Rain had been slouched across the back seat, a first aid blanket over him, a phone there to give him something to occupy himself with. As he worked his way to a position where he sat upright, Tristan worked his way past the seats to offer a gentler hand. I would have offered help, more to help reduce the stress on Rain’s body than because the strength was needed, but I wasn’t able-bodied.

Not many of us were really up to the task, now that I noticed. Sveta wasn’t weak but she wasn’t coordinated. Ashley had her screwed up arm that was misfiring. Chris was able but not inclined. Kenzie was eleven.

As for Rain—the worst damage had been healed, physically, but he’d come awfully close to dying. A serious impact in the next hour or two could phase out the healed body parts, with catastrophic consequences for both Rain and Scapegoat. When he moved, though, it was in a careful sort of way that went beyond someone reeling from physical injuries and going easy with the weird phased-in healing that Scapegoat did. We had to be ginger with the traumatized parts of him that weren’t physical.

I wanted to draw on my own experiences to empathize with him and better know what to do, but I didn’t have great experiences to draw on. I’d been badly hurt before, but the only comparable kind of harm had been followed with convalescence and a kind of sedation. That had been followed by Amy’s attentions and some erasure of memories.

A dark, heavy thought to go alongside how drained I felt in the moment.

My best comparison was being made normal, on the eve of Gold Morning. A kind of trauma that wasn’t physical, and that was definitely lasting. I could remember how I’d been in those early days and weeks, ginger in how I handled everything, including myself. It hadn’t helped that just about everyone had been reeling from the loss of Earth Bet, their homes, and loved ones.

“You comfortable?” Capricorn asked.

“As comfortable as I’m going to be the next few days,” Rain said.

“Sorry that we’re going to put more stuff on your plate so soon,” I said. “We’re trying to figure out what we’re doing.”

“I can take it,” Rain said. “I’ve learned to deal with shit.”

“Thank you for swearing,” Chris said. “One of the most annoying things about being a hero is all the goody-goody types who refuse to swear around me.”

“Well,” Rain said. He moved a bit, paused to wince, and then finished his sentence, “I think it’s firmly established that I’m not a goody-goody type. I do want to help, though.”

“It’s nice that they aren’t swearing,” Kenzie said. “They’re thinking of us.”