nothing to hide held within its pages; on paper, Max was one of many, any number of boys who'd been shipped off to a foreign country and brought home different people, wounded or worse. There was no point to prove here, no battle to fight, but she wasn't going to pretend like it hadn't happened, or like it hadn't affected her. That was part of the problem, the very thing she'd been doing for too long.

"It's my brother's," she explained, voice kept quiet. "He was in the army and he got hurt. This is from then."