Archie.
I was already on my feet.
The chair scraped back hard enough to echo, forgotten as I crossed the office in three strides, phone pressed tight to my ear, keys snatched off the desk without looking. “Where are you?”
“I— I don’t?—”
“Look around, sweetheart,” I said, wrenching open the front door. “Tell me what you see.”
There was a scuffle on the other end, fabric shifting, the phone jostling hard enough to crack with static before someone else took it. “Hey. Uhm, it’s Rhys.”
“Where’s Archibald?” I barked.
“He’s with me. We’re outside your house. Or… we think it’s yours.” Wind pushed through the line, low traffic behind it. “Row of brownstones, all the same damn brick. Which one of these is yours?”
“519.”
I took the front steps two at a time—shoes hitting concrete in sharp, hollow cracks that could have carried down the block.
Wood snapped into frame, glass rattling in its panes as the door slammed shut behind me.
Allof that noise was drowned out, swallowed whole by the rush in my ears.
“Tell me what happened, Rhys.”
I hit the sidewalk without breaking stride, already turning, scanning the street like I could pull him into focus just by looking hard enough.
“He… had a panic attack. The door handle broke off.” Rhys dragged in a breath that broke in his throat, words forced through it as his steps hit uneven beside someone who wouldn’t stop moving. “He has, uhm, not claustrophobia, but it sounds similar. Cl?—”
“Cleithrophobia.” I finished.
Fear of being trapped.
“Yes—that.” Rhys said, like he was watching him instead of talking to me. “He’s okay. I got him out. He’s just… not really with me yet.”
I turned the corner and saw them at the end of the block.
Archie was pacing in tight, restless lines that didn’t take him anywhere, hands dragging through his hair and over his face, like he was trying to hold himself together and failing. His shoulders were pulled high, breath visibly uneven even from this distance, the movement of his chest wrong—too fast and too shallow.
Baby.
My hand dropped, the phone shoved into my pocket without ending the call. I was already moving before it settled, stride breaking into something faster, the distance between us suddenlyunbearable.
The pavement came up hard under my feet, rhythm uneven because I wasn’t bothering to pace it, just cutting the space down in straight lines instead of following the sidewalk like a normal person would.
He turned without me saying his name. When his eyes found mine, they were wide and unfocused for half a second before everything in them snapped into place. Relief hit so hard it looked painful, like he’d been holding himself together by force and finally didn’t have to.
“Daddy—”
The space between us collapsed in seconds.
Pace breaking, his toe caught just enough to send him pitching forward. I grabbed him under the arms before he could fall, hauling him against me.
His legs came up instinctively, locking around my waist, arms wrapping tight around my shoulders like he wasn’t letting go.
Not after just finding me.
Face pressed into the base of my neck, his chest knocked against mine in sharp, off-rhythm bursts that hadn’t settled yet.
