Sympathy for the Devil {Liam Stewart | The Darkest Minds}

16. Asteria

"Magsie, Lee, we did it!" Chubbs wakes Mags up looking so goddamned excited that neither of them begrudge him for it.

"What did we do, buddy?" Liam smiles politely at him as his best friend, stifling a yawn. Chubbs moves from where he's crouching beside them to laying himself across both of them horizontally, jostling them both, still grinning, his eyes shining with excitement as he presented a wind up radio.

"If you can hear us, you are one of us. If you are one of us, come and find us; Lake Prince, West Virginia." A tinny voice came from the radio, the voice of child. Mags' eyes snapped open at the sound, and she can feel the heat inside of her expanding and growing, swelling with excitement, so when she wraps her arms around Chubbs in a hug, she feels like the campfire they had all just been sitting around. He hugs her back.

"Ruby and I found it," Chubbs looks between the two, smile so wide it looks like it hurts, "E-D-O is a radio frequency; we found it." He's trying to keep his voice down to not bother the kids in the other tent, but Zu is already stirring, and she's bouncing with delight when he tells her the news.

Liam is ecstatic, and he doesn't want to waste any time. They barely have time to throw out a goodbye to the other kids before they're out the door and cramming themselves into Betty. Liam is the only one who notices the silver puddle sitting right behind the van, or at least he's the only one to mention it. Pulling Mags aside, he just nods his head towards it, and she flushes.

"Clancy memory." Is all she can bring herself to say, and when he asked if it was a bad one, she lets out a half snort and nods. After a moment, she steps forwards, close enough that she could whisper for only Liam to hear. "Ruby was there," after a pause, her blush deepened, "we, uh, we had a moment." She murmured, and looking up, she saw Liam's look of surprise morph into something almost impressed, and his left hand came up to brush at her cheek.

"Good moment?" He asked, tender in the way he only allowed himself to be around her. Mags' smile became something much more genuine and sweet.

"Good moment." She agreed, bringing her own hand up to hold his against her cheek for the moment, before Chubbs coughed pointedly from the front seat and the two broke away from each other, Mags climbing into the back with Ruby and Zu, while Liam took the driver's seat. They take off for Virginia. They're almost a day into their trip, Ruby has finally passed out in the back of the van after a sleepless night and morning, and Mags has curled up in the front seat while Chubbs reads to Zu in the back.

"Babe, where are we going?" Mags is looking at the map Chubbs had stashed in the middle console while they were on the straight and narrow highway. Liam was quiet for a long moment, and when Mags looks up at him, he seems nervous.

"We're taking Ruby home first." His voice is quiet, as if he can feel the way Mags' stomach had dropped. After a beat, he glances at her, and sees the confusion written on her face. It's with some struggle that Mags makes herself look positive, nodding vigorously and forcing a smile.

"Well it's what she wants." Mags agreed quickly, and Liam's answering smile was strained.

"I'm glad you understand." He murmured, reaching out to pet her knee before putting his hand back on the steering wheel. There's silence, and Mags only realises when Chubbs speaks, meeting their same volume as he sticks his head between the front seats.

"It's the least we can do for her." He offers, and he even looks a little apologetic. Mags shoots for indifferent when she shrugs.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." She agrees, almost believable in her cheerfulness, but she pulls out four spoons and eats them all in rapid succession. She's subdued for the rest of the trip, they all are, but Mags makes herself smile, berating herself for being so selfish; she'd only known Ruby for a week at most, she shouldn't be so attached. When they stopped for dinner, Mags was quiet, but cheerful, and Ruby didn't seem to notice anything different.