Chapter 17: Reassuring Words

--- Micki Harrison ---

“You really don’t have to do all this.” She told Mr. Hawkins as he and Cory escorted her through a hospital that she definitely didn’t want to be in.

“Cory’s arm is just a bit scraped up but you were actually impaled through your side.”The man who was more fatherly to her than her own frowned. “Look I may have patched you up but I’m not an actual healer. You need to get checked out and make sure I didn’t miss anything.”

She didn’t feel like he’d missed anything, and given how she still felt a sort of phantom burn from where he’d healed her, she was pretty sure that wasn’t a nerve damage type of deal.

“What… What about my parents?” She asked, not sure if she wanted them to know she was in the hospital or not. (Doubt it’ll make them change their minds…)

Mr. Hawkins shook his head. “I haven’t been able to get a hold of them. The cell towers are all down, and they apparently don’t have a landline. With how chaotic everything is out there… I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get in touch with them.”

“That’s fine…” She assured him with a weak smile. “You tried.” (And honestly I don’t feel up to the drama of dealing with their garbage right now.)

“Still I’m sure they’d want to know you were safe.” Cory tried to reassure her, knowing that things with her parents were rough but not knowing how rough.

“Yeah, and honestly, we’re lucky they’re letting us go this far without them.” Mr. Hawkins admitted, glancing at a number of the full rooms and the panicking staff.

“I guess they’re too busy to care about who is and isn’t family.” She shrugged.

“Then again at this point you pretty much are family.” Cory told her.

“True.” Cory’s dad -Jim, as he’d spent months telling her and Miles to call him- didn’t argue, making something warm bubble inside her.

After a moment they walked up to a room with the blinds drawn. “Ah, this is the room they told us to wait in.”

Jim opened the door and they found a man with graying brown hair and a mustache sitting in a chair next to a sleeping girl with dyed violet highlights in one of the beds.

“Captain!” Jim jumped upon spotting the man.

The man looked up with a tired blink before he frowned. “Sergeant Hawkins? What are you doing here?”

“I, um, my daughter er, Micki um…” Jim coughed into his hand, apparently caught flatfooted at seeing what was probably his boss. “Um, we were caught in an incident and we were told to come here and wait for the doctor.”

“Oh, yeah… I guess it is pretty chaotic right now.” The man nodded, running a hand down his face. “Honestly, I should be at the station, especially with the towers down but… ”

The man trailed off with a look at the sleeping girl, before shaking his head and looking at her. “So these are your daughters, eh?”

“Uh, yes, or um, this is my daughter Coraline and her best friend Micki.” (Mr. Hawkins) corrected. “Though uh, she’s as good as family after a decade.”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The police captain seemed amused by that as he took on something of a boisterous tone. “Eh, that’s the spirit of it! Family is who we love, not just who we’re born to!”

As Jim nodded, she decided she liked the Captain even as she made her way to the hospital bed, because despite not feeling any pain in her side she was still exhausted after how long the day had dragged on for.

“Oh, I should introduce myself for the little misses, I’m John Miller and… this my daughter Max.” Mr. Miller introduced his tone, dying off as he got to his daughter.

“Um, it’s nice to meet you.” Cory hurried to say, having always been the more polite of the two of them. And then proving that she was also the more caring of them, she also asked, “Is, is she going to be okay?”

Mr. Miller looked at his daughter before nodding. “Uh, yes… They say that whatever is going on outside, she’s not the only one that’s been struck by it and most of them are slowly waking up, it’s just… I just have to wait…”

“That’s… that’s good…” Cory tried to reassure him.

Her, knowing that sometimes a distraction was better than reassurances, she instead asked, “So you work with Mr. Hawkins, right?”

Mr. Miller blinked. “Uh, yes?”

“Got any fun stories then?” She asked, hoping to distract Mr. Miller from his daughter and her from Miles and her parents.

--- Catherine Freeman ---

She and Tess stood outside of Miles’s hospital room, both of them scared to actually enter the room despite still seeing him hooked up to so many machines. As if half an inch of glass was enough to keep it all from being real.

Eventually she asked, “Have you… Do you want me to tell mom? The girls?”

Tess shook her head before putting a hand to her head. “No… I… I don’t know.”

(Why is it that dealing with beasts trying to kill you is easier than this?)

She ran a hand down her face. “You… you know I’m here if you need anything, right?”

“I know…”

She bit her lip for a moment, before running a hand through her hair as she considered something she wouldn’t be able to take back. “Tess… I know… I know you don’t want the kids involved with… everything but… I… If things don’t get better I… I’ve got permission to… to pass on the Blood even if… even if I never thought it was a good idea.” (For a lot of reasons…)

Tess’s face scrunched up in a mix of conflicted emotions, part of her clearly wanting to yell at her for even thinking to offer that, but the other also desperate enough to jump at the offer if it would save Miles.

Eventually Tess simply sighed as she turned back to the comatose boy. “After everything with Richard… I never wanted the kids involved in any of that… Not after what it did to him… to you… but…” Tess shook her head. “I… I can’t make that decision for him… not yet… It’s… It’s only been a day and… and the doctors say he can still wake up on his own.”

“I… I understand.” And she did. “I just… I just wanted you to know… if there’s no other choice… it’s an option.”

Tess nodded. “I know, and… I do appreciate it… even if I don’t like it.”

She nodded back, knowing there wasn’t much else she could say on the matter. And so they once more descended into silence this one more… contemplative than the previous.

After a moment, Tessa asked her, “Your… friends, have you heard from all of this since things got flipped sideways?”

She shook her head. “No. Miles, you guys… You’re more important.”

“Yeah, but… I know they’re important to you too.” Tess told her. “Why don’t you… Why don’t you go check on them? With everything going crazy they probably need you too.”

“Are you sure?” She frowned. “Like I said, you guys are more important. You’re my family Tess.” She’d… she’d made the mistake of not recognizing that before (and I’m not doing that again.)

“I know.” Her sister smiled. “But you’d do a lot more good getting out there and doing something than just moping here with me.” Tess looked through Miles’s room and out the window on the other side where smoke was visibly rising from all over the city. “And it looks like the city needs as much good as it can get.”

“If… if you’re sure.” She reluctantly agreed, before throwing an arm around Tess’s shoulders. “I’ll go and check on mom and the girls before I go, and I’ll be back as soon as things settle down again, okay?”

Tess hugged her back, in answer.