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Tell me that in ten years, when our daughter’s in therapy because her biological mom beat up her fake, kidnapping mom right in front of her.

Revik only clicked in amusement.

Should one of us go in alone first?I’d asked nervously, watching as Chinja pulled open the thick, organic hatch.Try not to overwhelm her too soon?

No,Revik said. He hadn’t looked away from the opening. Instead, he’d only gripped my hand tighter.No, we go in together.

He’d sounded so sure, I relaxed a little.

Feeling his eyes on me, I’d glanced up, and saw his mouth pursed in a faint frown, amusement in his eyes.

I think you really are more nervous than me,he said.

Or you’re hiding it better,I said.

Maybe.

My stomach knotted and clenched as we walked towards that opening in the wall. I found myself thinking about little Lily crying after I’d knocked Cass out, how she’d watched me suspiciously the whole time back on the helicopter.

Probably not,I admitted to Revik, quieter.Hiding it better, I mean.

Pulling me closer, he smiled, sending a warm pulse to the middle of my chest. He’d been really affectionate with me that day… I remember that, too.

He also sent a thread of pain, one I felt all the way down to my feet.

I’d thunked my shoulder into him when he did that. I also smacked the forearm connected to the hand I held in both of mine.

Stop it,I sent sternly.Not in front of the baby.

That made him laugh, causing Tenzi, Chinja, and Declan to aim puzzled looks in our direction. When I glanced back, only Balidor looked amused. Catching my glance, he made a shooing motion with his fingers towards the door, that half smile still on his lips.

“Stop stalling, Esteemed Bridge,” he said, his voice joking.

I remember Tarsi being there, too.

Like Balidor, she shooed me towards the tank.

“Go on,” she said in her heavily-accented English. “Won’t get any easier with you hiding out here, girl.”

I wasn’t quite able to smile in return.

“We need to visit Maygar, too,” I muttered at Revik.

He’d only nodded to my words.

Of course, I found out later he’d been visiting Maygar every day since we got back to the ship. It threw me at first, the realization that Revik and his son had a real relationship now, one I knew absolutely zero about.

Truthfully, I still felt out of step with a lot of things.

“He wants to talk to you.” Revik spoke up from the floor, looking up from where he was still making his rabbit bright blue, despite Lily’s scolding. “About Dubai. About how you want to use him there. He thinks I’m sidelining him after what happened in Macau.” Rolling his eyes a little, he smiled at me. “He’s still blaming himself. For Jon getting stabbed.”

I smiled, clicking softly. “You’d never know it, with how he grumbles at Jon.”

Revik lifted an eyebrow at me. “He’s a complex person.”

I laughed. “Wait. Could you say that again? A little louder? I want to make sure it got recorded by surveillance.”

Revik grunted, but gave me another smile.