Contacting him…? Fucking brilliant; in the midst of all the chaos, Lex had forgotten about the com device clipped to his belt. He desperately snatched it up and pressed the transmit button so hard that he was sure his knuckles whitened under the pressure. “Marc? Marcus, do you copy?” he asked, listening closely to the radio static on the other end of the line. His stomach sank further every second. “Marcus, do you-”<br/><br/>“I copy,” he finally heard after much too long. “I'm here.” The voice was garbled from the background noise, but Lex recognized his brother's solemn tone. Things weren't good.<br/><br/>Lex swallowed hard and let his stomach acid stop its revolt before he asked the question bearing down on his mind. “And mom? Do you have her; are you guys okay?”<br/><br/>More static, more time… “She's gone, Lex.”<br/><br/>That was exactly the response he'd been waiting for. Their mother was gone. She'd been ‘gone’ for a while, but now she was<span style="font-style: italic">gone</span>... He recognized a vaguely familiar wave of despair wash over him and greet him like an old friend. And indeed, it was; they hadn't come across each other since the day he lost his sight. He recognized it, acknowledged it, and let it go. Now wasn't the time to grieve. “Okay..,” he breathed out once he'd made his peace. “Okay. Where are you right now?”<br/><br/>“I haven't left.” Of course he hadn't. Between the two of them, Lex had always been closer with their mother because he had always been her primary caretaker. Even after he'd lost his sight, she was always his number one priority, and he kept her as healthy as his medical knowledge would allow, for whatever that counted for now. But Marcus had always been much more emotionally inclined, so of course he hadn't left yet. He hadn't come to terms with it yet.<br/><br/>“Don't,” Lex ordered, putting on his most elder-brotherly voice, because God forbid that Marcus think he was for some reason alone in the world now. “I want to see her, too. We'll be there.”<br/><br/>Marcus went strangely quiet before speaking in an equally strange voice. “Lex I don't think you understand. She's not dead. Or at least, I don't see a body. She's gone, like gone gone.”<br/><br/>“...What do you mean she's ‘gone’? She didn't just get up and walk out, Marc, where is she?” he demanded, losing the softness to his voice.<br/><br/>“Just get here, okay? Over and out.”