Chapter 22

Drugan smoothly landed near the emergency room entrance of the hospital for which I was grateful. Unfortunately, we didn’t go unnoticed. Two couples were making their way to the hospital from the parking lot when they spotted us, stopped in their tracks, and gawked.

I patted Drugan on the shoulder once we were on the ground. “Put me down,” I hissed. I was going to walk into the hospital under my own power, dammit, not get carried in like a child.

“If that’s what you want,” he said, and I only just realized that he had a light accent.

I let it go for the moment and focused on my feet. I stood on my right leg for a moment and then went to put weight on my left leg. Pain shot up through me and I dropped like a stone.

Drugan caught my arm and helped me up again. “Are ya sure about this?”

I glanced from him to the people staring and back to him. “Yeah, I’m sure. Just help me up.”

He nodded and gave me a hand to my feet.

I groaned as I tried to raise my left arm up to hook over his shoulders.

“I thought she got your leg,” he said.

I shook my head. “I’m pretty sure the Tree dislocated my shoulder, too.”

He nodded and moved around to help me from my right side.

I held onto him and hopped toward the door, not trusting my leg to hold my weight.

A nurse met us at the doors with a wheelchair. “I saw you fall,” she said. “What happened?”

I eased into the chair. “Not much, just someone who favors pointy things.”

Drugan shook his head and straightened to his full, considerable height. “Na! A woman wielding daggers attacked him.”

The nurse looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Daggers? What did you do?” Her tone implied I had done something wrong.

I groaned and covered my face. “Nothing,” I sighed. “Someone hired her to kill me.”

The nurse looked back up at Drugan. “What?”

Drugan nodded. “It’s alright now tho,” he said, his accent becoming more pronounced. “She’s in police custody now.”

I looked up and noted the lop-sided grin he wore. A glance at the nurse told me he was going to be a big distraction. I cleared my throat and moved to stand up. “Okay, if you two want to flirt, I’ll go on in.”

Without batting an eye, or taking either off the nurse, Drugan planted a large hand against my chest, stopping me from getting up.

The nurse broke eye contact first and looked at me. “Let’s get you inside, okay?” Then she smiled up at Drugan, and it wasn’t a cute little ‘excuse me’ smile either. I would call it love at first sight, but these two were acting more like big bunny rabbits bent on doubling the population.

She then wheeled me inside and up to the window where I had to sign in. The nurse behind the glass glanced past me toward the other nurse and Drugan. She blinked a few times and then blushed. I looked back at Drugan and caught him looking back at the nurse behind me. When I looked at the nurse behind the glass again, she held out a clipboard and pen to me. “Fill this out.”

I took the items and wheeled myself to the side as best as I could with one arm. My shoulder and leg throbbed.

A door behind us opened, and the nurse behind the glass came out. She walked up to Drugan with stars in her eyes.

I shook my head as he stood there, in his dark grey, heavy plate armor, which had marks and scars from who-knows-how-many battles, a long chain cloak that occasionally scraped the tiled floor, his lop-sided grin, and a glint in his eyes like this was always going to happen. Where did this guy come from? I knew some of his powers, but was it possible that he was a walking-talking aphrodisiac too?

Another nurse came out too. She was older - old enough to be my grandmother. She didn’t seem to be affected by Drugan because she stopped with her hands on her hips and stared at the three of them. “What is going on here?” She asked in a tone I recognized from my own parents: someone was in trouble.

The trio stopped talking and turned to look at the older nurse. Something about this nurse seemed to make Drugan’s attraction to the others diminish. They shrank back from him and headed for exits.

“Oh, no you don’t,” she said. “Vanessa, get back to the window. Lisa, go get those supplies I told you to get before this behemoth arrived.” Then she looked up at Drugan with an expression that suggested she was about to wage war. “I will take care of this problem.”

Drugan’s smile disappeared, and when she called him a behemoth, he raised an eyebrow.

The nurses raced off, but not without throwing glances back at Drugan.

The older nurse waited for them to leave, and then she took two steps toward Drugan. “Now. You, sir, cannot stay here dressed like some kind of fantasy movie extra.”

Drugan frowned, looked down at his armor, and then looked at her again. “This is my uniform. I brought my charge here for medical assistance.” and he waved at me.

I hoped to stay out of their exchange, but she looked at me. “And what exactly is wrong with you?”

I wanted to throw her attitude back at her, but Drugan stepped in and said, “He’s wounded. We fought off his would-be assassins, and I brought him here.”

She spun on him again. “Would-be assassins?” she asked and looked him over again. “Why would assassins hunt a boy like this?”

Drugan raised his eyebrows and shook his head. He said nothing, but I got the impression that he saw some things I did and didn’t think calling me a boy was a good idea. He changed gears though and said, “Regardless of why he’s here, aren’t you supposed to help?”

“Of course I’m going to help,” she said, having lost not one iota of her attitude. “But I also have to maintain a quiet, undisturbed waiting room, of which you do not comply.” She then looked him over again as an example of her point.

Drugan crossed his arms and gave her a look that would have me shrink away. “I’m not leaving. As long as he is here, so am I.”

She spun on me. “Do you really need him here?”

I met her eyes and said, “He’s my ride home.”

She smiled, straightened up, and slowly spun to face Drugan again as she said, “Which means he doesn’t need to be in the hospital. He can wait out in his car.”

Drugan met her smile with one of his own. “I didn’t drive. I flew.”

She blinked at that, as if what he said simply didn’t register. A second later, she shook off her confusion and pointed at the chairs in the waiting room. “Then sit down and leave my nurses alone.”

Drugan gave her his patented lop-sided grin and moved over to sit down.

The nurse watched him sit and then spun on me again. “Now, have you finished that?”

I looked at the paper. I had only filled out my name. “Not yet.”

“Well, if you’re so wounded, what are you waiting for?”

I smiled at her. “For someone to leave me undisturbed in the quiet of the waiting room.”

She harrumphed and stormed off.

After the door closed, Drugan barked out a laugh. “That was a good one.”

I nodded and finished my paperwork. Things moved quickly after that. I moved to a room where two nurses and a doctor all helped me get my clothes off so they could see my wounds. They took x-rays pictures of my shoulder and arm to make sure they were whole. Finally, the doctor told me I would get a local so he could stitch up the dagger punctures.

I had tried, several times, to use my healing power on my shoulder and the dagger wounds, but the pain wouldn’t let me concentrate. Drugan turned into a quiet shadow for the rest of the time. I had almost forgotten he was there to protect me while things were going on, but then a new nurse came in - a male nurse this time - and Drugan stopped him from getting close to me. “Who are you?”

The new nurse frowned up at him and said, “My name is Harley. I just started my shift.”

Drugan studied him for a moment and then moved out of his way.

I watched Drugan while he watched the new nurse. “Drugan, you know there are male nurses, right?”

He looked at me. Not once had he flirted with the other nurses as they came in to work, which made me wonder why he had targeted Harley. He stared at me for a second and then nodded, almost like he had lost his train of thought.

I wanted to ask if he was okay, but Harley chimed in. “Okay, the doctor wants me to give you a local for stitches.” He held up a syringe.

I rolled to my right side and pulled the patient gown from my left leg.

Harley looked at the wound. “Oh, wow! That looks as if it’s already healed up some.”

I sighed and said, “Yeah, I’ve been working on it.”

He rubbed my thigh with a wet tissue and then pricked me with the syringe. “What do you mean?”

“I can heal minor cuts and bruises, but this one is too deep.”

He made an odd face and glanced at Drugan. “Anyone can heal minor cuts and bruises. You don’t need special powers to do that.”

I shook my head. I didn’t need to explain this to him.

He threw away that syringe and pulled out a second one. He pricked me on the other side of the wounds and then threw away that syringe. “Okay,” he said. “Relax for a minute while that takes effect. The doctor will be back in just a few minutes.”