Chapter 44: Family First
[Specialised Knowledges commencing... Completed]
...
Tyler woke slowly, pulled from the depths of unconsciousness by the sensation of fingers brushing gently across his forehead and a familiar voice murmuring his name with quiet concern.
His eyelids felt like lead. His limbs, like sandbags soaked in concrete. Yet beneath that heaviness—beneath the strange weight pressing down on his body—was an undercurrent of energy, thrumming low and steady like a power line buried deep beneath the earth.
When his eyes finally cracked open, the world came to him in fragments. Light filtered through the study’s high windows in golden slivers, casting faint warmth across the couch he’d collapsed onto.
The ceiling above him swam in and out of focus, and then, gradually, a face came into view.
It was his mother’s.
Helena Reyes was crouched beside him, her soft features etched with worry. She was brushing her fingers against his forehead, likely checking for a fever.
Her brows were furrowed in a way he hadn’t seen in months, lips drawn tight at the corners with fear she hadn’t voiced.
She breathed a sigh of relief as her palm lingered against his skin and found no heat.
"You’re not burning up," she said softly, more to herself than to him. Then her eyes flicked to his, and her expression softened with visible relief.