Chapter 302
“Gee, Cass, I’m so sorry to hear that Tara is doing so poorly,” Emma said, and I could tell she really must’ve meant it because Emma O’Sullivan doesn’t say she’s sorry for you if she doesn’t really mean it.
“And Brandon’s AWOL?” Lucy asked.
“Yeah, he came by a few hours ago, but I was taking a short nap.”
“Do you think he thinks there’s something going on between you and Dax?” she asked.
“I think he does.”
“Is there?” Emma asked, and I wished I could see her so I could give her the snake eye.
“No! We are just friends.”
“Just checking,” she said, and I could hear her shrugging.
I heard the front door down the hall open and couldn’t help but smile when I saw it was Elliott. “Girls, I’ve gotta go in a second. Elliott just walked in.”
“Oh, put him on!” Lucy exclaimed. “I haven’t talked to him in ages.”
I tried to think back to when the last time she’d seen him might have been and couldn’t remember, and when he reached me, he had a big smile on his face, like he was happy to see her, too. “Well, if it isn’t one of my favorite humans!” he gushed.
“I’m here, too!” Emma shouted, and I had to laugh because she just doesn’t get excited about people.
“Two of my favorite humans!” Elliott said.
“Hi, Dr. Sanderson. It’s so great that you’re alive and all.” Lucy was grinning from ear to ear. Had she not seen him since he came back? I decided she hadn’t and that I am an awful friend.
“Yeah, it’s definitely different than being dead,” Elliott replied. I noticed he was carrying a box of doughnuts, and my stomach began to rumble. “You two best not be late for school now,” he said, like he was their fun uncle but didn’t want to steer them wrong.
“Oh, shoot,” Emma said. “I’ve gotta go. It was nice to talk to you both. Good luck with your friend, Cass.”
“Thanks, Em. Talk to you soon.”
Lucy doesn’t mind being late so much. “I guess I should go, too,” she said with a sigh. “Elliott, are you going to come and visit us soon? Just because Cass isn’t here doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come by.”
“I shall do my best,” he said with a nod.
Her face told me that wasn’t quite good enough, but Lucy said, “’Kay. Talk soon, Cass. Love you.”
“Love you, too, Luce,” I said and hung up. I meant it. I missed my friends so much, especially when I walked back into the operating room and remembered that the girl I thought might replace them was nearly dead.
“I can’t stay too long,” Elliott said, handing me the box of doughnuts. “The bossman is keeping us all very busy. But I wanted to come and check on you. How’s Tara?”
I already had a glazed doughnut shoved down my throat, so it took me a moment to answer. “Not good,” I said around bites as Dax snatched the box out of my hands.
Elliott looked for himself and then shook his head. “Her color looks okay, but her heartbeat is awful slow.”
“And getting slower,” Dax noted.
The burly Guardian’s eyes flickered to Jamie, and he shook his head again. “Well, you call me if you need anything, okay?”
I nodded. Having grabbed a second doughnut out of the box, my mouth was full again. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until the sweet, sugary aroma hit my lungs.
Elliott wrapped me in his arms, smooshing what was left of my breakfast against his jacket, but I didn’t care. “Don’t wear yourself out, lil girl,” he said, kissing me on the top of the head before he waved to Dax and disappeared out the door.
“So that’s your boyfriend’s dad?” Dax asked, chomping into his third doughnut.
“Yep,” I said, sitting down next to him. Tara hadn’t changed much in all the time that I’d been on the phone. Neither had Jamie.
“So… he’s kinda like… a dad to you while you’re here or something?”
I tried not to snicker because in actuality, Elliott had been playing several roles for me since I’d moved to headquarters, though he was so different than my real dad, I had to smile. “Kind of like a big brother, I think,” I said, though I’d never had one of those so I didn’t know for sure. I wondered if Dax was thinking about asking me whatever personal question he was going to ask me earlier, and since I decided it probably wasn’t something I wanted to answer, I asked, “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“Yeah, I have a younger sister. Gretchin.”
“Oh? What’s she like?”
We chatted about our families for a couple of hours before Jamie got up again, checked on Tara, did some work, and collapsed. I had an idea this might be what our day was like. Tara’s heartbeat was so slow, however, I had a feeling the death would be happening in the next few hours. Whether she would come out of it again or not, I didn’t know. I was silently praying that she’d be back to us soon enough.
Around noon, Aurora came in with a platter of deli sandwiches. I’m not sure why she thought the two of us would need four six inch subs each, but we actually ate all of them within a few minutes. I felt bad for not saving anything for Jamie, but I was starving, and I realized ever since I’d Transformed, I’d been eating a lot more than a typical sixteen-year-old girl.
I wished Aurora would’ve stayed a little longer than she did. I had a lot of questions about what was going on, but it seemed that my sister had basically made her second in command of the Hunters, and with that came a lot of responsibility. Before long, Dax and I were left alone again with our two unconscious friends, and we’d started to run out of comfortable topics to talk about. Every once in a while, one of us would think of something to say, but listening to Tara’s heart rate monitor filled the hours.
