“It doesn’t and why should I?” He prissed daintily. “Drake is an idiot. I now have irrefutable proof of his supreme fatuousness. It was obvious to anyone with a brain what had happened.” He hissed like a cat. “Which explains why Drake didn’t get it… From the moment I heard about the scandal, I knew Darling would have to be beyond desperate to go to that pervert.”
He set the water bottle down on the tray next to Darling’s bed. “You can’t imagine the disdain and ridicule Darling’s been subjected to because of it. There were so many jokes that went around—jokes that were sickening. I was in militia training the first time that video was shoved in my face. I was so angry, I clocked the moron who was laughing when he showed it to me.”
It had to be bad to motivate Maris to such an act. “People can be extremely vicious.”
“Believe me, Zarya, I know. I am a gay man, remember? They’ve let me have it plenty.”
He jerked his chin toward Darling. “Some of the old jokes are still floating around and are retold anytime he makes an official appearance.”
“Such as?”
He turned a pale shade of green and made sure that Darling wasn’t awake before he whispered to her. “I’m only telling these to you because you will hear them, and I want you prepared for the sheer, brutal nastiness of it…” He lowered his voice even more. “What’s the difference between Darling Cruel, the wind, and a vacuum?”
She drew her breath in sharply, dreading the answer.
Maris held the same look of disgust that she felt. “A vacuum only sucks. The wind only blows. But Darling sucks, blows, and swallows.”
She screwed her face up at the sheer cruelty. No wonder Maris had punched someone. Something like that would motivate her to even worse actions.
Sighing, he told her another one. “What’s the difference between a toilet and Darling? The toilet doesn’t follow you around after you use it. Then there’s my personal fave. What’s the difference between Darling and an oven? An oven doesn’t moan out loud when you stick a piece of meat in it.”
Her stomach shrank in horror. “Oh my God, that’s disgusting.”
“Trust me, there are a lot more than those three and I’ve thankfully forgotten most of the worst ones. But I’m sure Darling hasn’t. There’s nothing people love more than to laugh at someone else’s misery, and they belly-rolled over his. They didn’t care that Darling was in pain and that they were making it worse.”
Licking his lips, he glanced away from her. “What kills me most, though, is that it was obvious in the video that Darling was crying, scared, and humiliated the entire time. But to them it was just hilarious. Bastards!”
In that moment, she honestly hated people for their cruelty.
Before she could comment, the alarm to one of Darling’s monitors sounded.
Maris rushed to it and blocked her ability to read why it was going off.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Darling’s heart just stopped.”
16
Darling came to slowly. Exhausted and in pain, he tried to open his eyes, but the bandages left him in complete darkness.
“Is he awake?” That was Hauk’s familiar growl.
“Darling? Can you hear me?”
Zarya. How could anyone mistake that precious, angelic voice? He heard the monitor for his heart speeding up. It quickened even more when he felt her soft hand clutching his.
Voices exploded so that he couldn’t quite make them all out.
“Hey! Give us the room,” Syn demanded over the sudden pandemonium.
The voices grew louder an instant before they stopped entirely.
When Zarya started to let go of him, he tightened his grip on her hand to keep her with him.
“Syn?” she said gently.
“Yeah, okay, you can stay. The rest of you need to leave for a few minutes.”
Zarya kissed Darling’s fingers. “I’m right here, baby,” she whispered in his ear. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Another hand slid under his free one. By the large, rough feel of it, he knew it was Syn’s and not Zarya’s tiny, delicate hand. “Hey, bud. Tap once if you’re alert enough to understand me.”
Darling did.
“Good. You scared the shit out of us again. Thanks so much. It’s really an honor to be your doctor.” Syn’s sarcasm was so thick, it could double as insulation for a bomb shelter. “But we’re glad to have you back. Are you in pain at all? Once for yes. Two for no.”
Darling tapped once.
“Okay. Once if it’s severe. Two if you can live with it.”
It was severe, but Darling didn’t want to be incoherent so he tapped twice.
Syn scoffed at him. “Yeah, your blood pressure’s calling you a liar. That being said, I’m assuming you want to stay awake for a bit. So I’m not going to give you anything unless your blood pressure worsens.” Syn removed his hand. “Since you’re awake, I want to remove your breathing tube so that you can talk. I’m going to send Zarya out while I do it. Is that all right?”
Darling used League sign language to agree.
She sandwiched his hand between hers before she released it. “I won’t be gone long.”
As soon as she cleared the room, Syn numbed Darling’s throat so that he could slide the tube out. Darling tried not to gag, but it was hard.