I was sitting on the edge of Sophia's desk, full for the first time in two days.
Enough and no more. I'd eaten the way you eat before you go back out — measured, deliberate, stopping short of the weight that turns a run into a stumble — because I knew where we were heading.
Code stood in the doorway with his shoulder against the frame, waiting on all of us. His face held the same flat readiness it always held.
The bag sat empty on the floor by Azure's chair.
Ingrid had finished. Azure and Melissa were still going — small sounds of paper, the last of the water. Sophia hadn't woken for any of it, flat on the desk behind me.
"Shall we?"
Ingrid nodded.
I came off the desk. The edge left a line across the backs of my thighs. I crossed to her and put a hand down. She took it — palm dry, grip practical — and came up out of the chair in one motion, already turning toward the door before her weight had fully settled on both feet.
