It was the evening.

It was the evening and everyone was exhausted. What was meant to be a smooth, simple plan of finding Mattie and recruiting more mutants to their army turned out to be an emotionally and physically tiring rescue mission. Morrighan had been waiting for the three of them when they exited. In a brief explanation: she teleported them out, back to the motel. Jacob was glad. He was ready to crash. In truth, he didn't even have the energy to be worried about his brother. He was irritated. He was lonely. He was exhausted beyond belief in more ways than one.

They had just made it to the motel room when Nicholas fell. Even Mattie's hold on him couldn't stop him from dropping to his knees. His senses weren't numb anymore and the pain from the wound was excruciating. Surprisingly, he didn't make a noise. He did, however, being breathing heavily and erratically. Jacob turned to him and crouched down, holding out his hands. "Come on," he said, "We're almost in."

Nicholas took his brother's hands and lifted himself up. With a few heavy, stumbling steps, he made it to lean against the wall next to the door. Jacob pulled out his key card and swiped it, letting Nicholas and Mattie into the room first.

"Mattie," Nicholas said once they were in. His voice was pained, but grateful. "Thank you for helping him find me, and thank you for stopping me from signing that paper." Mouth open, he looked like he wanted to say more, but he didn't.

"Lay back down, Nick," Jacob commanded. "You've been sweating and you're probably dirty and that wound can't get infected. I hate to say it, but we might need to take you to a hospital."