Chapter 14

My story is inspired by the movie Bright. I don't own Bright or any original movie characters

[[thank you all so much for the reviews, favs, and follows! I've noticed that the site doesn't count 'Bright' as a category yet, but I'm working on that! Enjoy!]]

Before walking into the hospital, Ward and I planned not to storm into the hospital, or give any hint at urgency. It would tip off the Feds that we knew something. We walked calmly back into the waiting room and grabbed a cup of coffee each from the vending machine. Kandomere and his pet were at the nurse's station questioning them, occasionally eyeing us.

I told Ward to relax, that I'd get back to her room and give her the damn fairy flower dust, as ridiculous as it is.

I go over the plan, whispering, "I go and give Aella the flower while you wait here and keep an eye on Kandomere and the nurses, I'll come back for confirmation, and then you can head home. I'm gonna stay with Aella a bit."

He nods in agreement and grabs another coffee before sitting down.

Just as I was about to head to her room, my phone rings. Ward and I both stop and look at my phone. The bright screen said Dorghu. I answer his call, "Officer Jakoby speaking…."

His deep voice coming through the phone: "Listen to you, sounding all official. HA!"

"Was there any update?" I ask, ignoring his ignorance.

"Sure was. Draka came in with her fairy and I asked her what happened. She claims her fairy never attacked her. Said he just sat on her shoulder all night, but I'm not convinced yet. Something's been up with that girl lately." Dorghu explains.

"Alright. Well I found Tikka, and she gave me something that may help." I tell him, aiming to keep the conversation positive.

"Ohh no. Nick, I thought I told you that fairy blood is tox-" he says, his voice lower.

"I'm not gonna take ghetto fairy tales to heart, I'm gonna figure this shit out. Keep your orc girl and that fairy nearby."

He agrees and we end the call.

Ward is looking at me in silence with big eyes.

"Nick, I don't know what got into you all of a sudden but I like it. Never thought you'd stand up for yourself when it came to Dorghu."

I shake my head, "No. It isn't about domination. It's respect. And today, my tank of give a fuck is running on empty. I have a girl to save." and I left the waiting room.

I remember how to get to her room and when I get to the door I walk right in, and this time I'm the only one in here with her. I close the door and shut the small curtain that covers the window.

I pull the baggie from my pocket and open it. The smell of this flower is stronger now that I'm not in the Elven Forrest anymore. I set the baggie down before removing the oxygen mask from her face gently. I dip my finger into the petal dust, open her jaw, and slide it under her tongue.

I put everything away and wash my hands at the small sink in the room. As I'm drying my hands, the elf nurse from earlier comes in to check on her. I continue toss the drying towel in the trash and join her at Aella's bed.

"Any changes?"I ask her as she's checking her vitals and fluid levels.

She says softly: "No changes yet. Which is good, it's better than her getting worse."

I agree with her and tell her, "She was awake earlier, shortly after you left"

The nurse looks up at me, "what?…she was awake?"

I nodded, "Yea…she asked me where she was, she squeezed my hand."

Her eyes looked very worried as she looked down at Aella, then back up at me, "Mr. Jakoby, she's in a coma, are you sure she was awake?"

No that can't be right. I saw her eyes open.

I nod, "Yes. Her eyes were open, following me. She squeezed my hand." I hold up her hand to show her and I feel Aella's hand is very hot. I bring her hand to my face inhaling, expecting to smell something different. But it still smelled like her, with that terrifying undertone. The nurse notices me, and holds her other hand, dropping it when she feels the heat.

"Be careful" I growl at her. She retreats, eyes wide staring at me.

I sigh, regretting that. "I'm sorry. I didn't meant of frighten you. I'm just…I'm worried about her."

She nods, still cautious. She checks her temperature and her little tester says 112°. Her eyes go wide, but she's lost for words. She looks up at me blinking.

"What's wrong?"

She's looking back down at her tester, "She's got a very high fever. But…she's stable. Her body isn't reacting negatively to the heat. Human's body temperatures are supposed to be around 97-99°. Anything over 100 is very ill. But she seems to be doing fine, its baffling."

I stay silent, not wanting to slip up and say anything about Tikka's flower medicine.

She takes the chart with her, moving towards the door. "You gonna stay with her tonight?"

"Yes, if that's alright." I tell her. She hesitates, but then says "I'll have a reclining chair brought in for you. Have a good night, honey." she smiles as she exits.

I'm surprised into silence, I was prepared to just stay awake and watch over her through the night, but the little elf nurse is bringing me something to sleep on.

I go back out to the waiting room and see Ward talking to Kandomere. They silence as I get near them, but notice there isn't a nervous smell coming from Ward so I'm not worried.

"So, she seems to be doing better?" Kandomere asks, but his tone exposes that he knows everything I know.

"Yea, she's stable, but the nurse said she's far from 100%. I'm gonna stay with her tonight to keep an eye on her. If something happened to her while I was asleep at home, I couldn't live with myself."

Kandomere nods, his arms crossed against his chest. "Good idea. I want someone close in case anything happens." He bids us goodnight, and promises to be back tomorrow.

When the door shuts behind Kandomere, Ward quickly asks: "you get it?"

I nod at him and pat his back. "Yea I got it. You go home and be with your family, you've been running with us all day."

"Okay. I'll see you for shift tomorrow afternoon? Or you gonna call in?" he asks, walking out.

"I'll let you know", he throws a thumbs up as he leaves.

I make my way back into Aella's room, and against the wall there's a chair that's been unfolded into a bed. On top is a folded hospital blanket and a pillow.

I take off the hoodie I've been wearing. I can smell my own stench from the day and I hate it. I hope Aella doesn't smell it. I remove my shoes and push them under my foldabed. I scoot it closer to her bed and sit on it while I hold her hand, feeling that her body is still hotter than normal.

The Next Morning

I hear the door click open and I'm instantly awake, my hand on my gun.

I see the same elf nurse stop in her tracks. When I realize its just her, I take my hand off my gun and wave her in. She silently walks in and looks over Aella, checking things. I sit up and rub my face, sighing. I look over at Aella, who is still in the same position asleep.

"Get any rest?" the nurse softly asks.

"Doesn't feel like it."

After she leaves the room, I go to the sink and wash my face. I hear a soft "sssst" comes from Aella and I look over at her. Her eyes are open and shes got a weak smile on her face, looking at me.

I move over to her and take the oxygen mask off her face. I kiss her lips gently and look over her.

"heyyyy, how are you feeling?"

"Better" she whispers. "I feel like I'm catching up on sleep, like my body is regenerating." she says slower than normal. While she's talking, I push the nurse's button without her noticing.

I take her hand and she squeezes it, smiling again.

A few minutes later, the nurse elf peeks in and when she sees Aella awake, she rushes in and starts checking up on her. She's being calm but urgent. She maneuvers the bed so Aella is sitting up. She asks her questions and Aella answers them as best she can.

"Okay I'm going to check your eyes, okay?" She pulls out the little pen-light and shines it in her eyes.

I get up and come over to see if it happens again. The light illuminates her eyes again, greens and pinks. The nurse and I exchange a look and Aella says

"what's wrong? Why do you feel like that?" Aella whispers to me.

"feel like what, love?" I ask her, cupping her face.

"You're worried. You're worried something is wrong with me…" her eyes boring into mine.

I feel dizzy and I blink hard a few times, looking at the floor. I look back at Aella and her eyes are on my chest, filling with tears.

"Is something wrong with me?" She whispers again, starting to cry.

I look at the nurse for answers, while I put my cheek against hers.

"shhhh, nothing is wrong with you. You're improving every day." I tell her.

She looks at the nurse, who nods. "When you first came in, you were in really bad shape. You've improved a lot, and we're essentially holding you here to keep an eye on you" she says to Aella, to make her feel better.

"What's wrong with me? What's making me sick?" Aella asks, weakly.

I look at the nurse to see if she's going to tell her, or hide behind the "we're doing tests" excuse.

She sighs and says "Your body somehow came in contact with infected fairy blood. We're waiting on results to come back and tell us what infection it is that has caused your body to react so negatively."

I look down at her, holding her face and whisper; "baby do you remember anything about a fairy last night when we were at Dorghu's club?"

Suddenly her eyes widened but seemed to be focused on something else instead of what was in front of her, as if she was replaying a memory. "yes…" she whispered as her eyes stayed zoned out.

I'm speechless and surprised. I wasn't expecting her to remember much at all, never mind seeing a fairy. Dorghu said nothing happened to her while she was there. Either he's lying or his staff is lying.

I hold my anger in because I'm with Aella. I ask her "where was this, what happened?"

She whispers, "walking down the stairs, the orc in gold with the fairy. He touched my finger and it burned me…" She seems to snap out of her trance and looks at my eyes.

The elf nurse picks up her hands, looking at all her fingers. She sees her right index finger has a small circular black smudge, with a small abrasion and dried blood.

"oh dear…." she says in her soft voice.

She shows me her finger and it all falls into place, at least up until figuring out what's going on with her body. I nod and put a very gentle kiss on her lips.

"I've got some stuff to go take care of. I'll be back in a little bit, you get some rest, okay?"

She nods, no longer crying but her eyes still wet with tears. The nurse brings over a few things and swabs her finger before cleaning it and adding a bandage. I give her a look and she nods, meeting me in the hallway, out of Aella's earshot.

"Are you going to bring this new information to Kandomere?" I ask her, in a low voice.

She nods telling me, "Yes. But, I see what she means to you, and I know you're a good cop. I have several other rooms on my run before heading back to the nurse's station. I'd say you've got an hour and half head start." she says smiling.

I thank her and walk towards the exit, calling Ward as I get to my truck.

I wait for Ward in the hidden spot we use to park when we head to Dorghu's. When he pulls up in the squad next to me, we walk towards the club together. He's completely caught up on what's going on, and not as well as I am at hiding his anger. His face is low and he smells of adrenaline. "Ward we're only in here to talk to him, not make the situation worse. Kandomere has eyes and ears everywhere, if something happens you know he'll be the next one through those doors before we can figure anything out." I explain to him, hoping he doesn't get trigger happy while we're in here. It didn't work out so well for us the last time.

"Jakoby, you do your job, let me do mine" he retorts.

I stop walking, we're in one of the hallways before the entrance to the club. "Ward…."

He turns to look at me sighing, "aight look. I'll try to keep my mouth shut while you ask all the questions. But I swear to god if I find out he was behind this, I won't be able to stay quiet." he says, in a low, serious tone.

I clap my hand onto his shoulder, "Look I know you're upset, and I really do appreciate you sticking by me on this…but we need to do this smart. Nobody wants to find out what happened more than I do. So let's do this right. For Aella."

He nods and we knock on the door to enter.

After being escorted to Dorghu's suite, he sends everyone away and lights a cigar.

"How's Aella doing?"

I stay silent, just looking at him.

"I guess that means she isn't doing well. I've only seen one other human come in contact with fairy blood, and they didn't last very long before they died. I guess that's why your partner here smells like he's ready to go to war."

I hadn't considered Dorghu being able to smell Ward, I was too wrapped up into Aella.

"Ward is a bit worked up about the current situation." I tell him.

He takes the cigar out of his mouth, "Which is?"

"Aella woke up today. From her coma. Told us that your escort girl was taking her downstairs when her fairy touched her." Dorghu's face straightened as he listened. "…Said that when it touched her, it burned. She's got a gash and a black burn on the tip of her finger." I demonstrated, showing him my index finger.

He reaches over to the phone on his desk and pushes one button, says a few words in orcish, and then says out loud, "Draka is on her way up." and he continues to smoke from his cigar in silence.

I look over at Ward who is doing surprisingly well, probably because Dorghu doesn't seem to be hiding anything. I never expected him to be behind anything, so whatever happens today will be a complete surprise.

After a few minutes, one of the bigger orcs he usually keeps at his side comes through the door pulling along a female orc by her arm, her hands tied.

He pulls over a chair from a corner and sits it right next to Dorghu. He grabs her and forces her to sit in it. She doesn't look at anyone, her eyes on the floor.

Dorghu turns to her, and let's out a large cloud of smoke over her head.

"Remember when I asked you about your fairy and the girl from the other night?"

She nods, still looking at the ground.

"What was your answer?" He says, sitting back into his chair.

She says in a low voice, "I said that my fairy never touched her."

"riiiight," he says, exhaling smoke. "So why is it that I've got at least three people over here telling me it did. One of them being Aella herself."

Her eyes are shifting around nervously. She whispers in orcish, hesitating "I …I don't know. Maybe he did tou-"

And before she could finish her sentence, Dorghu stood and picked her up by her neck in one motion, growling in anger as he held her up. "ARE YOU FUCKING LYING TO ME?!" he yelled in her face.

He brought her face to his, her hands pulling at his to loosen his grip. He whispered to her, "did your fairy….touch…Aella?"

Her face tense and red from not breathing. She closes her eyes tight and forces out a stifled "yes."