Page 17 of All Right No

Dani kindly pushed a cuppa under his nose. “Drink up, sourpuss. You look as if you could use the kick to the head.”

At least she was treating him normally. Ash circled both his paws around the mug and breathed in the glorious aroma. It had been forever since he’d enjoyed a truly great brew. Hospital coffee was justbleurk, and whenever Ginny went out to grab him a drink, she inevitably came back with some frothy syrupy nonsense covered in heart-shaped sprinkles that tasted less like coffee and more like someone had dissolved gingerbread in a cup.

“Thanks, sweetheart.”

“Hey, less of that. She’s spoken for,” Xane waggled a piece of toast at him. “Don’t go getting ideas.”

“Xane,” Dani protested. “I only poured him a coffee.”

“Yeah,” he said, squeezing her hand. “But I know what his reputation is like. I don’t want him getting ideas.” It looked as if his friend had managed to slap a plaster on his relationship, although there were definitely still storm clouds looming. Dani and Luthor were positioned on either side of him, and were going out of their ways to avoid any sort of eye contact.

“Learned it all from you,” he muttered, which earned him a glower, and a round of applause from Rock Giant.

“Ain’t that just the truth of it.”

“Have we heard from Elspeth?” Ash enquired of the big guy. It was a little strange for her not to be here without having sent word of her doings. Although given the crises of the last few months, maybe not so weird. The best thing for her and Xane at the minute was to be on different continents.

Rock Giant’s humour was swiftly replaced by a grunt.

“So, are we to expect her presence, or not?”

“She’s not obliged to be here,” Spook reminded him, diplomatic as ever. “We’re hanging together, not officially working.”

Yeah, right! As if they were all going to sit around sunning themselves for months. Music making would be happening by the end of the week at the latest.

“Problem?” he asked, when Ginny finally arrived. He’d progressed to spearing bits of pancake with a fork, but was still avoiding anything likely to leave him with food down his shirt.

“No,” she replied.

“Sounded like one. Who was it?”

“You haven’t taken all your pills,” she replied, before plucking the blister strip out of the back pocket of his jeans and popping two of the white capsules. “Here.”

“Great. Thanks.” He folded his fingers over them, pressing them into the palm of his hand.

“Wash them down with orange juice.”

Ash dutifully performed as instructed. “They do crap.” In all honesty, he’d rather take the twinges and the bouts of fireworks, over the numbness the medication caused. Being able to feel his fingers made them a lot easier to move.

A couple of moments later a string of text messages arrived and diverted Ginny’s attention. Ash grabbed the opportunity to idly stroll over to the nearby wildflower bed and spit the painkillers out.

He did not need that shit.

A spasm seized his arm seeming to contradict his assertion. Ash gritted his teeth and grimaced through it, only for Xane to clap him on the shoulder. He jumped right out of his skin.

“Fuck!”

“Why not just tell her you’d rather not take them?”

Ash stared at his friend, his heart still racing. “Because I don’t want another lecture on why I should always obey doctor’s orders.”

“Maybe you should consider it.”

Ash shook his head. Xane knew better than to even attempt to persuade him otherwise. Pain killers were a slippery slope. They started out innocent enough, the next thing you knew, you needed that hit in order to function, and then it got harder and harder to go the distance between doses. And then, you weren’t just addicted, you were considering other far worse alternatives. In his line of work, the alternatives were far too readily available.

“I’m just reiterating that I’d rather not have to shop for a new guitarist. We had trouble enough finding a decent drummer, and fuck knows if Elspeth’s still with us or not.”

“Spook seemed to think you could manage without me yesterday.”

That wasn’t exactly what he’d said, but it was close enough.

Xane clapped his hand around the back of Ash’s neck. “Short term, sure, but like I said last night, we need you. Hopefully this doc you’re going to see can help sort you out.”

Colour him distinctly dubious about that.

“Hey, Ash. Let’s go,” Spook waved him towards where the motorboat was docked. “Time to move out.”