What was the point of sharing his head with a giant mythical creature if it abandoned him at critical moments?
“Hey, doc, any idea when I might be able to get out of this bed?” he asked, turning to Brooke. He knew he sounded irritated, but irritated was how he felt – but then again, he thought, wincing, perhaps he could stand to be alittlenicer to Brooke. She had, after all, just saved his life…
… Though that came with questions of its own.
Wait… if I collapsed in an alley – which I only just barely even remember doing – how did I get here?
“I want to keep you in here for about half an hour or so, at the minimum,” Brooke said, with an eyebrow raised to indicate that she’d noticed his tone and didn’t much appreciate it. “Ideally I’d keep you overnight, but I think I’ve already had just about enough of you.”
“We should be going too,” Robb said.
“Really, we shouldn’t even be here now,” James cut in. “But I felt you had a right to know what went down.” He shook his head. “Didn’t I tell you at the hearing to stay out of trouble?”
“This wasn’t exactly myplan,” Rhys growled, before quickly checking himself. “What I mean is, I didn’t really intend for all this to happen. I just thought I’d get out of town for a bit. It wasn’t like I wanted to get shot full of wyvern venom.”
“No, I suppose not,” James said, giving him a half smile, and choosing, apparently, to ignore the slight belligerence in Rhys’s tone. “But try to stick to that for the next week at least, okay?”
Rhys grimaced. Were the pair of them going to lecture him on the importance of keeping his head down during this time? As if he didn’t already know his future was hanging by a thread?
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
So much for fixing the attitude problem.
Thankfully, neither Robb nor James gave him much of a reaction, lecture or otherwise.
“Good. Since you’re suspended anyway and you’ve just been injured, I’d say getting away for a bit is a great idea,” James said. “Go on a trip. Visit your sister or something like that. Hanging around here moping isn’t doing much for your disposition.”
Before Rhys could look up and ask James if that had been supposed to be a joke, he’d turned away, he and Robb crossing the room, the door closing softly in their wake.
Rhys stared after them.
Okay?
Had he just beenorderedto go on a holiday?
Rhys shook his head. He felt like he still hada lotof questions, but he really doubted Robb or James would be answering any of them even if they were still in the room.
“Okay, well, let’s have a look at those bullet wounds,” Brooke said a moment later. “Now that the antivenom has had a chance to take full effect, your natural healing powers should have kicked in.”
Quickly and efficiently, she peeled back the bandages on his shoulder. When Rhys looked down, he could see that Brooke was right – there wasn’t even much of a mark left where, before, he could remember only the sensation of incredible pain.
“Great. You’re almost back to normal already,” Brooke told him. “I wasn’t expecting that for another hour or so. I guess that’s griffins for you. So you can get out of my hair as soon as you like.”
“Thanks.” Rhys hoped Brooke could hear the sincerity in his voice. She hadn’t really deserved all the guff he’d given her earlier. But still, he really did have some questions. “So… you just pumped me full of antivenom, huh?” he asked, as he sat up straight and looked around for his shirt. “Did I…flyheresomehow? Am I going to get another ding for discipline reasons as soon as I get my suspension sorted out?”
Brooke threw him alook– not just a look, but definitely alook.
“You mean you don’t remember?”
Rhys shook his head. “Nope. Nothing.”
Brooke raised an eyebrow at him. “Okay,” she said, after a pause which Rhys could, unfortunately, only describe as ‘pregnant’. “I guess I just assumed… but, well, it’s none of my business. There’s a clean shirt and pants for you hanging on the rack there – sorry about chucking the ones you were wearing in the bin, but I don’t think you would have wanted them back, what with them being covered in blood and wyvern venom. As soon as you’re done you can go, I guess.”
Rhys nodded, feeling, if anything, even less enlightened than before.
After Brooke had left, closing the door behind her, he hopped out of bed and shed his hospital gown, pulling on the clean shirt and jeans Brooke had left for him. They always had a change of clothes here, at least, so he wouldn’t have to somehow get home looking like… well, like he’d just been shot twice in an alleyway.
His phone and keys were sitting on the counter, and Rhys grabbed them before heading out. He felt a physical pang in his chest at the fact that his ID card wasn’t there with them – usually they were the three things he always grabbed before heading out, and he always kept them together. The missing card was just another reminder of how precarious his future had become, and how much it seemed completely out of his hands.
