Averting Disaster

[Nox]

Marta started to cry as her pet wolf put her head on his knee. It was a sweet gesture and Jackson was moving around him to sit next to Marta as Nox tugged the young girl into a side hug, his good arm wrapped around her while the other helped steady the baby still cooing in his lap. "Sweetheart, don't worry about me. I promise you I'm fine. I know you can smell the difference. And I know you don't know me at all. But please don't worry about me."

Nox leaned his head against hers and hugged tightly. "I promise nothing bad will happen to me. I made a promise to myself a long time ago that I wouldn't be my father. I would never take the easy way out. I feel like that often, so this is nothing new for me. I will find a way through this." He tapped Lily on the nose and the baby giggled and flailed for his finger which he gave to her though he didn't enclose any of the mechanical ones around her. There was still lingering fear of hurting her. He hadn't even tested the arm and the mechanics of it yet. But he didn't have the power to help him.

A text came in and Nox answered it with the warrior lens he put in every morning. With out the arm it had made sense, now it probably made even more sense. He always had an ear bud in, the lenses might as well become part of his regular gear now too. Ashton was testing a theory with Anna and Elyse. A theory that might work here. Maybe his song could help him fake it even more than usual.