Kyle grabbed a flashlight from the med-kit and switched it on, shining it onto Alexei’s side to better illuminate the wound. Trevor peeled off the pressure bandage, left hand hovering over the wound. The scanner embedded in the machine over his palm projected a holographic image above Trevor’s forearm, showing off the deeper aspects of thewound.
“The shrapnel pieces are small, but it doesn’t look like they’ve shifted position all that much,”Trevorsaid.
“Gracie knows,” Alexei said. “Reportedin.”
“Good.” Trevor glanced over at where Sean was pulling down a flight seat to sit down. “How’syourhead?”
“Headache,” Seanreplied.
Alexei poked him in the thigh. “Not good to lie tomedic.”
Sean rolled his eyes. “I learned my lesson as a kid with my mom. Trust me,Iknow.”
He froze as the words left his mouth, eyes darting across the jet to where half his family sat. Alexei followed his gaze, noticing Sean’s brothers and father were watching them withwideeyes.
“>”Kylesaid.
“>” Alexei said, hissing a little as Trevor started to clean out the woundagain.
“>” Kyle tilted his head, green eyes narrowing. “>”
“>”
“>”
Alexei scowled at him. He knew what his brother was doing—distracting him from the doctoring going on—and anger or humor always proved a better focus thanthepain.
“> Alexeiretorted.
“>”
Kyle rubbed at his arm where Alexei had hit him more than a little forcefully, feigninginjury.
“>” Alexeiwarned.
“>”
“>”
“>”
“>”
“Quit antagonizing my patient, Brannigan,” Trevor warned without looking up from tending to Alexei’s wound. “And you, Dvorkin. Quitmoving.”
“What happened to using our code names in front of an audience?” Kyleasked.
“The audience in question is going to get put through a metric ton of NDAs, so at this point, it’s moot,” Jamie said as heapproached.
Alexei watched as his captain undid the buckle keeping his hard helmet strapped on and took off his tactical goggles. The thrum of the jet’s engines wasn’t enough to drown out one of Sean’s brother’s shocked shout of “Holy shit!Jamie Callahanis ametahuman?”
Kyle glanced at Sean’s family before doing a double-take. “Uh, aren’t those the members of AtomicGrace?”
“Yes,” Alexei said. “Tatyana and Valentina will wantautographs.”
“I already called dibs to be first in line,” Madison said from where she sat on the other sideofSean.
“Of course she did,” Kylemuttered.
