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Caine carried his shame with him as he walked to Sam’s hospital room under the watchful eyes of nurses and policemen. He was allowed in, surprisingly. Sam was in bed, eating a pizza, and Caine’s mouth instantly watered at seeing it. He would never get over the novelty of food, of it being so accessible, and so diverse and delicious. There was so much of it!
He realized he’d been staring and Sam questioned, “What the hell are you doing here?”
Caine sauntered in, despite the aches in his body, and sat in the plush chair by Sam’s bed.
“Nice to see you too.”
“Look, just because you redeemed yourself or whatever, it doesn’t mean that I’m going to trust you.”
Caine winced. “That sucks, because I need a place to live.”
Sam seemed to understand this. Caine couldn’t go back home to live with his “parents,” ones who hadn’t really loved him anyway, and now that he knew his biological mother had given him up but kept Sam, he was out of options. Plus, it wasn’t like he was ever going to go back to Coates if it got reestablished. There were too many memories in that place. Memories of sin.
His eyes went back to the pizza.
Better to think about pizza than that chunk of Panda’s leg that he’d eaten.
“Well, my mom and I aren’t really getting along,” Sam said. “I think I’m going to try for emancipation.”
Caine laughed. “My parents already emancipated me. I can’t go home.”
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll be in here, but… maybe we can figure something out. I know Diana needs a home too. I heard some other kids are living together.”
Caine’s stomach dropped at the thought of Diana. What did she think of him? Was she angry he’d tried to sacrifice himself? Was she still hurting about their child-turned-alien/demon? Was he supposed to be hurting over it? Was she mad that he’d killed Gaia?
There was too much to think about, and a part of Caine wished he had managed to die in his sacrifice for Perdido Beach.
The FAYZ was over, his powers gone, but still he felt something wrong with him.
Sam held out his hand to shake. “You know what, we’ll figure something out. You and me.”
Caine shook Sam’s hand with strength, even as he said tentatively, “Are we going to try the whole brother thing?”
“If you want.”
If you want.
For some reason that stuck with Caine as he left Sam’s room. Maybe, if he worked really hard, if he did his best to not sabotage everything, then he could have a home. And who knew? Maybe he would like having a brother.