#Chapter 419- Come for Dinner
Ella
When I finally come out of my bedroom, Rafe strapped to my chest, and hurry through the hallways to the front of the palace where I asked Cora to wait for me, I find her sitting with crossed arms and a frustrated look on her face.
“Oh hey, Ella,” she says, smirking at me. “What took you so long.”
I just beam innocently at my sister, flicking my hair over my shoulder. “I don’t know what you mean, Cora. I came as fast as I could.”
“Oh,” she says, raising her eyebrows at me. “I’m sure you did.”
And then I burst into laughter as I realize that Cora – well. Cora hasn’t precisely been one to make dirty jokes in the past, has she? “Looks like Roger’s rubbing off on you,” I say, putting out a hand to help her up, which she accepts.
“He’s trying,” she says, giving me a wink and leaning down to give Rafe a kiss on his forehead. “Are you ready? Finally?”
“Oh, come on, Cora,” I say, rolling my eyes as we head for the door. “It wasn’t like it was that long of a wait.”
“Forty-five minutes! Honestly, Ella – it’s not a quickie anymore if it takes the better part of an hour – ”
“Cora!” I hiss, covering Rafe’s innocent ears and looking around at all of the people milling around at the front of the palace. “They’ll hear you!”
She laughs. “Oh, come on, Ella, they all know too. Do you know how many people asked me where Sinclair has been? I’ve been making excuses for you for well over half an hour and everyone saw right through them -”
“Oh my god,” I say as we step out the front door and find Conner waiting for us. “We will cease speaking of this! Immediately!”
“Good plan,” she says, laughing along with me as we make our way down to the cars waiting for us. We hit the road quickly after I strap Rafe into his safety seat, heading directly for the Human Camp. When we arrive, I see that Sinclair has again sent a relative army of guards, and that Isabel and Hank are waiting for us outside of the gates.
Fortunately, today they seem to be peacefully chatting, rather than standing coldly. I smile at them as I get out of the car, grateful that Isabel is as good as her word in trying to be better at accepting humans as part of the team.
“What kept you?” Hank says, coming closer to us and smiling his greeting but – characteristically – keeping his hands in his pockets and refraining from giving us a hug. I resist the urge myself, knowing it would just make him uncomfortable.
Cora smirks and opens her mouth to tell him precisely what kept us, but I step forward and beat her to it. “We were getting Sarah settled this morning,” I say, smiling at both Hank and Isabel, who were updated last night on everything we know about Sarah and Jessica. “She was kind enough to tell us her story.”
“Oh good,” Isabel says, nodding to us. “I hope that it gave you both some clarity and that you’ll be able to help her in the way that she’s helped you.” She leans down to coo to Rafe now, greeting him. The baby gratifies her by kicking happily and waving his little hands, making us both laugh.
Then, as a group of eight – nine, if you count Rafe – we head into the camp to get to work. We head again to the children’s hospitalization tent, as both Isabel and Hank identified important cases which need my immediate attention. There, we fall into our routines, all of us wanting to help as many people as fast as we can, especially considering our delay in getting here this afternoon. I grimace when I think of my stolen hour, regretting it. Tomorrow I’ll try to get here earlier so I can really help as much as I can.
When I stand up from my third patient of the afternoon, I’m surprised when Hank brings up Sarah again.
“So, she’s all right?” he asks, flipping through the next patient’s chart.
“Who?” I ask, confused.
“Sarah,” he murmurs. “And Jessica,” he adds, a little bit of an afterthought. I smile a little, watching him as he pointedly doesn’t look at me, flipping through pages which I know he’s already read.
“She’s fine, Hank,” I say, purposefully keeping my voice breezy. ” She’s going to stay at the palace for awhile – for as long as she wants, really, until she decides where she wants to live. Jessica seems really happy – she met some kittens, and is going to start going to school.”
“Good,” Hank says, letting the clipboard fall to his side and looking deliberately away from me, in the direction of our next patient. I can’t help that my smile grows a little bit as I wonder just how much Hank has been thinking about the pretty, wounded dark-haired woman whose sister we saved yesterday.
But as I study him, I consider that it could honestly go either way. He’s very cryptic, isn’t he? Is he asking out of professional curiosity for a doctor regarding a patient? Or…
“Next case is over here,” he says, stalking off. I look up at Conner, who grins down at me as we follow. I laugh a little, thinking that if Conner is picking up on it too…
Well.
Perhaps there’s a little meddling to be done.
“You know, Hank,” I say as we arrive at the next hospital bed, taking the charts from his hand and flipping through them even though I have no idea what they say. “You should come over for dinner sometime. At the palace. Catch up with us, like old friends.”
“Catch up?” he says, his voice dry. ” Old friends?”
“Sure,” I say, looking up at him with too-wide eyes.
“Ella,” he sighs, laughing a little as he shakes his head at me. “The idea of old times’ with me and your family means I’m either going to be watching you die slowly in bed or getting punched in the face for crimes I didn’t commit. So…maybe let’s cut that as an excuse.”
I laugh here, genuinely surprised by his sense of humor. I mean, he’s dead on and definitely seeing through my ploy.
“Well then come for new times, Hank,” I say, grinning at him. “It will be fun. I mean…Sarah could be there.”
“Give me this,” he mumbles, snatching at the chart in my hands, looking for a distraction from this conversation so I don’t notice the little flush in his cheeks.
“Hey, I was reading that!” I protest, laughing and holding the chart out of his reach.
“You don’t even understand what it says,” he chides, glaring at me a little but unable to help the little smile that pulls at the corner of his lips.
“Well, a girl can learn, can’t she?” I say, lofty. But I hand the chart to him with a wink. “Think on it,” I say. And then I look up at Conner. “You can come too! It will be a party!”
“Oh,” he says, genuinely surprised at the invitation as he takes the baby from me. “Um, I’m not sure that’s appropriate, Luna…I mean. I can’t… hang out with the King.”
“Why not?” I ask, confused.
“Because he’s the king, Ella,” Hank replies, rolling his eyes at me again good-naturedly. “You’re just too used to him to see how intimidating he is to literally everyone else.”
“Ohhh,” I say, waving a hand behind me as I dismiss what they’re saying. ” Dominic is nice!”
“Nice,” I hear Conner murmur to Hank behind me. “She just described the most powerful Alpha in the kingdom – maybe the world as nice.”
“Yeah, she’s…Ella.” Hank sighs.
But I ignore them, smiling down at the little brown-haired girl looking sadly up at me. “Hi, sweetheart,” I say to her, reaching out and offering my hand. “My name is Ella. What’s yours?”
