Page 70 of Outcast’s Return

“Did I wake you?” Fabien asks.

“No. Can’t you sleep?”

Fabien shakes his head.

“Your parents?” I offer quietly.

Fabien pauses, as if debating whether to confess or not.

“I still see their faces,” he replies softly. “Ever since their murderer has returned, I’m seeing their faces more and more every day. Clearer and clearer. I can’t get through a night anymore.”

I take a step toward him.

“I’m so sorry, Fabien.”

His parents. That grief. It must never have left him. How could it?

He shakes his head again. A hardness clearly sets in. I see the man open up and then immediately retreat behind his familiar stoic wall of steel again. He’s still afraid of revealing that side of himself to me again.

I wish he would, the way he used to. He would spend the rest of the night talking about his fears and pain, but now he hides himself from me.

“This is just like old times,” I say. “Without worrying Father or Clement might catch us.”

Fabien lets out a dark chuckle.

“Yeah. It is.”

The words remain unsaid, but they hang in the air. Until you ruined everything, Jolie.

“Are you hungry?” Fabien asks, nodding toward the fridge.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“You haven’t eaten all day.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“What do you want?”

I shrug.

“Something easy. Maybe a grilled cheese, seeing as it’s the only thing I can make.”

Now Fabien laughs. It’s not a chuckle, but a full-on laugh.

“And you can’t even make one of those without burning it.”

“Rude.”

“Come on, I’ll make you one,” Fabien says, still laughing. “I don’t think the Castaways can afford you setting fire to this penthouse.”

I would argue back if he weren’t correct.

Fabien pulls a pan out of a cupboard.

“I can help,” I say, moving toward the kitchen.

“Simply sit on the barstool and talk to me,” Fabien replies, pointing at the kitchen counter.