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

17. Cupids

Lady Jane had made sure that both Chubbs and Zu were secured before bringing Mags body to join them, slumping her against Betty's back tire with a bloody nose, not caring as the other two struggled and sobbed at the sight of her. After a few minutes, Mags slumped to the side and lay there awkwardly as the skip-tracer waited for Liam and/or Ruby to return. Mags was out cold for the whole encounter, from Ruby being hit to Lady Jane using the frequency gun on Liam, handcuffing and taunting him as he was helpless on the ground.

"Where's Mags?" He demanded, knowing Lady Jane wanted her alive, but that she must be incapacitated somewhere close by.

"That little hellhound has been muzzled, I'm afraid." She told him, but he could hear Chubbs shouting through the tape on his mouth, and took it to mean she was with them, but out cold. Mags' state takes a back seat, however, when Ruby reveals herself to be an Orange, eyes glowing brilliantly as she gets Lady Jane out of their hair once and for all.

And there it is, that look that he had when he saw Mags breathe fire at Caledonia; awe and wonder in his eyes as he gazes at the girl before him. Ruby was terrifyingly powerful, and beautiful, and Liam looked at her like Mags looked at the sunrise.

As soon as Lady Jane was out of their sight, Ruby collapsed, and Liam struggled to his feet with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He moved to Chubbs, getting his friend to undo the handcuffs quickly, but that's when he spotted Mags, nose still bleeding profusely over the pavement and down the front of her sweater, a newer one without burn marks, and blood matting the back of her blonde hair. He collapsed, his hands untied and shaking. He had to prioritise, untying Chubbs, who untied Zu, and the two of them hefted Mags into Betty as Liam picked up Ruby gently, and placed her in the back too.

Everything hurt, and all Mags could taste and smell and feel was blood. Her head was aching with a skull splitting headache, and two much sharper pains, one in her nose and one on the back of her head. It's with a groan that she awakes, and Liam starts so hard he swerves a little where he's driving. They pull over in the middle of the forest because the others were worried sick about her, and needed to catch her up on what had happened.

Mags, however, just has eyes for Ruby, lying as if in a peaceful sleep in the back of Betty. With stinging tears in her eyes, she looked up hopefully at Liam, who breaks and gives her a small smile and nod, though he seems tense.

Zu is gently wiping the blood from where it has run over her mouth and face when Liam admits that Ruby is Orange. Mags waits for Zu to move away from her mouth before responding.

"I know." Her words shock the others into silence, and Zu's hand stills a little, giving Mags a confused look. "You know I spent two years with an Orange, right? The other night I saw her do some Orange stuff and it reminded me of Clancy, that's why I had to take a breather." She elaborates, and Liam's expression turns knowing and Zu resumes her task.

By the time Ruby wakes, Mags' face is clean, apart from the serious bruising around her nose from where she had fallen face first on the pavement, and there was still blood in her hair, but it had been braided enough to hide it, and she couldn't do much about the headache, so she just rested her head in Liam's lap. Liam and Chubbs were arguing over whether or not they ditch Betty (Mags was on the side of not-ditching, purely for the memories made in the van) when an uncomfortable and clearly rattled Ruby exits the van in a hurry.

"I don't wanna leave her." Liam gripes, even though he knows Chubbs is right about the van.

"We are being watched all the time." The Green cuts in, but neither of them can get another word in edge wise because Ruby's stalked over to them.

"Hey, I'm just gonna go, so you can stop fighting." She looks heartbroken, and a little betrayed, and the boys looks up in confusion. Ruby can't even bring herself to look at Mags. "And I'm... really sorry that I lied to you." After one last look over the group, she spins on her heel and heads further into the forest.

"Ruby!" Mags calls after her, and the girl stops, shoulders tense. After a beat, she turns again, heading back to the car, embarrassed and hurt. "Ruby!" Mags calls again, sitting up this time, looking imploringly at the girl.

"I just forgot my bag, okay?" Ruby snaps, head down to hide the hurt look that was on her face. The problem occurs to Mags just as Chubbs calls out to the girl.

"We were talking about damn Betty, not your Orange ass." He explained, a little exasperatedly. Ruby stops, confused, not daring to be hopeful. "And for the record, I knew you were Orange since day zero." He tells her, and Ruby looks over the three of them, nervous, but positively this time.

"Sit down." Liam half laughs at her bewildered expression, gesturing to the log on the other side of Mags.

"I just... didn't want you to be afraid of me." Ruby is tentative as she sits, knees drawn up to her chest, she's addressing the boys when she speaks.

"Well there's nothing wrong with being an Orange." Liam says, and Ruby glances at Mags, as if remembering when she had found out, how her reaction had been much worse; Mags can see the memory play out in her own mind and feels guilt wash through her, and tucks herself into Liam's side to feel safe. He wraps an arm around her out of habit.

"But I can't even control it." Ruby responded, expression growing thoughtful. "I'm trying to figure it out, but sometimes all it takes is my skin brushing against someone else's and I'm in their head." She looked forlorn, small, arms crossed over her knees. "And the more I try to pull free the more damage that I do." She admitted.

"Damage?" Liam asked, and he sat back, moving as he tended to do when he was nervous or uncomfortable. Mags shifted to support herself again, looking at the ground. "Wait... Is that why you didn't want to kiss me?" Mags stiffened at that, and had to shift to hide her sudden grin.

"Yeah." Ruby admitted, also shifting uncomfortably.

"Okay..." Chubbs mused, breaking the silence and clapping his hands together as if it could stave off what he was certain was an oncoming headache. "As touching as this moment is, we've got a Slip Kid to party with."

"Yeah we do." Liam agreed, and the boys got to their feet, just as Zu walked past with a bunch of flowers, heading towards Betty. "Hey Zu, we gotta pack up, it's time to go." Liam told her, and the little girl nodded seriously, pausing in her humming to acknowledge him. After a moment he turned back to Ruby, "unless you wanna try and run away again." He smirked at her, and when he denied it, he still smiled as he promised he'd keep trying to stop her.

"Hey, I'm sorry, that was weird, I know you and Liam-" Ruby started, half smiling as she turned to Mags who had remained seated on the logs with the Orange. Mags waved her off.

"Listen, Ruby, I'm done being subtle, or not subtle, or whatever; my boyfriend almost kissed you, and if you would allow me, I would love to as well." Mags told her bluntly, to which Ruby blinked rapidly, as if this was news to her. "Um, well, not almost kiss, but like, you get the picture; we both, we're both-" Mags struggled to find the words, fiddling with her sleeves until she pulled them up enough to take Ruby's hands without contact, to make the girl feel more comfortable. "Liam and I really like you, Ruby. Both of us." Ruby was quiet for a long moment, looking down at their joined hands. Something in her chest eased with Mags' hands warm in hers. "If that's overwhelming or anything we can back off-"

"No." Ruby cut her off, looking at her with an intensity Mags did know she was capable of. "This, whatever it is between us, I want to be a part of it." She half laughed, moving closer to be hip to hip with Mags as Zu and the others gave Betty a funeral. "Thank you." And there it was again, that 'thank you' from before, sincere and lovely, it says 'you make me safe but I can't admit that yet' and Mags looped her arm through Ruby's letting the girl rest her head on Mags shoulder as they watched the funeral for the van. Liam looked over at them, raising his eyebrows in question. Mags smiled in response, fond and unabashed, which he mirrored in his own smile.

"I'm glad you guys are happy." Charles shrugged it off after taking one look between Mags and Liam. Mags turned pink and Liam grinned brightly, and it was Ruby who laughed, unabashed and affectionate.

"Well I know I am."