TWENTY-SEVEN
Sleeping Beauty
SOMETHING AMUSED THE guys, and Nora had a suspicion it was something she’d done. Carefully, she extricated herself from Cai. During her nap, she’d come to wrap her arms and legs around him like a colossal squid.
“Did I hurt you?” she asked, worried she’d pulled an IV or something.
“No. You kept me warm.”
A blush heated her face. It was a little weird to be so openly affectionate with Cai. Generally, he was less effusive than someone like Matisse, Apollo, or even Seok nowadays. He’d hugged her in the past, but rarely had he snuck kisses or held her as tightly as he did now.
Not that she was complaining. She loved it, but she did find herself sneaking peeks at the other guys to make sure they were okay. Apollo caught her eye and smiled, giving her a small nod.
Slowly, careful not to dislodge or pull any wires, she sat up. “Was the nurse in while I slept? How’s your temperature?” She pressed her wrist to Cai’s forehead. He felt cool and dry.
“No, not yet.” Even his voice sounded better.
“Have you tried to eat?”
“Not yet.”
She slid her legs over the bed and stood, stretching her arms over her head. “Do you want to try something?”
“The kitchen has popsicles and juice,” Matisse told them.
“How about a popsicle?” she offered.
“Grape?” he asked hopefully.
Giggling, she leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Grape. You got it.” She glanced at the other guys. “Who else wants one?”
Ryan stood up. “I’ll come with you.”
“Okay.” She took his hand when he reached for her.
Hospitals were noisy. She’d forgotten how noisy. Televisions blared from rooms, and visitors gathered around doorways, talking to each other and the patients inside. It brought back how stressed she’d been when she’d stayed here. How she’d barely slept, how alone she’d felt. It was a completely different experience compared to this one.
The kitchen was empty. Ryan found a tray and began to pile food on it. There were a surprising amount of choices, and he seemed to want five of everything. She stopped his hands. “We don’t need this much.”
His eyes were focused somewhere behind her, and he startled when she touched him. “Huh?”
There was nothing over her shoulder but a patient’s room. She’d turned back to him when she heard a familiar voice. “I will kill people. You will be told I am crazy. Sick. But I’m not. Don’t trust the experts they trot out to speak to my illness. The root of the illness is society. I can’t allow myself to feel pity. Not even for my…for the people I love.”
She pressed her hand against her chest. Her heart pounded against her ribs, thump, thump, thump.
Brown eyes and the barrel of a gun.
“Nora.”
Wrenching herself from her daydream, she focused on Ryan. “Reid,” she managed to say.
He nodded. “I know.”
“How?”
She was distracted by another voice, yet again familiar. “Reid showcases all the signs of a paranoid schizophrenic. People close to him have stated similar observations beginning in his early teens and into his twenties.”
“That’s Dr. Murray.”
“Nora.” He took her face, bending low so they were eye-to-eye. “Don’t listen.”
“It’s not true. Reid wasn’t schizophrenic. I lived with him. He was never delusional.”
“Come on.” Grabbing her hand, he hooked it around his arm and then picked up the tray of food.
It was quiet in the room when they entered but only for a second. Cai held out his hand, and she went to him, curling up next to him without a word. He didn’t speak either, only rubbed her back in small, soothing circles while the others spoke.
“It’ll be okay,” Cai soothed.
“I know,” she answered. It was easy to believe while surrounded by her guys and wrapped in Cai’s arms. She craned her neck to look at him. “I’d just hoped it was over. The manifesto was the end. They even spoke to Dr. Murray.”
“About you?” he asked, angrily.
“No. About Reid,” she replied.
“Oh. He was the local expert?” Cai didn’t seem surprised. When Nora waited for an explanation, he added, “Reporters find someone to talk about whoever is involved in whatever horrible thing happened. They usually choose a social worker or the police or a psychologist. It’s to try to explain why.”
“Oh.” What he said made sense, but it still bothered her that Dr. Murray would speak about Reid to the wider world.
“I didn’t realize he knew Reid,” Cai said thoughtfully.
Nora remembered the picture hanging in Dr. Murray’s office and what little she’d heard since joining the study. “Reid was a participant.”
There was a pause in the circles, and then Cai began again. “Oh?”
“Yes. In the interview, he said Reid was mentally ill, and he wasn’t,” she went on. “Not when I knew him.”
“Nora, he went into a school and killed kids,” Cai said gently. The other guys were silent, listening to their conversation.
She found herself wanting to defend Reid. “No. I mean. Yes. I know he did, and obviously he wasn’t well, but the way he described Reid. How…? I thought this was all confidential.”
“I don’t know how it works,” Cai sympathized.
“What a mess,” Apollo added.
Nora shifted, turning to see him. He, as well as Seok and Matisse, were on their phones, thumbing across the screens. “What does it say?” She assumed they were reading about Reid.
“Same as what you heard. Posthumously, a video was released to the news station; they interviewed Dr. Murray, who said he was schizophrenic. They mention you. Ah…” Apollo sighed.
“What?” What had he said? Was it her fault?
“From something Reid said. It sounds like he knew you were there and planned on killing you.”
“What?” In her head, her voice was a screech, but she could barely push out the whisper.
Dark eyes met hers. “Baby, I’m sorry. He wasn’t well.”
She turned away, pushing her face against Cai’s chest and closing her eyes. “It still sucks.”
“I love you,” Cai whispered into her hair. Her curls fluttered across her forehead, tickling her skin.
“I love you, too.” It made everything bearable.
The chair near the bed scraped across the floor, and a heavy arm draped over her waist, covering her hand. “It’ll be okay, baby,” Apollo soothed.
“Do you think everything will get worse again?” She’d maybe found a job, and on her walk through the hospital, no one had stared her down.
“I don’t think so,” Apollo said. “I think it’ll be okay.”
One more second to wallow, and then she was done. “Okay,” she said, sitting. “Okay. Moving on.”
Matisse and Seok watched her, both eyeing her like she was about to explode. Turning to Ryan and Apollo, she asked, “Don’t you have homework?”
It was a transparent attempt to change the subject, but they let her have it.
“Yeah.” Apollo found a bag and dug through it, pulling out his computer and a textbook.
“You can have this super-comfortable chair,” Matisse offered.
Apollo groaned. “I hope the doctors discharge him soon.”
“Let’s see if I can make it happen,” a voice said. A young woman came through the door carrying a laptop. “Malachi Josephs…you have quite an entourage.”
“Family,” Cai corrected.
“Family.” Smiling down at her chart, the doctor nodded. “So, let’s see. Scarlatina, strep. Let’s take a temp, check you out, you can tell me your pain level, and we’ll go from there.”
She worked with brisk purpose, chatting the entire time and putting all of them at ease. At the end of her examination, she tapped her finger on her chin and considered Cai. “I could go either way, Mr. Josephs. Your temp is normal, and you’ve been twenty-four hours on antibiotics… But your rash looks painful.”
“It’s going to be painful here or at home. Not like you’re giving me morphine,” he argued.
“True.” She put her hands on her hips. “You want to go home?”
Nora wouldn’t answer for him, but she hoped he’d say yes. Her bed. Her house. Her shower. It sounded like heaven.
“I’d like to go home,” Cai answered.
“Give me another twenty-four hours, fever free. Sound good?”
The entire room groaned.
“The thought of another night in this chair cramps my back,” Apollo whispered.
“I’ll be back tomorrow. Best thing you can do is sleep,” the doctor directed.
“Yes, ma’am,” Cai answered, and the doctor giggled.
“Ma’am. A gentleman. Be still my heart,” the doctor twittered.
While the nurse who’d brought Ryan scrubs had annoyed Nora, this doctor merely amused her. With a wink in Nora’s direction, it was obvious she was joking. As she left with a wave over her shoulder, everyone slumped.
“The walls are closing in,” Ryan muttered.
“Do your homework,” Cai said, pushing himself up. “Nora can snuggle me.”
“How long you going to milk this?” Apollo asked, falling onto the chair. “Maybe Nora wants to snuggle me.”
Warning alarms went off in her head. Arms crossed, chin against his chest, Apollo sat like an angry little boy. An angry, hurt little boy. Eyes glued to the floor, he ignored her footsteps as she came closer.
“Hey,” she whispered, leaning down.
His eyes flitted to hers. “What?”
“When you’re sick, I promise to snuggle you in bed.”
His fingers dug into his sleeves, and he nodded but stared at the floor again.
“Cai’s sick.” She didn’t want to give him a guilt trip, but she needed him to pull himself out of the funk he was sinking into. “And he won’t argue with you, but I think he needs me.”
Dark eyes pinned hers. Grown-up Apollo wanted to do the right thing, but the part of him who needed affection couldn’t push the hurt aside. This was a man who needed to be number one with someone, and he deserved to be.
“I love you, Apollo. No one could take your place in my heart.” Shame was the last thing she wanted to make him feel, and when he wouldn’t look at her, she could bang her head against the wall. Swinging her legs around, she straddled him and hooked her hands around his neck. “Listen to me, Apollo Morris. I love you.” His hands clutched her hips to hold her steady. Dipping her head low, she caught his lips, biting his lower lip with a sharp nip. “I love you.”
His forehead dropped against her throat, and his arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want you to be sorry,” she whispered in his ear. “I see you. I see how this makes you feel.”
Her neck prickled; she knew the other boys were watching them, but she didn’t let it rush her.
“I know, baby. I’m working on it,” Apollo whispered. His lips tickled her nose.
“We all are,” Seok interrupted. “You’re not alone, man. Think it’s easy for me to see her with you?”
While she appreciated how Apollo wouldn’t feel alone as he dealt with his jealousy, it did bring up a bigger issue she was not ready to deal with. She was too tired, too sore, and honestly, too worried about Cai to think about how, right now, no one was happy.
Hands against Apollo’s shoulders, she pushed off his lap, slipping on the linoleum. “Mind some company?” she asked Cai, who watched her with raised eyebrows.
“Love some,” he rasped.
Shaking the pitcher next to the bed to make sure it still had ice, she poured him a cup of water. He sipped with closed eyes before letting his head rest against the pillows. “Thanks.”
She set the cup on the nearby tray and carefully scooted next to him, sliding her body against his. The smooth plastic of his IV wound around her as he pulled her into his arms, and it reminded her how sick he was. The doctor’s description of the possible side effects he could face echoed in her mind. Heart attack, infection. No matter how uncomfortable they were, she was glad they were staying another night here. She wanted him monitored—temperature taken, symptoms observed.
Gently, she brushed the hair off his forehead, fingers lingering for a moment against his skin, checking his warmth.
“I’m okay,” he whispered. “Just tired.”
“You sure?”
He hummed in reassurance, stroking his hand along her spine. The room stayed quiet, everyone seemingly caught up in their own thoughts. She stared at the wall, watching it move as Cai’s chest rose and fell rhythmically. Her lids drifted closed, and she didn’t try to fight it. She fell asleep pushing away her worries, only allowing herself to hear Cai’s heartbeat beneath her ear.