“There are worse things in the world to be than a fucking junkie,” Jaida warned – and there was something in her tone, something about the way she said it, that made it clear that she’d worn that label herself a time or two. For a long time, especially after the split between she and Vivian at Halcyon, Jaida had been the poster child for drug abusers – she’d injected, snorted, swallowed whatever illegal substance she could get her hands on in hope of numbing the pain. But still, to her, temporary avoidance was far better than turning tail and running; Shannon was a coward and there was no fucking rehab that would cure you of being spineless. “Oh, that we agree on. Eden is fucking better off without you. I wish I’d never gotten it in my head to try my hand at getting you two together. For fuck’s sake, the only good thing you’ve done lately is leave the girl alone.” She’d give him some credit for that, at least. If Shannon had played some fucked-up game of tug of war with her assistant’s heart, this conversation wouldn’t have ended so easily….or without bloodshed. “It won’t be easy for her to go,” Jaida agreed, glancing up at Dom where he towered over her, “but she will. She knows how important this is, that we can’t afford to fuck it up.” But, if shit hit the fan, Jaida trusted the guards to (gently) remove Juniper, for her well-being as well as Callum’s. “I think we’re set here. We’re light-tight, we’ve got the blood… As soon as the car gets here, we’ll need to get started.” They didn’t have a whole lot of time to start with, not when they had to time everything just right to make sure Cal’s turning fell into the timeline that would make the transition easiest for him.
Cal shook his head softly, the grief evident in the down-turned corners of his mouth. “I can…only imagine how….Shannon made it sound.” He’d probably painted a truly ugly picture, made it seem like he and Eden had traded them both away as if they were easily replaceable; Juniper wasn’t stupid, so clearly his brother had put enough effort into the tale to make it convincing. Cal couldn’t spend too much time thinking about how far he and his brother had fallen, how much things had changed between the two of them or it would probably wreck what was left of his barely-functioning heart. It had taken them so long to find one another and then they’d built this brotherly bond, only to have it utterly wrecked not long after. “I did too,” he admitted, gaze lifting to meet hers, “I…thought….we’d have time…to talk it out.” Or so he hoped – maybe that was the better way of putting it. Cal had always thought that maybe someday, down the line a bit, he’d get his brother through this mess of being turned, get himself cleaned up and go off to make it right with Juniper. Now that all seemed to have gone up in smoke. Chuckling, he gave a light nod, “Good…choice then.” There was no way he wanted his brother in charge of his medical care, not when he’d finally shown what he was really capable of. “I….I don’t want him….around when we…get back.” Cal wasn’t sure that he could stand to look at Shannon, that he could deal with the stress of having the bastard in the same room as him again. He returned that brief kiss as best he could, before the hospital staff set to work easing him out of his bed. It was an embarrassingly slow process and he was winded after even the slightest bit of exertion, his damaged heart struggling to keep up. But eventually he was settled, resting back on his gurney as they wheeled him towards the waiting transport. “I’ll….see…you back…at the mansion,” he assured her, managing a smile before they rolled him off, lifting the stretcher into the back of the transport and closing the doors. Soon enough, they’d be rolling up to the mansion and he’d be settling in for whatever time he had left.