Hello ladies and gentlemen. I'm back with chapter 25 and this is probably one of my favorite chapters even though it is the shortest of the story. I wanted to break up some of the events, but this means you can expect chapter 26 sooner than normal. Also, I changed the ending of chapter 24 so go back and read that before reading this. It's only a minor change, but you'll be confused if you don't read it. Without further ado, enjoy!
Chapter 25
Over the city Artemese flew towards the palace. Other fliers were flying back towards the wall to gather the other wounded. Gregor felt Artemese slowing and then stop as he touched down in the High Hall. There was movement all around him, voices shouting things that he didn't comprehend. He felt himself lifted off of his bat companion and onto a stretcher. His eyes though were looking for her. And then she was there at his side. Her hand reached for his and his for hers. Their fingers brushed for just a moment and then his arm fell away, the strength to keep it up leaving him.
She was brushed aside and the doctors carried him through the palace halls. He could see civilians looking at him as he sped by, hearing the occasional gasp from them as they saw him and his injuries. The halls thinned of people until there wasn't anyone there anymore. The sounds of the wounded flooded his ears. The moans and the screams was horrendous and he tried to shut them out. Into a room they went and they laid him down on a table. Quickly a doctor came to him holding a small jar to his mouth.
"No. I don' wan it," Gregor slurred out, his body losing its strength to something as simple as talk. The doctor didn't listen and they forced him to swallow the liquid. Within a minute he was out cold and the doctors were already going to work.
His eyes opened, blurred in the bright light. A face swam across his vision and he blinked several times to clear his eyes. He sat up, looked around, and smiled. His mom was sitting in a chair across from his bed smiling at him. Lizzie was sitting on the edge of his bed, his dad pacing nearby. And boots was crawling all over him. Everything felt happy and everyone looked happy to see him.
"Hi Gre-go," Boots said standing on his stomach. Her little hand waved at him and he couldn't help but laugh. Boots was always so loveable.
"Hi, Boots," Gregor replied, lifting his little sister off his stomach before she could start jumping on him. He didn't need to be throwing up in front of everyone. He took that chance to look around the room. A modern hospital room, with TV and everything. The strange thing though was there was no doctors or anything rushing in when he woke up. There wasn't any medication around him. There really was nothing. And everything was white.
"Where am I?" Gregor asked aloud. No reply came. His mother stayed sitting staring at him. Lizzie hardly moved at all. His father kept pacing. And even Boots was sitting still now. "Hello? Anyone home?" Nothing.
He swung his legs out of bed and stood up. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but he had on the same underland pants he always wore in the hospital. White pants. "What is going on?" Gregor thought. And then he remembered the battle. His hand flew to his side where he knew a stinger had gotten him with it's pincer. Nothing. He felt down his back where he had been scraped. Nothing again. Nothing made sense.
"What is happening to me!?" yelled Gregor to nothing in particular. He looked at everyone in the room and it was all different. His mother was standing, his father standing beside her. Lizzie was standing, but she was taller and older. He looked for boots, but she was gone. Again he looked to his parents and he saw that they were older now too. And they were dressed the same as they were the day they died.
"Mom, where I am I?" Gregor asked his mother.
"Honey, you aren't anywhere but inside yourself," she answered him.
"What does that mean?"
"It means it's time to wake up." Gregor was confused. He was awake. He had just opened his eyes. And he's inside himself. What in the world did that mean?
"Mom, I am awake," protested Gregor. His mother just shook her head at him and smiled.
"No, Gregor. You must wake up. We are just part of you to keep you company. It's time to wake up." And then the room faded to black. He looked around at the nothingness that surrounded him. And he felt heavy. His eyelids started to close. And then he was gone.
Light filled his eyes, bright and yellow, flickering all around him. He was laying on his stomach in one of the hospital room. Remembering his strange dream he looked over to the side of the room and was relieved to not see anyone. He let out an audible sigh. And then a head popped up right in front of him.
"Holy sh-," Gregor started jumping back. The wound on his back barked and he winced, but his heart was racing. Two laughs suddenly filled the room from the entrance and a small head was looking right at him. "You guys know I can't see you right," Gregor said making sure to lay the annoyance in his voice. Two bodies joined the little one in front of him. He looked up at Luxa and his sister.
"We didn't know you were awake yet, bro," Margaret said still trying to hold back her laughs.
"Yes. We did not Know you had woken yet, but Thomas wanted to know where you were so I had to bring him," Luxa added, she too still laughing.
"Well I'm happy to see him at least," retorted Gregor sarcastically as he reached out and put his hand on the little boys head. "How long have I been out?"
"It has been three days," Luxa said pulling a seat up next to his bed. "They kept you this way so your back would be able to heal. They did not want you up and using it because of the size of the injury and the many stitches. You are going to be in here a few more days at the least." Gregor took her hand and held it. A few days in a small room by himself. That would be wonderful.
"Can I at least sit up?" Gregor asked her. Luxa seemed to not have an answer and neither did his sister. But the person who had just entered the room did.
"Gregor, it is good to see you have awoken," Susannah said from behind him. Luxa dropped his hand as soon as she heard the voice. He turned his head as far as he could to try to see her, but all he could get was half of her. She moved closer into his range of vision to reveal Howard right behind her.
"To answer your question Gregor, I am sorry to say that sitting may pop your stitches. But you should be comfortable enough laying down," Howard said a somewhat guilty look on his face. Gregor had a strange feeling he knew why.
"It was your idea to keep me under, wasn't it Howard?" he asked the older doctor. He glanced between the other three in the room.
"Actually, it was all of ours," he answered. Gregor was shocked and shot a look at Luxa who was looking off somewhere else. They would talk about that once Susannah and Howard left. But he knew it was for the best.
"Thanks guys. You all know me so well." And then everyone was laughing. Even laying there Gregor could make his friends laugh. He knew them as well as he knew himself.
"You are not in pain, Gregor?" Susannah asked fighting off the last vestiges of laughter. He shook his head. Nothing hurt unless he moved to sharply. Otherwise he just felt sore. Susannah pulled a small bottle from her pocket and left it on the table near his bed. "Just in case you feel you need it. Luxa will know how much you need. And I will make sure your sister does as well. We will leave you now." She turned and walked out followed by her son. Howard gave Gregor and Luxa one last look and then departed from the room.
"So you decided I needed to stay under?" Gregor asked taking Luxa's hand in his again. She sat still for a second looking him in the eyes before nodding.
"I knew you would try to leave as soon as you could. But you didn't see the wound on your back. It was hard for them to close properly. So I decided with them that it was best for you." Gregor looked at her and smiled. He wondered how bad this scar would be. It would be one of the first on his back. He was filling in empty space. Luxa seemed to be able to read his mind.
"I am sure the scar will make you look just as manly as all the other ones." Then she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. A small hand reached up onto his bed and then a head followed.
"Me, too," Thomas said giggling. Both Luxa and Gregor planted kisses on his cheeks, Thomas laughing the entire time. He giggle and toddled off towards Margaret. She scooped him up and kissed him on the top of the head. It was almost like she was him so many years ago when she was just a baby and he was the one taking care of her. He saw Luxa staring at him and saw her face lose some color from the limited color it had.
"Excuse me, Gregor," she said as she stood and left the room. His eyes looked to Margaret, but she only shrugged. Apparently she had no idea what was going on either. Luxa was gone for only a few minutes and when she returned the color her face had lost seemed to have returned. She sat down and smiled.
"I had to talk to Howard about your medication," she said acknowledging Gregor's look of concern. She pulled the chair closer to his bedside and rested her head next to his, their noses only a few inches apart. He heard Margaret make retching sounds behind them, but he didn't care really. She was all of ten and would probably be doing the same thing when she was his age. Then he could do the same thing to her.
"Oh, Gregor. I have forgotten to tell you something," Luxa said her head coming off his bed. "Perdita wants to honor you for your valor in the battle and for saving hers and Eisen's lives. She asked me to tell you as soon as you awoke."
"Honor? I don't deserve any honor. I was just doing what I was there to do," Gregor said trying to act humble. Inside he was actually really excited. In school getting some kind of honor usually got you a trophy or medal or something. He was certain he wouldn't be getting a trophy, but medals were always nice. Being honored for something you did was something to be proud of.
"Gregor, you did much more than any other soldier could have hoped. I have heard of what you did and that took much bravery and skill. It is very deserving of being honored."
"Maybe it is," muttered Gregor. He noticed Luxa roll her eyes at him. She was acting shady with leaving the room and he was going to return it with a little act of his own. He was going to have to get to the bottom of her thing sooner rather than later.
It was a few days before Gregor got his chance to start his "investigation". Howard and Susannah had been swarmed with the other injured that needed much more help. Complications arose all around the hospital due to the severity of some of the injuries. Gregor got stuck with the nurses and other doctors mostly. The ones who weren't as skilled in the ways of healing limb loss. Each day Luxa would come by and wish him a good day and maybe sit a while with him. But usually she was busy. There was an influx in need for her in both the tactics room and the council chamber. Meetings between species were happening more and more and she was needed to sit in on trials even more than before. There was a mistrust in the council since his trial and some of the council members were petitioning for the Queen to have more say in trials. He understood that she was plenty busy enough that he was lucky he got a few minutes of her time.
Margaret, however, was with him a lot. Her and Thomas. The two seemed to have bonded more and more and Thomas looked at her like an older sister. Or at least that was as much as Gregor had gotten out of the three year olds ramblings. When his sister had to leave to go to lessons, he watched Thomas to the best of his ability. He got lucky on occasion and Mareth would come to visit and stay to help him with the toddler until Margaret would return. Each different person he saw he asked about Luxa to see if they had noticed any strange behavior. None of them had. He had been thinking that maybe she really had needed to talk to Howard about his medicine. But he got his chance to be sure.
It was the fourth day he had been in the hospital since he had woken. Luxa had come and gone and Margaret was in a lesson with Hazard, so he was alone with Thomas. The little boy was all over the place, playing with his toys and being a kid. Gregor couldn't control him much from his position lying down on the bed. He had tried to play catch with Thomas using a ball Luxa had brought, but Thomas couldn't grasp that he supposed to catch the ball and throw it back. So he lay there watching and hoping Thomas didn't hurt himself. The doctors had allowed him to stand only a few times and always with one of them in the room to make sure he didn't bend awkwardly and break the stitches. But without any of them there he was stuck hopelessly with a stiff back and legs.
He heard footsteps outside his door and then someone walked in. Thomas stopped playing and stared at the newcomer. Gregor heard a familiar chuckle and then saw Howard as he went to the boy the ball in his hand. He handed it to Thomas who sat on the ground and started to play with it.
"How do you feel, Gregor?" Howard asked turning his attention to the reason he had come. Before Gregor could answer, Howard was looking over his back checking the stitches and the healing.
"I feel pretty good. No pain. Just everything is stiff," Gregor replied as he felt Howard's hand on his back, pressing along the stitches.
"Well then let us stand you up. I believe I can take the stitches out tomorrow as you are mostly healed. Just a precaution really." Howard reached under Gregor's arm and helped lift him up. He sat on the side of the bed first and swung his legs to get some blood pumping into them. Howard slid him off the side and help keep him steady as Gregor stretched out his stiff joints in his arms and legs. Joints cracked as he moved and he was tempted to crack his back, but stopped remembering how close he was to getting out of here.
"Let me check your side, Gregor," Howard said turning Gregor's side to face him. He watched as Howard removed the pad that covered the wound. This one was still red and looked pretty rough around the stitches. He had found out that he was cut pretty deep on that one. Deeper than the back wound. "It is healing, that is the good news. The stitches will have to stay for a few more days. It is far from fully healed." Howard recovered the stitches with binding and helped Gregor lay back down on the bed.
"Howard, can I ask you something?" Gregor asked as Howard started for the exit. The doctor turned to him and nodded for him to continue. "The day I first woke up, Luxa left the room rather abruptly. She had lost some color in her face, but otherwise looked fine. I was worried that she might have been sick or something." Howard came and sat down then. His face was as confused as Gregor's had been when it all happened.
"Is that what you wanted to ask me? As far as I know my cousin is not sick," Howard said locking eyes with Gregor.
"No Howard. That's not at all what I wanted to ask. When she returned she told me she had gone to ask you about my medication. Did she?"
"No. She never came to me or my mother. We were together almost the entire rest of that day," replied Howard his facing showing even greater concern. Gregor's brow was furrowed. Why would Luxa lie to him? If there was something bothering him she could easily talk to him about it.
"You have any idea on what might be up with her?" Gregor asked his friend. Howard raised his eyebrow at Gregor's wording, but seemed to get the gist of the question.
"I do not know for certain. There is probably something that my cousin is hiding and she does not wish for anyone to know. I will talk to my mother and see if she has any ideas. Perhaps we are looking to much into this. It is Luxa we are talking about." Howard was right of course. Luxa was always hiding something or doing something behind everyone's backs.
"Thanks Howard. Really took that weight off my shoulders," Gregor said and watched as Howard left his sight and the room. It was just him and Thomas again until Margaret returned. Thomas eyes him, his big purple eyes staring into Gregor's brown ones, almost as if saying he agreed with him on something.
"I feel ya little man. Let's try catch again."
As I said earlier, short chapter for me, but not by much. Next chapter should be about normal, but I want to make it a bit more special and thus give it its own chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed this one and if you did drop me a review. Really appreciate the number of reviews I've been getting, but I would really love to see more. Thanks again for reading guys and for all the kind words. Have a great day!