Page 25 (1/2)
Down in the exaround clinic, John stood before Xhex and felt utterly powerless to help her As she sat screaainst her hold on the sheet, and her face stretched long, herout of her eyes and falling down her white cheeks And he could do nothing about any of it
He knew the rough place she was in Knew that he couldn&039;t possibly reach the well that she was down at the bottom of: He&039;d been there himself He knew exactly what it was like to trip and fall and be in agony froh your body technically hadn&039;t gone anywhere
The only difference was that she had a voice to give her pain wings
As his ears rang and his heart broke for her, he stayed strong against the gale force she let loose After all, there was a reason why here and hear were separated by so little and sounded one like the other Bearing witness to her, he heard her and was there for her because that was all you could do during a fall apart
But God, it pained him to see how she suffered Pained hihost taking physical form in John&039;s eance until his heart beat not blood, but the need for revenge
And then Xhex took a series of big breaths And a couple more
"I think I&039;hly
He waited a moment to make sure When she nodded, he took out his pad and wrote quickly
As he flashed the page to her, her eyes went to the writing and it took her a couple of tries to get the gist
"Can I wash my face first?"
He nodded and went over to the stainless-steel sink Running a streaot a clean towel fro to her As she held out her hands, he put the daainst her face It was hard to see her so frail and he thought back to how he had always known her: strong, powerful, edged-out
Her hair had grown longer and was starting to curl up at the ends, suggesting that if she didn&039;t cut it, it would have a thick wave in the length God, he wanted to touch the softness
His eyes moved down to the table and abruptly popped wide The sheet had twisted out from under her and there was a dark spot on the towels that had been wrapped around her hips
As he inhaled deeply, he caught the scent of fresh blood and was surprised he hadn&039;t before Then again, he&039;d been pretty fucking distracted
Oh Christ She was bleeding
He tapped her lightly on the arm and mouthed, Doc Jane
Xhex nodded "Yeah Let&039;s get this over with"
Frantic, John stalked over to the door of the exaion of worried faces, with Doc Jane at the head of the group
"She ready for ently with his arh With his back to Xhex, he signed, She&039;s injured so
Doc Jane put her hand on his shoulder and maneuvered him around in a circle so they traded places "I know Why don&039;t you wait outside I&039;ll take good care of her Ehlena? Would youto need a second set of hands"
Rehvenge&039;s shellan went into the exam room and John watched over the doctor&039;s head as the fe her hands
Why isn&039;t Vishous assisting? he signed
"We&039;re just doing an ultrasound to " Doc Jane shtening And then the door was shut in his face
He looked around at the others All the males were locked out in the hall Only females in there with her
Histo coht
A heavy hand landed on his shoulder and V&039;s voice was low "No, you need to stay out here, John Let go"
That hen he realized his pal down, he told himself to release his hold and had to send the corip slid off theNo sounds at all
He waited And waited And paced and waited someup a Dunhill Qhuinn drue&039;s head while the golden retriever watched John with kind brown eyes
Eventually, Doc Jane poked her head around the door and looked at heron the sole of his boot and tucked the butt into his back pocket "Scrubbing in?"
"Yup"
"Let ed off to the locker rooood care of her--"
What&039;s wrong? Why is she bleeding? he signed
"I&039; to take care of her"
And then the door shut again
When V cah he was out of his leathers, and John hoped like hell the guy&039;s competency on the field translated into the medical racket
Those diamond eyes of his flashed and he clapped John on the shoulder before slipping into the exa as an OR
As the door closed, John felt like doing a little screa of his own
Instead, he kept with the walking, going up and down the corridor Up and down Up and down Eventually, the others dispersed, heading into a nearby classroom, but he couldn&039;t stand to join them
With each pass by the door that was closed to him, he ider afield, until the trip took hi area and then back to the locker rooood fifty yards into a matter of mere inches
Or at least it seemed that way
On what must have been his fifth trip doard the lockers, John pivoted around and found hilass door The desk and the filing cabinets and the coe comfort from the inanimate objects
But the deep breath was lost when he stepped forward once again
In his peripheral vision, he saw the cracks in the concrete wall across the way, the fissures spidering out froht it had happened That horrible night
He and Tohr had been sitting together in the office, hi to keep calain Every tiot voice mail, the tension was cranked up more--until Wrath had appeared with the Brotherhood behind hiic but then Tohr had learned the "how": Not because she was pregnant with their first child, but because a lesser had killed her in cold blood Murdered her Taken her out and the baby with her
That hat had caused these ertips across the fine lines in the concrete The rage had been so great, Tohr had literally imploded into a supernova, the e him to some other place
John never had learned where he&039;d gone
A sense of being observed had hi over his shoulder Tohr was on the far side of the glass door, standing in the office, staring out
The two met each other&039;s stare and it was er
John was a different age now And like soback
"John?" Doc Jane&039;s voice came from far down the hall and he wheeled around,then ran to her
How is she? What happened? Is she--
"She&039;s going to be okay She&039;s just co to keep her in bed for the next six hours or so I understand she fed from you?" He flashed his wrist and the doc nodded "Good I&039;d appreciate it if you&039;d stay with her in case she needs to again?"
Like he would be anywhere else
As John stepped inside the exa to disturb anything; but she wasn&039;t there
"She&039;s been moved into the other room," V said froh to the far door, he stared at the after pile of bloody gauze on the floor and more blood on the table she&039;d been on The sheet and towels she&039;d been wrapped in were off to the side
So much blood All of it fresh
John whistled loudly so that V would look over Can someone tell me what the fuck went on in here?
"You can talk to her about it" As the Brother got out an orange biohazard bag and started to gather up the used gauze, V paused, but did notto be okay"
And that hen John knew for sure
However bad he&039;d thought she&039;d been treated, she&039;d gotten it worse Much worse
Generally speaking, when there were injuries sustained in combat or on the field, the inforht-- femur broken, ribs crushed, stab wound But a female came in, was examined without males present, and no one would speak a word of what had been operated on?
Just because lessers were is with
The cold breeze that shot through the OR brought V&039;s head up again "Word of advice, John I&039;d keep your suppositions to yourself Assu you want to be the one who kills Lash, true? No sense Rehv or the Shadows, ht"
My God, the Brother was cool, John thought
Nodding once, he went over to Xhex&039;s roooing to keep a lid on things Xhex didn&039;t need to know the lengths he was going to go to, either
Xhex felt like soen bus in her uterus
The pressure was so great, she actually lifted her head and looked down her body to see if she ollen to garage dimensions
Nope Flat as always
She let her head fall back
On some level, she couldn&039;t believe where she was now: on the other side of the operation, lying in a bed with her ars and head still attached and the tear in her uterine wall repaired
When she was in the grips of her iatrophobia, she couldn&039;t see past what her brain had marked as deadly To her, in that flipped-out state, she was not in a safe environment, surrounded by people she knew and could trust
Now, having gone through the fire, the fact that she was unscathed and well gave her a weird buzz of endorphins
There was a soft knock, and she kneho it was by the scent beneath the door
Touching her hair, she wondered what the hell she looked like and decided it was better not to know "Come in"
John Matthew&039;s head ducked inside and his eyebrows lifted in a how&039;re-you-feeling arch