Peter and Danny made it to Rion’s hospital room in record time. He was having supper when they showed up, but was eager to shove his meal aside when they came in.

“Rion,” Peter said right away, coming over to his bedside.

“Are you okay?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Rion said. “I wasn’t expecting you. Did something happen?”

“We heard that Sarina came here and attacked you,” Peter said. “Is that true? Are you all right?”

Rion blinked, understanding crossing his face. He looked away, his discomfort more than obvious.

“Sarina definitely came here,” he said. “But I wouldn’t say that she attacked me…”

“She didn’t?” Danny said. He flopped into one of the chairs, sighed in relief. “Oh, thank God… Monique called and said Sarina yelled at you and everyone was talking about her coming to the hospital and attacking you.”

“She did come here and yell,” Rion said. “I didn’t really get it. She was telling me to get help, and… It was weird. I thought she was fucking with me, trying to mess with my head or something. She wasn’t making any sense.”

“Get help?” Danny said. “She said that?”

Rion shrugged helplessly. “She told me to do better and to… I don’t remember all of it. It was really weird.”

He looked down and began picking at his sheets.

Now that the immediate concern was out of the way, Peter felt like he could relax and breathe a little easier. Rion didn’t look like he’d taken a beating. In fact, there was a little more colour to him. He looked livelier than before.

And now that Peter knew Sarina hadn’t hurt Rion, everything else trickled back to the front of his mind.

Rion had electrocuted Amber…or her corpse… He’d really done it. They knew the truth. What Rion said lined up with the facts.

And now, here they were, face to face again.

Peter was unhappy. He was disgusted. He was uncomfortable.

But he didn’t hate Rion.

It was a revelation that surprised him. Maybe it shouldn’t have, considering how worried he’d been when he heard that Sarina might have come to the hospital to abuse Rion. But he couldn’t muster any anger or hatred.

What happened was sad, tragic, painful. He wasn’t over it. The truth hadn’t gone away. It was a fresh weight in his chest that threatened to drag him down. But looking at Rion, he couldn’t be mad at him. He couldn’t hate him.

Considering what he’d done to Amber, Peter thought maybe knowing the truth would have changed his mind about Rion. But it hadn’t. Not really. Rion was still Rion. And he looked miserable, sitting in his hospital bed, still bandaged and bruised…

Maybe it was because everything happened so long ago. Six years was a long time. Peter didn’t think he’d feel the same way if he’d been told the truth right after Amber died.

Or maybe it was that Rion so obviously needed help. He wasn’t in a good place.

“I’m glad Sarina didn’t hurt you,” Peter said. “You’re looking a lot better. Are you feeling all right?”

“I guess…” Rion said, still picking at his sheets. “The doctor visited. He wants me to start getting active again, so…we’ve started doing some exercises and stuff. He got me to walk around a bit so that’s something. Feels kind of like walking on papercuts, but I can get around if I need to.”

“That’s great news,” Danny said.

“Yeah,” Rion said.

He wasn’t looking up at them anymore. His gaze was focused downwards. If he thought it was great news, he wasn’t showing it.

Peter realized the last time they talked, he called Rion a liar. That must be why…

He had to correct that.

“I owe you an apology,” Peter said.

“…What?” Rion said, finally glancing up.

“I called you a liar,” he said. Rion’s eyes widened a fraction. “I talked to my parents. Your story… It lines up with the police reports and all of that. You… You didn’t lie. So, I’m sorry for calling you a liar.”

He couldn’t bring up Amber and what Rion told them. It stuck on his tongue. But he didn’t feel like he needed to say it. And he wasn’t ready to forgive him for that yet so there was no point in bringing it up.

Rion looked down again, eyes still wide. He balled his hands up into fists in his lap. He was silent for a long time.

“You believe me?” he said.

“Yeah,” Danny said, but he grimaced, shifting in his seat. “Yeah, we do now. But…”

“We’re going to need some time,” Peter said. “It’s a lot.”

“It hurts to think about,” Danny added. “Like… I don’t get why you would do that, Rion. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know,” Rion said. He closed his eyes, hanging his head. He looked miserable and Peter couldn’t help but feel that it was appropriate, given everything that happened. “I know, and I… You don’t know how sorry I am. I wake up every day and I think about it and hate myself. There’s… There’s nothing I can do or say that’ll ever make it okay.”

Rion’s words stung, but they were satisfying.

“At least you understand that,” Peter said. “You were wrong and you regret it. That’s something.”

“Are you sure she wasn’t dead?” Danny said. “Are you sure…? It sounded like… I mean…”

“Even if she was, it doesn’t matter,” Rion said, his voice growing hard. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have… I did the worst possible thing. I… God, you don’t know how much I fucking hate myself for it. Don’t you… Don’t you both hate me too?”

Peter thought about it but only for the briefest second.

“No,” he said. “But I haven’t forgiven you. What you did wasn’t okay.”

“It’ll never be okay,” Rion said.

“We need time,” Peter said again. “We’re all really upset… We need…”

“I think I can forgive you,” Danny spoke up, interrupting. “You didn’t mean to hurt her, right Rion? It was… It was just a messed-up choice in a horrible situation. Right?”

“I don’t know,” Rion said. “I mean, of course I never meant to hurt Amber. I thought… I thought she was dead. If I thought for one second that she was alive, then…then I never would have…”

“Right,” Danny said with more confidence. “Right. So, it… What you did was horrible, but you weren’t trying to hurt Amber. I mean, I think Peter’s right. I need some time to think about it, and… Yeah. Everything like that. Like, I’m super upset. But I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

“I don’t know, Danny,” Rion said. “Everything Sarina said about me was the truth. She was right to hunt me down and come after me. Even if she was only doing it because of the friendship bracelet. I might as well have cut it up…”

“No. No one deserves to get beat up like that,” Danny said. “And I still have your bracelet. If you ever want it back, I’ll give it to you, and…and yeah.”

“I don’t deserve it,” Rion said.

“Then I’ll hang onto it until you do,” Danny said. “I want to be friends. I want things to work out. It’s just… It’s hard.”

“It is,” Peter agreed. “Rion, I think… I think you should talk to Dr. Maes.”

“I did. I have,” Rion said. “I don’t know. I’m a mess. I’m fucked. I ruined everything, and… I don’t know what to do. I can’t go back in time and fix it. It’s… This is how things are now. This is why… This is why we can’t be friends.”

“We can be friends,” Danny said. “We can. It’s just…”

“We need time,” Peter said again. “We need to sort out our own feelings first. What you told us… It really hurts. It’s hard to accept.”

Rion didn’t respond, staring down into his lap. They all fell silent for a long time. It was awkward, uncomfortable. But finally, Rion spoke up again.

“Sarina said something weird to me. I tried to get her to stop, to ask about it, but she left.”

“What did she say?” Danny asked.

Rion pressed his lips firmly together, thinking, before he said, “She went on about…about Amber and her ‘unborn child’… I thought she was… I thought maybe she was trying to… I don’t know. Amber… Amber wasn’t pregnant, right?”

Danny sat back, eyes going round as he turned to Peter. Peter froze.

Rion didn’t know.

Of course Rion didn’t know. None of them had known. Peter still had to tell Jesse, and…

Rion was staring up at him, his expression open, desperate.

“She wasn’t pregnant, right?” he said again. “She was sixteen. She was… I know she was dating Jesse, but they… She couldn’t have been pregnant.”

Peter felt sick.

He should tell Rion the truth, but he couldn’t. Not right now. He searched for some way to deflect. Rion clearly wasn’t ready to hear this. He clearly wasn’t in a state to know the truth.

Peter could tell that Rion was genuinely against what he’d done to Amber. No matter how the rest of them felt about it, Rion obviously had deep regrets. He kept saying that he hated himself. Peter couldn’t add to that–

“She was pregnant,” Danny said. “We just found out.”

“Danny,” Peter said, too late to stop him.

“What?” he said. “It’s true. She was… No one knew. Just her parents and the police and stuff.”

“She… What?”

Rion’s voice was so small and hurt. The damage was done. Peter closed his eyes, letting out a hard breath through his nose before turning to face him. He didn’t want to have to comfort Rion, but he felt obligated to do or say something.

All the blood had drained from Rion’s face. He was sitting there, wide eyed, horrified…

“You didn’t know,” Peter said. “You couldn’t know.”

“She was pregnant?” Rion said, his voice just barely above a whisper.

“Yes, but you didn’t know,” Peter repeated.

“I… I electrocuted Amber…and she was pregnant…” Rion said, his voice cracking, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Rion. Stop. Listen to me,” Peter said. “You did not know she was pregnant. Can you repeat that back to me?”

“I didn’t know Amber was pregnant,” Rion said faintly.

“That’s right,” Peter said. “You didn’t know. No one knew.”

“Oh, fuck…” Rion said. “Oh, fuck. Oh… Shit. I… God, I…”

He was breaking down. Peter could see it. Rion reached up to fist his hands in his hair, folding in on himself.

“Oh… Oh, shit,” Danny said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think…”

“Danny, it’s fine. Just…” Peter said and waved a hand, trying to keep his focus on Rion. “Listen Rion, I want you to take some deep breaths, can you do that for me?”

“No,” Rion said, curling in on himself further. “I don’t… I can’t…”

“You can,” Peter said.

“I… I want to be alone,” Rion said.

That sounded like a terrible idea to Peter. He couldn’t leave him like this.

“You shouldn’t be alone right now,” he said.

Rion shook his head. “I need space. I need… I can’t… Please…”

“Do you want us to get someone for you? Dr. Maes?” Peter asked.

“Fine…” was all Rion said, burying his face in his hands, breathing raggedly.

“Okay,” Peter said. “Okay. We’ll be right back.”