"Unease?" Rae tried, for once, to help April find the right words, instead of vice versa. "Discomfort?" she added. "Well, you did," she said with a reassuring smile. Her cousin had gotten into the house, out of her coma, despite the odds being stacked against her. That was the Nichols in her, Rae couldn't help but muse.
Rae chuckled. "He knows we know. He's protecting us from the mother ship, is all," she joked. Really, she had no real illusions about her intelligence. She wasn't stupid, no, but in comparison to people like April or Eloise, she wasn't really smart, either. It didn't bother her, though. She knew who she was, she didn't need anyone else's confirmation to be okay with it. That's a lie, her brain taunted. Rae was always seeking people's approval. It was who she'd always been. Other people's opinion of her weighed so heavily on her opinion of herself that it was probably shameful. "I don't have to be smart," she started. Their Great Aunt Deirdre always used to tell her that she didn't have to be smart because she was pretty, but that wasn't what she meant. "I've got other things going for me." She could cook, she could dance, she was a mother... those were all she needed, really.
Chuckling, Rae shrugged. "I didn't send her anywhere, but I'm pretty sure she won't be coming here any time soon, so..." she smirked. When April asked about Silas, Rae nodded somberly. "He's a few rooms down," she pointed her thumb in the direction of Silas' room. "One of them shot him. He woke up yesterday." She didn't want to make this about how worried she'd been, though, because she was definitely grateful that April was awake. "Evan's a few rooms that way, too," she explained, pushing some hair behind her ear and trying to make herself relax a little bit.
"Don't argue with me, missy," she teased, using the nickname she'd always used to call her cousin when they'd been playing doctor when they were kids. "He's to blame, and Brandon took care of that problem." A debt she owed to Brandon Stone, and not one she looked forward to repaying, given the man's contempt for her.
With a light laugh, Rae tilted her head to the side. "I can't guarantee I wouldn't loophole it and find you a stuffed elephant, but yeah," she joked with a smirk.
Before she turned to depart, Rae leaned down to kiss April on the forehead again. She'd always been something of a lovey caretaker, and given that the people she was talking to right now were her loved ones, well... definitely a good time for it. "I'll give them a good kick, don't even worry about that." She lovingly pushed some of April's curl's out of her face with a smile. "Here," she handed her the key ring that she used to hold her hair ties. "Why don't you fling a bunch of these at your brother until he wakes up?"