Nothing Less than Extraordinary

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Seconds later, Warren was dropping his crutches and taking me into a warm hug that I had never been in. He let go, but with a hand still around my shoulders, he held his hand out to Cheshire out of respect that I wouldn't guess from him. Cheshire reluctantly took the handshake with a nod and then Warren remembered whose house we were in. He spun me around to face the parents of Zaine.

"This is Aspen and Cheshire," he introduced before balancing on his left leg to grab his knocked over crutches. One look at his casted leg and I was sent memories of it being elevated in a hospital room.

"Marshall Union," Zaine's Dad said, extending a hand. "This is my wife Lindsay."

I shook both of their hands and felt how Marshall's were rough like his son's, but Lindsay offered Zaine's gentle touches he had with me. They welcomed us into their living room and I struggled to keep my eyes off of the mantle and walls full of family pictures.

"What are you doing here?" Warren asked, taking a seat by me.

"We should be asking you that," Cheshire commented, but I rolled my eyes at him and dismissed it.

"I came to talk to them," I looked at the Unions. "...about Zaine."

"Huh," Warren said and got a devious look on his face. "I'm almost tempted to ask what exactly you were going to say—not that I haven't told them everything to this point."

That made me worry. Warren had stuck around in the hospital. He knew everyone's condition. He knew...Zaine's condition. I had prepared to tell Zaine's parents what had happened with an open ending that I didn't know yet presumed, but whatever Warren said would be much more prominent. Not only did he have to share condolences about Emma, but he had to tell them the truth about Zaine that I didn't have.

"Trust me, with all the time in the car of hearing her practice what she's going to say, you don't wanna do that," Cheshire assured, making me want to smack him yet again.

"Well then I guess I saved us all then," Warren figured. I looked over at the Unions who seemed to cling to our words.

"I'm so sorry," I told them. "About Emma. About Zaine. About...everything that mutations have caused to disrupt your family. I just...I felt bad about Zaine and I knew that it's your worst nightmare to just have your son at gunpoint and have the chance to never see him again so—"

"How do you know that?" Lindsay asked me.

"Are you working for Macintyre?" Marshall accused, knowing that by my words, I had spied on a past conversation.

"What—"

"No," I interrupted Cheshire before he would disrespect them in any way. "We're just trying to track him." I looked at Warren who held a permanent frown on his face now. "That's also why we came here. We need any and everything we can get against Macintyre so he suffers the consequences for what he did to our school and our friends. His past with Zaine can do that."

"There's no way Macintyre's going to do down for this," Warren said. "Macintyre's profile is too innocent. Even though he's advocating the Cure, he has no provable blood on his hands because to the Agency and the government involved, Jase and Chevy were in charge. Considering Jase is dead and Chevy is out on the loose, it's much easier to put the blame on them than open a case about a five-star general."

"But that isn't true. He worked above Jase and Chevy—he knew more than them about everything," I reasoned. Warren shook his head.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "Years of research on Zaine could be seen as an attempt to cure his mutation or a failed attempt to weaponize it. Either way, the day after he left all the experiments, he was enrolled into the Academy. That looks a lot like recruitment on Maxwell's part—that they're already investigating, by the way—more than anything against Macintyre."