I blinked the sleep out of my eyes and yawned, which was when I realized that I couldn’t stretch both arms. In fact, I could barely feel one of my arms. I looked down, the world still a little hazy, and saw my arm was in a sling with a lot of bandages wound around my shoulder.
“Oh, yeah.” I blinked a couple more times. Three figures swam into view. I recognized Jesse first, then Alex—it took me an extra moment or so to recognize Brent, Jesse’s boyfriend.
“What the fuck happened this time?” I asked. If I sounded a little groggy, I guess that they ignored it.
“You tell us, Holly.” Alex gently laid his hand on my leg. “You were shot, and a bus exploded.”
“Yeah, that’s her telling us,” Jesse muttered.
“Shut up.”
“That’s…” I frowned, as if straining to remember. Though some bits were hazy, I remembered the explosion of energy, but I wasn’t about to tell Alex and Brent. Not right now.
I need to talk to Alex soon, though, I thought, trying not to scowl as he leaned over and kissed my forehead.
He straightened up again. “Were we supposed to call the doctor over when she woke up?”
“He’s checking in every five minutes anyway, Lex,” Jesse answered. “He’ll be here soon.”
“Is it the same guy?” I asked, a smile creeping to my face through the fog.
Jesse laughed, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, it is. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’re happy about it. How are you feeling?”
“Awesome.” I closed my eyes and lifted my clumsy left hand to my forehead. “The only thing I can really feel is a massive headache.” The front of my head was pounding.
Alex rubbed my shoulder—the good one, but he still rubbed harder than I’d have liked—and mumbled something about Tylenol, which made me chuckle and, in turn, jiggled my bad shoulder. I felt it should have hurt more than dying had, but I was feeling it through a haze of painkillers, so it was bearable.
I met Jesse’s gaze. Come on, we need to talk. Understand what I am trying to—
“Hey, guys, could you let me have a minute here?” he asked.
Okay, you’ve figured out what happened. Good, but…fuck.
Brent laid a hand on Alex’s shoulder and guided him out.
“I like him,” I said.
“Who? Brent?”
“No, Alex.” I rolled my eyes.
“So, I’m guessing I can surmise what happened?”
“Who the hell actually uses that word?”
“Am I right?”
I drew my lips taut. “Yeah, probably.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“Well, I was…I don’t know if I want to go into it here.”
“Speak in generalities.”
“Okay, as much as I can…” I drew in a deep breath. “I’m on the bus, this guy points a gun at a baby that won’t shut up. He’s drunk, so the other drunk guy on the bus—a college kid—dives at him, tackles him, and they’re both on the ground. He somehow gets to the gun before me. I convince him to not shoot the first guy, and then…” I coughed. Ow. “As soon as I touched the gun, I realized I’d built up all the energy before, when I was trying to see if I could just taze the guy, and I hadn’t released it. I don’t know if I can take it back into my body completely or not.”
“You touched the gun and it went off,” Jesse guessed.
“Yeah. No one actually shot me.”
“Weird. And, uh, painful.”
“Not bad right now. I think they gave me something pretty strong.”
“What happened with the bus, if that was your energy going off?”
“I…I think it might have been the pain.”
“Oh?”
“Well, when I got shot, I could feel the pent-up energy, all of it, kind of…stream out in every direction.”
“Ah.”
“The people got hit with it, and so did the gas tank, and it kind of went boom.”
“Went boom? Is that the technical term?”
“Stop making fun of me. I’m in pain.”
He immediately sobered. “Right, sorry. Just so used to it.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. Like I really cared.
“Well, you know the energy direction practice we were doing yesterday?”
I nodded. “When I pooled it in my hands?”
“Yeah, that. Try pooling it—less obviously, I mean—around the wound in your shoulder. Hopefully, it’ll give your healing energies a jump-start.”
I shook my head. “I’m still impressed you’re so knowledgeable about this. I had absolutely no idea.”
“Hey, I don’t actually know anything. I’m just pulling all this out of my—”
“Talking about alternative medicines?”
I looked up, and Dr. Yeung was standing at the foot of my bed. Jesse startled. I guess he hadn’t noticed him, either.
“Yeah. I’ve been studying them under my brother here.” I nodded at Jesse, and he blushed.
“How’re you feeling, Holly?”
“A little woozy, I suppose. Kind of like I’m thinking through a fog.”
He scribbled something down on his chart. “That’s a fairly common way of putting it. It’s the painkillers. That should probably go away in a couple of hours.”
“Oh, good.”
He walked towards my right side. “This might hurt a little, even through the painkillers.” He started unwrapping the bandages, and I felt the cool air hit the wound. Oooh, that’s not going to look pretty.
Bracing, I glanced down. Oh. Well, that definitely wasn’t the big gaping hole it felt like it was—like it should have been.
“Jeez, I keep building up my hopes for these huge, badass scars and burns, and nothing! What gives, body?”
Jesse burst out laughing, and the sound was enough for Alex and Brent to come back in, both holding coffees. Brent delivered one to Jesse, along with a quick peck to the cheek, and they stood together, arms entwined. Alex came over and sat in the chair next to me, putting his hand in mine.
“Well, the good news is that this is healing a lot faster than we were expecting it to,” Dr. Yeung said. “I can’t say I’m particularly surprised, with how quickly you healed from your burn. Sorry about the spark, though.”
I blinked. “Sorry?”
“There must have been some static in the bandages. When I reached in to check how your wound was doing, I shocked you.”
“I didn’t even notice.” I laughed nervously. I’d noticed something else strange, and it looked like Brent had caught it as well.
Alex, completely unaware, rubbed my arm. “It’s okay, hon.”
“When can I get out of here, Dr. Yeung?”
“You really don’t like hospitals, do you?”
“Bad experience as a child.”
“You’d think she’d do a better job of staying out of them, wouldn’t you?” Brent remarked, and I had to laugh. Even though it was weird for him to say it when he didn’t know me that well, the looks on Alex’s and Jesse’s faces were priceless.
Priceless horror.
“It isn’t intentional!” I protested.
“You should theoretically be able to leave this evening, Holly,” Dr. Yeung finally answered. “We’re going to keep you here to run a couple tests to make sure absolutely everything’s okay.”
I nodded. That was what I’d hoped—that I wouldn’t be kept there overnight.
Alex kissed my forehead again. “I’m going to go take these two to lunch, and then we’ll be back for…” He looked at his watch. “It’s about ten thirty right now, so we’ll be back around three. Does that sound okay?”
I nodded and settled back into my bed.