Page 27

Three days passed before the doctor gave me the okay to be discharged from Piper Memorial. After being asleep for over eight days, the last thing I wanted to endure was more bedrest, but I stuck to the doctor’s orders and spent most of my time reading on my iPad.

Kroven came to visit me the most, especially since he didn’t have work to occupy him that often. Thayer hadn’t been back and I had a feeling he was avoiding me because of the Oh-by-the-way-I-have-a-twin-brother-that-I’ve-never-mentioned issue. I had every intention of getting down to that particular mystery.

I learned from Kroven’s visits that Exo and Wallace were still in Piper and sticking around given what had happened to the blood centers. To make matters worse, the blood center that I worked at wasn’t the only one that had been attacked that day. Five other blood centers up and down the east coast had been attacked by protestors, some sort of coordinated assault that had been pre-planned to, I guess, get their point across. Ours was the only blood center that had been set on fire though. Apparently, we were the lucky ones to have to deal with fire damage along with interior and exterior destruction.

After I was officially discharged and free to leave the hospital, Kroven was helping me get dressed in the clothes that Thayer had dropped by the day I’d woken up, finally free of the hospital gowns, when a knock came at the door. I was in my jeans when I turned to see Babs waving at the door. I gestured for her to come in and realized that she didn’t know about Kroven.

“Bas,” She stopped a few feet from us, looking between Kroven and I and back again.

As I grabbed one of my favorite graphic tees and slid it on, I placed a hand on Kroven’s shoulder. “Babs, this is Kroven.”

“I recognize you,” Babs smiled, putting out her hand as she walked forward. Kroven took it with grace and amended the gesture. “You’ve come to the blood center.”

“I did, yes.” Kroven beamed. “Bas talks about you a lot.”

Babs’ question buzzed from her eyes, and I just added, “Kroven’s my boyfriend.”

Surprise checked in on her face but it checked out just as fast. “Well, then it’s very nice to meet you, Kroven.”

“Thank you.” He smiled, patting me on the shoulder. “I’ll give you two a minute while I order us a car.”

Nodding, I watched Kroven saunter out of the room and regarded Babs with a wide gaze. She looked normal to me, like she hadn’t been through this horrible traumatic thing like I had. I walked over and wrapped my arms around her shorter stature, feeling her limbs reciprocate in earnest.

“Thank you, Babs, for helping save me from those monsters.”

I felt her nod, and tears brined the rims of her eyes as we parted. “I’m just glad you’re okay. It was absolutely horrible, Bas. I thought you were…”

She didn’t need to finish the sentence. The doctor had told me after I’d woken up how seriously lucky I was to be alive. There was a reason people died when being trampled, and how close I had come to being one of those people. I didn’t like to focus on just how close death had had me in its grasp, because it scared the fuck out of me. To think that I’d almost lost my life being at work, trying to help people…and that people had wanted to stop me from ever doing so. It hurt too much to dwell on. This world needed healing and I wanted to try and be a part of that healing process as much as possible.

“I’m glad you’re okay too.” I agreed. “They told me you had smoke inhalation.”

Babs waved me off. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

I pushed forward with the kinds of questions that had been bubbling up inside me like a volcanic gas but ones I hadn’t wanted to burden Kroven with. “And the sangamar that were with us? Marquinn and Jolsten, they were okay?”

“They’re fine,” Babs smiled, seeming like I was crazy for worrying about them when I’d been the one to almost die. “Grateful for us shielding them from the protestors. Marquinn sends her undying gratitude, by the way.”

Now I was the one to wave her off like it was nothing. “What about the protestors? Kroven mentioned they ran. Did the police catch any of them?”

“Not one.” Babs grunted, placing her hands on her hips to show her annoyance. “And the cameras were damaged in the fire. Those idiots are smarter than they look because the backups were conveniently destroyed before they were torched.”

“Fuck.” I sighed. The fact that these people could essentially get away with it boiled my blood.

She grabbed my hand tenderly. “Don’t worry, Bas. Just focus on taking it easy. You’ve got more than enough sick days.” She laughed. It was true, I rarely called out of work or took vacation, so I’d banked a bunch of sick time. But what about when that time ran out? It wasn’t like there was a building to go back to.

Babs must have sensed my concern. “There’s no word on when the center can be worked on, or when we can get back to work. Apparently, the owner of the blood center is some senator that can’t be bothered to attend to the issue, so I’ve been speaking to middle men. But the blood center isn’t being shut down, so I guess I have to thank Senator Rhodes for that.” She made a point of rolling her eyes and crossing her arms, clearly not the guy’s biggest fan. I’d never heard word on the senator, but if he couldn’t take the time to care about what happened to the blood center, then he was on my list of good for nothing rich assholes. “There’s no open walls at our center, thankfully, but it’s going to cost a lot to fix everything up. Just one of the many things I’ll have to talk to that Wallace Watson about.”

“Have you met him yet?”

“Not yet, but he called me. We have a meeting tomorrow.”

That was good. It meant that Wallace was sticking to his word about trying to help out the centers. I just hated that this outcome was what was needed for his superiors to realize that we needed help and we needed it fast.

“Well let me know what he says.”

“I will,” She rubbed my arm. “But just try and take it easy, okay? Doctors orders, so I assume.”

Laughing, I gave her another hug as Kroven stepped back into the room. I assumed that meant that our ride was here.

When Kroven came back over to stand beside me, Babs really gave Kroven a good look, eyeing him up and down like he was something to be devoted to rather than the sangamar that he was.

Couldn’t argue there, though.

“You know what,” Babs snickered. “If you had some meat on you, I might just have seduced you myself.”

My cheeks flared that my boss had just said that to my boyfriend, but Kroven threw his head back and guffawed at the compliment.

“Well, I am spoken for.” He gave me a quick smile, but turned his sights back on Babs in record time. “Perhaps Exo would fit the bill. He’s not gay, for starters.”

Shaking my head at them, I mentally noted that maybe I could play matchmaker when Kroven and I inevitably met up with Exo and Wallace again. Because Babs was mulling over the idea longer than I would have expected.

But first things first. I had a best friend to interrogate, doctors orders be damned.