“So they won’t remember that fucking loon and what she did to them,” Nina finished for her. “Kids should stay kids for as long as they can. I’m just doin’ my part to keep it that way.”
Harry reached up, grabbing Nina’s hand, pulling it to his cheek, his words trembling. “Thank you. Thank you. I’ll never, ever be able to thank you.”
She squeezed it before she took a swipe at his head. “Shut the fuck up, nerd, and let’s get these monsters and your lady love the hell home. I’ve had enough drama for today. Carl’s waiting, and I need me some zombie-time.”
Just as the helicopter landed, and Keegan burst out of the door, Jeff woke up.
His eyes were wild, even if his body was weak, when he realized he was in the arms of a semi-naked woman. “Who . . . the . . . hell . . . are . . . you?” he screamed at Wanda. “And why are we . . . naked?”
Nina strutted over to Wanda and looked down at Jeff. “She’s Wanda, I’m Nina, and I bet you don’t wake up naked to a broad as hot as this very often, do ya nerd? Sorry you won’t be able to enjoy it longer. Shhhh, Jeffie, it’s night-night time.” Nina quashed his protests by leaning down and repeating the act of erasing his memory.
Keegan ran toward them, his long legs covering the area in seconds. He didn’t say anything—he didn’t have to. His face said it all. There was worry, fear, a million questions on it when he looked at Leah’s lifeless form, and Guido, his teeth chattering, his body quaking.
He gathered Marty into his arms, pulling her close and breathing deeply as though he hadn’t taken a breath until she was with him again. “You worry me, honey,” he muttered, fierce, possessive. “Stop damn well worrying me.”
Marty reached up and tweaked his jaw, following it up with a kiss. Her words shook on the way out, the fear of their nightmare obviously catching up with her, too. Collapsing against him, she said, “Don’t ask questions. For now, just take us home, and let’s have the kids checked by Dr. Field.”
As everyone made their way to the helicopter, and Sloan, waiting inside, began to pull each of them in, covering them in blankets, Harry handed a sleeping Fletcher and Mimi over to him and turned to Mara.
He drew her to his chest, his hands like ice, his words hushed. “Thank you. I’d have never found them without you. Jesus Christ, I don’t know what I would have done . . .”
She put her fingers to his lips, letting the tears of relief slip from her eyes. “Then don’t. Don’t wonder. Please don’t or I’ll make the Crypt Keeper erase your memory.”
He chuckled, his mood shifting instantly. He swung her up into his arms. “Would I forget the other night?”
She grinned, burrowing closer, breathing—just breathing. “You mean when we . . .”
“Yeah. When we,” he teased.
“You might.”
His arms stiffened around her, tightening. “I never want to forget that, Mara. Not ever.”
Nina slapped his shoulder from behind, Guido in her arms. “Then shut the fuck up and get in the damn helicopter, or I’ll make you forget the dates for the next Trekkie convention.”
Harry laughed, sliding Mara into the helicopter. “God, she’s mean. So mean.”
Mara giggled, pulling her legs in and holding her hand out to him. “The meanest.”
He took it, settling in beside her. “Will you come with me when this doctor checks on the kids?”
Mara fought the burst of joy exploding in her heart, but she kept her reply simple before she pressed her lips to his. “Wouldn’t miss it—not even for my very own TARDIS.”
* * *
HARRY stood beside Mara as they watched Mimi and Fletcher sleep—safe, warm, loved. Carl slept on the floor on a blow-up mattress, Coconut curled up in the crook of his stiff arm. When they’d arrived back at her cottage with the children, Darnell told them Carl had been fidgety all night, nervous and jumpy in a way the demon said he’d never seen before. Until the kids were carried in and put in bed, that is.
He’d then dragged the mattress Nina’d been sleeping on in the closet and placed it next to the bed, covered the children and lay down next to them, patting Fletcher’s hand before nodding off to a sound sleep.
After they’d arrived at the hospital, while Dr. Field examined the children, the council had questioned Mara, deciding to let her go for the moment, but leaving the discussion about her serum still a question.
Nina, Marty, and Wanda had taken a sleeping Jeff home, straightened up his house, and Nina erased all traces of Leah and the torture she’d so clearly put him through during the time of his captivity from his memory. Whatever had happened, maybe after seeing what they’d seen tonight, it was better they didn’t know.