Chapter 23: Hospital Awakenings

--- Max Miller ---

“Your father here is a great man!” A familiarly loud voice praised. “I’ll admit I wasn’t too sure when they announced they were bringing in a Practitioner, but your father proved me wrong like I couldn’t believe! Why if I had a few more of him, why I could clean up all the crime in the city!”

“Dad…” She mumbled, as her eyes slowly opened to a white ceiling.

“Y-you’re exaggerating sir.” Another -less familiar- voice argued, sounding somewhere between pained and embarrassed.

“Nonsense!” The familiar voice dismissed. “If your daughter here is anything like you she’s going to do great things! In fact, now that I’m thinking about it I’ve actually got an idea I want to run by you.”

She turned her head to the side where she found her, “Dad…”

“You see I-” Her dad froze his eyes shooting to her before he breathlessly whispered. “Maxy?”

“Hey… dad…” She greeted, her head still fuzzy with sleep.

She only half understood why he rushed to her and hugged her like a lifeline, remembering that they’d been talking about something before everything sort of faded to black. At which point she could only recall a number of really weird fever dreams.

“W-what’s going on?” She asked, looking over her dad’s shoulder to find them in a clean white room. “W-where are we?”

Her dad pulled back with a pained look. “Oh, Maxy… There was an… accident or something… and you, you passed out.” He tried to explain. “I got you to the hospital as fast as I could but…” Her dad blinked. “Nurse, we need to get you a nurse! Or a, a doctor!”

“I, uh, I can go find someone.” The unfamiliar voice offered, drawing her attention to the otherside of the room where she found a dark haired man standing next to a plump girl who kind of looked like him as well as a short-haired blonde girl who didn’t. “You girls going to be okay on your own?”

“W-we’ll be fine, dad.” The plump girl assured the man.

“Yeah, Mr. Hawkins you know me a proper trooper.” The blonde girl saluted from where she laid in another hospital bed.

“Thank you, Hawkins.” Her dad nodded as the other man left the room, before turning his attention back to her. “H-how are you feeling Max?”

“My head hurts…” She admitted, earning a worried look from her dad. “How about you?”

Her dad offered her a weak smile. “Just worried about you kiddo, but I’m here for you if you need anything.”

“Y-yeah…” That meant more to her than it probably should’ve, not that it stopped her from offering a weak smile of her own. (You are here…)

--- Miles Kennedy ---

He considered the fact that he was no longer burning from the inside out to be a good thing. He considered the fact that he had to fight to make his body do anything less so. (Damn, thought they were supposed to heal me up when they put me back in my body?)

(“Shoulda asked for Nibo if ya wanted someone to heal ya boy.”) A voice distinctly not his own whispered from inside his head. (“I just fixed what ya needed to live, the rest ya’re gonna have to sleep off.”)

“Kriminel…” He whispered, his throat aching.

(“Ya don’t need to speak. I can hear your thoughts easily enough.”) The baron told him.

(So much for privacy I guess…)

(“You’re the one who wanted to be my horse.”) Kriminel reminded him. (“But don’t worry, I’ve got better things than to listen to whatever sex fantasies ya cook up in this head of yours. I’ll only hear ya when I’m payin’ attention, just like how ya’ll only hear me when I want ya to.”)

While he was relieved by that, he also had more important things to worry about. Namely the fact that next to what he was guessing was his hospital bed he found his mom passed out in a chair while still wearing her scrubs. A stern reminder of why he accepted the barons’ deal in the first place.

He spent the next few minutes struggling against his body, but eventually he managed to make himself sit up as bit by bit he regained control of himself. (You know I’m not going to be that much use to you if this is how I’m going to be from now on.)

(“Just because I won’t heal ya, doesn’t mean ya won’t heal.”) Kriminel scoffed. (“I’m not wastin’ any gris-gris on ya until ya prove yourself. Whateva healin’ ya do, ‘ll by your own power. That way ya’ll know what to expect if ya fuck up.”)

(So what? This is just tough love?) He scoffed himself.

(“Hmm, if ya think this is tough love then your more spoiled than I thought, but don’t worry I’ll break ya of that before I let ya find your papa’s killer.”) The baron promised ominously.

He tried to ignore that and instead focused on his mom.

Part of him wanted to let her sleep, but at the same time with how he was feeling he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to keep it together before he passed out again. Which is why -gripping the side of his bed- he reached out and tried tapping mom’s hand.

She jumped awake blinking for a moment. “Miles…?” Her eyes went wide. “Miles!”

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“Hey, mom…” He tried to smile.

“Oh, baby!” His mom lunged forward and hugged him. “I was so worried!”

“It’s okay… I’m okay…” He promised, hugging her back.

(“Did ya know she has blood on her hands?”) Kriminel interrupted.

A chill ran down his spine. (What?)

(“She’s blood on her hands, someone died because of her.”) The baron cruelly explained. (“In fact it was more than one someone.”)

(That’s… I don’t… I don’t believe you…) He frowned to himself.

“Miles, what’s wrong?” His mom, the nurse who saved people, frowned as she pulled back from a hug instead of continuing it like he wanted. “Is your head hurting? Your thoughts fuzzy? Of course, they’re fuzzy you just woke up.”

“I’m fine mom, just…” He thought of a believable excuse. “Have you heard from Cory or Micki? I was with them when… everything happened.”

His mom shook her head. “No, whatever has happened to the city has taken out cell service in most of the city. The only phone calls going anywhere were landlines. But I know your aunt said she saw them and she wouldn’t leave them if they were in trouble.”

Kriminel laughed at that. (“Ha! That’s a lie and she knows it.”)

He fought back the urge to growl. (Shut up…)

(“Don’t tell me what to do boy.”) Kriminel actually growled, before letting out a scoffing sound. (“But I have seen enough for now. I’ve more important things to do than watchin’ ya waste time recoverin’, though I will be back when ya’ll actually be of use to me.”)

(Looking forward to it.) He thought just a little bitterly despite knowing he’d been the one to sign up for this.

“Miles…” His mom called.

“Sorry.” He winced. “Just… tired, I guess…”

“I know baby, but… you need to try and stay up. At least until the doctor can see you.” His mom told him.

“Heh, don’t you always say doctors know nothing compared to nurses?” He smiled, trying to lighten her mood a bit.

“They don’t,” his mom admitted dryly. “But I need one of them to sign off on half the things I want to do to make sure you’re okay.”

“Yeah, that makes more sense…”

--- Coraline Hawkins ---

“Well as far as I can tell you’re both looking alright.” The doctor told him after several hours spent waiting around the hospital. Something she couldn’t really blame him for given all of the chaos she’d seen on the way here. “But given the severity of what you went through and the… treatment it might be best for you to stay overnight.”

(Translation: I don’t trust magic so I’m going to pointlessly keep you here.) She thought with just a touch of bitterness, knowing as well as Micki that her dad’s magic was more than enough to heal them. Especially given how her own injuries weren’t that severe.

The wreath on her bicep began to tighten, forcing her to grimace. The thorns (thankfully) having retracted once she was out of danger, and while she did want to ask her dad about it she hadn’t wanted to do so with everything else going on. (And I’m definitely not doing it in front of some asshole who looks down on magic.)

Misreading her, her dad tried to assure her that, “It won’t be that bad.” before glancing out the nearby window. “And honestly, it might be better for the two of you to stay at the hospital with everything going on out there anyway. I doubt it’s gotten any better now that it’s night.”

“Another reason to stay.” The doctor agreed before shaking his head. “That said, we’re running a little tight on space at the moment.”

“That’s fine… Me and Micki can share.” She shrugged, knowing they’d done the same often enough during their sleepovers. (Even if we haven’t had one in a while…)

“Uh, y-yeah…” Micki chuckled, sounding a bit off. “Just like old times…”

She glanced to the side of the room where the daughter of her dad’s boss sat focused on the TV as she watched the local news covering everything going on in the city. Her dad having had to leave several hours prior due to being the police captain and the city being in a bad way, the man having already put off dealing with the crisis in favor of making sure his daughter was okay. Something that more than reminded her of her own dad.

“This also means we don’t have to leave Max alone.” She whispered.

“R-right, another girl will be here too.” Micki nodded, a little tensely.

She got where the other girl was coming from. “I know it’d be better if Miles was here sleeping with us instead.” He’d been the first to drop out of their slumber parties and she still wasn’t sure why. “But Max looks like she could use some company after whatever happened to her, you know?”

“Y-yeah…” Micki glanced over at Max distracting herself with some animated show before glancing back at Coraline. “She, uh, she could use a friend and… just a friend.”

“Exactly.” She smiled.

“Always thinking of others.” Her dad gave her a smile of his own as he pulled her into a half hug before kissing her forehead. “Proud of you, baby girl.”

“It’s nothing.” She tried to argue, only mildly embarrassed since Max was staring at the TV and Micki seemed distracted with something else. “Anyone would do the same.”

Her dad gained a half grimace. “If only. Still will you two be alright on your own? I’d like to stay, but I feel like you wouldn’t want any boys crashing your slumber party.”

“N-nope.” Micki agreed, playing along with him.

She swatted him. “Dad.”

“Alright, alright.” Her dad grinned before shaking his head. “But I’ll be back in the morning to pick you girls up. For now you guys just stay safe, alright?”

“We will.” She promised.

Her dad turned to her best friend. “Micki take care of my daughter alright?”

The other girl straightened her spine. “I will, sir!”

Her dad shook his head, and gave her one more squeeze. “Love you.”

She gave him one back. “Love you too.”

With his goodbyes said, her dad left to probably get to work like Mr. Hawkins had.

At which point she went ahead and took a seat on the other side of the bed from Micki, who moved over to make space for her. “You know you don’t have to cram yourself into a small space like that, right?”

“Uh, y-yeah…” Micki smiled in embarrassment as she took up her fair share of the bed even if it meant they were kind of crammed against each other.

With that settled she turned her attention to the TV and couldn’t help but grimace as she realized there was a horror film on it, having never been as into scary things as Miles and Micki, “Uh, where’s the remote? Max, do you mind if we change the channel?”

The bedridden girl blinked before turning towards her as if she’d forgotten she wasn’t alone in the room. “Uh, never found one, but uh, you can get up and change it if you want? Can’t really do that myself… Heads uh…” The other girl frowned. “Fuck, heads starting to hurt again…”

She practically jumped up, knowing that was at least part of what hospitalized the girl in the first place. “Do you want me to get the doctor?”

“No, no… Just uh, just need to… rest a bit.” Max assured her. “You mind putting on something not too serious?”

She gave the other girl a smile as she stood up. “Not at all.”