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She was mad. He meant well, she knew he did. But it still made her upset. He had been so careless, so willing to die for her. The two walked side by side as they walked into the bar.
"What were you thinking?" she asked the second the door shut, hitting his chest.
"Tabitha-"
"No, let me finish! You could've died, Jade. And I appreciate it so much. It means so much to me that you were willing to do that for me. But you could've died. What would've happened if you did? Am I just supposed to do this without you? Because I know now that we failed, that we made all hell break loose; they're going to be mad at us.
"I cannot do this without you, whether I want to admit it or not. You're the only other one with memories, the only one who's been here before. We just dug up our daughter's bones, Jade. No one… no one knows about her besides us."
He sighed, "I couldn't let you die, Tabitha. You have children who deserve to get out of here. You deserve to get out of here. You've worked so hard."
"And what about you, Jade? You've done so much to get us to where we are now. If I didn't have you here with me, who would've played the violin? That's the only way we were able to find out that we've been here before. About our daughter."
"You have all of that information, though. So many people here care about you; if I let you die, they would never forgive me. I would never forgive myself."
"Are you saying people don't care about you?"
"I'm-" He was cut off with a stern look from Tabitha.
"People care about you."
"Not one person tried to stop me from going down there, Tabitha. Everyone loves you. You would be missed if you were gone. I wouldn't."
"I would miss you."
"Tabitha…"
"I care about you. I would miss you if you died," she looked to the side. "I already lost Jim… I can't lose you, too," she admitted.
He pulled her close to his chest, rubbing her back, "I'm sorry."
She looked up, her chin resting on his chest, "Why?"
"For lying to you."
"You were only trying to help me."
"I didn't like lying to you. I'm never doing that again."
Tabitha smiled and leaned against him, "Please don't do that again, you scared me."
"I won't."
She moved to pour herself a drink, and Jade noticed just how raw her hands were - presumably from digging to attempt to get out of the area they were stuck in. They were red and had cuts all over them; some were still bleeding a bit. He watched as she took a sip, noticing the awkward way she held the glass to avoid injuring herself further.
"Your hands are bleeding."
She set the glass down and looked at her hands, "Oh."
"Let me clean them up."
"Jade, I'm fine."
"Sit down," he said. She knew there was no point in arguing. He had already made up his mind.
Tabitha sat on a stool, and Jade disappeared for a moment and came back with a first aid kit. He set the bag down on another stool next to her and knelt in front of her, grabbing her hands and starting to inspect them.
"Do they hurt? They're pretty cut up."
"Not really, I guess the adrenaline is still taking over," she thought back to retrieving the bones, the earthquakes, and thinking they were going to die in that closed-off area. She thought about how she fell off the ladder when the rope snapped. That was something he would soon fuss over as well, she thought.
He stood up, "Come."
Jade led her behind the counter and to the sink, turning it on and checking the temperature. He washed his hands and began to hold one of her hands under the cool running water. After a couple of minutes, he switched to her left hand.
Tabitha just stood there. No one had taken care of her like this. Sure, Jim had taken care of her when she was sick, but this was different. Jade was so gentle with her, making sure not to hurt her.
Once he was done, he lightly pressed a dry washcloth on each hand to dry them. They wordlessly walked back to the counter and sat down. He placed his hand on her thigh as his other hand grabbed a bandage wrap. He chose not to focus on how her breath hitched with his hand on her.
Carefully, he began to wrap her right hand, moving to her left next. He made sure they were tight, but not tight enough to hurt her.
"All done. You'll need to change these every day. Kristi probably has more in the clinic."
"Thank you," she placed her hand on top of his.
"Anytime."
Jade squeezed her thigh lightly and stood up, placing the first aid kit back in its place. She stood up to get herself some water, and he noticed she was limping a bit as he walked back into the room.
"You're limping."
"I mean, I did fall about eight feet from a ladder, Jade. But I'm fine."
"You always say that."
"Because I am fine."
He gave her a look.
"Okay, maybe it hurts a bit. But it's fine, I have more important things to worry about. Like how apparently red lightning shot into the sky when the tree was pulled out."
"We should've listened to Victor."
"Yeah."
She sighed and stood at the table where the bones of the children were sitting. One of them was their daughter. The skeleton of their daughter was in a duffel bag. It felt wrong.
"This feels wrong. Just having these bones. They had lives before they were sacrificed, and now they're just sitting on a table."
Jade stood across from her, looking at the bags.
"I think you were wrong, by the way," she said.
"What?"
"About the bones. I think they did protect us, but only us."
"What makes you think that?"
"Think about it, Jade. The second that the sky went dark and the monsters transformed, an earthquake happened. It gave us enough time to escape the chamber. When we were cornered, another earthquake caused the rubble to fall before the monsters got to us."
She was right, he realized. It made complete sense. From what they had heard from Boyd and Ellis, the earthquake caused the talisman to fall in the clinic, allowing Smiley to get in and kill Marielle. It hurt the town, but saved their lives.
"I think it was her, Jade."
Jade sighed and ran his hand across his face, looking at the wall of every memory they had remembered. He grabbed a pen and started writing on a piece of notebook paper. The spirits of the children, of their daughter, saving them was important.
Tabitha watched as he wrote something else, her brows furrowing. 'I am killed every cycle.'
"What the hell does that mean?"
He turned to look at her, his eyes avoiding hers. "During my trip, I found out that every cycle I've spent here, I'm murdered. Every time. First, they blame me, then they hate me, then they kill me."
"You cannot be serious."
"I am."
"And what about me?"
He looked down, "They said for you it's worse."
She took a shaky breath, "Worse… how?"
"I don't know, Tabitha."
"Jade." He was still looking away from her. "Jade."
Their eyes met.
"We made the sky go dark. Red lightning shot out of the ground. We didn't get everyone out."
"I know."
She bit her nails, "Jade, they're going to blame you. It was your idea to go into the tunnels, your idea to rip out the bottle tree."
"I know."
"Why aren't you worried?"
He stayed quiet, avoiding her gaze again. It hit her at once; he already knew this. He knew that if this failed, they would blame him. In a way that was so Jade Herrera, he was ready to die.
"Jade."
"What?"
"You promised me. You promised me you wouldn't do this again."
"I'm not sacrificing myself, Tabitha."
"But you're ready to die. You've accepted your fate. You don't care if they hurt you."
"It's inevitable."
She slapped him, and she did not regret it. He was an idiot.
"What the hell is your problem, Jade? First, you try to sacrifice yourself, now you're ready to die. You told me. You told me you wouldn't do that again. And now… Now you're prepared to die. I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, but people care about you. They would miss you if you died."
She pinched between her brows. "It's almost like you want to die."
His silence was enough for her to realize she was right.
"Jade," she whispered.
He sat down, and she knelt in front of him, grabbing his hands.
"I don't want to die. But, I deserve it."
"No, you don't," she said sternly.
"Tabitha, if I had never played the song in the woods, your husband would still be alive. If I fought you harder to not let you go into the tunnels with me, you wouldn't be hurt."
"Jade, look at me. You saved my life in there. You caught me when I fell, and you didn't hesitate to put yourself in front of me when the monsters approached. When Boyd got us out, you practically dragged me out of there. You fixed up my hands. None of this is your fault. It's this fucking town's fault."
He put his face in his hands, closing his eyes as he took in what she said.
"For the record," she started, "I'm glad it was you, too."
That made him look up. Their faces were close, close enough to where he could feel her breath on his face.
"Even if you don't see it yourself, you deserve to live, Jade."
He just nodded, trying his best to focus on his breathing and not how close they were.
"Thank you," he whispered.
"Anytime," she kissed his cheek and stood up. "Don't do that again. You're not dying, I won't let you."