"I should have gone with him."
Azalea shook her head, that was a dark road Jake did not need to go down. Having wondered the so many what ifs of the situation, Azalea understood logically that there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent Mimosa from getting hurt. Logic of course failed when it came to the protective instinct they all felt for the little girl. The witch herself had pondered what if she had been more astute in figuring out where Mimosa was being kept in her absence. Jacques, even now by her side, was wondering how he could have rescued the child without causing her pain and now Jake too.
"Are we allowed to see her?"
"No," the witch answered sadly with another soft shake of her head, sending gentle brown waves of hair sliding down her shoulders. "Technically, no one is, the doctors just don't dare throw Jacques Clement out." And in that moment at least, she was glad for the young Frenchman's authority. At least their daughter had someone by her side, even if she couldn't tell the difference.
"What about you, are you alright? You didn't get hurt?"
"I'm okay," the brunette soothed, stroking his fingers carefully to underline the message. Ironically, she was the only one to escape unscathed out fo everyone involved. For being the reason why this mess had happens in the first place, it didn't seem fair. She should be the one lying on the bed being torn apart and reconstructed by surgeons, not her child.
When Jake asked if she had heard from the monster who had propagated all this, the witch shook her head once again, not trusting to speak aloud anything to do with him for fear of breaking down in despair or breaking out in fury. She couldn't afford to do either right now, other people were depending on her. "And its not important," she added with some level of determination as she slid closer to him. "The only thing that matters now are the children."
Sensing her movements, the Auror moved back into the sizable hospital bed, giving her enough room to crawl in beside him. There would be words later, many and frequent. But right now they had talked enough. Right now she simply wanted to know he was by her side and safe. Jake's arms wrapped around her automatically as she burred her face in his chest, listening for the familiar beat of his heart and finally, finally matching it to her own breathing.
And the world that had made no sense for weeks now, finally righted itself.
Azalea was finally home.
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