It was well into the early hours of the morning that Semi stirred awake in the front seat because her phone was ringing.  Minseok glanced questioningly across at her as she pulled it out to answer it, but otherwise kept his eyes on the road.  They were driving through countryside, light pollution from a large town or city visible on the horizon but everything otherwise dark, with the occasional tree shadow and the ever-present hills and mountains.

Semi cast a barely awake glance into the back as she gave almost incoherent responses to the person on the other end.  Both children and Luhan had long since fallen asleep, both Jaera and Jaehwan using the man’s arms as pillows.  In the darkness, he didn’t look as pale from his extended stay indoors as he did normally.

“’S Kyungsoo,” Semi mumbled as she hung up.  “All safe.  They’re on their way to hospital with Sehun now.”

Minseok slowed the car, glancing at an upcoming road sign.  “Where?  We should find somewhere close.”

“It’s near—”

The phone buzzed again and Semi mumbled an apology as she picked it up.  Fighting off a yawn, Minseok turned back to the road.

Semi sounded marginally more alert as she responded to the person on the other end, but this conversation was much longer than the previous one.

Eventually ending the call, Semi let out a long sigh as she slumped back in her seat.  Minseok shot her a look of concern.

“Who was that?”

“Jongdae.”  Semi yawned.  “He says it looks like Sangchu’s cottoned on to both escapes because Yixing’s apartment has just been raided and Yixing was lucky to get away.”

Minseok nearly brought the car to a screeching halt.  Semi flinched when he slammed on the brakes and so he quickly eased off them and kept the car going.

“Is he all right?”

Semi shrugged.  “Didn’t say, but he seems still to be in commission, so my guess is yes.  They’ve lost their tail and Sungjong’s stayed behind to put up a technological block on everything he can lay his hands on, and to release all the information Yixing was keeping back so that the NIS and cyber crimes units of the police are all going to be occupied for at least a couple of days, which should help us.  Yixing’s discussing with Jongin at the moment, but he and Jongdae are hoping to join us at some point today.”

Minseok nibbled at his bottom lip.  Reaching for a bottle of water, Semi began to elaborate, telling him more of what Jongdae had said and also where Kyungsoo had said they were taking Sehun.

“It’ll be a few hours before we can get near there,” he said.  “I need a nap and you’re not in a condition to take over, either.  Do you mind looking up hotels in the area?”

Nodding, Semi swallowed her water and returned to her phone.

The morning rush hour was just starting when they were finally in the vicinity of their destination.  They were only half an hour from the hospital, but Minseok and Semi were both shattered and needed a rest, and Sehun was still in the surgery queue and scheduled for a couple of hours later.  If he hadn’t been, and if it had been visiting hours, Semi would have insisted on going straight over despite being so tired, but it made sense to wait.

There was also Luhan’s impending decision to factor in, and what he chose would have an impact on the way they’d set up him meeting Weiyi.  He was awake now, up to speed on the new information, and everything was clearly weighing on him because he was staring out of the window with his lips pursed into a thin line and a faint frown creasing his forehead.  Minseok felt bad for him because there wasn’t exactly a good decision for him to make.  The only indication Luhan gave of which possibilities he was juggling was when Semi was unpacking some food for the two children and Luhan leant forward to touch Minseok lightly on the shoulder.

“Exactly how good is Jongin?” he asked in a voice too low for the others to hear.

“One of the best,” Minseok assured him.

At ten AM, they checked into the hotel, Luhan disguised as a women with a bit of an overgrown pixie cut, and he promised to keep the two children occupied with card games while Semi and Minseok clocked out.  Semi was only too content to snuggle up to her husband on the king-sized bed as the muted voices of their children and Luhan drifted through from next door.

“By the way,” she said, “when you wake up, you need to sort out this whole guardianship business with Taeyong.  Fostering or adopting him is going to be very difficult because of your records and they won’t let me sign the papers if they won’t let you.”

Minseok nuzzled her hair softly.  “Not gonna worry about that now.  We could probably suggest a family to take him in, anyway.”

He barely heard Semi’s answering hum of agreement before conking out.

Minor complications with Shixun’s surgery meant it took longer than it ought to have done and Kyungsoo and Weiyi were still waiting for him to be released into recovery an hour and a half after he’d been taken into the operating theatre.  Kyungsoo didn’t seem to be too worried about it, but his Mandarin wasn’t good enough and Weiyi’s Korean wasn’t good enough for him to explain to her or for her to understand exactly what had happened, but Weiyi did eventually twig that only Shixun’s arm had been anaesthetised and that something minor but painstaking had been messed up, and that Shixun’s life wasn’t in danger.  Jongin was pacing down the far end of the corridor, endlessly on his phone about a host of different things, but Weiyi did gather that one of the topics was her brother, and she was very confused as to why meeting up with him was still so complicated now that she and Shixun were safe.  (Wasn’t it better that she met with him now, too, before Shixun was out of surgery?

There were several other people waiting like they were, and every so often a nurse or a surgeon or another medical professional would come out of one of the prep rooms or one of the operating theatres, pulling off a set of scrubs or responding to a pager, or going over to one of the people sitting down to inform them o