by L.J. Hayward
Chapter 11
A nurse brought me a cordless phone and I waited pointedly for her to leave before dialling Roberts. He answered on the eighth ring, mumbling something that should never be repeated let alone have come from his mother-kissing lips in the first place.
“Hey, tis I.”
Another comment much along the lines of the first one, a little bit rougher, if you can imagine.
“I’m sorry,” I said as earnestly as I could with the drugs swirling around my brain. “But I’m in a spot of bother. Just wondering if you could be a good chap and come help me out of it.”
“Spot this,” he muttered, along with a presumed rude gesture.
That’s the problem with only having one friend. The favours kind of all stack up in one place.
“I’ll buy you two new suits.”
“Matthew Hawkins, I don’t think you get the idea. I’m not alone.”
“Hey, bring her along. Make it a family affair.”
There was a some rustling, a sleepy enquiry in a sweet female voice and a grunted reply. Roberts walked somewhere and shut a door.
“Are you insane? I’m not bringing her to a vampire toasting.”
I laughed. “The vampires are all gone. Toasted them without help. I just need a lift home. Well, actually a lift out of here and into your car, then home.”
“What’s got you so chipper at God-doesn’t-get-up-at-this-hour-of-the-freaking-morning o’clock?”
“I’m so whacked out on morphine it’s a miracle this isn’t a reverse call from the moon.”
Roberts took the phone away from his mouth for a while. I vaguely heard some thumping and grumbling. Then he came back, voice all calm.
“Okay, where are you?”
I told him, asked him to hurry, pretended not understand what he called me and hung up. Nolan came back in carrying my X-rays.
“You’re a lucky guy,” he announced. “No breaks, just tissue damage.”
“Mild enough to send me home with a couple of ibuprofen?”
“Not quite. I’ve ordered you a bed.”
“To go?”
He gave me a smile that said ‘this is getting old, get over it’. “It’ll be ready in an hour or so. Is there anything we can get you?”
“Um, let me think. A wheelchair.”
The smile turned into a frown that said all the same things, only harder.
“Okay, a drink would be nice, thank you.”
“I’ll get someone to bring it in.”
An hour. Time enough for Roberts to get out here. I just had to wait it out.
So, Nolan turned into something of a tyrant. I got my drink. Ten minutes later I had to piss. He wouldn’t let me zoom on into the toilet on my own. He handed me a bottle. A bottle. A man shouldn’t have to piss in a bottle unless he’s really, really drunk and there are no handy walls about. I held on as long as I could. The sum result being that I was letting loose in the bottle when Roberts and his lady friend arrived.
“Oh, man. Jeez.” Roberts pushed his little blonde friend out of the cubicle, asked her to wait at the car, and then tore the curtains closed behind himself. “They need to put a sign up or something. You’re disgusting, Hawkins.”
“You’re the one with the bad timing.” I tapped off and made myself presentable. I wasn’t even blushing. Score one for the morphine.
“You’re just lucky I’m here at all. Did you see that girl? I could have stayed at home and got tangled up in that, not this.” He looked me over. “What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later.” I held my arms up. “Just carry me out of here, you big lug.”
Roberts swatted my hands away. “I’ll get a wheelchair. And your clothes. Where are they?”
“Well, see, that’s a problem.”
He glared at me. “Why?”
“My doctor thinks I should stay here for a while. Upstairs, in a bed they’re making up for me right now. He’s a bit stern, young Nolan. I think he might like to handcuff me to the bed.”
“I might do the same thing, in a purely platonic, you’re insane kind of way. If you’re that bad off, you probably should stay.”
“Well, I don’t want to.”
“What you want is immaterial. You need to stay.”
I think the drugs were starting to wear off. I wasn’t so happy any more. “No, you don’t get it. I’m not staying, no matter what you or Nolan thinks. I’ll walk out of here on my own if you won’t help me.”
He waved at my knee, bound up in thick bandages. “Go ahead. I’d like to see you try.”
Right. I unstuck the tape on the needle of the drip and pulled the needle out. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and gosh, it hurt. I nearly stopped being so pig-headed stubborn right then and there. But then I got a little angry. I wasn’t going to be knocked on my arse like this. Those vampires didn’t deserve to have even that victory over me. I stood up. Admittedly, I took all my weight on my right leg, and the blood rushing through my torn up knee was nearly crippling, but I did it.
“Fuck it, okay.” Roberts grabbed my arm and helped hold me up. “You really should stay in hospital. Just so you know my opinion on the matter.”
Some darling nurse had packed up all my gear in a plastic bag. Some of the sharper edges threatened to tear through, but Roberts picked it up gently, so it all stayed on the inside.
“Duly noted,” I ground out between clenched teeth. “Besides, I can’t leave Mercy alone for long.”
“I’ll take care of her.”
“Like you took care of her last night?”
It was said casually, but it bit deep. Roberts flinched and nearly dropped me. He’d seen the look in my eyes when I’d come out of Mercy’s room this morning. Neither of us had mentioned it and I shouldn’t have said anything now. But it was said and now we had to deal with it.
“I said I was sorry. I didn’t know she needed feeding.”
“You were moaning about how hungry you were all the way home. And she did all the fighting.”
He sighed. “Yeah, I should have thought about it, but I don’t deal with her like that. You know that. I don’t understand that side of her.”
“And that’s why I need to go home.”
“Will you stay off your feet?”
“As much as possible.”
Roberts pulled in a deep breath and took more of my weight. “Right, let’s get this kidnapping on the road.”
“Before we go, I have to ask you something.”
He looked at me sceptically. “Yeah?”
“Does this hospital gown make my arse look bare?”
He laughed and we were all good.
Getting out proved easier than I had imagined. There had been a shift change and a convenient influx of folks suffering a particularly smelly type of food poisoning. No one noticed us leaving.
Roberts had parked a lot closer than I had, smart fellow, and his girl had the back door open for me by the time I got there. I was feeling a little light headed as I crawled into the back seat. Roberts drove a Prado—all the better to carry all the promo gear around in, my precious—and I could stretch my leg out along the seat.
“My God,” the woman said. “What happened to him?”
“Jumped by Ice freaks.”
She peered at me. Pretty with blonde curls, big brown eyes and luscious red lips. “I don’t think he should be out of hospital.”
Roberts handed me the bag of stuff and I dug around inside it. “Hey, toots. Got a licence?”
Jaw on her chest, she stared between me and Roberts. “Did he just call me toots?”
“Well, Roberts hasn’t seen fit to make any introductions, so what else do I call you?”
“Shut up,” Roberts snapped at me. He grabbed the car keys I’d found. “You don’t deserve to know her name. She can drive your car home, and hopefully scratch the hell out of it.” He turned to her, handed over the keys. “He’s whacked out on painkillers. He’s not usually this Clan of the Cave Bearish.”
“Front car park, far corner,” I announced.
Roberts’ eyebrows almost crawled into his hairline. “You got jumped in a hospital car park?”
“Yeah.”
“Fucking luck.”
Roberts drove out to my car, let the woman out and then led her home. I kept peering over the back seat to make sure she didn’t mess up the paintwork.
“She’s nice. Are you really not going to tell me her name?”
“Yup.”
“That’s okay. I can guess. Mabel.”
“No.”
“Myrtle.”
“No.”
“Ulva.”
Roberts snorted. “No and is that even a name?”
“Finnish, I think. Um… Gertrude.”
And so went the drive home. Which wasn’t long. I hadn’t even exhausted my list of girl names.
Esme (so she was to me, at least) didn’t do a spot of damage to my car and I couldn’t get her name out of either of them. Roberts insisted on putting me to bed. He set Esme to making me a nice cup of tea while he checked on Mercy, who was fine but concerned. The bag of O pos had restored her to full capacity, so she was civil.
“Let her out.”
He frowned. “With Gale in the house?”
“Hah! Gale. Thank you, and yes. It’ll be fine. She was okay Tuesday night at Surf Wars.”
Roberts umed and ahed and then went to let Mercy out. She came racing into the bedroom and threw herself half across me.
“Matt, are you okay? How badly did they hurt you?”
I patted her hair. “I’m all right. It’s not too bad.”
She lifted a tear streaked face to stare at me, black hair all tangled around her little face. “I can smell all the blood on you.”
Roberts winced. I waved him back.
“It’s okay,” I said to them both.
“No, it’s not. Six Reds and I wasn’t there to help you. You could have died.”
Mercy buried her head in my chest and shook. Over her head, I mouthed ‘you told her?’ to Roberts. He shook his head. She’d sensed the attack. I deliberately didn’t think about what that meant.
Gale came in with the tea. “It’s black because there’s no milk. And why couldn’t she go get him from the hospital?”
Mercy snapped around to face her, on her feet in a blur. Gale jerked back, tea sloshing over her hand. Roberts threw himself between them. And because I could do little else, I hit Mercy through the link. She flinched and backed down, sinking to the floor by the bed, blindly reaching for my hand, seeking reassurance. I took her hand and held it tightly. Her fingers curled through mine.
“Sorry,” Mercy said before I could prompt her. “I got startled.”
Gale shook out her hand, a little pale. “It’s okay. I put some cold water in it because there wasn’t any milk.”
Roberts put an arm around her shoulders. “You sure you’re okay?”
She nodded and smiled at him. Then she looked at Mercy. “Hi. I’m Gale.”
“Mercy.”
“Oh, you’re French? You’re welcome.”
I grinned. “Mercy is her name.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“I don’t have a drivers licence,” Mercy said softly.
Gale nodded and put the tea on the bedside table. “Do you want anything else?” she asked me.
“No. Thank you, Gale. I appreciate this.”
She sighed. “It’s not every day I help kidnap a guy from a hospital. It’s been a pleasure, I suppose. Rob, I’ll wait in the living room.”
“Well,” Roberts said when she’d gone, “that could have gone worse.”
Mercy looked between us. “I did okay?”
“You were a champ, kiddo.” Roberts patted her head. “Do you need us to stick around?” he asked me.
“Nah, we’re all good here.”
“What about your leg? Got any decent painkillers?”
I deliberately didn’t look at Mercy, who was studying the tea with determined interest. “Yeah.”
“Okay. Call if you need anything. Just not so early next time.”
“Well, vampires don’t get around during the day much, but I’ll see what I can arrange.”
“Speaking of which, sunrise in about half an hour, missy,” he said to Mercy. “Get back in bed before then.”
She gave him a pained look. “I know.”
“Getting a smart mouth on her,” he said to me. “Right. Be good, the pair of you.”
I listened to him and Gale talking softly as they left. I couldn’t hear everything but Mercy did.
“She didn’t really like us.” Mercy frowned. “And you called her toots.”
“I’m a charmer.”
Mercy sat cross legged on the bed by my legs. She looked over the bandages. “You’re in great pain.”
“I know. Can you help?”
She chewed her lower lip gently, a feat and a half considering she had a pair of great big fangs in there. “What if I hurt you more?”
We’d tried this in the past. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes, I ended up in more trouble than I started in. In truth, I shouldn’t have been able to do half the things I did with my knee the way it was, but Mercy had this ability to do something to the pain that just made it go bye bye. Still, there was the chance it could go wrong and I’d be begging to go back to Nolan and his happy juice.
“I think we need to try.”
She looked at me. “What’s going on?”
I sighed. Keeping secrets from her was pointless. “I don’t know yet, but I think we both have to be running on all cylinders. There’s a chance it could get hairy.”
Mercy didn’t say anything. She just nodded and put her hands over my knee. After a moment, the air between us got very warm. Mercy began to sing as she worked. A full bodied Hey Jude. Sweet. I zoned out.