Ordinary (Exceptional Book 3) (19 page)

“She’s perfect,” Ally said.

“That’s what I said,” Stosh said with a smile, looking down at Oakley.

“Oh Willie.” Ally looked up. “I’m sorry I had to leave you here. I thought about you often, hoping that you were okay.”

Willow smiled. “I was just fine. Champaign has been good to me. It’s become home.”

Ally looked back down at Oakley. “Welcome to this crazy world little one.”

[ ally ]

Two days later Ally was sitting outside of the medical building, basking in the heat of the sun. She had insisted on getting outside and back on her feet.

Her
foot
.

Andrea, Alexis, and Brooke had come to visit her a few times, as well as Heath. Willow had come every day, along with Stosh and Joey.

There was still no word from Luke, which worried her. If they had left a week ago, they would have definitely intercepted the group by now, but Ally knew she had to be patient. Heath said that neither Luke nor Max had mentioned returning with news, and they had no idea that Ally would be here.

She looked at the crutches next to her chair. That was what Carla had called them, but they just looked like pieces of lumber screwed together. They went under her arms and helped her to get around on one leg.

Her one leg.

She had a good cry about it that first night in the medical building. After that she decided she wouldn’t cry over it anymore. The tears wouldn’t make her leg magically grow back. She needed to overcome this, to learn how to live with this disability, it she was to continue on her mission.

Stosh and Joey seemed to think that she should just give up.

She couldn’t.

Her thoughts were disrupted by Stosh, who was sprinting down the road toward the med building. He stopped in front of her on the porch, barely out of breath.

“Max is here,” he said quickly.

“What?” Ally started to push herself up and quickly remembered that she couldn’t stand up without her crutches.

She caught herself forgetting this often, and had even fallen out of her hospital bed yesterday.

“Where?” she asked.

“Heath’s office. I saw him pull in on a transport. I came here first because I figured you’d kill me if I did otherwise.”

“You were right,” Ally said with a laugh. “Hand me my crutches.”

“What?” Stosh said. “I’m sure Heath will tell him you are here.”

“I could use some practice,” she said.

He sighed and grabbed her crutches, placing them upright in front of her. It was a slow process but she was able to push out of the chair and grab them. She nearly fell over in the process but Stosh grabbed her arms.

“That was close.”

She nodded, trying not to focus on the throbbing pain in her missing leg. Even though the wound was healed over, which was an odd sight, there was still an ache in the muscles and bone.

“Ready?” Stosh asked.

“Ready,” she responded.

It was slow going but thankfully Heath’s office was close. They were still making their way down the road when Max appeared. He wasn’t running, but he was in a brisk walk toward the med building.

“Ally!” he cried out when he saw her.

She smiled up at him. It didn’t take long for him to notice the crutches, and then his eyes naturally traveled down to the source of the need. He looked up at her with a shocked expression, pulling her into a gentle hug as soon as he reached them.

“What happened?” he asked.

Ally smirked. “Just a Rogue on the loose. You know, the usual.”

She played the situation off with humor, hoping he didn’t see through her front.

“Luke will be so glad to know you are alive,” he said. “It was hard for him not to come after you back in Zone D.”

Ally breathed a sigh of relief. Up until now she had been wondering if they had made it to the City and intersected the group. At least Max and Luke were both alive.

“What happened? Did you find the group?” she asked.

Max nodded. “It’s a long story. Let’s go to my Uncle’s office. I only came back to let him know that I was alive. I hadn’t planned on finding you here, too.”

He reached down and lifted her off her feet.

“What are you doing? I can make it along just fine,” she said.

“I don’t doubt it,” he responded. “But this is faster.”

Stosh carried her crutches and Max carried her. They were in Heath’s office in under ten minutes, and Max set her down in one of his chairs. Heath came in a few minutes later.

“Max,” he said formally. “I’m glad to see you came back in good health.”

Heath was being strangely formal. Stosh had said that Heath seemed to be having trouble with Max’s transformation, but she didn’t realize it was this bad.

“Were you able to intersect the group Luke spoke of?” he added.

“We did, and we've been working on implementing them into the City as they’ve been leaving the medical center. This is the first free day I’ve had to come back.”

“So they were friendly?” Ally asked. She felt instant relief, knowing that a band of Rogues hadn’t been about to attack the City.

Max nodded slightly. “They are kind of… unique. You’d have to see it to believe it, but so far, yes, they are friendly. We are keeping watch over them as they heal, hoping that they continue to be a non-threat. It is a day-by-day thing at this point.”

“I want to go back. Take me with you,” Ally said.

“Whoa now.” Stosh put his hand on her shoulder. “You are nowhere near ready. Carla hasn’t even cleared you to leave yet.”

Ally shrugged. “I don’t care. There are doctors in the City that can take care of me. I need to go back. I need to talk with Luke.”

“No. I’m putting my foot down,” Stosh said.

“Well I’m putting my
one
foot down,” she responded.

Stosh clenched his hands into fists by his side. “The only reason I continued on this trip after losing Sabine was to keep you safe. I wish more than anything that I could be back in Hope Town, resting by her body, but instead I’m here. And I can’t keep you safe if you don’t let me.”

Ally blinked back tears. “Don’t use Sabine as an excuse to keep me here. That isn’t fair.”

“Well neither was her death!” Stosh yelled.

“Wait, Sabine is dead?” Max asked suddenly.

Stosh and Ally both froze. Heath looked at his desk. Of course Max wouldn’t know, no one in the City would. She looked at Stosh who was doing a good job of staring at the floor.

“No,” Max said, sounding truly upset.

Ally looked at him and nodded.

“When? How?”

“I can’t talk about this,” Stosh said, standing suddenly and leaving the room.

“Stosh!” Ally called after him, but it was no use. He was gone.

“Sorry,” Max said.

“It isn’t your fault. It is still really fresh and honestly, and I’m not sure either of us have really dealt with it yet. It was about a week ago.”

“I’m sorry,” Max said, placing his hand on her knee.

Ally fought back the tears. She didn’t want now to be the time and place where she had a good cry over Sabine, but she could use one. She wiped at her eyes.

“When are you headed back to the City?” She changed the subject.

Max smirked. “I told Luke I’d be back by dark.

She smiled. “Sounds perfect.”

Stosh paced at the side of the transport, muttering angrily. Every now and then he would yell at Ally out loud.

“I can’t believe you are doing this!”

“Do you remember the infection I got from traveling with an injury?”

“I can’t lose you too.”

“I can’t believe you!”

“Are you even coming?” Ally finally asked him, tired of his moping.

“Of course I’m coming,” he said. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

Stosh was already going through a wild range of emotions with his transition. The night before he had been crying over Sabine again, and then this morning he had shut down for awhile. Now he was angry, but who knew when his emotions would switch again.

“What about you?” she asked Joey, who had apparently heard news of her departure and came running.

“Of course,” he said. “I came here to help you. I’m not going to quit now.”

Max had been looking Joey up and down since he arrived.

“Chill,” Ally told him. “He’s been traveling with us.”

Eventually they were settled in the transport. Ally in the front with Max, and Joey and Stosh in the back. She had refused to sit anywhere else, needing to see that stone wall ride out of the trees when they got close enough.

“Ready?” he asked.

She nodded. “Take me home.”

It was a relief, coming up on the stone wall around the City and not feeling fear. The first time she had been coming against her will, and the second time she had been coming to help Luke fight a war. The gate opened and Max pulled the transport forward. He had been quiet the entire ride and Ally wondered if he felt awkward, trying to find conversation between her lost leg and Sabine being dead.

She had to see Luke.

Max pulled the transport through the gate and out onto the streets of the City. Ally took in the storefronts and houses as they drove past. Not much had changed in appearance since she was last here, as this side of the City hadn’t been affected by the Rogues. However, the general mood of the City had changed. Most of the people had disappeared into their homes for the night but a few groups lingered. Exceptionals and Ordinarys alike stood and talked, all dressed in white. Ally could see the differences in the height and build and of course the violet eyes, but they all stood as equals. Their demeanor and laughter and casual expressions told it all.

“A lot has changed since you were last here,” Max said. “Before Luke left, he had started to work on getting the Ordinarys out of the Exceptional homes and into their own apartments. He had people in place to continue his work while he was traveling with us.”

Ally looked across the seats. “You two are sort of friends now, huh?”

Max smirked. “Something like that.”

Ally laughed. “See, I knew you’d like him.”

“I guess I see why you do,” he responded. “We are pretty similar.”

Ally rolled her eyes.

“Here we are,” Max said suddenly.

He pulled up to the large building in the City Center that Ally knew as the home of Luke’s office. It had also been where they kept the Rogues they experimented on, and where Ally and the others had been held when they returned to the City. It was a time Ally didn’t like to focus on, a time when Luke didn’t recognize her.

Max pulled the transport into a large doorway that Ally had never entered before. There were several doors along the wall and an elevator.

“We can go right to Luke’s office from here. He said he’d be up there tonight.”

“I’m curious to know what’s been going on,” she responded.

“It’s better if Marnie explains it,” he said.

She wasn’t sure how to take that, but she didn’t want to press the issue. Right now she was trying not to focus on the fact that her leg, or half-leg as she’d taken to calling it, was throbbing.

“Wait there,” Max said.

He climbed out of the transport and a few seconds later she heard the back doors creak open. Soon after that her door swung open and Stosh was standing there.

She was mid-wince.

“I knew this was a bad idea,” he said, climbing up next to her.

“No, I’m fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “There is just a weird throb in my knee. My body can’t seem to figure out losing a limb and healing all within five minutes.”

“Maybe I only kept my hands on long enough to heal the outside.”

He jumped back down and helped her down, lifting her into his arms and carrying her to the elevator.

“You know, I could get used to this sort of treatment,” she said.

“Don’t,” Stosh responded. “I should be making you use your crutches.”

Joey appeared beside them, holding the crutches over his shoulder. Max pulled a key card out of his pocket and inserted it into the slot by the elevator doors. They slid open and soon they were on their way up.

“Whoa,” Joey said, leaning against the metal wall. “That’s a weird feeling.”

Ally smiled. “I thought the same thing the first time I rode in one. It is better than climbing all those stairs though, especially for Stosh.”

“You’d be dragging yourself up after a few flights,” he said with a smile.

The elevator came to a stop with a
ding
and the doors opened up right into Luke’s office.

“I never noticed that before,” she said.

“They are kind of hidden in the wall,” Max said. “I guess it makes for a quick escape if needed.”

Stosh stepped into the room and put her down, grabbing her crutches from Joey. She placed once under each of her arms.

“You need practice,” he said.

“You just don’t want to admit that you’re too weak to carry me,” she bantered back.

“I’ll never be weak again,” he said with a grin.

She looked into his violet eyes. She would need to get used to the fact that he was Exceptional now. Once it had been her with violet eyes, looking at his green ones. Now the scenario was switched.

The office was empty but they moved forward anyway. Ally couldn’t take her eyes off the large desk situated in front of a wall of windows. She had seen Aden sit in that same desk. The last time she had been in this room Luke hadn’t even know who she was. This was the room where she had taken a dart for Luke that had taken away her Exceptional abilities.

Max put his hand on her shoulder, and she knew that he was remembering too.

She had just made it to the desk when she heard the door open behind her.

“… we can use these warehouses for more living space until we can start building.” Luke was mid sentence, pointing to a clipboard in his hand.

Ally recognized two of the Guards with him, both men that had been loyal to Luke from the start. Marnie and Evan were with him as well.

It didn’t take Luke long to notice that his office was more crowded than it usually was. He looked up and Ally saw his mouth pop open slightly.

He didn’t look down at her crutches. He didn’t look down at her leg.

His violet eyes stared right into her simple, moss green ones. They glowed slightly as they crinkled slightly from his smile.

The butterflies that had been dormant for so long took flight in Ally’s stomach. She tried to move forward but had forgotten about her crutches and partially stumbled. Luke was in front of her almost instantly and had his arms wrapped around her back, crushing her into his chest.