Surprisingly, Jamie slept through the entire night. 

When he woke up in the morning, two things startled him—for the first time in a long while, moving his limbs wasn't such a struggle, and although his vision was blurry without his glasses, at first glance he could tell he wasn’t facing the yellow walls of the motel.

After a few seconds, realization set in, and he remembered not only that he’d slept at Eli’s place, but also that Adrian was responsible for his improved condition. 

The relief from that realization was quickly replaced by fear. 

All his false memories had taken place in this world—in Legion, near his team. What if he never truly escaped? What if Creed was also a figment of his imagination? What if…?

“Jamie?”

First, he heard a sleepy voice, and then he felt the touch of something cold and metallic on his hand. After years of experience, he quickly recognized it as his glasses and automatically put them on.

When his vision sharpened, the first thing he saw in front of him was Eli’s face. His cheekbones were still more pronounced, his face more sharply shaped, and although the shadows under his eyes had partly faded after sleep, they were still there. Moreover, when Jamie looked a bit higher, instead of messy blonde hair, he saw a buzzcut.

His pulse slowed, and his momentary panic eased for a while.

Not quickly enough, however, since his teammate had clearly noticed it. “Are you okay?”

The dark-haired hero nodded automatically. “It’s just…”

“Strange?” Elias finished for him when Jamie couldn’t find the right word.

The hero with glasses nodded and then looked around the room. To his surprise, the dark-haired stranger was still lying peacefully, his face buried in the backrest of the couch and the blanket pulled all the way up to his neck. The same, however, could not be said about the rest of the hero team.

“Someone had to go to work this morning, so Xavier volunteered again. Nate went with him,” Eli explained when he noticed where he was looking.

Jamie didn't even get a chance to ask his next question out loud, as the last hero missing from the room—despite still having a mattress on the floor—suddenly appeared in the kitchen doorway. He held a steaming mug, and from the scent alone, it was clearly tea.

When the youngest member of the team noticed Jamie was awake, his expression shifted quickly, and by the way he scrutinized him, it was clear he was checking his condition. Jamie truly felt better, so he shook his head, letting him know he didn't need help.

“Everyone will be back as soon as possible. Nate had the idea that we could work from here, but he needs to find out if he can access all the databases on his laptop so he doesn't have to move his desktop,” Eli spoke again, regaining the dark-haired hero's attention. 

Jamie frowned. “Doesn't he need to go to school?”

Up close, he watched as the blonde’s expression changed, and since he knew him well, he could tell he wanted to say something but didn't know how. So he prompted him: “Eli…”

“Nate paused his studies. He’ll be graduating a year later,” the freckled man explained, and Jamie initially knit his brows in confusion, not understanding why Eli had hesitated to tell him—but then he understood.

If one of them had disappeared, Jamie was sure he would have put his own life aside to do everything he could to find them. After all, the story of Eclipse remained a chilling example of what happened when a team was too late.

Nevertheless, deep down, the hero in glasses felt a pang of guilt that Nate—who had undoubtedly managed being a hero and a student simultaneously until then—suddenly had to choose what was more important.

“Do you want something to eat? I can make breakfast for everyone,” Adrian suddenly cut into their conversation, changing the subject. There was no doubt it was intentional. 

“I could eat,” Eli replied, then turned back to Jamie with an expectant look. 

They both wanted to see him eat, still worried about him, and since Jamie didn't want to add to their fears , he nodded. “That sounds good. Thank you.”

Adrian didn't hesitate and turned away, though not before casting one last glance in Creed’s direction. The stranger was still sleeping as if he weren't in a foreign place, so Jamie knew he was also in worse shape than he let on. He doubted, however, that he could convince him to let Adrian examine him.

“Have you notified leadership that we’re here yet?” 

Jamie recalled Creed’s reluctance to come here and his protests against involving Legion. He still had no idea what the man had against the organization, but after a month with him, he’d caught enough of his paranoia to start questioning if they were safe here, too.

“Not yet. Why?”

At Eli’s answer, he breathed a sigh of relief, even though he didn't like his own reaction. After the year he’d been through, however, he didn't intend to take anything lightly—especially when his return could now put the others at risk as well. 

However, he didn't know how to explain it out loud. 

Not when he didn't have all the answers and explanations himself.

Before he tried to respond to the blond, he looked beside him again, where the dark-haired man was curled up, his chest rising gently as he still slept peacefully. After all those weeks in the chair he had barely fit into, the couch had to be a positive change.

“Jamie,” Elias addressed him before he could come up with an answer.

Green eyes met brown ones.

“What are you afraid of?”

The hero with glasses pressed his lips together tightly as he searched in vain for the right words. “It’s complicated,” he finally said—a sentence he had once hated hearing from Creed, but now understood was the only one that fit.

The man with freckles frowned slightly, though he didn't seem angry at the lack of information, only concerned.

Then he surprised Jamie when, instead of asking more questions, he said, “I’ll protect you, no matter what happens.”

The sincerity of his words reflected in his eyes. The warm brown was like a blanket made of honey, promising comfort and acting almost like a shield between them and the outside world, because Jamie had trouble tearing his gaze away from him. Even though he was still in his apartment and not in his own, Elias’s presence gave him a feeling of home and safety.

He didn’t even realize he hadn’t answered him and had just kept looking at him until he felt movement beside him and the waking stranger stole his attention.

Creed looked calm for exactly five seconds before he fully opened his eyes and realized he wasn’t in the same place where he had woken the day before. He quickly pushed himself upright, and his face reflected the pain the movement caused him. Unfortunately for him, it happened at the exact same moment Adrian entered the living room.

“What’s wrong?” The team medic immediately came closer.

Creed did the exact opposite and shifted backward in his seated position as much as the couch allowed him. His gaze was cautious as he watched the man—roughly his own age—and it was obvious he hoped to put as much distance between them as possible.

Adrian was clearly confused, and after his expression turned puzzled and he received no explanation—since the stranger remained stubbornly silent—he turned to his teammate.

“He doesn’t trust easily,” the hero offered as an explanation, even though it wasn’t entirely accurate.

The youngest member of the team nodded in understanding, but then immediately shifted his gaze back to Creed and, still visibly concerned, said, “Still. If you need help, just say so. There’s no reason for you to stay in pain.”

Again he received no answer, but this time he accepted it and turned back to the two heroes.

“Breakfast is on the table. I was just about to make coffee.”

Elias stood up first, but he didn't take a step forward until Jamie stood beside him, and the dark-haired hero almost expected him to take his hand again, but that didn't happen.  Instead, he simply stayed close and moved almost like his shadow.

Since Eli was his support, Jamie still tried to be Creed’s. He didn’t have the same confidence in this team, and so his movements resembled those of an animal in captivity.

All three moved into the kitchen side by side, the blonde giving up the seat next to Jamie to the dark-haired stranger, while he sat next to Adrian.

“Do you drink coffee?”

It took Creed a moment to realize that the hero now sitting opposite him was speaking to him again.

At first he shook his head, then confirmed it aloud as well. “No.”

Fortunately for him, Adrian didn’t ask anything more and shifted his attention back to his teammates.

“Eat first, I’ll make your coffee afterward.” Although he tried to make his words sound as if they were meant for both of them, his fleeting glance toward Jamie made it clear they were intended primarily for him.

Maybe they hadn’t spent much time together, but the hero was sure that even a year ago he had still followed his routine of prioritizing work over food and had lived mostly on coffee at his desk.

On one hand, it seemed Adrian had made a lot of food just to ensure Jamie would eat—treating him almost like a child since he had a tendency to skip meals—but on the other hand, it gave the hero a sense of security, as if not much had changed in the time he was gone.

They ate practically in silence, since it seemed no one could come up with suitable breakfast conversation. They all had questions, but either they didn’t want to start with them so early in the day or they were still considering where the boundaries were.

In the end, however, it had to come, and the hero with glasses wasn’t surprised when they were sitting in the living room, practically in the same positions as yesterday, and Adrian turned to him with the question:

“Can you tell us anything?”

He probably also wanted to ask about his condition, but since Jamie wanted to keep that secret for now, he was helping him with that. Even so, it gave him an advantage, and he knew that whatever had happened to him had brought him into a state only he had seen when he touched him.

Jamie nodded, even though he didn’t know where to begin.

“I don’t think there’s much,” he admitted right away, since he knew he would have to do it eventually anyway, because they would find out sooner or later on their own.

Besides, since he hadn’t had any trouble with his voice since morning—although he was still instinctively trying to conserve it—it made him want to talk more after all those weeks when his vocabulary had been limited.

Adrian had worked a miracle for him with a single touch, and he wanted to repay him for it.

“I guess I should tell you first that I don’t remember the last day before I disappeared. I tried to remember what happened, or who took me where, but nothing,” he admitted honestly, causing both heroes to frown.

They both had to know that whatever Jamie said wouldn’t be good news, but knowing it and hearing it out loud were clearly two different things. Since they had already started this conversation, however, the hero with glasses decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

“Can you tell me?” Although the question was meant for both of them, he automatically turned his gaze to the blond.

Elias nodded, and his expression softened, as if he didn’t want to frown directly at him.

“You were working on a case. A week before, we found a woman’s body. She had strange injuries, though someone had tried to frame it as an overdose. It didn’t sit right with you, and you decided to look into it more—” he explained gradually, and Jamie realized he had no idea what he was talking about. His words didn’t automatically bring back any memories he had apparently lost.

“—The last thing you told us was that you wanted to check a lead you’d found. After that, you didn’t come back. We found your phone in the building of an old laundromat.”

A laundromat?

“Which one?” Jamie asked quickly, and his eager tone visibly surprised his teammates.

“In the Dregs.”

The Dregs was the name locals used. In reality, that part of the city was called the Old Quarter. It was the place where those forgotten by society ended up, and it had the highest number of homeless people and addicts.

It was also the same district where Jamie had been investigating his final case in his mind.

“And the victim’s name?” he asked, starting to have a bad premonition.

“Amelia Ross.”

A chill ran down his spine.

Whoever had gotten into his head and tried to confuse him had succeeded.

Jamie almost felt that whoever had decided to hurt him had a higher goal than just getting him out of the way of an investigation. It almost seemed like they wanted to destroy his consciousness. To cut him off from reality so completely that he could never return to it.

If Creed hadn't saved him, was there any chance he would have ever returned to the real world? And would he have even been able to tell the difference?

“Did you remember?” 

His teammates had clearly interpreted his stiffness differently. Jamie didn’t know whether to shatter their hopes. It was enough that he himself realized how much his life had been destroyed in a single year.

“No.” In the end, however, he chose the truth. “It’s…”

“Complicated,” Eli finished for him when he fell silent for a few seconds.

The dark-haired hero nodded and shifted his gaze to Creed. It hadn’t been his plan to apologize to him with a look, but he hoped at least to give him some sign that he understood now.

Dark eyes returned his gaze, and a quiet question seemed to form within them. Since Jamie had no idea how to break the bad news to his team, he decided to nod and leave it to Creed. Besides, he sort of hoped that, thanks to this, he would also learn something more. 

Perhaps something that wouldn't lead him to the tears of despair he felt stinging the corners of his eyes.