Dee woke up, bright lights and beeps as she tried to sit upright and was met with a hug from Silverback.

“Oh my god you’re okay.” He sighed.

“I am? Where am I?” she asked.

A hospital wing right off campus. Are you in pain?” he asked.

“My ankle hurts a little and my head is pounding but I’ll live.”

“Doctor said it was a heavy sprain and he gave you a recovery injection.” Silverback said as the doctor entered, taking off his sunglasses and placing them on the counter. She squinted at him and puzzled.

“Do I know you?” she asked.

“What do you remember?” he inquired suspiciously.

“You were the…agent guy who we snuck past at the party.”

“Good, and after that?” he quizzed.

“Then you…I think you followed us but I don’t know. I just heard footsteps mostly.”

“And do you remember falling down 2 flights of stairs as I hollered “Campus police, you can’t be down here? Or me carrying you back up to the medic office?”

“I guess so?” She pondered.

“She’s lucky event staff has security take medical training, and she’s even luckier she didn’t kill herself on those steps. I got my ass chewed for even moving, her but I didn’t wanna leave her down there like that. She took a hell of a thump to the head but she seems to remember everything up to the impact, so that’s a good sign. They scanned her, got her stable. Have you ever had a recovery shot before?” he asked.

“No, I don’t think so.” She pondered.

“Well they speed up the healing process. Yay alien nano-technology. The nanobots basically turbocharge your bodies natural healing ability for a short time. You’ll be fine in 20 minutes and side effects are mild. You’re gonna be confused and probably have some bad dreams, some soreness at the injection sight on your leg, and if you don’t feel absolutely nauseous as hell by now you’re not allergic, so that’s going in your chart.”

“Where’s Nicole?”

“They’re still working on her. She didn’t get quite as lucky but it could have been way worse.”

“What happened?” She asked sitting up and slumping back down.

“Physically she’s fine, scraped up to shit, multiple bruises on her hands and feet, drenched and shaking but nothing a recovery shot won’t fix. Mentally however…well that’s for another doctor’s evaluation. I’m not really supposed to say anything so you didn’t hear this from me, but…she had some kind of mental breakdown. They checked her all over, there’s nothing wrong that isn’t explainable from her running herself half to death and falling a few times but she is talking about a lot of things that don’t make sense. I’ve been down there before, we’ve had student get into the tunnels more often than you’d think and they all come out pretty scared. It’s dark and scary and you can get lost easily. There’s some plumbing issues so there’s standing water in a lot of places, easy to slip and fall on. The air down there isn’t always good, and between you and me, I think she panicked when you fell and tried to run for help but she got lost and just kept getting deeper and deeper until she blacked out.”

“Is she…like sick? She was looking really pale and had these weird cravings.”

“I’m not a psychologist, or a neurologist lady, I’m not even a dietician. I’m a field doctor trained in basic injury response and I do security for events. I can’t say what happened or why, but she ran until her legs gave out and blacked out in the dark and I’m frankly amazed they found her. That’s a lot of tunnel to get lost in. people have just gone missing before and found weeks later, and a recovery shot doesn’t fix you when they find you dead.” Your friend lost her shit, it happens.”

“Could it be stress? Could it be some kind of brain infection from breathing cave dust?” asked Silverback.

“There’s no infection, no tumor, scans are clean, she just…panicked and hallucinated. Stress can do that, a lot of things can do that, there’s no drugs in her system, aside from some old nanobots from a previous recovery shot that haven’t broken down yet. Her blood alcohol was fairly low for that event, and safe enough. You need a therapist or a counselor to answer anything else. I just do scans and shots.”

“It’s all my fault.” Vinn sighed.

“Nothing is your fault Vinn.” Jack said. “There’s a lot going on right now. There’s a big security event, I may have to even fill in some shifts they’re so swamped, you got married, she’s from another world, she’s only human, she got threatened by a Delmarian the other day, no offense big guy but you guys do look all kinda similar and she’s had love and fear and one big Delmarian trying to make her happy and another one scaring her to death, and you’re living underground in a cave. You know some humans can’t handle underground environments, it happens to coal miners back on Earth, you dig deep you get stressed and you have go a little nuts. She’s inside of an alien moon she can’t escape, and then she moved below soil level even then, and frankly anyone would have a nervous breakdown.”

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

“She’s afraid of the water Jack. I moved her to as leaky cave and blasted out rooms under the damn lake. I couldn’t have known, but it’s still my fault. If I move her topside will she get better? What if we get a nice big open house or just move into the old one she was in before?”

“She may just need time, or maybe there’s some medicine to help. She’s not crazy, Vinn, she’s just stressed out. I’ve seen it before, people get better but I don’t know if it’s the cave or the stupid tunnel adventure, or Kraken that triggered her, but she needs time and support. They wanted to take her to a facility for treatment but I know where that leads and it’s as risky as it is helpful, it’s a prison with prettier walls. She would just get worse. So I called Gizzy and got it waved. They cleared her charts, she’s free to go.”

“You’re the best friend I got man. Without your connections and you busting your ass pulling favors, I don’t know how we’d make it.”

“Well, before you award me the greatest persona live award, just know I’ve had to make some decisions and sacrificed to get there. You guys just get the good side of me. My golden halo doesn’t run to the core. I have my horns too buddy, you just can’t see them. That’s all I can say.”

“I don’t care what you did in the past or what you do that you think is so bad, but you saved my ass and hers several times now and I could never repay you.”

I didn’t ask you to. In fact maybe I’m just being an extra good friend to try and even out everything else I’ve done. There’s a reason Dee doesn’t think I’m a hero, and she keeps saying she’s just glad my scary ass is on your side. And she’s not wrong. She’s not wrong at all. Not everyone is on my good side. But Nicole will be okay. We moved some of her stuff back to the big house and we’re setting you up a room so you can stay there too. You’re a family, you shouldn’t be apart but maybe that cave isn’t where she needs to be right now. Just play it by ear one day at a time. Hopefully I don’t run out of favors. You have no idea how expensive those can be to rack up.” Jack sighed.

Gizzy sat in her office shaking her head.

“Jack, do you just live here now, like one of my kids or something?” She sighed. “Every time there’s a problem, you end up back here.”

“I know, and I’m wearing out my privileges.” He admitted.

“No you’ve worn out your privileges several favors ago. You know why I even answer your calls, Jack?” Gizzy said with strange look.

“I might know.”

“Because you remind me of your father, I respected him, and because I gave you a chance and you said you’d owe me and thusfar you never turned me down when I had a favor to ask. But it’s getting one sided. I’m not your mother, not even the same species. There’s no unconditional forgiveness here. We have a very important guest arriving soon and if you fuck this up, I can’t and won’t help you. Your friends are costing you a lot, and I’m risking my neck giving you these lines of credit. It’s already looking rather suspicious.”

“I know. I apologize. What do I do? Tell me what I need to do and I’ll do it.” He sighed.

“Well for the most part just stop risking your neck for your friends and let the system do its job. The system usually works, because I make it work and I’m not perfect so neither is the system… but I’m very good, and you gotta let the system have a few flaws now and then. Let me do my job. You want my word your friends are gonna be fine? Then believe me. But if they keep fighting me on it, there will keep being problems. Dee is a loose cannon, Vinn means well but he attracts shit for some reason and you seem to think you have to swoop in and fix everyone and sometimes people need the chance to fix themselves for a while. There is one, and only one thing you need to do to protect your friends, and fortunately it’s also the price I’m charging you for the trouble.”

“Let me have it.” He said opening his arms.

“You need to operate again, it’s a very delicate operation, and you’re out of practice. Things are about to get worse before they get better, you need to restrain yourself and follow your training, and when I say thing have gotten bad enough to operate…then you get to do what you do best.” She said, reaching behind the desk and placing a rather large black plastic case from behind it.”

‘Is this what I assume it is?”

“No, it’s a 6 string bass like it says on the case, I want you in my band. Of course it’s what you think it is. It’s coded to your fingerprint, double locked, don’t even open it till I say to. But your friend Vinn is about to start a fight and you need to allow it. You need to let him man up and be the hero. Stop assuming you’re always player one. He needs this, and we all need this. So let it happen. And the night of the council meeting, you’ll get a call and some details, and you take that bass case to where you need to be. And let me make this very clear: You do not pull the trigger, until the exact moment I tell you to pull the trigger. Not a second late, or early. Understood?”

“Yes Ma’am.” He nodded.

“And don’t think we’re even if you pull this off. If any of us fail this, you are on full time and operate for me. Because Plan B sucks, and it requires a lot of people dying. If this goes well, then you get a vacation and life is good, and then some day, I’ll be showing up to your place of work, and we’ll be discussing your next payment plan.”

“You know some days it feels like I sold my soul to you for all of this.”

“No, that’s my ex husbands’ line of work. He’s the lord of the underworld, I’m just a very strict boss and you’re a very talented Surgeon. Sadly when you do the best work you get the hardest jobs. Welcome to my hell. Now get out of my office before one of the dozen enemies I have gets the weird idea that we’re having an affair or something. I have a reputation. It’s horrid but it has boundaries.”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“And don’t forget your instrument. You have a solo to perform live…Doctor Greene.”

The hover taxi hummed along, jack looking at the case as he dialed Vicki.

“Hey it’s Jack. Yea I’ll be home soon, bad water leak, got it stopped. Yea everything is fine, we’ll get them both moved in and everyone will be happy like one big family and then after this damn controversial political event is over, people will start acting normal again, and then we’re fine. Just gotta take a little vacation, get the gang together, have some fun. And for security reasons I’m moving some flights around so your friend Mel gets here early. I don’t want her late and getting into that event traffic. No don’t tell her it was me. She hates it when I do the mystery shit. Too many questions I can’t answer. Makes her suspicious and uneasy. Everyone is safe together, that’s all that matters. We’ll make it fun.” He said looking down at the case nervously. “All kinds of fun.”