Adapt (I)

SCARLET

The beeps of the medical equipment echo off the walls and reverberate in my ears. I don’t think that they could possibly be any louder. But it seems that with every passing beep, they do get louder. It is a never-ending chaos of the air conditioner steadily humming, the chatter of nurses and doctors in the halls, and the beep, beep, BEEP.

Caron’s chest is rising and falling. I can hear the gentle whisper of her breath. I cling to it. I try to focus on just that sound.

By the time the medics had arrived, Caron’s wounds were closed. Not even a scar in their place. Blood still clung to her clothes and she was still very groggy. The medics said that she seemed severely dehydrated. I wanted to tell them that she had lost a lot of blood, but even with it staining her clothes, I knew they would not believe me. Once at the hospital, they asked me questions about why she was covered in blood. I told them that she was getting some meat out of the fridge, and that was when she fainted. I told them that the blood that had leaked from the bag had covered her head to toe. It was a very weak lie, but the truth was less believable.

A nurse knocked at the doorway. “Hi,” She said in the sweetest voice. “I need to check her vitals.”

I nod. It is two in the morning, and I am exhausted, but my brain refuses to shut down. I am going to wait out the night with Caron.

The nurse looks at the clip board and compares them to the machines. With a slight nod of approval, she replaces the clip board and turns to me. “Sweetie, visiting hours are closed. You can only be in here if you are a relative or spouse.”

I smile. “I’m her spouse.” I say.

She hesitates, then leaves.

For the rest of the night, I sit there, thinking about Logan. His actions were so out of the ordinary. What does it mean?

You know what it means. A little voice in the back of my mind says.

It means that Logan is trying to recruit me as well.

“But a hybrid-now that is a concoction that I would love to ally myself with...”

Would everyone just stop with the recruiting bullshit?

I sigh, slouching back into the uncomfortable chair. I close my eyes for a second, trying to let my exhaustion overtake me. The whir of technology around me makes my head spin, so I open my eyes again. I watch the steady motion of Caron’s breath, allowing the sound of it become meditation to me.

I start at the sound of a knock at the door. My eyes flutter open. Sunlight washes the little hospital room in a warm glow. Caron is curled up under the thin hospital sheet, still sound asleep. Beside the bed is one of those bed tables on wheels. On top of it is a half-eaten plate of breakfast food. It looks as though Caron had pushed it away in favour of sleeping again.

I look over to the door to find Boe leaning on the door jam. I straighten in my chair, my bones crack as I reform the natural shape of my spine. “Hi.” I say, weakly. “How did you know I was here?”

Boe straightens and slowly walks his way into the room. He has his hands stuffed into the pockets of his black jeans and his shoulders are hunched. He looks almost sheepish. “Before I gave your phone back downloaded a ghost app that lets me track you.” He smiles faintly, his eyes measuring my reaction. When he sees that I am too tired or worried about Caron to care, he continues. “Figured that I might need to track you if you made a break for it. How are you?”

I shrug and stifle a yawn. I can tell that it is still early. The sun coming through the widows is still low in the east. I turn my attention back to Caron. I am sure that she is deeply asleep, but I can see her eyes fluttering beneath the lids. She is dreaming. I swallow. What has happened to her?

Boe comes to stand beside me, laying one sportive hand on my shoulder. “I am so sorry.” He breathes.

I sniffle and wipe the sleep from my eyes. “You didn’t do this.” I say.

He doesn’t respond for a moment. Then he asks, “How is she?”

I shrug. “I’m not sure. The doctor was a bit confused last night. He chalked it all up to dehydration.” I say, my eyes scanning Caron’s body for signs of trauma that had long since healed. All of the cuts and bruises that I had found her with have vanished.

“What happened to her?” Boe’s voice is gentle.

“I went to her house and found her in Logan’s arms, covered in blood.” I say.

Boe’s hand tightens on my shoulder, but he stays quiet, knowing that there is more to the story.

“I went at him, but he didn’t fight back. Once Caron was out of his arms, I just went to her, forgetting about fighting Logan. And he just... stood there. I don’t think he was the one that did this to her. Logan told me that he had fed her his blood, and to not let her die in the next month. Then he was gone. And Caron was unconscious, covered in blood, with cuts and bruises all over her.” I stop speaking as sobs well in my throat. I swallow them back.

Boe’s body is ridged beside me. “He fed her his blood?” He asks, clipping each word.

I don’t bother to respond to his rhetorical question, wiping my snot off on the shoulder of my shirt. A small thought in the back of mind says, ‘wow, what an attractive sight for Boe’. I tell that voice to bite me. I don’t care what I look like.

Boe comes to crouch in front of me. “Scarlet, humans cannot have Therian blood.” His eyes are afire with worry, but I am not sure if it is for Caron or for me.

I give him a blank look. I really don’t have the patience for this slow walk to realization. “Just spit it out, Boe.”

“Ingesting their blood is the way that they make new Therians.” He clenches jaw. “One way.” He adds.

My eyes widen. “What?”

He doesn’t answer my question. He spins up to face Caron, hands working over her - checking her pulse and her temperature. He picks up her arm and starts looking at the veins. I’m not sure what he thinks he will find, but his actions are making me nervous.

“Hey!” I growl. “Leave her to sleep.”

He doesn’t stop as he gently pulls open one of her eye lids to look at her pupils. “Don’t worry, she is well and truly out. I am just checking for signs that she is changing.” He lets Caron’s eye close and glances at me.

“And?” I ask with a mixture of protectiveness and annoyance.

“She looks fine. She must not have suffered anything fatal. If she dies in the foreseeable future though, it will be a different story.” Boe’s anxious tone subsides by a small measure.

I let out a sigh, thankful that I am not going to have to deal with that sort of decision anytime soon. Still, as if I don’t have enough to worry about, now I have to actively protect Caron now, too. I put my head in my hands. I’m not sure I can deal with this on top of everything else. I am still not fully comprehending my own situation, let alone having to protect someone else. “How does this even happen?” I ask no one in particular. “I mean, what the hell is happening? Therians are capturing girls around here, and I am too busy running around playing ‘HQ experience’.” I slump back into my uncomfortable hospital chair. “Now Caron is at risk of becoming one of these Things, so I have to make extra sure she doesn’t die. And let’s throw on top of that the fact I am a half therian, and I don’t even know what the hell that means!” I am half sobbing. I get up from the chair in an effort to make myself appear bigger, feel stronger. Who am I kidding? My emotions right now are the equivalent of a puddle on this disgusting hospital floor. I start pacing in a tight two step pattern. “How am I supposed to save Caron, save the four girls that have gone missing, avoid getting kidnapped by HQ, and figure out what the hell I am as well?”

Boe’s eyebrows furrow. “So, you heard what Alex and I had said?”

I stop my pacing. Blush heats my cheeks as I remember all of the different things that conversation had revealed. I bite my lip and hold my breath. “Well, I know that Alex thinks I need to be ‘contained.’ I am betting that means a four by four cell.”

Boe’s voice hardens. “I won’t let that happen.”

Involuntarily, my mouth pulls up at one side in a sarcastic smirk. “Why not?” I manage to make my tone nonchalant. “It will finish your very important mission.”

Boe’s jawline flexes. “The mission doesn’t matter anymore.” He says.

I roll my eyes. “Very noble of you.” I mock. “But I don’t think that you and I have much of a chance against your army of hunters.”

Suddenly, Boe crosses the small space between us. He snatches up my hands and bends a little so that his eyes are looking directly into mine. His hands tighten around mine. They are so warm. “Scarlet, whatever they are planning, I will figure out how to stop them.”

“Why?” I say, trying desperately to unravel the knot that is forming in my gut. “Why are you all of a sudden backflipping on everything you have ever said to me?” I wish I could look away from the intensity burning in his eyes, but I can’t. “I’m half Therian for Christ’s sake. You should hate me.”

One of Boe’s eyebrows rise. A hint of mischief plays in his eyes. “You’re going to tell me that you heard Alex and I argue, but you didn’t hear about the way I feel about you?” His hands tighten. His eyes burn into mine, as though if he looks hard enough, he can say the words his mouth can not. “Scarlet, after everything that we have been through, please don’t tell me that I have to spell my reasons out to you.”

He is baiting me, and I am falling for it – hook, line and sinker. My heart thuds. Tears start to well again as I try to blink them away. I take a shaky breath to steady myself as I let my doubt speak for me. “Don’t be ridiculous. You are not in love with me, Boe. I’m not that big of an idiot.”

His hands release mine. I prepare for him to distance himself from me, and laugh as he tells me that he had me fooled. Instead, his arms wind around me, one hand supporting my head, the other at the small of my back. He pulls me to him. Without an ounce of a thought, my arms curl around his waist. He presses my head to his chest and for some reason I can’t stop the tears flowing from my eyes. Sobs wrack my body at this, the smallest of gestures. Gosh, he is so warm and so soft. The thought of touching his chest had always caused me to think it would be like running my hands over a marble statue. His chest is like the perfect pillow, his heart softly thrumming under my ear. His arms wind so tightly around me, his head laying on top of mine. I feel like I am in an indestructible bubble.

Security. That’s what I am feeling right now. I had never felt like this. I had never felt like I could place every ounce of trust in someone. In this moment I feel it, and the tears come stronger. I realize with Boe I have a place to hang out all of my dirty laundry. For whatever reason, Boe had never run from me, even when I would have run from myself. I squeeze my arms tighter around him as all of the built-up emotion I had tried and failed to compartmentalize, gush out of me on onto his shirt.

“Scarlet, I don’t know how but we are going to figure this all out. Caron is going to be fine, and we will find those bastards that have taken those girls. And when it comes to HQ and their plans for you… well let’s just say that I haven’t had much to fight for before, and I am a great fighter. I can only imagine how well I will fight now that I have something worth fighting for.”

I let out a snotty laugh in his chest, amused by his ego. He chuckles as well, a sound that I hadn’t heard before this moment. It bubbles in his chest, and I can’t imagine a better sound. It is like a hundred-year-old scotch being poured over ice - musical yet rich.

His hand brushes the back of my head. “Scarlet, you are so God-damn strong. It is your strength and your weakness. Right now, it has to be your strength.” His head lifts from the top of mine. “You have to be strong for Caron. I won’t be able to explain all of this to her, but she may believe it coming from you.”

I shake my head against his chest. “No, I can’t tell her.”

His hands brush my hair again. “You have to. She will not believe anything but the truth. Plus,” he pulled back from the embrace just enough to look into my eyes. “It will be good for you to have someone else you can tell these things to.”

I take a deep breath and look away from him. “I know, but not right now. I can’t.”

He draws me back into the hug. “Okay, but don’t lie to her when she asks. And...” he trails.

I wait, allowing him to build whatever courage he needs to say what he is going to say.

“I think that you need to find Logan.”