Chapter Text
Sean looks at the phone. Shit. It shouldn’t be this hard. Sean knows Lyla since they were kids, they’ve been Best Freakin’ Fighters Forever for at least as long, and now that Sean is finally safe, he can’t bear to call her?
Fuck that. Sean forces himself not to think about anything as he dials her number.
“Hello?”
Hearing Lyla’s voice again is almost enough for him to start crying, and though he tries his best to stop himself, he is still slightly choked up when he says “Hey, Lyla.”
“...Sean?” He could hear that Lyla was starting to cry too. Fuck, when had they both become so emotional?
“Hey, it’s – it’s me – yeah.” Sean can’t say much more than that, but that’s alright, he supposes, because there’s no way Lyla can’t hear all of the pain and relief he’s feeling right now.
“Sean, is that really – Is that really you?” She almost sounds scared. Maybe she thinks she’s dreaming. Sean does, sometimes, mostly when he can’t sleep because he’s afraid he’s going to wake up in a cell, or still running, Daniel sick and tired and hungry on his side.
“Of course. I don’t think anyone could fake my handsome voice.” He joked, and suddenly Lyla was laughing, a watery laugh that made Sean’s stomach roll in happiness and pain and relief and agony and holy fuck how did he manage to go this long without talking to his best friend?
“It’s really you, fuck Sean, it’s really you, I can’t believe, holy shit, how – I can’t even think – Where are you?”
“In my grandparents’ house, Lyla, we got cleared.” It still doesn’t sound real, but it sounds a little less fake each time he tells someone. It doesn’t work when he tells himself, but this – This is just as good.
“Seriously? For real? You’re – You’re free?”
“Yeah, it’s...It’s so hard to explain by phone, you’ll have to come here if you want to hear it. But – I’m free, me and Daniel – We’re gonna be okay.”
“Sean...” She is full-on crying, right now, and if he knows her, she’ll be hiccuping in no time. “I’m so glad, I was so worried about you two...Oh, Sean, you don’t know relieved I am...I-I kept having the-these dreams about you-you two and-and-“ There it was. She was having difficulty speaking, but that didn’t stop her. “I-I love you t-two so much, I-I kept s-seeing the news and-and looking for a clue that you guys were – were okay, but-but I was always s-scared I w-was going to see s-something bad, I- “
Sean was crying too. “I know but – I’m here, I’m here, we’re okay, I swear, I swear – “
Gosh, when did they become this mess?
They cried to each other for some minutes, Sean repeating “I’m here” and Lyla repeating “I miss you” until they were a bit more composed.
“God, when did we get so emotional?” Lyla asks, laughing, and Sean laughs back, because wasn’t he thinking the same thing? He had – not forgotten, he could never forget anything about Lyla, but he wasn’t used anymore to how in sync they were. “Oh God, what about Daniel, how is my favorite Diaz?”
“Oh man, he’s so happy to finally be safe. The neighbor’s kid is his friend, and I think they both kind of need each other. It’s-It’s so good to see him acting like a kid again, after all that shit...” He laughed. “He can’t wait to see you again, he’s been asking about you since we got here.”
“Tell him I can’t wait to see him either, can’t wait to see you both. Sean...I don’t-I don’t want to hang up, can we just-Keep talking?”
Sean swallowed heavily. He didn’t want to hang up either.
“Yeah. Definitely.”
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“Lyla?” Sean heard Daniel say, and smiled to himself.
“Hey there sweetie!” Says Lyla’s voice, and holy fuck, Sean has to stop himself or he’s going to cry again, and he’s not about to ruin this moment for his brother.
“Sean, Lyla is on the door! It’s really her!” Sean gets up then, and goes to the front door, where Daniel is trying to kill Lyla in a hug, not that Lyla isn’t trying to kill him back, Sean is pretty sure Daniel’s going to complain about aching sides when the hug ends, but that’s clearly far away from his mind right now. Sean decides to give them time, but Daniel looks back at him and pulls him by his arm, forcing him to join the hug. Sean doesn’t try to fight it.
It feels like it’s been forever and no time at all, and suddenly he’s on his porch again, hugging Lyla after a long school day before they both go home, except this school day was really fucking long and involved fleeing from the police and going through hell.
He sighs longly in relief as he finally gets to hug the best friend he’s ever had.
“Hey,” Lyla says, her voice relatively quiet, and Sean realizes again how much he’s missed her voice this close, how much he missed being able to talk to his best friend without the fear and faint, constant humming of impending doom, sounding like a bad background music choice.
“Hey.” He finally said, and they spent some time in silence before the nine-year-old in between them started squirming.
“Come on, you’re crushing me!” He whined, and the two teenagers laughed before letting go. Daniel immediately started to complain about his ribs, before getting distracted from that and grabbing Lyla’s hand, babbling about telling her all about their adventure.
“Hey, calm down. I think we should show Lyla that thing.” Daniel looked at him then, his eyes wide but shining.
“Are you sure? I mean, you’re always saying – “
“I know.” Sean sighed. “But we can trust Lyla.”
“Uh, you’re kinda freaking me out, dudes. What do you want to show me?” Lyla seemed, at the least, awkward, her hands raised as if trying to interrupt them.
“Let’s go to our room. It’s easier to show there.” Sean said, before going up the stairs.
The two were quick to follow, and when they were finally in the room, Sean closed the door and turned back to them.
“Okay, Daniel,” He turned to his little brother, who looked back at him with a determined stare. “do your thing.”
Daniel nodded, then looked back at Lyla, who nodded at him, even if uncertain what she was nodding about. Daniel then sighed and looked at the dice they were saving ever since they made that board game, and raised his hand.
The dice shook, before rising in the air.
Lyla stared for some moments, straight face, before leaning down and trying to grab something over the dice. Then she passed her hand under the dice, over and over again, as if looking for something that could be supporting it.
After that, she stared at it for a few moments before sitting on the edge of the bed and looking slightly haunted.
“I...Don’t understand. Am I tripping? I don’t remember doing anything, but...” She trailed off, then, seemingly unsure of what to think.
“You’re not. I know, if freaked me out at first too.” Sean comforted her, and Daniel nodded, before setting the dice down.
“Yeah, me too. It was really scary. I was so afraid...”
After some time in silence, Lyla smiled sadly. “So that’s what happened in the street, huh?”
“Yeah. I don’t remember it, but Sean said the explosion was right after dad was shot.” Daniel sighed, before sitting beside Lyla and hugging her. She hugged him back with one arm, before looking at Sean while extending the other one as if inviting him to join them. Sean accepted it happily.
They spent some moments in silence before Sean started talking again. “There’s this secret government division. They're kind of supervising people like Daniel. It’s really fucking weird, but they proved our innocence.” Sean can feel himself start to cry.
“You can cry, I’m almost crying too,” Daniel says, and Sean laughs, that watery type of laugh. Soon the three of them are all lying down, crying like babies, and Sean’s relieved, and he’s hurting, and he’s happy, and he’s in agony, and it’s cathartic.
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It’s the other morning. The night before, Stephen and Claire had let them put a mattress on the ground of their room, so Lyla could keep close. The three of them had talked until they couldn’t bear to stay awake, and Sean remembers seeing Lyla take her meds, so that was good.
Daniel is in the kitchen now, trying to help Claire with breakfast, and Sean and Lyla have a few minutes of privacy so he can ask something that’s been nagging at his mind.
“Lyla, have you been sleeping?”
He had noticed how tired she was, the bags under eyes heavier than he remembers, every word coming with effort and her shoulder low with fatigue. It worried him.
“No, dude.” She said as if it was the most obvious thing. “Even with the meds, I kept having these nightmares about you two. I didn’t like going to sleep, and when I tried I kept having panic attacks.”
“Shit, Lyla I’m so sorry-“
“It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault, or Daniel’s. I don’t even know whose fucking fault it is, but it’s not yours. And it’s getting better anyways, so stop beating yourself.” She with finality.
They spent some more moments in silence.
“I’m really glad you’re here,” Sean said, finally.
Lyla sighed, before smiling. “I am too.”