Loving Reunion

Leonard quickly rushed towards his mom who, despite having seen Leonard and Morgan enter the room, still remained laying on the bed.

Hearing what Leonard said and seeing the woman laying on the bed, Morgan too, reacted excitedly and rushed towards the bed.

After a great amount of effort by Leonard, he managed to raise Lauren's body up into a sitting position.

Grant noticed that no matter how much Leonard and Morgan hugged, held, or questioned Lauren, she never seemed to react to their presence.

Grant could tell that she was still alive, because there was movements in her eyes, but other than that, she never so much as twitched a finger.

Leonard seemed to notice this too, because rather than expound upon how happy he was to see her, his questioning turned into questioning what was wrong with her.

"Leonard, relax. We can only imagine the kind of suffering she has been through to reach the point she is at now. Do not pressure her too much. In time, she will recover to some degree.

For now, you remember what I asked you to get from Ethan?"

Leonard nodded his head up and down in acknowledgement before reaching into his pocket and pulling a vial out and presenting it to Grant.

Grant took it from his hand and the familiar notification appeared as he held it.

{Potion: Minor Recovery Potion

Name: Minor Recovery Potion

Grade: Low

Allows the user to recover 50 health instantly. Will allow all minor cuts and bruises to be healed instantly.}

"Thank you Leonard, now, step aside. We need your mother to drink this, it will help her recover physically to some degree."

Leonard quickly agreed and stepped aside while pulling Morgan out of the way as well.

Grant, for the first time, slowly approached Lauren and sat down on the bed next to her. Unlike Leonard and Morgan, Grant knew that the reason Lauren wasn't reacting was not because she wasn't physically capable, it was because she had most likely suffered an immense amount of mental torture since she was held captive and it had broken her in some way.

Rather than immediately try and force the Potion down her throat, Grant tried to ease some of that suffering as best he could.

"Hello Lauren, I just want to say thank you.

Your son has been a great help to me since I met him. You should be very proud of the little man you have raised. He has become a strong and trustworthy young man who has done everything in his power to protect not just himself but also his little sister.

And he never gave up on finding you.

That is how your kids and I ended up here today. I owed him a favor for his help and all he asked me for was to find you.

I can only imagine the untold suffering you have endured at the hands of Andrew and his cronies, but I have some news that may help ease that suffering ever so slightly.

Andrew, is dead; and you, are free."

For the first time since they entered the room, Lauren seemed to acknowledge their presence. Outside of expectation however, rather than look at her kids, Lauren ever so slightly rotated her head to look at Grant with a quizzical gaze as if to ask, 'are you telling the truth?'

Grant simply nodded his head up and down once before, "It's true. He is dead and you are free. Your kids will confirm as much. Leonard was there with me when he breathed his last breathe."

Lauren just sat there without moving, staring at Grant for a few minutes, before she finally turned her head and looked at her kids who were standing on her other side and staring at her with a multitude of emotions showing in their eyes and on their faces.

Before letting them get engrossed in their union once again, Grant quickly interjected.

"Leonard, can you please look in the drawers of this room? Normally in a hospital like this their will be a few loose straws or something that can be used as such. Please find one so we can give the potion to your mother."

Rather quickly, Leonard managed to find a straw in one of the drawers and quickly handed it over to Grant.

After popping the cork out of the Potion, Grant placed the straw into the Potion and gave it back to Leonard.

Lauren was still looking at her kids, so Grant decided that it would be best for Leonard to give it to her rather than him who was still a mere stranger.

Leonard slowly approached his mother and presented the straw to her, "Mom, this is a potion that will help you recover some of your health. Please drink this."

After a few moments of hesitation, Lauren slowly leaned forward and placed her lips onto the end of the straw and began to suck down the fluid inside the bottle.

As she drank more of the potion, her body seemed to react to the presence of the potion and slowly but surely became more plump and a natural color returned to her skin.

After the entire bottle was finished, Lauren looked more like someone who had suffered from malnutrition and dehydration for a few days rather than a few weeks.

Seeing his mother regain some semblance of her old appearance, Leonard froze before dropping the empty bottle onto the ground where it shattered into small pieces before disappearing into thin air as small particles of light.

The sound of the glass breaking quickly snapped him out of his shock though and he lunged at his mom and gave her a tight hug followed quickly by Morgan. After a few moments, the sound of the kids crying could be heard.

Unlike the first time, Lauren reacted to their hugs and raised her own arms up and embraced her kids.

Grant, who was now standing in a corner of the room just observed the situation with a small smile on his face.

Although happy, he knew that Lauren was in a similar situation to what Ally had been in, if not much much worse, which meant that it would take a long while for Lauren to regain any semblance of her old personality.

After embracing each other for a good five minutes, Lauren raised her head and looked towards Grant before giving him a small nod to express her gratitude for what he had done.

Grant simply smiled back at her.

Lauren gave another small nod before turning back towards her kids and resting her head on the top of theirs while continuing to embrace them.

Knowing that he was no longer needed, Grant decided that he should quietly disappear and go about handling the rest of his business. He knew that he would see the three again so he didn't even say goodbye before walking out the door and into the hallway.

As Grant walked through the building and towards the exit, he got lost in his own thoughts.

[Lauren is going to need a lot of help in the future... I really hope she can recover from this...

Apparently I have a thing for saving older women in need...

Ah whatever, that's not important right now, the kids have reunited with their mother and that's all that matters!

Time to go handle my own business!]

As Grant exited the building, he saw people running in every which direction with big smiles on their faces so he decided to stop a passing middle aged man to figure out where everyone was headed in such a hurry.

"Hey buddy, where is everyone running too?"

"You don't know?! The tyrant is dead and they are gathering people in the camp center to make an announcement! Plus, they are handing out food!"

Of course, Grant knew why everyone was happy. He just needed to know where Ethan and Tom were gathering the people so he could make his way there.

"Ah, I see. And how do I get to this camp center?"

The middle aged man just rolled his eyes for a moment.

"Are you new here or something? Well, you do look too healthy to have been a resident here for long... Fine, I'll show you the way, follow me!"

Without even waiting for Grant to reply, the man turned and started heading down one of the roads at a fairly quick pace. As the went further down the road, more and more people emerged onto the road, heading in the same direction they were. Eventually, a large group of people were slowly moving towards a singular destination.

Eventually, the crowd managed to reach a large clearing that had an elevated stage in the center. In front of the stage, Grant saw a table with an abundance of food stacked on top of it. He also saw Ethan, Tom, and some of the other individuals that were present at Andrew's death, handing out food to the survivors as they shuffled past the table.

Seeing Ethan, Grant immediately started making his way towards the stage but was momentarily stopped by the man he had followed to the clearing.

"Hey! Young man! You have to stand in line if you want to get food!"

Grant simply waved off the man before once again moving towards Ethan.

As Grant approached, Ethan seemed to sense him because he looked up from the food he was handing out and looked directly at Grant.

Since their was still an abundance of people between them, neither said anything, they simply acknowledged each other with a nod of the head.

As Grant forced his way through the crowd, he was berated with a few jeers and ridicule for trying to cut, but he simply ignored them and moved forward.

Once he finally reached the table, Tom and the rest of the people finally noticed his presence as well. They quickly stopped what they were doing and gestured for Grant to follow. They handed over the food duties to other individuals and led Grant towards the stage.

As Tom and Grant stepped onto the stage, the crowd became noticeably quieter in anticipation of the news that was coming.

Surprisingly for the crowd however, it wasn't Tom that spoke, it was Grant.

"Hello folks, my name is Grant.

Most of you know that Andrew is no longer in this world, but what most of you don't know, is that I was the one who led him to the afterlife."