I couldn’t think of a scene in recent memory that was less in need of a ‘settle down’ than this contained world with two chairs, newspaper with wet spots, and containers arranged in a loose rectangle around them.

“Workshop’s safe, huh?”

“It’s hard to mess up when I’m in my workshop,” Kenzie said.

Candy reached down past a sleeping puppy with the softest looking fur, to put a hand on Kenzie’s knee.

“I’ve got to check on others,” I said. “I can’t relax just yet.”

“Don’t bother Rain, Sveta and Tristan,” Candy said.

“Wait, what?” Kenzie asked.

I guess I lose those five bucks.

“I heard from Cass and Chas,” I said, a little weirded out that Kenzie wasn’t fully in the loop. “Don’t worry.”

“Okay. They’re having a serious talk,” Candy said, to Kenzie. “Don’t worry. It’s not you being left out, because Victoria’s being left out too.”

Kenzie nodded slowly, but I saw the line at the dead center of her forehead, a small crease of worry.

“Do you want me to come back in thirty?” I asked. “Walk you to the workshop?”

Kenzie nodded. Crease gone.

To Rachel, I said, “Going to go hunt down Tattletale and see what information we’ve all gathered. Then I’ll fill you in, and maybe that gives you direction when you’re back at the workshop, Kenz?”

Kenzie nodded.

Yeah.

“Thank you for looking after them,” I told Rachel.

She shrugged, expression unreadable.

I headed back out, pausing at the entrance to the stable, where Cassie and Chastity were standing and sitting by the door, respectively.

“How’s Foil and Parian?” I asked.

“Parian’s napping. Foil’s gone,” Chastity said, without flinching.

“Gone as in—”

“Another settlement. With old New York Ward teammates.”

I nodded, not sure what to make of that. “I hope they don’t separate. The end of the world is bad enough as is. We don’t need to face it alone.”

“Yeah,” Chastity said. “I hope they make up too. I kind of have zero adults to look to as role models for my own relationship goals.”

“Charlotte and Forrest?” Cassie asked.

“I barely ever see them.”

“Then you need to see them more.”

They were getting into a discussion that made me feel like it’d be hard to unstick myself from. I glanced back at Rachel, and I saw her with her bandaged hand in her lap. Yips licked at the fabric. Gas-touched, if I remembered right.

Maybe the puppy thing with Kenzie was as much for Rachel as anyone.

Chastity wasn’t moving very quickly, though the dogs had largely settled down, leaning hard against her leg.

Everyone who had been in the field was hurting, tired, and the places we were retreating to weren’t necessarily warm.

“I’ll be back for Lookout,” I told the pair.