But all of them gawked the moment their eyes fell to Leah.

“Is that…” one of the guards started.

“It can’t be!” the other shouted.

Even Chantelle licked her lips at the sight of their exposed child, an image that she’d been shielded from until this point.

“Have your people stand down, Stein!” Evelyn ordered, her M16 now trained to kill. “Right now!”

The doctor rezzer blinked, now seeing the pair of living humans. “Who…? How?”

She stared deep. “It’s me again, Evelyn. Please tell me that you remember!”

So this is ‘ole Dr Frankenstein then, Liam deduced. He’d heard worlds about the man since Evelyn had few guardians from her time with Mother. But this one merely watched in shock, his mouth salivating at the sight of the three of them.

Evelyn’s eyes watered. “For Christ’s sake, Stein. It’s still got to be in your Rez somewhere. You’ve got to remember something.”

He focused onto her. “Evelyn? I’ve never known anyone by that name, except… But she…” he trailed off, staring off into nothing.

“I’m right here, Dr Frankenstein. You know it. Deep inside, you remember. Please, don’t let that sense go.”

He studied her again with fresh eyes. Tears began to form himself, and before anyone could react, he suddenly rushed forth. Liam’s heart skipped a beat as he enveloped her between his arms, but he didn’t attempt to knock her down, nor did his teeth sink into her flesh. The two just remained in place, hugging each other tight.

“I’m so sorry, Evelyn,” Stein said. “I thought you died. Mother told me that you died!”

She chuckled, made awkward with a sob. “I figured. You know how it is with her.”

“Of course I do. No one in this world could ever be half as clever as Mother. Or as stubborn, especially when it came to her goals.”

This standoff had gotten quite embarrassing for the rest of them. Liam still kept his gun on the guards, and they on him, but their weapons were now clumsy in hand. Neither side planned to use them anymore. Not with this tear-jerking reunion playing out.

Liam coughed to get their attention.

Stein turned to his guards. “You two, go to my office and wait for me. You’re not to speak a word of what you saw in here until I’ve spoken to you. Is that understood?” They looked again to each other before nodding. Stein faced Liam. “And you. I don’t know who you are, but this is my hospital, and I won’t have anyone getting purged. Put your weapon down.”

“It’s okay, Liam,” Evelyn said. “We’re good.”

He did as told.

Chantelle casually closed the door again while Stein composed himself.

He patted Evelyn’s shoulder. “You’ll have to tell me everything that happened, and I mean everything.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

She smiled. “Where to begin…”

Evelyn went through the routine from there. About Mother’s quest to bring Liam to Cheyenne, and the death of her and Hades, and the life they’d built together. She explained how well things were going until the Beholders arrived, along with their journey back to here. It was a bit rosier than the truth, but Liam was just glad to see his wife smiling so naturally again. Such events were few and far apart these days.

“So you think it might be bacterial meningitis?” Stein asked once fully caught up.

Evelyn shrugged. “I don’t know, but we can’t take the risk.”

“Have you checked her breathing? Fluid build-up might be a sign of pneumonia.”

“Breathing’s a bit spotty, but it’s her bowels that have me worried. She has no appetite but still is defecating more times than normal, and the stool isn’t solid…”

The discussion continued from there, with Evelyn regurgitating her encyclopedic knowledge of human anatomy that Mother had injected into her, while Stein floated possible alternatives, though his understanding was more theoretical than practical, the disadvantage instilled from spending his post-Hollowing life catering to the needs of corpses, and not live specimens.

In the end, they prepped a series of tests to run, with Leah’s MRI at the top of the list.

Even though they performed this task for her health, there was something particularly heartbreaking about watching his baby girl get forced into that machine. She squirmed against the bright lights and loud mechanical noises, sobbing intermittently as the image processed, only for another to be taken. As Stein explained, moving disrupted the machine, and so what should have been a quick process dragged on for hours as they tried to coax Leah into place. Sedatives weren’t exactly at the ready for one like her.

But they managed to get their scan before the sun had set, and then it was another few hours before both could analyze the results…

Only to conclude that there was no conclusion, and they would need to run a variety of blood tests to narrow the options down further.

So began their elongated stay at Mother’s Grace. Stein cordoned off a floor for their private use while calming his security force down, and only he and Chantelle could come and go as they pleased. Dutiful as ever, Chantelle quickly made trips back and forth from the Lodge, bringing more personal amenities to make their stay more comfortable.

Evelyn tried to be vigilant in keeping up with Leah’s diagnosis, but the act proved futile before long. Her body was still tethered to the rules of humanity, and succumbed to fatigue like any other. That left them at the mercy of Stein, who prioritized her examination above all else. The process still dragged for days, but nothing could be done other than to sit and wait.

Ironically, a hospital filled to the brim with wandering corpses proved to be the least likely place for disease to spread. The Hollowing killed all life but its own, so neither rodents nor pests could be found in these halls. Coupled with the added cleaning routines, and any chance for Leah to catch some rogue pathogen plummeted to nothing. Their time thus became a matter of waiting, as each test required a different length of time from start to finish, only to prompt another.

They received some good news, at least. Leah stabilized after receiving this degree of care, and they had been able to safely rule out some of the more deadly options early, like meningitis or giardia. But they still weren’t quite able to nail the bugger down, especially now that their daughter had manifested a cough in addition to her normal systems.

By dusk of the second day, Liam once again found himself alone, this time reading a children’s book to Leah with Hungry keeping watch besides. Evelyn and Stein had gone to the Bank to acquire more pre-outbreak knowledge. With the extra benefit of having their go-bags and tools once again at the ready, along with Chantelle continuing to keep watch in the lobby, there’d never been a better time than now to let it all go and relax. Liam closed his eyes and breathed deep, now letting his own desire for sleep give him this coveted break…

But then a distant commotion interrupted his slumber.

Liam blinked through his growing fatigue and frowned. What the hell was going on this time?

The radio whirred as Chantelle called in. “Liam, are you awake?”

“Aye,” he said with a yawn. This better be important. “What’s happening out there?”

“The hospital’s under attack.”

He lurched straight up, nearly knocking Leah from his lap. Before he could consider what to do next, Chantelle’s voice rolled through the radio yet again.

“It’s the Beholders, Liam. They’re coming straight for you!”