Alright guys, finally an update. I am going to just say now, a part of this update had been written since before I wrote the first chapter. It was one of the three scenes I wrote for a certain character, just like the other main love interest. So I am going to say I hope you all like it. Thank you for all the views and love I get for this fic, I really do appreciate it.
John had been waiting for a chance to visit Leah when Victor came out of the medical and told him to wait for them at the compartment, that Leah wouldn't be taking any visitors today. John had heard from a couple of the other boys about what had happened in Hydro hours earlier, the fact that Victor was calm settled John's nerves a bit but there was no way he wanted to go home and not see her. "Vic, I just want to see that..."
"Go home John." Victor said sternly in a voice that told him not to argue and just to follow orders. John stood up and walked off to Hydro with his hands shoved so deep in his picket he felt the bottoms would rip out at any moment. He walked by some of her classmates and by Monty Green, he had been there but now he was sitting waiting outside of medical just like the few others that showed. Victor hadn't demanded they leave but Victor also wasn't their responsible guardian.
It was hours before they got home, Ana was still crying when Victor came in and sat down in the chair he usually found himself in. He instantly leaned over onto his knees and ran his hand through his graying hair. Ana sat on the arm of the chair and placed a hand on his shoulder. John waited for Victor to initiate the conversation. "She is going to be okay. Just some minor scarring, it was an accident when they were starting the scrubber cleaning, its happened on occasion." Victor explained the situation simply, as though not to worry John as much.
"She will be dropping out of engineering as soon as she is better. We've already spoken to Sinclair, though I really cant understand why she was in that situation without him to start with. This should have never happened." From the tone of her voice Ana was still clearly upset with how things were handled, blaming everyone she could for her daughters injury.
"If you would have let her quit back when she first had doubts it would have never happened." John muttered as he stood to leave the room, however Ana stood in his way.
"What was that?" Her voice was stern and cold, "if you have something to say..."
"Yeah I do, she didn't want to be an engineer from the start, she never has but you wouldn't know that would you?" John said stopping as she wished him too. "She has been working and staying up all night trying to impress you and now you are going to make her quit just because of an acci..." John's words were cut off by the sound of Ana's hand meeting John's face. Victor stood up barking his wife's name which brought her back to her sense. She quickly excuse herself and disappeared to the bedroom, Victor following right behind her while John stood there in complete shock. The fact that Ana had finally snapped on him wasn't a complete surprise, hell he kind of deserved it but the fact it took so long for them to come to blows shocked him.
"Green, what the hell kind of answer is that?' Wick said looking over Monty's shoulder as he wrote out the equation that he had thought he had solved properly. "You some how dropped ten right here... I mean did you really think you would need that little oxygen for that big of an air lock?" Wick tossed himself in his chair and ran his hand through his sandy hair. Monty couldn't focus on a basic equation, Leah was getting released today and from what Sinclair had told both Wick and himself, she would not be coming back to classes. "Can you please focus on today's class, if not can you pretend too so I can pretend that I want to be here."
"Isn't that what you already do?" Monty's quip clearly didn't strike a chord with Wick as the older boy glared daggers at the younger.
"Alright, sit." Wick ordered more than asked, Monty took a seat on a stool that Wick kept by his work bench. "I know you still feel guilty, but it isn't your fault. Accidents happen, more often than we like to admit at times, but they happen. You just have to move on, I mean yeah it's going to suck being stuck with just Sinclair and me, but she's a smart girl, if she wants back in, Sinclair is bound to let her come back." He looked at the younger boy with a genuine smile, one of the few times Monty could remember him doing so actually. "How about I let you out for the day and you go try to convince her that she should not drop out. It'd be a shame to let such a brilliant mind get stuck in somewhere boring like medical or something." Wick said standing you and walking over to the board Monty's botched equation was on. Wick wiped it off with a cloth and Monty sat there unsure if Wick was being serious. "I wont tell you to leave again." Wick stated without turning around. Monty didn't wait for another reminder to leave, he grabbed his bag and headed out of Wick's office which he assumed doubled as Wick's residence by the fact that there was a well used cot in the corner of his office.
Wick took a deep breath as he heard the door close, Victor had told him that he appreciated what he did for his daughter, that she would be a lot worse off if he hadn't gotten her to the decontamination shower, but Wick still felt responsible. He hadn't double checked his students work, he just trusted that it would be done correctly. He asked Sinclair to be removed as their mentor, but was told no. Sinclair insisted that Wick was the best suited for the job, and if he had to replace Wick he would have to pull someone else off of another project, he trusted Wick's ability to multitask. Teaching and working out solutions to the life support problem. Sinclair kept saying it was just in case of emergency, that nothing was wrong with life support but that was because Wick didn't technically have clearance to know that there was something actually wrong with life support, however the fact that that Griffin was acting off and seemed stressed constantly told Wick something real was going on.
Wick walked back to his desk and pulled out a stack of papers. He secretly wished he had someone to go over this with, but he knew Monty would jump to the same conclusions the Wick had, he would figure it out, which would cause unnecessary worry. He had hoped to one day give it to Leah as an circumstantial assignment, she was clever but he didn't believe she would think much of it, but from the meeting Wick had had with Sinclair and her parents, her mother had no intention of allowing her daughter to continue her education in Engineering or allow her anywhere near Wick again.
"So Wick let you out of class to go see Pentecost, but you are sitting on my bed getting baked instead." Harper said staring at Monty. Monty and Jasper had been passing their herb back in forth for a bit now, without her partaking but she didn't need to be a buzzkill. "Do you really see nothing wrong with this?"
"Maybe I'd rather spend my spare time with my friends." Monty responded back, thinking himself slightly clever.
"Or maybe you're afraid to go see her?" Harper asked as she walked over and pulled the blunt from Monty's hand as he went to pass it on to Jasper.
"The rules are puff puff pass, buzzkill." Jasper said in an annoyed tone.
Harper took it away completely dropping it in a half empty glass of water that was sitting on the table next to her bed. "Both of you get out," Monty couldn't understand why she was being this way but it was Jasper who spoke for him.
"Seriously? Come on Harper, ever think he feels guilty about that whole 'shit I am probably the reason you got covered in acid and have been in medical all week', I mean shit I would." Jasper said and Monty found himself staring at the wasted joint in the water. "Just sayin." Jasper said when he realized what he said was exactly what Monty probably was feeling.
The only people he had admitted he hadn't checked the hose too was Jasper and Harper, he had told them in confidence hoping they would try to set his mind at ease. It had done the opposite, Jasper had flipped his shit, demanding they go check on her in medical and Harper insisted Monty should tell her, he didn't do either. Jasper and Harper had both been to visit her, so had Wick and Sinclair, but Monty couldn't bring himself to go.
"Just go talk to her Monty, I mean what's the worst that could happen?" Harper asked, she seemed to genuinely care that Monty was fighting with himself over the whole situation concerning Leah. The fact that he kissed her, she had seemed to be unconcerned by it, then the accident, Harper listened to him talk about all of it.
Monty heard a loud ding from his bag, he had left his tablet on after class, he didn't have any intention of checking it, however Harper seemed to always feel the urge to check any email that arrived for any of them. She walked over and pulled it out of his bag, a smile danced across her lips. "You've got to be kidding me." She said almost laughing. "Leah would like your notes from the last week, she wanted to read over them since she is stuck in bed on orders from Doctor Griffin." Harper said reading the words from the screen before pausing to laugh lightly. "Also she wants to know if you want to come play chess with her because and I quote this "because after being stuck in medical she never wants to see Jackson or a chess set again."" Harper was laughing as she handed him the tablet to let him respond himself. "I expect you to tell her you'll be there within the hour," she said as she grabbed Jasper's hand. "Come on, I'm going to go make something to eat, lets leave Mr. Green here to answer his messages in private." She said pulling at Jasper who just went along with her, knowing better than to try to stay.
Monty looked at the screen himself, the words blurring slightly. He wanted to respond with what Harper told him too, but instead he wrote simply. I thought you were leaving engineering.
He waited a moment and as soon as she received it she must have responded.
Did you think you were going to get rid of me that easy?
Leah took another deep breath as she sat on the counter top in the bathroom of their compartment, the ointment that Doctor Griffin had give her to put on the burns at home stung with each application but it really did seem to have them healing nicely, hopefully the scarring would be minimal. She was sitting on the counter in her boy short underwear and tank top, wrapping the bandage around her upper thigh when the door to the bathroom opened. John walked completely in before he even realized she was in there. "Shit, sorry." He mumbled quickly as he saw her sitting there.
"No, it's fine, I am almost done, can you hand me the medical tape, I knocked it off the counter a couple minutes ago." She said, the tinge of pink rushing to her cheeks. John had seen her in less, on a couple of occasions but never in such a close space. She hadn't seen him since she was dismissed from medical that morning, he had been in his room closed off to the world while she tried to navigate the compartment on her own, she was limping only slightly when the pain medications would wear off. He had also never visited her while she was in medical, every day for a week she expected to see him however every day it would be friends and even acquaintances but never John.
He lowered his eyes, his hair hanging over his face, he reached to pick up the tape and handed it to her, even with the door open there was not a lot of room for two people in the bathrooms in family compartments. "I didn't know you were suppose to get released today." He said simply, avoiding eye contact as she took the tape.
"Well you never came to visit so I couldn't really tell you, now could I?" She said bitterly, she hadn't intended too but the words came out so easily she had to have meant them.
"Yeah, sorry." He said, his hands shoved in his pockets as he leaned against the wall. He was avoiding looking at her, probably to make her feel more comfortable with the fact she wasn't wearing actual pants. She pulled and tore a piece using it to hold down the bandage that went over her right thigh. "Are you okay?" He asked quietly.
Leah took a moment as she laid the tape on the end of the bandage to calm herself. "Yeah, it looks a lot worse than it actually is. It hardly even hurts with some of the stuff Doctor Griffin gives me when I tell her I am in pain." She said smiling at John, she wasn't going to deny she was mad at him for never visiting her but she also wasn't going to make it a big deal unless he did. She didn't have time for that kind of useless drama in her life.
She went to push herself off the edge of the counter gently but stumbled as she did, putting to much weight on her injured leg and felt it give, if it hadn't been for John jumping to catch her she would have landed on the ground in a painful heap. John's arms' were around her, her face pretty much in his chest. "You sure you're okay? I can take you back to medical." John said quickly, for the first time since he had walked in Leah saw his face, and the bruise around his eye, on his upper cheek bone. It looked like he had lost a fight. She had been so consumed with telling herself she shouldn't be mad at him she hadn't even really looked at him.
She pushed herself away, making the gap between them a bit larger as she leaned back against the counter, her hand intellectually coming up to his face and coming within millimeters of the bruises on his face. "What happened?"
"It doesn't matter." John answered avoiding the question. "Are you sure.."
"Damn it John, is that why you didn't visit me?" Leah said letting some of that built up aggravation slip out. John bit his lip, she could tell he was thinking about something. "I was in there for almost a week," Leah said letting her voice level back out to a calm tone. John put one of his hands on her waist, the touch of his hand on her skin set off electric little tingles in her side. "John?" Leah's voice was almost a whisper as John inched closer to her.
"I told you I don't want to talk about it." John said sternly, before inching his face close enough to hers that she felt the warm heat of his breath on his skin. He ran his hand up her side a little bit as if he was waiting for permission to get even closer. It was Leah who closed the gap between their lips. She pressed her lips against his gently, it had been something that she had thought about in the past, but never more than a fleeting thought. She kept it simple, pressing her lips to his, kissing him gently, nervously. John put his other hand on her cheek pulling her face back to his with a bit more persistence as his lips danced against hers. He pushed her against the counter, his body pressed against Leah's in every way. She wanted to say that she wasn't enjoying it but every part of her body felt like electricity was running through ever muscle. Leah's hand ran into his mess of brown hair, as John's hand went away from her face and side and down further, he picked her up and set her on the counter, allowing him to slide between her legs to be even closer. His hand snaked around her back and pulled her closer to him with his hand on the small of her back. She felt herself smiling into the kiss just before he pulled away, leaving both of them panting, he put his forehead against hers, without any words between them.
Leah placed her hand gently on his cheek and placed her lips gently against his jawline, John found himself little out a small groan as she kissed his skin, he quickly recaptured her lips with a sense of such urgency that she was sure he'd pull her off the counter towards him. Leah had to admit she didn't want this to stop, she wanted to enjoy every second of this moment, but as soon as it had began she felt John pull away and take a couple steps back into the wall of the bathroom. "Shit..." The curse escaped the lips that Leah still craved were on hers.
"Not the word I would have picked." Leah didn't mean to sound bitter, but she was.
John took a deep breath and crossed his arms back over his chest like when he first walked into the bathroom. "You're mom is going to be home soon, you better be back in bed by the time she gets here." John said in the most nonchalant tone Leah thought she had ever heard before he left the room. Leaving her exactly where he had found her, however now she was confused and wishing she had never let her fleeting thoughts become reality.