It could have been forever. That's how it felt.

Jaylandra felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Henry, he was talking. She felt she was underwater. She could see his mouth moving, she could hear sounds, but it was as if the sound and the image were out of synch. She couldn't understand anything. She stared at him. The gentle hand gripped one of her shoulders now, and then the other, then one hand left one shoulder.

He slapped her cheek.

"Jax!"

She could hear, and her cheek stung. 'Why?' she unconsciously rubbed her cheek, and blinked.

"Jax, get out of the way. You're blocking the team."

Jax got to her feet and stepped back so the medical team could manoeuvre their stretcher. She looked around, she couldn't work out what had happened, she couldn't seem to take anything in. The medical team shoved her aside, none to gently, and with their wet cloths they wrapped Adze before very carefully lifting him onto the stretcher.

"One, two, three."

He was on it. Some of his skin had remained burned onto the metallic exterior of what had been Sophie.

Jax eyes focussed on those scraps of skin, she remembered something, but no, she couldn't grasp it. As Adze was carried past her, she tried to reach out and touch him.

Henry was there again, he had in fact, not gone anywhere. He clasped her wrists in his hands, and sought her eyes.

"Leave him for now. We'll go see him later. He's still alive Jax. That's what matters."

Jax nodded, she didn't feel connected to anything, she was a floating presence, here in her safe place, her retreat, her lab. Here, where the worst possible things had happened. She glanced around the room again. Their tea room hadn't been touched at all ....it had just burned around this one side of the lab, the area next to the communications room and next to three tiered open shelves  full of tools.

It had been a quiet nook for Sophie to sit sometimes and read to Hunter, she had seen a rocking chair on an old video she'd downloaded from her files, and the Homeless had made one for her as a present for being such a good Nannybot.

The Homeless had taken an even greater proprietary view of her, ever since she had become Hunter's tutor. They beamed with pride when they happened to pass the small robot/boy unit, as they went about the compound, busy with recently acquired jobs.

Joel had quickly stepped back into his role as the administrator of the compound, now that Ben was so gravely ill.

The medicos had been able to access Ben's body first, and he had taken precedence over Adze in any case due to his more severe burns.  Although the difference between them seemed negligible.

No one knew what to do about Sophie, or the charred remains of a book in her delicate hands. They  put wet cloths on her burned skin, but the medical unit was waiting for directions from Jax. Henry told them to lift her onto the bench where Jax had worked on her most often, then guided the stunned Jax to their tea area. He plopped her onto a chair.

Time had attenuated, this whole incident had taken place in minutes, but to Jax it had been so long. A big voice boomed, "let me pass!"

Joel had posted guards on the three entrances to the lab.

At the sound of the voice Jax's head snapped up.

"Dad?" She turned to Henry, "it's my Dad" relief washed through her and she buried her face in her hands and began to sob.

"I'll get them to let him in."

Jax didn't lookup, just wiped uselessly at her eyes and nose. "I'll bring you a hanky too." Henry gave her a small smile, patted her on the back, and hurried away, glad to have something to do.

"This is Jaylandra's father" he told the guards, "let him in." The guards dutifully stepped back to allow Maduka entry.

He was followed shortly after by Saul, who had been at the medical center, and they either didn't notice or didn't care, that a skinny boy with a mop of black hair, snuck in behind their boss Saul Zimmerman.

Saul's face was a reflection of Jax's. It was a mask of horror and disbelief. Everything had been slotting into place so well, he had felt his plans were about to come to fruition, and now this. He could barely believe what was in front of him, or the initial reports that suggested the fire began with Ben.

Jax tilted her face toward her Dad like a sunflower, her face was one of abject misery.

Maduka brought his big comforting bulk over to her and hugged her agains his body. She didn't even care that her face was squashed, all she felt was the grateful release of some small part of her anxiety and overwhelming grief. They stood there in silence for some minutes, and when she finally pulled away so she could breathe more freely, there were the prints of his antique buttons on her face. Her eyes flicked up to his for a moment, but the look of compassion was too hard the handle for the moment, so, she focussed on those buttons that had pressed into her cheek a moment before. She had always loved his buttons. They were relics from before the war, and very valuable, many were made from pristine plastic, some were metal, and others real shell. Her Dad had a collection of them, and used them sparingly on any new article of clothing. Some had been used on her dresses when she was young. She had been allowed to play with them when she had been particularly well behaved. She trained her eyes on them now, Maduka had used the metal ones on this jacket, they were like old friends to Jaylandra, she reached out and touched them gently, counting from top to bottom to soothe her agitated emotions and bring her mind back into use.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, one, two, three..." she was murmuring under her breath.

"Jam" the use of his pet name for her broke the cycle and she squinted up at him. "We have to help your 'bot my girl." Jaylandra just blinked. "Your Adze damn near killed himself trying to save her."

She nodded, Maduka stepped back to give her space to rise, the action around them muted into a distant rumble and the comings and goings of people broke around their statue like stillness, waves upon a rock.

Jax looked into the far distance and took a deep breath.

"Okay," she said.

Maduka rubbed her back, "good girl."

The two of them made their way into the mess that was the far end of the lab, charred objects lay twisted on the floor and on the shelves, there were unburned areas where the bodies of Ben and Sophie had lain.