It was only when the biting wind and buffeting snow lanced across her exposed flesh that she understood why Hunter had called for her to wait. Dressed in her cut-off shorts, cami and boots, the little she did wear was soaked with both creek water and sweat—hardly appropriate attire for journeying around the wintry campus. But she wasn’t about to go back now, and she sprinted on through the freezing cold towards the Gen-Sec building, grateful for her Meyarin speed.
As she ran, she wished she could go up to her room and grab some laendra for Bear, but she couldn’t risk being asked how it had come to be in her possession. While not as instantaneous as the Meyarin flower, she knew Fletcher’s medicines would fix him swiftly enough, so she continued onwards, barely slowing in time to burst through the doors of the Med Ward.
Fletcher, fortunately, was there, and upon learning of Bear’s injury, he didn’t waste time before grabbing a bag of supplies and hurrying towards the exit.
When Alex made to follow, he held up his hand in a ‘stop’ gesture.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Confused, she answered, “Coming with you.”
“Not dressed like that,” he said firmly. “You’ll catch your death out there.”
“I’m—”
“We can stand here and keep arguing or you can agree to stay so I can go and help Bear,” Fletcher said. “What’ll it be, Alex?”
Knowing every second they argued was a second longer Bear remained in pain, Alex grudgingly said, “Fine. I’ll stay.”
With a warning in his eyes that if she reneged, there would be consequences, Fletcher took off, leaving Alex alone.
Only—she wasn’t alone.
In her haste to alert Fletcher to Bear’s injury, she hadn’t so much as glanced around the rest of the Med Ward—a mistake she was now deeply regretting.
I hate my life, she thought with a resigned sigh as she noted the two others standing in the room. Perhaps Kaku was a deity, and one who had cursed Alex to have bad luck for the rest of her life. Because, of all the people in the world, it just had to be Kaiden and Declan who now stood before her, both visibly shocked by her appearance.
She could hardly blame them. Thanks to her mad dash through the jungle, her skin was scratched enough to look like she’d been in a vicious catfight—and lost. Her body was coated in muddy grime from the creek, her hands were sliced from A’enara, and her wrists and ankles were chaffed raw from her bindings. All in all, she was one hot mess.
Alex had to admit, seeing Kaiden and Declan while looking like she’d stepped off the set of a Tomb Raider movie was right near the top of her ‘Things to avoid in life’ list. But she somehow managed to hide her embarrassment—or so she hoped.
“Hey,” she said, giving an ultra cool head nod that was anything but ultra cool.
“You look terrible,” Kaiden said, walking straight over to her with Declan following close behind.
“Just what every girl longs to hear,” Alex quipped, but her heart wasn’t in it.
She didn’t fight him when he gently guided her to sit on one of Fletcher’s beds before retrieving a vial of green pain reliever from across the room.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Alex said, taking the proffered medicine when he pointedly nudged it closer. “Really. I have something back in my dorm that’ll help take the edge off.”
“Friends don’t let friends do drugs, Alex,” Declan said.
“That’s not what I—” Alex broke off when she caught the laughter in his eyes and instead grumbled, “You’re hilarious.”
In an effort to keep from saying anything else unintentionally implicit, she swallowed the pain reliever. Kaiden then handed her another vial, this one filled with an orangey liquid, and with a sigh, she downed it as well, not bothering to ask what it contained. Heat instantly flooded her veins, and the shivers that she hadn’t noticed wracking her frame began to settle.
“Mmm,” she said, peering into the now empty vial. “I like that one.”
Both Declan and Kaiden chuckled, before Kaiden moved off again and returned with some of Fletcher’s healing ointment.
“Since when do you play nursemaid?” Alex asked when he reached for her left hand and started massaging the vanilla-scented salve into her skin. She wasn’t sure whether she felt awkward from his ministrations or just plain grateful that someone was taking care of her.
It was Declan who answered, his wicked smile the only warning of what he might be about to say. “When it comes to you, Kaid here is always happy to—”
The rest of his words were cut off with an “Ooof!” when Kaiden elbowed him in the stomach before continuing to patch Alex up like there had been no interruption.
Biting back a laugh, Alex looked at Declan. “You were saying?”
Declan’s only reply was to rub his stomach and grunt out, “He’s always been good with first aid.”
At the sour look on Declan’s face, she couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore. A smile hinted at Kaiden’s lips too as he released her left hand and reached for her right.
He continued covering her cuts and scratches with the ointment, paying particular attention to the deeper wounds from where she’d hacked into her flesh while sawing through her bonds. The ointment also healed the raw skin around her wrists and ankles, and by the time Fletcher and Hunter arrived carrying the high-as-a-kite Bear, Alex was as good as new.
“How’s he doing?” she asked, jumping off the bed. Wobbling as a wave of exhaustion hit her, she accepted Kaiden’s offered hand to steady herself and made her way over to where the doctor and teacher carefully laid her friend.
“I had the weirdest dream,” Bear slurred out, his eyes glazed as he looked straight through Alex in his drug-induced haze. “There were all these angry little people and we were hiiiiiiigh up in the trees.”
He laughed, though at what, Alex wasn’t sure. But then his humour died and his already wide eyes widened further.
“Then there was this creek monster that nearly ate you, Alex! It dragged you underwater for so long—I thought you were dead!” He blinked a few times and relaxed. “Then Ghost was there and—oh, hey, look! Ghost is here, too!”
Grinning dopily, Bear pointed at Hunter, before yawning and turning back to Alex to finish, “It wasn’t much fun.” He laughed again and shook his head. “Crazy, crazy dream.”
He then tipped his head back, closed his eyes and was instantly asleep.
Alex turned to Fletcher. “What the heck did you give him?” She only just managed to keep from adding, ‘And how can I get some of it?’
“Bear was in a lot of pain, Alex,” Fletcher told her, something she already knew. “Since I still have to re-set his bone, I thought it might be best for him to be unconscious during the process.”
Alex cringed at the alternate.
“As you can see, the pain reliever I gave him is extremely effective, resulting in what he currently believes is a dream state,” Fletcher continued. “But don’t worry—once the bone is back in place, the Regenevators will do the rest of the work and he’ll be up and about in no time, with all his memories of your… adventures… intact.”
The doctor peered closely at Alex, looking at her now-healed body before turning to Kaiden who was still holding the container of healing salve.