Scene 7-V

Lawrence thinks he needs to sit down now, probably, but he can’t remember where his chair is, and the floor is suddenly a looooong way away.

It happened, he thinks; it finally happened. It’s sort of like this is a moment he’s been waiting for his entire life, but never really thought would come, except that it’s exactly like that.

The radio might be slipping from his hand, but, yeah, not so much with the spatial sense right now, and the only nerves he can feel are the ones burning behind his eyes, and he wishes they’d go away too. His knees are… wobbling, and there’s his chair, thank god, because hardwood isn’t soft, obviously.

The blood is roaring in his ears, which is odd, because he’d kind of thought it had all rushed to his feet.

“Fuck.” He mumbles, because yeah, that’s the only thing he can say, and it’s appropriate in so many ways it’s entirely not funny.

Luke had killed someone. Intentionally. He can’t believe it, but yeah he can, and that’s the worst thing about it. Except for the part where Luke killed someone. In cold fucking blood.

The world slams into place again, and someone is talking, somewhere, and oh, that’s the radio, which did fall out of his hand, no surprise there. Numbly, he picks it back up, pressing it against an ear, arm trembling, shaking. “Hello?”

“Commander? What happened?”

“I’m sorry, radio slipped.” Lawrence says.

“We would appreciate if you flew out here as soon as possible.”

“I—yeah. I can be there in a few days, I think. Uhm.” Lawrence says, and it’s really hard to turn pages with an elbow. “Few days, yes.”

“I’ve been asked to inform you that he will be kept unconscious until you arrive.”

“That… is a good idea.”

“It’s doubtful he’d wake up before than anyway; he’s taken quite the beating. The blood loss alone would have killed him if we hadn’t gotten to him right away, and the infections will take a while to burn out of his system.”

“I’ll have his doctor come up as well.” Lawrence says, and god, how much does he not want to be the one to tell Jase about this.

“Very good, commander.”

“I—am going to go now. I think there’s an express leaving tonight I can commandeer.”

“Yessir, we will see you shortly.”

“Yeah.” Lawrence says, and he switches the radio off, and just drops it, because, because. He puts his head in his hands, and then changes his mind and just lets his head thump down onto his desk. Probably he needs to tell Julia, because she cares about Luke too, but then she’ll want to come with him, and he doesn’t want to stress her like that, and Ptok is not the best place for someone with Oliver’s, and once again he has to wonder how Luke didn’t just die as a child.

He thinks probably it was because he wanted to survive to cause him pain, and then he remembers what happened, and his heart is too heavy in his chest.

It’s so much, too much, and he really just wants to sleep until this whole mess is resolved and the unofficial war is over, but then someone else would tell Jase, and they wouldn’t be able to keep him from just… killing everyone in his path, anyone who’d ever hurt Luke, and that wouldn’t solve anything, obviously.

Lawrence’d like to just lie here for a little longer, but he has a express to intercept, and it will take some weaseling to get his way on this, but that is fucking tough for everyone else involved, because Luke killed someone today, and that isn’t going to change.

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Scene 7-V

Next: Scene 7-VI