Lex shrugged as he bothered the hem of one of Jenessa's dresses. She had always gone to great lengths to look so nice, even though their later months together heavily involved taking care of<span style="font-style: italic">him</span>. So whenever she wasn’t wearing scrubs at the hospital, she was looking marvelous to do little more than cook and clean for him. It was around that time that he decided that he couldn’t use his blindness as a crutch to not do things. He supposed he had Jess to thank for that. “She could’ve died out there today and I would never know.” He felt a strange hollowness in the pit of his stomach when he said that. He’d come to terms a long time ago with the fact that if she died, he wouldn’t get a chance to grieve because he’d never know. That was the first time he’d verbalized it so<span style="font-style: italic">casually</span>, though, and to someone other than his mother, who could never tell him what to do like she could have in days past.<br/><br/>“What I’m saying is I guess I don’t understand how divorce works now,” he finally said, quickly rebounding from a dangerously nostalgic feeling. He turned away from Jenessa’s clothes to his own, absently picking out two outfits’ worth of clothes and a coat that he went ahead and shrugged into. He was in the midst of shoving the rest of his clothes into his duffel bag when he heard the gunshots ring in from somewhere outside. He grabbed his bag, Blue grabbed<span style="font-style: italic">him</span>, and they took to the hallway.<br/><br/>Marcus was already there, two duffel bags slung over his shoulder. He’d been busying himself with collecting the guns and ammunition that his father had insisted upon; Lex knew where they all were hidden from memory, and probably could’ve gotten them quicker than Marcus had if he had been making himself useful. Instead, he was walking out of his room holding hands with a girl he just met. Marcus didn’t mention it. “We’ve got to move,” he whispered instead, jerking his chin back in the direction of the stairs. His hands curled around a pistol; it was his own, not their father’s, and he’d kept it loaded at all times.<br/><br/>The sound of muted footsteps traveled down the hallway as Marcus crept down the hallway. Lex quickly withdrew back into his room at the last moment and all but<span style="font-style: italic">leaped</span>onto his bed. He crawled up the bed, frantically moving items from off of his shelf until he found what he was looking for. His fingers curled around his wedding ring and he slowly exhaled; he wasn’t sure if he was relieved that he found it, or disappointed. Regardless, he had it now, and he quickly shoved it into his pants pocket as he returned to the hallway.<br/><br/>“We’re clear,” Marcus whispered from the bottom of the steps, pistol tracing his surroundings as he looked around. He’d fired it before, sure, but his hands still shook over the thought of firing it at a Realian, who would also be armed. And faster. He could feel his palms start to slicken from sweat.