"Neptune's beard!" La'gaan slammed his fist into the wall, which only meant that he had sore knuckles to add to his various combat bumps and bruises. The broken ankle didn't hurt at all, but the very presence of the cast nagged constantly at his mind. The plaster was worse than an inhibitor collar – couldn't change size, couldn't get in water without preparation, couldn't run, couldn't fight. And in his condition, with watchful allies just happening to be around constantly to check in on him, the hospital was effectively a prison. He'd gone from being a prisoner of the Reach to being a prisoner of his own friends. Knowing that he was there for his own good didn't help – he might be safe, but M'Gann wasn't.
The sound of his fist on plaster had brought Conner, who rushed in, took one look at the Atlantean leaning heavily on the wall where he'd fallen after trying to move too fast with the cast, and easily picked him up to carry him back to the bed.
La'gaan didn't bother struggling. "I can walk by myself," was all he said.
"Apparently you can't." Conner put him on the bed. "The best thing you can do right now is rest, and heal."
"Rest? It's been three days! Shouldn't we have heard something by now?"
"They're undercover. Communication probably isn't safe."
"How can you be so relaxed about this?"
"I'm not." There was an edge to Conner's voice.
"Then do something!"
"Like what? Find Black Manta and charge into battle screaming? Whether you like Nightwing's plan or not, there's nothing we can do about it now." He sat on the edge of the bed and glared intensely at the wall.
"Aha! I knew you were mad at him."
"I'm not mad."
"Chum, if there's one thing I know about you, it's how to tell when you're mad."
Conner glared at him. "You seem to have calmed down about the whole thing."
"It's been three days. I don't do marathon anger. Just worry." He sighed. "Besides, I'm... more happy about what is than mad about being tricked about it. Kaldur being... and Artemis..." He stopped abruptly. Conner was the last person he wanted to talk to about this. But he was the only option. He didn't know who else knew the truth.
Conner seemed to have reached the same conclusion. "They were... are... good friends of mine, too. I mean, Aqualad taught me to be free. And I fought beside Artemis more times than I could count."
"I didn't get to know Artemis as well as I wanted to. But when Kaldur captured me, and by the time I got back Mount Justice was gone and she was dead, I thought... I mean, he captured me, went landside and then stabbed her, right?"
"It wasn't your fault. I mean, even if it had've been real, it wouldn't be your fault."
"Really? Because if I had've waited for backup, we might have stopped him."
"No chance. He had an army. If we could stop him, we still would have before he got to Artemis."
"Maybe. Point is, it's... hard to stay mad. I'm just worried."
"M'Gann can look after herself. She'll be fine."
"Then why are you clenching your hand so hard on the bedframe that you're bending it?"
Conner didn't answer. For several seconds, the boys sat in awkward silence. Finally, La'gaan blurted, "Look, whatever thing you guys have going on..."
"We don't have a thing!"
"Yeah, sure you don't. You just dumped her, left her an emotional mess, then started following her around and acting like a total shark when she moved on, and now you're having secret meetings. I've had enough people lie to me this week." La'gaan made to swing his legs over the side of the bed and stand up, but Conner grabbed his wrists and forced him back down.
"You can't save anyone on that ankle." His face was mere inches from La'gaan's, and his eyes blazed with the intensity he normally tried (and failed) to keep buried under a reasonable demeanor. His breath smelled of bacon. (Were the Team having bacon? Nobody had brought La'gaan any bacon.)
"I can't save anyone at all," La'gaan muttered.
"You're... doing fine," Conner said awkwardly. "You've saved lots of civilians. And your teammates, from drowning." He pulled back, as if suddenly aware of how close they were, but he seemed to have forgotten that he was gripping La'gaan's wrists. "It's just that right now..."
La'gaan pulled his arms back and used his good leg to force Conner back against the bed. "Yeah, I'm the one who – " but by then Conner had recovered from the surprise and used his superior strength to roll himself on top of La'gaan, straddling him and pinning his wrists with both hands. Stupid cast, keeping La'gaan in his weaker form. But Conner's nose was probably close enough to get a headbutt in, he thought.
The door opened, and both boys froze. Slowly, they looked up to see Nightwing standing in the doorway. La'gaan didn't get to see Nightwing completely floored all that often. He tried to memorise the expression.
Nightwing said, "Uhm."
"You have super-hearing!" La'gaan hissed at Conner accusingly.
"I was distracted!" Conner hissed back. Only then did he think to get off La'gaan, who started flattening the sheets as if that would fix everything.
"I swear," Conner said, "this isn't what it looks like."