“What the fuck,” Jav said, down on his knees in the shrapnel on the floor. The room was getting crowded. The security guard came on the run, along with Juan and Corley, who’d been passing through the lobby when they heard the commotion. Their grim expressions stared at Jav, but if they wondered what he was doing here, they didn’t show it. Juan was especially pale, crossing himself and fiddling with the gold crucifix around his neck.
“Nurses are on the way,” Kandice said. “Is he breathing all right? Was it a seizure?”
“He’s breathing,” Stef said. “I’m not sure.”
He turned his head then, and Jav saw the gash along his cheekbone and the blood starting to run.
“You’re cut,” Jav said, reaching to catch the drops. Stef shied away and touched his face himself, then shrugged.
“You all right?” Jav said, wiping his fingertips on his legs.
Stef grunted, his jaw set hard, muscles twitching in his face.
“The hell is all over the floor?” Corley said, crouching down and picking up screws.
Geno made a choked, gagging noise.
“Jav take his head,” Stef said. “Roll him on his side. Easy now.”
Jav, right by Geno’s mouth, shuffled his knees back a little, braced for a projectile. The boy twitched, gave a weak, uneventful heave, then went still again. Another twitch. His eyes fluttered and opened. He blinked a few times at Jav’s kneecap, then slowly reached to touch the bloodstain there.
“Corley,” Stef said quietly. “I need you and Juan to go, okay? Give him some space.”
Corley left. Juan lingered, eyes wide. “Javi,” he said. “¿Cuidarás a mi hermanito?”
Take care of our little brother?
Jav looked up. “Sí, por supuesto.”
Juan crossed himself, gave one last, worried look at Geno’s outstretched body on the rug, then left as well.
“Jav.” His eyes on Geno, Stef put his palm against Jav’s shoulder and pushed. “Move back for me now.”
Jav got up and moved toward the window. Shock wrapped around his nervous system and his eyes couldn’t leave Stef’s bloody cheek, but he grasped it was best to let Stef do his job.
“Hey, bud,” Stef said. “You feel sick?”
“No,” Geno said.
“Think you can sit up?”
“Yeah.”
Stef took Geno’s arm and helped him up. “How’s that.”
Geno pulled his arm free and slid away, putting his back against the desk. His gaze moved around the room. From Stef, to the security guard, to the field of hardware sprinkled across the floor. To Jav. Back to Stef for a moment. Then his eyes went far away.
“Stay here,” Stef said. “Stay with me. Look at me.”
“I thought…”
The room went still as a painting. Jav held his breath and willed himself invisible.
“I thought you were…” Geno’s head swung back and forth, mouth parted in confusion. “It was dark. And you were…” He looked at Jav and his index finger lifted. “He was… It looked like…”
Kandice broke the spell with a forced, hearty laugh. “No, child, it was just the lovebirds.”
Stef winced and Jav clenched his teeth as Geno’s eyes made another circuit around the room, wide and bewildered.
“What?” he said.
“Jav’s my partner,” Stef said. “We live together.”
Geno glanced at Jav.
Jav raised a palm. Hi, nice to meet you. Then, like the idiot he was, he blurted, “We were just fooling around.”
Stef’s eyes swiveled, looking daggers at him. Kandice gave a nervous laugh and Jav thought about exiting quietly out the window. Thank God the nurses arrived, their energy taking further control of the situation.
One knelt by Geno’s legs, taking his wrist in her fingers and looking at her watch, counting. “He lost consciousness?” she asked Stef.
“All of thirty seconds maybe.”
“Convulsions?”
“No. Looked like a vasovagal syncope, which I’ve seen with him before.”
She looked at Geno. “Honey, did you take something tonight?”
Geno shrunk away from her eyes as he answered, “No.” His whole face trembled, as if he might cry.
“It’s all right,” she said. “I’m not angry, you’re not in trouble. I just need to know.”
“I didn’t take anything. I don’t have anything to take.”
“All right. I don’t mean to accuse, it’s my job to ask. You’re going to come down to the infirmary so we can look you over a little more. Think you can stand up?”
Geno got up, his expression inside-out with confusion, his gaze going between Jav and Stef and then far away again.
“Come on now,” the nurse said. “You come with me. It’s all right.”
Once he was gone, Stef gave a tremendous exhale and came off his knees. He rolled onto his butt and slumped back against the wall. The other nurse, quiet all this time, crouched by him.
“Now let’s look at you,” she said. “How’d you get that cut?”
“He threw something at my head,” Stef said. “Coffee can full of this shit.” He flicked a washer aside. “A screw or something must’ve nicked my face.”
“I don’t think it’ll need to be stitched, but it’s a little more than a nick.” The nurse took his jaw in her hands, thumbs beneath his eyes. “Plus you are dilated to kingdom come, Finch.”
Jav moved a little closer and saw indeed, Stef’s pupils had eclipsed all the blue of his irises. The nurse drew Stef’s head toward her and palpated at the base of his neck, moving up into his hair.
“Shit,” Stef said. “Yeah, that’s where it hit.”
She examined his scalp. “No blood. I’m surprised.”
“Fuck, stop touching it.”
“I’ll get you some ice packs. Then you’re going to want to get checked out by a doctor.”
Stef made a non-committal noise as he got up, neither yes nor no. The nurse looked at Jav with raised eyebrows. Her mouth shaped a word. Hospital.
Jav nodded.
“Jesus, I hate Mondays,” Stef said.
“It’s Tuesday,” Jav said.
“Monday, Tuesday, whatever. C’mon. Let’s get that fucking steak I promised you.”