Chapter Text
"We are so not doing that," Louis shakes his head and crosses his arms on his chest, his glare hard.
"Man, listen, it may be good for us, we will win visibility, and help, and..." Christine pleas.
"What's going on ?" Zec asks as he makes his way in their direction.
Christine's neck snaps with how fast she looks at him, and Louis' grave expression softens a little. He huffs and untangles his arms, trapping his best friend in a bone-crushing hug, soon followed by their small coworker. Zec immediately hugs them back, soaking up all the human warmth he can. He didn't realized how much he needed it until then. It's good to have friend worrying for you sometimes. Too soon, Louis pulls off, pats him gently on the shoulder and asks :
"How are you doing ? You holding on ?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm better now," he lies between his teeth, and he's glad that, if they noticed, they have the good taste of not pointing it out.
"Is Michael going to be alright ?" Christine worries, her voice breaking in the middle of the Alpha's name.
"He's still in a bad shape but he'll live, at least. So. What is the problem ?"
Louis rolls his eyes and goes back to pouting.
"Christine suggests to use our Pack as martyrs for the journalists."
"I'm not ! I'm saying that allowing medias to cover the story could be beneficial for us !"
"Alright, alright, cut it out !" Zec raises hands, ready to physically separate them. "I need more than just 'martyrs for the journalists' here. What o you mean exactly ?"
Christine literally stomps Louis' foot when he opens his mouth and answers before him :
"The local channel reporter asked if we were interested in having a couple of cameramen, two days a week, to make a series of documentaries on the angels. He said that of course they would respect our authority and act as we wish for the Pack's sake, and only ask to film the territory from the visitor's path. ...Aaaand of course eventual interviews with members of the staff to get a good idea of the work we're doing around everyday," she bats her eyelashes innocently and concludes, "So what do you think we should do ?"
Honestly ? Zec wants to go to bed.
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Louis finds himself feeding the angels with Claire and Heather, two of his fellow coworkers, instead of Christine and Zec as usual. The two of them ran off to the direction an hour ago to talk about the documentary with their superior and it doesn't feel good for him. He doesn't want to put the Pack in forced contact with humans they never saw before, not when they just lived such a nightmare. He's not sure he's ready to see new faces either, to be true.
Alana is sitting quietly by his feet, the top of her head bumping slightly against his elbow as he keeps his plastic trail out of range of the cubs. She doesn't speak, for once, and keeps rubbing herself on his scrubs. He hands her a piece of apple, but she only sniffs it a couple of times before looking away. That's not good, Louis thinks : if they refuse to eat, it'll soon turn into a real problem. As he looks around, he realizes that the rest of the angels are acting the same. Among the rare angels who bothered to reunite, no one is really eating : the older ones pick at their fruits, halfheartedly chewing on it, while the cubs seem completely disinterested from any form of nutriment. They don't even look up when Claire sets the rabbits free. It kind of breaks his heart.
"We have to do something, or else they'll languish to death," he tells Heather, who nods.
"We need Heidi," she decides and abandons her own trail on the grass to go get the Beta, but no one makes a move to snatch another piece of food.
Louis can't do much but stand here, almost force-feedings his angels, and grooming the ones he's in charge of. Alana's lost gaze gets a little bit more alive when he starts brushing his fingers through her fluff, getting rid of the twigs and fallen feathers. Soon, Tex and Chuck come closer, not quite within easy reach but close enough for him to get that they need attention. Alana eventually flies away and Chuck immediately takes her place, climbing on his ranger's lap like an over sized cat. Texeira simply sits on the ground next to him, picking nervously at her blue hair. They both look exhausted, the rim of their eyes crimson from too many tears and their wings spasming a few times.
Tex starts crying silently and curls up against his side, her arms tightening around her middle as she hugs herself. Louis can't do anything about mental health. He'd like to alleviate the pain, for real, but he's nowhere as qualified as Christine for this? He doesn't speak enochian. He can't do shit even if he really wants to. All he can do is taking care of them, hoping it would help them find their way back to happiness. So he takes his time with them, passing long minutes simply smoothing their hair and feathers, massaging their backs and talking to them. He doesn't say anything important, he's not even sure they understand what he's saying, but who cares ? Right now he's here, with them, and that's all that really matters.
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Heather eventually comes back with Heidi, who looks kind of tousled and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, if it wasn't for the glint of determination in her eyes. As soon as she takes in the sad picture that her packmates offer, she frowns and barks a low sound, making jump everyone. With her hands on her hips, she looks like a mom who just found her kids stealing the entire cookie jar. She clicks and whistles a moment in enochian, and half of the angels laying on the ground exchange a worried look before jumping on their feet and flying away.
The bunch of cubs hanging around gather around her, attentive and buzzing with unexpected energy. As soon as the Beta finishes her speech, Tora and her brother make their way towards the nest wall, looking methodically in every cave and ushering the hiding angels out of their nests, among which Evan, who looks like a walking corpse, and Jared, his reddened eyes violently standing out in the middle of his pale face. The two of them immediately stick together, walking down the path to the meadow where everyone else is. They wave at their caretakers before sitting silently at the edge of the group, but Louis doesn't miss the way their clawed hands clutch at each other desperately.
Alana comes back down from her tree with Leandro, sitting not far away from her friends, and focuses on the Beta, who's still talking. Of course, none of the humans have any idea of what's being said, but when Heidi seems done, half of the Pack - well, half of the half, he reminds himself sorely - gets up and starts cleaning the broken wall, which has been patched up hastily with a few planks. The staff isn't scared that they'd try to run away, at this point, but one or two daredevil might try to run after their missing mate and the Cheberith's rangers really can't afford losing another one.
Back to the situation at hand, the bigger angels - aka Leandro, Caleb, Roman and Nora - work together to put away the large chunks of concrete and metallic stems, while the smaller ones - Chuck, Lisa, Sean and Yuri - pick up the pieces of plaster to dump them in the bathroom space, behind the nest wall. The rest of them, or at least the ones Tora and Lewis managed to get out of their den, walk around armed with soaked pieces of fabric, ready to erase any trace of blood. The last ones, among which Evan and Jared, climb back into the nests to clean them from fallen feathers and soiled hay. Heather already picked up a shovel and puts dirt back where the truck dug holes in the ground. Louis and Claire decide to go get some scent annihilator and spay the entrances of the lower dens, erasing any proof of human presence there, expect their own. They don't get too close, of course, but they do it thoroughly, cleaning every little nook in the concrete of the wall.
By the time they're done, Christine and Zec are back and ready to help. Christine immediately goes to Heidi to talk to her while Zec walks to his best friend with a tired smile.
"How did it go ?" Louis asks, more for form than by real interest.
"He said he'd think about it, but that it clearly won't happen before we get everyone back, anyway, so..." he trails off, grabbing one of the sprays and mounting it on a long pipe to clean inside the nests.
Louis huffs deeply and rubs his eyebrow in annoyance.
"Whatever I say won't talk you out of this, am I wrong ?"
"Listen, Lou, I know where you're getting from, I really do," Zec huffs in turn, but it's more lassitude than anything. "But it can be good for us. We'll be in control the whole time. We'll be the ones deciding how long they're allowed to record. They won't even get close to our protegees if we don't want them to. I don't know what to tell you. I don't see the problem as long as we're in control."
The blonde man looks at him over his shoulder. The last few hours gave the ranger ten years, and he wouldn't be surprised if he saw his air turning grey sooner than later.
"I know it's off topic and that I asked earlier, but... Zeche, you okay ?"
The other looks at him dead in the eye for a long moment, in silence, before his head drops and his hands cling a little tighter on the spray.
"I'm scared, I think. Tired and sad, but mostly scared. What if we don't find them ? What do we do, then ? And the rest of the Pack, what will they do ? Just wait around for God knows how long, waiting for them to return ?"
"Okay, no, you can't just say that," Louis frowns and sticks his fists on his hips, not unlike Heidi earlier. "If you give up hope, everyone else will break down. I don't care if you're tired man, I am too. We all are. It's awful of me to say that but you have to hang on for us, because right now no one is even close to be strong enough to get through this without you."
"Don't tell me what I'm allowed to feel."
"Like Hell I won't ! We need you, dude, you don't get it ? I know it's super selfish of me to ask you that but..!"
"No !" Zec suddenly snaps, his hand violently banging against the wall. "You don't get to tell me how to to feel, you don't get to tell me what to do, you don't get to teach me how to deal with this fucking mess and I certainly don't need your opinion on how to cope with my world crumbling right under my eyes !"
"Oh yeah ? Well you don't get to be mad at me for trying to keep danger away from our Pack !" Louis shoots back. "You have no fucking idea of what I just lived-"
"I don't have a fucking idea ? Are you- are you kidding me right now ? Are-you-fucking-kidding-me-right-now ?" he hammers every word with his fist, leaving a smear of red on the grey stone. "I lost nearly thirty angels since I got here. I saw dozens of my kind getting slaughtered because they were angels. I just witnessed the work of a life being destroyed by shitheads who think they're better than everyone. I am haunted by the ghosts of the ones I couldn't save. And you, what did you do so far ? Oh right, you lost one angel. One fucking angel. Congratulations, bro, you just entered the big league."
"Fuck you," Louis mutters, before bumping harshly into the other man and making his way to the exist without another word.
Zec stands here, his mind empty now that he poured everything on his poor best friend that didn't deserve it. He glances down at his knuckles, distantly wondering if it will scar, when a hand lands on his shoulder. Evan is standing there wordlessly, Jared a few meters behind him. Both of them share a distraught and spent look, and he realizes he must have the exact same face right now. Zec closes his eyes and sighs, feeling deeply, utterly done with the world. Evan simply hugs him, quickly followed by the young Alpha. The three of them stand here, in front of what was Connor's den at one point, but doesn't smell anything like it anymore.