KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Rescued: part 1

Sophie hadn't been expecting Keefe to kiss her, but she guessed she should've known Keefe would find creative ways to keep his mom distracted.

And the kiss, though it had been swift and lasted only a second, had been surprisingly comforting in the middle of all of her humiliation and terror.

And then...everything had happened so fast.

Keefe stared, for a second, as his mother's body, still and lifeless on the floor, before turning to Sophie.

Tam was by their side in an instant, using the shamkniv to cut her bonds before crouching down beside Sandor.

"The trolls," Linh said. "We can't expect Grady to hold them off much longer."

Keefe marched away, telling everyone to plug their ears just in case.

He came back in a moment later. "They're asleep," he said shortly. He looked pale and was trembling, but was still in command of himself. "I'll let you guys decide what to do with them, but I need to get Sophie, Sandor and Fitz to the Healing Center now."

And he helped her stand, careful not to jostle the arm with the slashed shoulder. She wasn't sure how much blood she'd lost but was feeling woozy and used her uninjured arm to cling to Keefe for support.

It felt like he was clinging to her too.

She looked over at Fitz, who was still staring at Gisela's body.

He didn't look good.

She understood why Keefe wanted to get Fitz out of there and assessed by Elwin.

Fitz? She transmitted.

I had to, I had to.

Yes, you did. Thank you. Hang in there.

Keefe, conversely, was actively avoiding looking at Gisela.

"I'm not leaving Sophie," Dex declared. "Not until I can hear from Elwin that no permanent damage has been done because of..." his hands clenched around the ability restrictor as his voice trailed off. He cleared his throat. "Plus I'm not sure Fitz's concentration is up to light-leaping with Sandor."

Keefe nodded, looking at Grady--who was crossing the room towards them--as he pulled out the crystal that would leap him to Foxfire.

Grady placed his hand on Sophie's uninjured shoulder and kissed her cheek. "I'll stay behind to help take care of these trolls, but I'll see you at the Healing Center as soon as possible."

Elwin and Livvy were ready for them. Elwin got to work on Sophie immediately, cleaning her wound and applying wound wipe while Edaline held her hand, tears of relief streaming down her face.

Keefe was sitting next to Sophie on the bed, an arm extended and lightly holding the hand of her injured shoulder. She could tell he wanted to stay close, but didn't want to get in Elwin's way or ask Edaline to move.

When Elwin had addressed her shoulder, he began checking around her head, looking for any lasting effects of the ability restrictor.

"How's Sandor?" Sophie asked. "I never saw her hurt him, but...I was sedated at first, until they put the restrictor on me." She shuddered, and Edaline held her hand more tightly.

Livvy and Wylie were standing over Sandor, still unconscious, lying on a nearby bed.

"He doesn't actually seem to be hurt at all," Livvy assured her. "She must've been dosing him pretty regularly with sedatives to keep him unconscious."

Sophie shook her head. "She kept him bound and gagged but mostly conscious and just had trolls standing guard. It wasn't until she knew you guys were coming that she sedated him. That way she could hide the trolls. I guess she thought the restrictor would keep me from communicating with Fitz. I don't understand why she didn't know he'd still be able to communicate with me. I guess she assumed my thoughts would be too scrambled. And she never knew I could read Leto's thoughts--with a lot of effort--with the other restrictor on, and this one was definitely not as powerful...but also not as tailored to me." It had been excruciating, but she had been able to mostly keep her thoughts on track while wearing it. Unable to transmit long distances, apparently, but able to think coherent thoughts while Fitz transmitted to her.