“Fuck. I feel like shit.” She looked around and spotted Ohem. She gave him a little wave and turned to check on Callie.
“Is she going to be okay?” she asked, looking down at her.
Sam’s gash was healed, and the bruises were gone. She was still filthy and covered in blood, but it looks like the nanos did their job.
“The nanos healed you, so I imagine they will do their job with her, too,” I said, pointing to the thin scar on her temple that had been a bloody gash a few hours ago. “She’s probably going to be out a while longer. She was hurt the worst.”
Callie’s face was already cleared of the bruises, and her stomach was a mottled yellow instead of the stark black it was when she was pulled from the crash.
“Where’s Patty?” Sam asked, still looking down at Callie.
I looked around and couldn’t find Patty. She must have moved to give us some privacy.
“She is walking to the remains of the storage cell,” Ohem said. He was standing right behind us. He was so quiet! Sam and I both jumped when he spoke.
He was still lit up like a Christmas tree and looking at me like he’d like to eat me.
The feeling is very mutual, baby. My face must have relayed my thoughts because he growled roughly and turned to stalk off towards the wreck.
I grinned at his back. He wanted me! Wanted me badly! I shimmied a little dance. Sam eyed me like I’d lost my mind.
“What’s happening? Why’d the General look like he was going to rip you apart?” she asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
I wiggled my eyebrows, grinning.
Her eyes widened, and she made a face halfway between disgust and curiosity. “Oh god! Did you sleep with him?”
“Not yet! If I had, he wouldn’t look so full of aggression,” I laughed. “No, I told him he was my mate, he accepted me, and we were three seconds from fucking against that bolder before you woke up and cock-blocked me.”
She grimaced. “Oh man, sorry about that. But congrats on the whole mate thing!” She raised her hand for a high five and I slapped her palm with mine.
We smiled at each other, Sam laughing under her breath.
“It’s been a crazy few days, huh?” She was looking around, taking in the desert, the muddy lake, and following the path of the crash with her gaze.
Her smile faded as she looked at the blackened remains of the container.
“The others are dead, aren’t they?” she asked quietly.
I met her solemn blue eyes with mine, reached for her hand, and nodded.
She’d known the others better than me. Had known their names.
She sucked in a shuddering breath and blew it out on a sob.
I pulled her into a hug, stroking her short hair while she cried into my chest. My makeshift tube top had survived the crash and was getting soaked in her devastated tears. I murmured nonsense to her and continued stroking her hair.
Ohem and Patty were dragging things out of the wreck in the distance. Ohem glanced back at me and turned to speak to Patty. She looked up, spotted me holding a crying Sam, and jogged back towards us.
When she got to us, she wrapped her arms around Sam’s back, sandwiching her between us.
We stood there like that until Sam’s sobs quieted to shuddering breaths.
She gave me a hard squeeze, stepping away from me, wiping her eyes with the back of both hands, and gave Patty a hard hug too, laughing a little when Patty grunted dramatically.
“I’m sorry for crying all over you, Jack. It’s just so unfair. There was a girl, Cleo, that was supposed to be getting married in a few months. She was so nervous and excited to go home, wondering what she was going to tell her fiance about where she’d been all this time. And Tiffany had kids. Two little girls. They will never see their mom again.” Her voice choked up, more tears ran down her cheeks, and she wiped them away. “Why’d they have to die?” She shuffled over to Callie to sit next to her, brushing Callie’s hair away from her face.
Patty watched her, worry lines forming between her brows. She flicked her eyes up at me, reaching a hand out to touch my shoulder. “She’ll be okay, eventually. We all will.”
