Save your tears

Dedicated to  @Ethan

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There was no such thing as going gentle to it. It was right back to work, even giving his thoughts being somewhere else entirely. Ethan had lived his past year in worry, searching to the point where it had been an unhealthy obsession -everything to get her back. In the end, he had to be pulled off it, before driving himself insane. So, imagine the insanity that had hit him earlier the year when Maeve had been kidnapped, a week after Elenora. His world had twisted and turned till he barely felt like he could breathe anymore. The guilt had been hanging so heavy on his chest that he felt like he was drowning. Not even now when both Elenora and Maeve returned, he still didn't feel the same. Madelaine was still missing, and even through he had lived his life somewhat after - he had never felt whole. Ethan had returned to mostly paper work after his whole episode around Maeve's case back in February. This was his way of still doing something. He noticed Evelina before she even spoke, her light calming aura always made him notice her, so he looked up just as she spoke his name. He smiled at her, but the frown quickly appeared confused on his face - it seemed like she had something important to say. He could tell. The two of them had known each other for quite sometime and he knew how his partner's facial expressions were.

Its Madelaine, Ethan, they found her.

His world stopped. Simply just stopped, and he completely froze. Everything after was just one big blur of echoes. They found her. It repeated in his ears over and over again for over a minute, not giving him any other response than just shock. "I'm sorry.. what? Where? When?" Ethan jumped up from his desk, looking so disorientated as one could be. He hadn't even heard she already had told him where. So, it wasn't till he got the information again that he took off. Luckily, the drive or the walk wasn't that far away. He chose to walk. Given his luck, he would most likely end up in the trauma section on the hospital himself if he drove. The sun was draining, how he hated this time of year for making him feel so weak, on the other hand was he thankful - it meant his powers weren't that consuming. He walked as fast as he could, which was for a tower of a man with long legs, extremely fast and people hurried to move out of his way not wanting to be tumbled down.


It was the first time in a while where she actually had gotten what she wanted from a vision. When she earlier this day, which was around four in the morning when she woke up in the on call room, when she had gotten a vision about a dear friend of hers return. Of course, she knew that visions wasn't always what you wanted for them to be like - but she had made sure to spend most of the day in the field, just in case - and right had she been. A couple had brought in Madelaine, a friend who had been missing for a while. With everything going on, Cecilia selfishly enough had almost forgot - which hence the guilt of wanting to be there when she came in. After check ups and such, she had paged Nia to call this in by calling Evelina - Evelina would know how to take it from there. Now that Madelaine was in good hands, and she knew everyone would be notified - she could put all her attention on Madelaine.

"Darling, you aren't fine, just let me finish this okay?" She said a little bit more stern, wanting to get her point across. Cecilia took a sharper breath in, "and I'm just very happy you are back. In one piece," she chuckled a bit. It wasn't good, but it wasn't completely bad either - given the world and how it was set now, you never really knew what to expect. Did Madelaine even know about the supernatural? She waited for the blood samples to return, after Clay had set up this new system, it was easier to identify species by their blood. Not that she expected Madelaine to be anything but human.

Then she started coughing which had Cecilia's attention in the matter of seconds - ready to check up on her till she sat up, claiming once again that she was alright. "I'll be the judge of that, okay?" Cecilia pointed out lifting a brow a little bit. Being over protective was in the human's nature, and she was worried. Being worried was a simple part of living these days.  Once she had finished checking there wasn't any reason to worry about the coughing, she sat down on a chair next to Madelaine and grabbed her hand before giving it a small squeeze. "Dr. Lewis has notified Ethan, he will be here shortly I assume," she gave Madelaine a soft smile. Ethan had been a mess for months, but it seemed that he finally was starting to return to his old self again, which also meant she feared how this would affect him.

Madelaine saying her name, made Cecilia turn her eyes back to hers, how long had she been gone? It was like being stabbed with knives, reminding herself that the police had stopped their search - claiming that she was most likely just run off, and since she wasn't a resident in Gaia - they had theorized that she most likely had returned to New York. "I remember we had just talked about meeting to catch up wit Tora and Ethan, after I came home from Bulgaria after the Holidays," she took a sharper breath in, "that was over a year ago. You've been gone for over a year," she confirmed and licked her lips a little. Cecilia served the truth, there was no reason to hide it from her. She had no idea what had happened to Madelaine in the time she had been gone, where she had been, given her mental state - Cecilia theorized someone had taken her. However, right now wasn't the time to ask questions about that, not till Madelaine was ready to tell anything. There was a lot of things that had changed since then, looking at Madelaine was like looking at the past where nothing that had happened since August last year had accrued. Back when everything had been so mundane.

Cecilia's doe eyes followed Madelaine's hand with an observant gaze, moving a little bit closer, she wanted to make sure there wasn't a rash or something that she had missed. The name Oliver written over her collarbone made Cecilia frown a bit for a second, if she hadn't known any better, she would have thought someone had tattoo it into her skin as a form of ownership. It wouldn't even surprise her at this point how cruel some people were.

As Madelaine processed she had been missing for over a year, Cecilia licked her lips once again and held her breath for a short time. The small chuckle made Cecilia chuckle as well and shake her head a little bit. "I can imagine," she replied with a small half smile. Cecilia looked down at their hands as Madelaine grabbed her hand. "Likewise," she placed her other hand on top of Madelaine's and gave it a soft squeeze, trying not to get herself overwhelmed by the emotions. "How about I get you out of here, and up to your own private room, huh?" Cecilia got up from the chair and unlocked the wheels on Madelaine's bed, waving a few nurses over to her, so they could help her drive the bed to a more private area. Especially if Ethan was coming in, she had no idea how much he would lash out. He had been a mess when they had come in with Maeve, okay so had she, but Madelaine had been gone for much longer. Way longer.

Finally they got Madelaine parked in a room, and some of the nurses came by with some more jelly and a few food options. "Give me a few seconds, I will be right out in the hall, I just need to file this in the system," she smiled at Madelaine before walking out the hall, handing the files to the receptionist, looking through them a few times.

In the meantime, Ethan had found his way to the hospital in and almost tumbled through the doors. He wasn't unknown here at this point. The past weeks after Maeve got back, he had almost slept on the chairs in the waiting room, and the pain in his neck after that hadn't really gone away. He went to the first reception getting the information about which room and where he needed to go, and after getting that information he rushed to the stairs - like hell he had time to wait for the elevator. It was easy going to the trauma patients, but for some reason Cecilia had put her on the second floor - which was why Ethan got the daily workout in by running up the stairs. Finally, he got up the stairs, had almost forgotten what number the room was looking around the hall, utterly confused as he saw Cecilia in the hall and walked over to her.  Cecilia looked up as she saw the tower approach her, and placed a hand on his upper arm, to get him to settle just a little bit down. "She is in there, go easy on her, she is still processing everything - overall she is okay." Cecilia removed her hand from Ethan, giving him a small tender smile before looking to the door then walking towards it standing in the frame. "Look who I found walking around like a lost puppy," she let Ethan walk inside.

Ethan took a deeper breath in, his heart beating so intensely in his chest that he was afraid it would break through his ribcage. "Hey Madie," his words coming out in a low voice, almost like a whisper as if he couldn't believe she was back. She was actually back. Ethan bended a little walking into the room, not fond of the thought of hitting his head on the door frame. The hazel colored eyes scanned Madelaine shortly, before letting his eyes rest upon hers. He walked over to her and sat down on the chair next to her bed. "Hey," he repeated with a tender smile, reaching out hoping she would let him hold her hand. "It's been a minute," he joked with a soft chuckle, not sure how he should be feeling in this moment - but he did know how thankful he was that she had returned. That she was back.

It was hard figuring out just how to settle in this. Figuring out how he should think, feel, anything really. Nothing made sense in his system anymore, it was like everything had turned unknown, forcing him to deal with everything at once. Her whisper seemed to bring him back to reality shortly, making him realize that it wasn't a dream. It was real. The brutal reality. Even his own attempt to joke and her follow up, was only able to make him laugh so much, hidden the tears that seemed to hide in the corner of his eye. Ethan shook his head and looked at her. "No, don't apologize for that, you have nothing to be sorry about -" he corrected her with a slightly hoarse voice. He didn't want the reminder of everything that had done wrong over the past years, but none of it was her fault, so she wasn't going to get to say sorry. "You are here now, and that is what's most important," he reminded her with a tender smile folding on his lips.

It’s so nice to see you again.

Ethan took a sharper breath in again, feeling slightly whole again after all this time. It was an odd feeling, he had almost forgotten what it felt like. To be in control of something again, not having so many things pulling him apart - not more than the already existing. Finally a few tears ran over his cheek in silence as he breathed in and sat down by the bed side, lifting up her hand placing his lips on top of it, just keeping the hand close to him. "I'm.." he cleared his throat and took a sharper breath in, "- It's really ice to see you again too," he chuckled halfway through his sentence, but his voice cracked. "I've missed you so much," he tried to stop his voice from sounding to wrecking, but there wasn't anymore room, he was drowning in his own emotions and he had finally realized that perhaps he needed to wave for help - or at least accept whatever he felt. At least he was relieved. He was happy,  it was happy tears. He dried his eyes with his free hand. "I'm sorry. I - I'm just really happy that you are here."

Perhaps the extreme sensation of emotion was the damage left behind by everything. He didn't even know how to feel anymore, and he had almost made it to the lowest low, lucky to have been caught by his father when he had - even if the situation hadn't been the best. The light had been what he needed to move from that, or at least plan his escape out of the dark. But the darkness was so sneaky and had already surrounded him before he knew it. Life was cruel like that, endless torment and darkness. The way Madelaine pulled him closer as she moved in the bed, whisper for him to come closer. He took his shoes off, not wanting dirt on the hospital sheets. Then he slowly made his way up to the bed, unsure if this really was what she wanted. Almost scared that she also would scream like crazy at him. Scared to make a wrong movement. Ethan took a deeper breath in, like he already felt more comfort and secure, believing that she was actually here, she was okay. In one piece at least. What matters is right now. Ethan hadn't known how much he had needed to hear those words as much as when she spoke them. He hadn't understood how much he had needed to just be close to her again till he was again. Like something just clicked. He was so much taller than her, but placing his arm over her, turning to his side, so he could just cuddle up with her for how long Cecilia would let them. "I'm really happy you are back," he whispered.

He could hear the sob leaving her throat as she moved closer to him, making him hold her a little bit closer. Just a little bit, and took a deeper breath in. Saying that she had missed him, making him breath out as the tears just left his eyes. Because he had missed her as well, going crazy and he had lost himself down the line. It had been too close, way too close. And he knew it was just the beginning of figuring out what had happened here, because there was a story. Ethan was a hunter, not like his sister or others, not as extreme - but he could tell something was different, but right now he allowed himself not to give damn and just hold her close. "I got you, I'm not going anywhere," he whispered in her ear and closed his eyes for a moment. Just allowing this moment to assure her that she would always have him. But he knew he had to tell her sooner or later that her friend was missing as well, after the crash  - or had been missing. Gemma was very much alive, or not alive - but thriving.  So just staying here with her till she recovered, taking her with him home. Letting her stay there for however long she needed.