Sitting in the Lindons' study, Melody smiled warmly at the little gray capsule that now rested comfortably in the center of her upturned palm, a familiar feeling welling up inside her as she took in the features of its tiny little occupant. That short black hair, those friendly blue eyes...and that little wetsuit certainly accentuated his athletic body well. More important, though, was the person that was within that handsome little shell. That was what had steadily kindled the feelings of love and adoration she felt for him over the last seven years, stoking it from the light sparks of a first crush to the open flame of desire it had become the last three.

She never really got tired of that feeling, nor did she ever stop being amused by it. That such a tiny little guy had captivated her so...it was as if a mortal had stolen fire from Olympus, and that thought just made that fire rage more.

She had always been fond of Claire's older brother. When she was six, he was the coolest, cutest thing, and one of the best things about getting her handling clearance so early was that she could start holding and helping him whenever she came over to play with Claire. He had been so brave about that, too, despite the fact that the only other Omega who had ever handled him before then was Mrs. Abby. He had simply trusted wholeheartedly that she wouldn't harm him, and his assurances of that feeling of trust had done so much to shore up her confidence as she prepared to handle the visiting Beta classes. He had been just as supportive of Jenna when she, too, had been cleared.

And, despite how much they had teased Claire as she fell behind everyone else in having her control cleared, he had been there for his little sister as well. Encouraging her in her practice, building up her confidence. She knew for a fact that he had let Claire pick him up before being cleared to, and while it had been reckless, it had also been the sweetest thing. Being able to legally handle Betas had meant the world to Claire, and he had done everything he could to help her with that.

Of course, Melody hadn't stayed a little girl forever, and when she turned thirteen that innocent little crush had started to develop. By this point, Melody had developed an interest in soccer and was playing goalie on the Institute's team with Claire. Corey had been playing the same position on a Beta team for the past several years, and their schedules were aligned so that there were no conflicts. Corey had made it to every game to watch Claire play, and she remembered silently hoping that he paid attention to her as well. The elation she had felt when he first talked to her after a game, going over what she had done well and how she could improve...well, it had been palpable. It was a shared interest, and she had looked forward to every post-game chat.

When the opportunity to act as an assistant chaperone for his team opened up, she had practically jumped at it. The position itself was mostly meant as a bonding exercise, something extra to help acclimate the participating Omegas to their role as protectors. Mrs. Abby was usually the primary chaperone, but it was still effective in instilling what it was meant to. It was...dangerous, to let the Betas congregate on their own in a fairly open place. They could place a sonic emitter to deter wildlife, but Alphas were another story. They had a tendency to...interfere, so Dr. Everett had started sending chaperones with outdoor Beta sports teams to keep an eye on things.

Her first trip to one of his games had been amazing. Well before the game started, she had held her hand above the field, and it had been something else to see that her hand could almost cover the entire thing. As she watched them play, she couldn't help but picture them playing in her hand instead. Her little giggle when she thought about a player slipping and rolling safely into the crevice between two of her fingers had resulted in an embarrassed blush when Mrs. Abby scowled at her, along with several of the Beta spectators.

What had ultimately struck her, though, was just how aggressive the Betas were at the game. If God had blessed them with any particular strength, it was a ridiculous amount of stamina. They seemed to play at full bore all game, and the number of shots Corey had to defend compared to her own seemed insane. His reads and reactions had been superb every time, though. The only ball that got past him was on a penalty shot, but that came with five minutes left in the game and a 2-0 lead going into the shot. Corey's team ultimately won handily. She supposed the other goalie had played well too, but truthfully she hadn't paid as much attention to him.

All in all, it had been a fun two years, but eventually Corey had had to move on as he graduated from his high school. Melody had continued acting as a chaperone even after that point, of course, and it was still something she volunteered for now, but she would be a liar if she said she didn't miss his presence there. She had grown accustomed to carrying him home during away games, or at least sharing him with Claire, separate from his teammates who usually stayed with his mother.

They had usually discussed classes, as she enjoyed hearing about school life for Betas and he liked to hear about the Institute. This had lead to him offering to tutor her in math, something she had been terrible at, and she had eagerly accepted, still keeping her thoughts to herself. She knew she was just a family friend at that point, and that was fine. That age gap did exist, and she didn't expect him to think of her in the way she wanted him to at that point.

The tutoring had ultimately played the biggest role in developing her feelings, she realized that. Not simply because it was a nice thing for him to do for her, but because it gave them a chance to talk, and a frequent topic of discussion had been what they wanted to do with their lives. The answer, for both of them, was that they wanted to help people. Make their lives better.

That shared drive was what had transformed that little crush into what it was today. His excitement at starting at the new university, of being part of the first generation of Betas to actually have a university, one that would properly accredit them and everything...it had been something else. His sheer glee at taking his first steps toward becoming a doctor, to being able to provide a vital need for his fellow Betas in understaffed hospitals...that had sent Melody's heart aflutter.

That was the person she wanted to be with. Someone just like her, who just wanted to help others. Who could be perfectly happy in doing just that. So she let that fire inside burn, and enjoyed its warmth whenever she looked at him, or thought about him.

Something else joined the fire this time, though, as she studied his little form. A new fuel that increased its intensity even further.

Anger.

Melody was glad she had not seen Corey before her talk with Marion. She had already needed liquor to make it through that particular conversation, and going into it with the image of his arm and leg in her mind would have done no good. She doubted she would have been able to tighten that noose as effectively as she did. This was horrible, what those girls had done, and what made it worse was just how lucky Corey had been that it was "only" horrible. He could have been killed, and that thought made her sick to her stomach. Especially when her mind briefly wandered to the conversation she had had with Dr. Everett that morning.

Part of her wished she could do what Claire and Jenna did. Wished she could take Marion off of Claire's hands and pay her back for every single horrid thing she had ever done. Not just to the Betas, and boy was there a lot to go off of there, but to Alphas as well. Claire was absolutely correct: What she had done to that Stephanie girl was sick, and she was glad Claire had apparently figured out what had happened to the girl so quickly. Marion deserved everything she was going to get from her, and Melody briefly felt that she was failing her friend, and failing Corey, in her inability to contribute to that justice.

But what she had told Marion had been the truth: That just wasn't her. She didn't have that capability to hurt others. Whenever she thought about it, that day two years ago would inevitably come to mind. The day where she had had her little 16 year old sister squirming underneath her foot, bawling her eyes out and crying in desperate futility as her big sister truly brought her power to bear against her for the first time in her life. Because Melody, out of genuine concern for her sister's future should she be allowed to get away with stuffing a Beta in her shoe for a little "harmless fun", had felt she needed a small taste of the consequences she could face if she did it again. Because she didn't want her sister to get complacent and repeat her actions. She didn't want her to do something to a Beta she would truly regret. She didn't want her to end up in the hands of an Omega who wouldn't go easy on her in the slightest.

She doubted that image of her sister would ever truly leave her mind. No part of it ever really did. The sound of her begging Melody to just look at her, something she had been unable to do as she struggled through that ten minutes. The sight of Claire working her over in her palms.

The absolute terror Ashley had exhibited upon being given to Jenna to finish out the thirty minute session they had decided to split between them.

No, that role wasn't for her. She was exactly where she belonged: Working in her role as liaison to find out who needed help in her region, and doing whatever she could with the considerable resources at her disposal to provide what they needed. She had worked hard to get this position coming out of the Institute for a reason, after all

There was something else to this anger, though. She wasn't just angry with those girls, she was angry at herself for putting off what she was about to do for so long. It was something she should have done two years ago, but her own shyness had gotten in the way. If this incident had done one thing, it was drive in just how vulnerable Corey was compared to her. How comparatively close he sat to the precipice between life and death.

It had driven home the fact that, ultimately, he would die long before she did, whether it was by natural causes or not. And she wasn't going to waste another potential second of the relatively short amount of time they might have together by continuing to act like a shy little girl.

"Do I look that bad?"

"Eh?" Melody gracefully articulated, snapping out of her thoughts at the sudden question from her palm.

"Kinda been starin' at me for a bit," Corey's annoyed voice responded. "Kinda been doing it for a long bit."

Melody immediately felt her ears and cheeks go hot in embarrassment. This was off to a great start.

Refocusing her vision on his face, though, she was relieved to see a playful smirk that transformed into a chuckle at her expense

"I just...I had something on my mind, is all," she said softly, shifting her eyes away for a moment.

She needed to get it together; a little teasing couldn't deter her. She needed to get things back on track, get the conversation flowing in a favorable direction. She wanted this to be as natural as possible.

"Any estimate on your recovery time, by the way?" she asked, bringing her eyes back to him. There. That was something she was curious about anyway, so a great way to stabilize herself.

"Ah," he said with a sigh, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand, "probably somewhere between two and three months. So not bad considering they'll be as good as new, but...yeah. Probably three months, if I'm being realistic instead of optimistic."

He had looked away as he gave his second appraisal, his voice becoming despondent. A soft, sympathetic coo escaped Melody's lips. Maybe she shouldn't have asked about this, after all. The point of being here was to cheer him up, after all.

"But hey," he said, voice becoming a bit more positive as he turned to look up at Melody once again, "could be worse, right? Three months and everything is pretty much as good as new."

"And hey, Claire got this thing connected to Mom's PC this morning, and she's subbed to pretty much every streaming service under the sun. So at least I get to go through my TV backlog."

Melody smiled. It was sweet of him to say those things, but faces didn't lie. He may have been able to shift his voice back to a happier tone, but his face remained darkened as he spoke.

But he was doing it to try to make her feel a little better, and she would let him have that.

"So it's not all bad, at least," she said brightly. "I'm sure it'll fly by for you, and you'll be up again in no time."

"Yeah, I suppose, it's just..."

Corey trailed off there, and Melody noticed him scowl.

"Just what?"

"It's...don't worry about it. I'm just trying my best to be a downer," he replied with a heavy breath

"Hey, no, none of that," Melody cooed, give him the most comforting smile she was capable of. "You say whatever is on your mind, okay? This is a safe place for you, Corey. I...we are here to support you. You don't need to bottle anything up for our sakes."

Melody watched as Corey's head hung, watched his chest rise with another heavy breath. He was silent there, for a moment, apparently soaking up Melody's words. He was still taking deep breaths, and she couldn't help but notice that he was clenching the fist on his working arm

"It's just..." he suddenly said, voice low, before trailing off once again. He still wasn't looking at her, so Melody couldn't read his face. She was starting to get worried. Corey never fell over his words like that, and his breathing was still heavy.

Then she noticed something. Something that immediately washed the smile off her face.

He was trembling.

"It's just," he started once again, voice cracking, "that it really could have been worse, couldn't it?"

He looked up at her then, and Melody's heart sank as she took in his face. His mouth was hanging open as his heavy breathing continued, but ultimately, it was his eyes that caught her attention the most. Those hollow, teary eyes.

"I was almost killed, wasn't I?"