She hadn't known with any certainty if her brother would remember what had happened to him. Really, Rory only knew the bare details to begin with. When someone was attacked and lost that much blood, there was no telling what their mind would recall. But Rory had a feeling. She had a feeling that her brother remembered, and that pointing out the obvious wouldn't be all that necessary at all. He wasn't being drugged, so it wasn't like the pain would escape him. It wasn't like the wound was in some hidden place that could easily be forgotten. Dennis had clearly been attacked, and he was clearly being kept away from the general population of the prison.
And once she'd said something so obvious, Rory had wanted to kick herself, but what was the point? The silence that followed nearly had her flinching, but she had to keep it together. That was becoming a silent mantra. She couldn't lose it.
Even as that quiet stretched for a few more seconds, even after it drove Rory to shift uncomfortably in her seat. It wasn't her brother's gaze that was making her fidget anxiously, but the situation. The fact that her dead brother wasn't dead, but might be dying. The fact that this could be the worst family reunion in history. The ridiculous potency of that possibility almost had her laughing, but even a bitter chuckle had no place in this room. Somehow, no reaction seemed appropriate or right or okay.
But once he opened his mouth, apologized, Rory couldn't help it. She pushed herself out of that chair like it had tried to attack her, aggressively standing if that was possible. And once she was upright, she froze, with the chair teetering briefly before righting itself on four legs, and her brother still right in front of her, staring. "No," she said. Rory shook her head. "No. You don't get to apologize. You have nothing to apologize for."
She felt like a crazy person, standing there, practically yelling, and so Rory pushed a hand through her messy hair, tugged her lower lip through her teeth. "Dennis, what were you even doing here? How...how did you get here?"