A/N: Before we get on with this chapter, I would like to thank those of you who reviewed the last one. So…
Thanks to: BetwixtButterflies, NinjaSheik, CharmedDangerous,jessica499499, Metalbeast114, RandomDraggon, PancakeMixLordOfPantopia, rexa225, Sky the wolfdog3, Aurora,Kurozaki, oONatsuOo, milkchocolatehot64, and Boxer Thief. Oh, and in answer to your review Aurora (since I can't directly reply unless you have an account and since other people might be worrying about the same thing), no Six will not be the minor character death. Six is totally notminor and I love him way too much to kill him off. But his injuries are currently necessary because if he were well Noah wouldn't be needed. And Noah mustbe needed. Plus later on Six's injuries play a BIG part in the plot. Way later. Like, at the end almost. =]
Thanks again for all your reviews (most I've ever gotten for a single chapter XD). You guys gave me the drive to write this little jackrabbit. Now let's light it up! X3 …No wonder my friends think I'm nuts…
Thanks for Not Caring
Dr. Holiday's heels clacked loudly against the linoleum flooring as she sauntered back to her lab, not in any particular hurry but certainly not taking her sweet time either (not that she actually had sweet time to take…or any time to take, for that matter).
Balanced in her nimble arms was a silver serving tray, containing a hastily prepared meatloaf that had been all but drowned in Rex's favorite steak sauce. Bobo had, of course, been the one to bake this – due to the fact that Holiday couldn't bake, roast, boil or sauté anything to save her life – and it had taken him roughly an hour to do so. With the only part of the meal Holiday had been allowed to work on being retrieving a bottle of Mountain Dew, she'd had a fair amount of time to kill. She'd decided to use that time to catch up on a few things she'd gotten behind on. First on the list: check on Agent Six…for the umpteenth time.
As per usual, the agent wasn't awake when she'd entered the room and began checking his vitals. However, just after she'd slipped his sunglasses off to check his dilation speed (she was leaving the shades on the rest of the time for no other reason than because she knew Six would want it that way) his eyes had opened halfway. Holiday had greeted him softly, almost absentmindedly and not really expecting a response. She hadn't received one, either; just that same glassy stare he'd been giving her since he was first brought in five days ago.
She sighed now just thinking about it; five days with no change was never a good sign. Then again, nothing about his condition was a good sign. His left arm was crushed to a point where Holiday was almost forced to amputate it, his fever was raging around one hundred and three solid time, he had a long gash running the length his chest that had sheared several arteries, his knee was completely dislocated and then to top it all off he had a fracture in his skull just above the right eye. She just didn't understand how something like this could happen to someone like Six. He was always the strong one, the one who protected everybody else and held it together when things fell apart. He always seemed so invincible. She just couldn't figure it out.
She also literally didn't know how it happened.
Bobo's concussion – which he received as a little parting gift from his head injury – prevented him from remembering what had happened during the fight. As for Rex… Well, Rex didn't need to worry about this right now. That was why she'd sugar coated it for him earlier. Besides, she surmised that the majority of what caused Six's injuries occurred only after the teen was knocked unconscious, so he probably wouldn't know in any case. Either way, Holiday just didn't have the slightest inkling of an idea as to what had happened to the agent. She supposed it didn't matter anyway; the end result was the same and knowing how it came to be wouldn't help her heal him. Although, she was curious as to what was causing the fever. None of his injuries had gotten infected. At one point she mused that it could have something to with the skull fracture. Of course, rather than answering her questions that theory only raised more; these ones much more difficult to answer.
She'd run a scan to ensure that no debris had gotten into his system through the wound – if it had and went unnoticed it would be almost certain death for the agent – but the examination turned up nothing. Zero, nada, zilch, nil! She was at a complete loss for what to do. For a scientist with control issues – because honestly, control issues came with the job – this was incredibly difficult for her to handle, but she did just that. She handled it with quiet dignity and grace (save for her appearance, which she really didn't have time to worry about) because too many people were relying on her for her to have a breakdown.
Take Rex for instance. When she had reentered her lab – where Rex was being kept, rather than in some random med bay room – he didn't even notice that he was no longer alone. She would need to work with him on relying on his other senses till his sight came back. Sure Noah would be there making certain Rex didn't mistake poisonous spikes for candy, but he would still need to be aware of his surroundings. That would take a lot of time and effort, she was sure.
Sighing, Holiday sat the tray in front of Rex and watched as he attempted to eat the meatloaf… And that was when Holiday realized something else that would take a lot of effort: Teaching Rex how to not stab himself in the nose with a fork.
"Mom? You in here?"
Noah inched the living room door open and peered into the shaded room cautiously. He didn't have long to look around before the sharp smell of smoke hit him when he made the mistake of breathing in. He began to cough, covering his mouth with his pallid hand as his eyes began to water. Yeah; his mother was definitely home. Great.
"Hey, Mom," he started, once he had stopped coughing. He'd really been hoping she'd gone off on another gambling/drinking binge sometime in the night and he could just leave a note in case she came back before he did. "You know how I said Caleb Hudson invited me to go with him and his family on their vacation to Barcelona?"
A pair of glazed over cobalt eyes peeked around a worn vomit-yellow armchair to stare at him. The middle-aged woman to whom they belonged pulled her Marlboro from her lips and blew out a trail of looping gray smoke that carried with it a somewhat slurred, breathy word. "No."
"I told you about it last night," he lied, shifting his forest green backpack from his left shoulder to his right.
"I don't remember it." The cigarette met her chapped lips again.
Noah knew she didn't remember because it never happened, but she was so stoned the night before it wasn't like she would know it. "You said I could go," he told her, "And I'm about to leave. I'm meeting the Hudsons a few blocks away."
"Oh?" With the word came another wave of smoke. Noah felt his eyes water up again.
"Yeah. I just wanted to let you know I'm leaving and that I won't be back for about a month." It was a month, right? That was what Dr. Holiday said? Yeah, that sounded right.
"Fine."
And that was it. No questions, no goodbyes, no telling her one and only son to stay safe and no checking to see if Caleb Hudson was a real person…which he wasn't. But it wasn't like Noah could tell her that. He couldn't say that he was really going to stay with Rex at Providence; not if he ever wanted to have a life again. As far as his mom knew, he hated Evos and didn't even know anybody named Rex. Likewise, Rex thought Noah's mother was saleswomen who was always off on business trips… That being the reason he never saw her when he was over.
Noah sighed, shook his head, grabbed his suitcase off the floor and turned on his heel. He'd known his mother wouldn't care that he was leaving – she never cared what he did as long as it didn't affect her – but it still hurt a little; somewhere deep inside the part of his brain that he had no control over. Over the years he'd trained the parts he could not to care what she thought. His personal philosophy on it: if she wanted to care more about her damn alcohol and nicotine than she did him, he was allowed to care more about anything than her. But still…that little part still felt a sharp pang every time something like this happened.
"Bye," Noah mumbled under his breath bitterly as he walked out of the house. It wasn't meant for her to hear, it was just his way of saying… Well, he didn't really know. Thanks fornot caring, maybe?
He shifted his backpack again and started walking towards the nearby basketball court he and Rex frequented. That was where a Providence hover jet would be waiting to pick him up. Holiday had informed him to be there at ten sharp, not a minute later. The women was a stickler for punctuality… Though, given Rex's condition (what little of it he knew) she had every right to be. All he'd really been told was that Rex was blind and would be for about a month due an Evo battle gone wrong and that Six was 'incapacitated' and that she had too much to do to be with Rex solid time and that was where he came in. It was funny; he was working for Providence again, but this time Rex knew about it. Okay, so it wasn't ha-ha funny. More like sad funny.
He smiled and let out a quiet laugh. That made three types of funny he'd come to know. Ha-ha funny, sad funny and Rex funny. Yes, Rex had his own 'special' type of comedy that was so bad it was just plain hilarious.
Noah hummed thoughtfully. Rex had a tendency to make jokes about the things he saw, which led to Noah to wonder if he would still crack jokes during the next month. Maybe he would make jokes about the things he heard? That wouldn't be as fun, though.
As he rounded a street corner, Noah saw the basketball court coming into view. As planned, a black and white aerial vehicle that looked like it belonged on the SyFy channel was resting on the ground waiting for him. Outside of it stood a man with golden-blond hair and a curious scar across his eye that Noah had come to know as Captain Callan. He was over all of the agents but Six and Holiday. (Well, really, Noah had a suspicion Callan was actually Holiday's superior…but was just too damn scared of her to enforce any power he might have.) Noah smiled slightly, cowardly of women who could easily make his life living hell or not, Callan was one of the nicer agents Providence had to offer.
"Morning, Captain," Noah greeted as he approached the man.
"Mornin'," Callan returned, motioning for the teenager to get onto the craft.
Noah complied, stepping on board and looking around without really moving. Callan walked around him and stuck his head through a door to the left, informing someone that Noah had arrived and to close the doors and "get this hunk a junk in the air".
"Alright kid," the captain said, turning around to see Noah had already placed his bags in a storage rack. "Grab ya a seat and strap yourself in."
Noah moved for the bench on the far wall and brought the restraints down over his head. Callan sat down next to him and did the same just as the shuttle's engines roared to life. "Hey," Noah started, drawing his attention. "How much about Rex and Six's conditions do you know?"
Callan rolled his eyes to look at the ceiling as he thought. "Not a whole lot. Six's pretty banged up and comatose. Rex just can't see," he answered.
"Comatose," Noah repeated. "Is he gonna be okay?"
Callan didn't answer as quickly this time. "…I don't know. Holiday– She's doin' all she can and she's optimistic that he'll heal up just fine… It's the coma that's got her worried; it and the fever. She can't find a cause for it."
"Oh…"
A heavy silence filled the craft. This was not alright with Callan.
"Course, she's hopin' to be able to do more to figure it all out once you get there," he chirped. "Watchin' over Rex's been chewin' up a lot of her time."
"Well," Noah smiled, "I'm glad I can help."
Ending A/N:I hope you don't think the story line is moving too slowly, it's kind of necessary that things don't progress tooquickly. :) Like last time, the more reviews I get the faster I (try to) update. I'd like to reach at least twenty-five before chapter three. *hint hint*
-Tali