And I sat in my chair with my eyes to my dad, who was watching the sea, mourning his friend and doing it being with me.

* * * * *

“How’s Jabber?” Chen asked.

I was sitting by the hospital bed they set up for him in one of the downstairs rooms, Abel standing behind me.

And I was worried. Chen looked pale and tired even though Abel told me he’d slept most of the day.

“Worse than you but bitchin’ about not getting a cigarette even though he has a punctured lung, so I reckon he’ll make it.”

Chen gave a truncated chuckle that ended in a wince.

I reached out and grabbed his hand.

He stopped wincing and looked at me. He then looked at Abel.

Then he smiled a cheeky smile. “Destined to save the world, hunh?”

“That’s what they’re telling us,” Abel confirmed.

“Action shot in my Wikipedia entry, once we take care of that shit,” Chen declared.

I didn’t know what Abel did because I burst out laughing.

It was surprising. I didn’t think I could laugh. Not that day. Not the next. Not for a while.

But I did.

And I did because Chen was funny.

And I did because, with his words, I knew he was going to be okay.

* * * * *

“I need to find Abel,” I murmured late that evening, rising from the couch in one of the downstairs living rooms (I’d peeked in a few, there seemed to be about ten of them), my eyes moving from Leah to Sonia.

We’d had a family dinner in Jabber’s room, mostly to give him targets for his orneriness, to which he took aim and shot copiously.

Talk had drifted to biker so Jian-Li and I decided to leave them be. We found another space and Leah and Sonia found us. We shot the shit and I got the sense that the other two female parts of The Three found us just so they could take our pulse. Conversation was light but not lighthearted.

But now I needed my man.

“And I need to check in on Chen,” Jian-Li added, rising with me.

“Okay, ladies. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Sonia said.

“’Night,” I replied.

“’Night, Lilah. ’Night, Jian-Li,” Leah returned.

“Good night,” Jian-Li said.

We moved to the door, and as we did, Jian-Li tucked her hand in my elbow.

I brought it close to my side and covered it with my other hand.

Out in the hall, I asked, “You okay?”

“I’ve had days that were better,” she answered.

“Mm-hmm,” I murmured.

“Though, today was a great deal better than yesterday, so I’ll take it.”

“I hear you,” I replied on a squeeze of her hand.

We kept walking toward Chen’s room. We did this silently, but it was a long way so the silence didn’t last.

“We’re prepared, Lilah,” she told me.

I looked down at her.