After the End: Book 4

70. The Puzzle

A/N: I'm going to be so sad when this story is over. It's silly but I'm genuinely a little emotional. These characters are my children at this point.
But I have a few things I'm working on so now I have to decide what's getting posted next. I think I have something in mind. It used to be on my profile but I took it down. It needs major edits.
We shall see.
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Louis POV

Francoís was holding the most coherent conversation I thought I'd ever heard from him. It was almost entirely in French, and to be fair, I didn't know that much French, but it seemed like he was staying at least loosely on plot. As he spoke to Cory, who was on speaker coming through my cell phone that sat before him on the windowsill, they both slipped in and out of English with very little structure. She had a way of sounding fascinated with every word that came out of his mouth, and he seemed just as eager to talk to her. I wondered how often he actually got to speak French.

The very second he'd heard her utter her greeting to him, "Bonjour grand-père! Comment sont les rainbows? Beautiful, aren't they?" He'd not even paused to question who he was speaking to. Although it became rather clear throughout the conversation that he didn't really know. It didn't seem to matter. Cory didn't seem to mind, and she spoke with the same tenderness and kindness regardless. It was very obvious she cared for him. Her voice alone conveyed it. I was starting to recognize affection in her voice when she talked to certain people. It wasn't much at all like the cold Cory that I remembered.

It didn't seem to matter to me that morning whether or not I was on time to work. To be clear, I was atleast an hour later than planned, but it wasn't like anyone but Melvin was waiting on me. I wasn't to speak to anyone on Harry's team. Becca was at her mums reveling in unemployment. Harry was at home on the sofa unmoving, potentially stuck for the day already. Nobody that I wanted to see was there waiting for me.

I actually felt a lot like I did the day I went back to work after my mum and Lux died. Harry was gone. My creative consulting partner was gone. Back then I at least had Becca, but I had her at an arms length. Now I didn't even have her.

So I settled on hiding. Franky and I had a lovely morning. Then it occurred to me that Cory hadn't spoken to him since leaving, and the thought made me sad. I'd called her. We had an awkward conversation where I confirmed I'd been visiting her sickly grandfather. She asked why. I didn't really have an answer. She asked how much I knew. I didn't even try to answer. Then I offered to put him on the phone and she'd accepted without hesitation.

"Franky, darling!" The sound of a nurse pulled my attention. I looked over my shoulder to see a younger one wandering into Franky's room. "It's time to say goodbye hun. You have an appointment."

Franky said something completely unintelligible back to her which made her smile. He handed my phone back to me, and I stepped away to allow the nurse space to talk to him. I observed his jovial demeanor for a moment, and I found something strangely calming in it, which was maybe why I kept coming back.

Then I realized Francoís hadn't hung up the phone, and Cory was still on the line. I still took a second to wave goodbye before turning around to leave the room, and bringing the phone back to my ear.

"He's in a lovely mood," I told her without saying hello.

"I could tell," she agreed.

Her voice was certainly much softer than it had been in person. She was maintaining much more gentleness since being gone than I was used to. I actually kind of liked it.

"I'm glad someone is going to see him," she conceded after a pause. "Did you...?" She trailed off her inquiry.

"Harry knows," I answered anyways. "I brought him to visit. Remember I told you I'm a horrible friend with no boundaries? They got along swimmingly by the way."