If it was a decision between of putting pressure on Alex's wound or her own, it was a simple choice. After all having Alex pressing against her shoulder blade counted as putting pressure on a wound right?
Warm, wet and sticky — she pressed her palm against Alex's side. Nike pretended not to be able to feel the give in Alex's muscles, a shifting of things beneath her skin — things she shouldn't be able to touch with her bare hand. "No, no, no." Blood threatened to splatter on the road if she took her hand away even for one moment. She did not come this far to have Alex die on her. She refused that reality. She refused to allow it to be reality.
"Come on, Firecracker. Don't fall asleep," Nike croaked, her voice barely rising above a whisper. Alex merely groaned at her verbal prodding.
Not good, not fucking good.
Nike hooked her fingers around Alex's belt loop and hitched her higher. Pain flashed across her shoulder as she fought to keep moving. Everything throbbed, everything hurt, down to the roots of her fucking hair. Darkness threatened the edges of her vision, but Nike focused on what she needed to do — moving, always moving. Put that fucking foot in front of the other.
One step, then another, rinse and repeat. It's easy.
She should ignore the blood, she could ignore the pain, she would ignore the way her heart tried to slam its way out of her chest.
"Is she going to die?" Tiny asked, his voice high and thin.
"No." Nike hoped through sheer will she could make it real. Her legs were beginning to feel like weights.
"Is she going to die like Emma and Ross and Burger?" His voice broke as he whimpered.
"No!" she growled fiercer than intended. Tiny flinched, a small muffled cry of fear spilled from his mouth. "Sorry, sorry." He didn't speak, his tight grip on back of her shorts was her only assurance that he was still keeping up.
As they were made their way through the Slums, everyone gave them a wide berth. One look at her hair, one glare from her steely eyes was warning enough. She wasn't fucking around any longer.
Walking out of the Underbelly, she decided she wouldn't bring Alex to Stitches. She didn't trust him anymore, not after Ross. He'd be demanding payment before treatment, wasting precious time. He'd be telling her to kill people she was trying to keep alive under the guise of mercy, she could no longer accept that.
Her only hope was the hospital in Midtown.
Teeth gritted, she forced herself on. Never mind the trail of blood she was leaving behind with every step. Step by agonising step, cracked concrete slowly transited to paved and maintained streets. They had made it. but where the fuck is that damned hospital?
"Tiny," she called, allowing her left arm to take the full brunt of Alex's weight for a moment and shoving her right into Tiny's face. "Look on the extranet. Make sure we're going to right way."
Sweat rolled off Nike's brow, soaked her clothes and gathered at her chin before falling to the ground. Her thighs burnt, calves screamed, but momentum was all she had.
Tiny fumbled with the omni-tool, slicked with blood as it was, he managed to hit the music player and a song started playing.
'Cause we got miles left to go
To a place that I don't know
His breath quickened, coming out in sobs and gasps. "I can't find it," he wailed.
"Get a grip, Tiny." Though her voice was harsh, her mind whispered apologies. She needed Tiny to focus, she wouldn't be able to do it on her own. "I know you can do this."
They told me the ground was gold but I can't see it
One last time through the woods
Tiny sucked in a deep breath, biting hard on his trembling lips. His fingers tapped against the omni-tool with renewed fervour. When he had found it, she gave him a curt nod. Shoulder hunched down further, she clung onto what hope she had left.
In my old neighborhood
It tastes so bittersweet I can't believe it
"We're almost there," Tiny announced.
A weight lifted from her chest. "Firecracker, we're almost there. Hang in—" Between one step and the next, her knee buckled, her ankle bent awkwardly. She was going to fall, but she refused to let go of Alex to break her fall. Eyes squeezed shut, she waited for the ground to rush up at her.
Her vision went white despite her closed eyes. A flash of pain ran across her forehead and jolted up her ankle. Nike cried out. The motion jarred her grip loose, and Alex went tumbling.
"Nike!" Tiny shouted, but he sounded so very far away.
It hurt, more than she expected. New wounds adding to the old. Her eyes watered as she clutch onto consciousness. Hands shifting and scraping, she left red streaks against the grey unyielding concrete. Tiny rocked her body, his pleas barely registered as her vision tunneled. She groaned, a wordless noise of agony. Every left and right motion sent spikes and needles stabbing up her hip.
"Get up!" Tiny begged. "Get up!"
This was the time to use it. She forced her eyes open. Teeth gritted, she twisted to reach her pocket, fumbling and missing. Tiny caught on and helped. "Is this what you are looking for?" he asked, withdrawing the syringe from her pocket.
"Yes…" Nike gasped, tendrils of black edged into her vision. "Just… just find the bump at the back of my neck, stick it in and press the plunger."
"I don't know how." Tiny's hands shook as he kept a tight hold on the syringe.
Nike reached out, her hand wrapping around his ankle. "You can, and you will," she insisted. "For Alex."
Tiny's sobs grew muted. He looked at Alex then back at her. She let the breath she was holding go only when she felt the scrap of the syringe against her neck. Metal dragged over her skin in painful fits and spurts as he tried to position it just right. She refused to give any hint of the pain she was in lest he baulked at his task. "You can… do this…" she reassured, eyes sagging shut as she fought valiantly to stay conscious. "Just push…"
Everything went dark. How long it was, Nike couldn't really say. One moment she was trying her best to steady Tiny, the next everything went away like a switch had been flipped. However, just as quickly, everything came rushing back. It was like drinking from a firehose. Nike choked, coughed and clawed her way back to consciousness, all the while trying not to be swept away by the rising red tide.
Her eyes snapped open, her chest heaved as if she had been sprinting, her heart threw itself against her ribs, hellbent on breaking them. With an unnatural energy, she sat up. Pain was temporarily muted. Hastily, she picked Alex up. Alex's head lolled bonelessly. Fear never gripped her heart tighter. "Shit, shit, shit," she growled. "Firecracker, come on, don't do this to me."
Praying was for fools, begging the naive, but for Alex Nike would do both. "Come on, come the fuck on," she gritted through clenched teeth. Dragging her injured leg behind her, she started forward again. Lightning shot up her ankle, it hurt more than a sprain should. Something was wrong. Teeth gritted, she grunted, "Tiny, keep up."
The lump in her throat refused to budge as her heart raced with equal parts dread and drugs. My fault, all mine. Her brow creased as she soldiered on. I should never have gotten involved with the Strays. I should have walked away. Her eyes grew hot as she blink away the gathering tears. Alex wouldn't have gotten shot, Tiny wouldn't have needed to join the Reds. Fuck, Emma and Ross would be alive. Burger too…
Tears came in earnest now.
I shouldn't have cared. I should have walked away. Normal is not for me.
"Firecracker, you got a stiffer spine than this. You're going to wake up and tell me I'm a fucking asshole for getting you into this mess," she begged. "Come on…"
She quickened her pace, ignoring the way blood was leaking from her nose. As much energy the Red Sand gave her, she knew her time was limited. She had way too many of them.
"Come on, don't go to sleep, we're in Midtown," she pleaded. "There is so much to see here."
Krycek's howls and the sharp skritch-skritch as he clawed at his chest and throat echoed in her ears. She shook her head, but the sound only rang louder. Then, it started. A breath was caught in her throat. She coughed as a lance pierced her chest. Her steps faltered. Is it happening? Is this what Krycek felt?
"Are you ok?" Tiny asked, his eyes red-rimmed.
"I'm—" she grimaced, renewing her grip on Alex — "fine."
She exhaled through her mouth, trying to hold back the agony. One breath to stabilise herself, another to shore up her flagging will, and a final one to gather the tattered remains of her strength.
"Let's go," she said, "We're near, aren't we?"
Tiny nodded, his gaze sharpened when his attention was redirected to a task he can accomplish.
"Lead the way."
Tiny ranged ahead, constantly turning back to check on them. Nike kept her eyes on him. Time became a loose concept she couldn't keep a grasp on any longer. All that was left was the scrape-scrape of her sneakers against concrete, the thud-step as she dragged her leg. Waves upon waves of dizziness attempted to dash her against the rocks of unconsciousness, but she held on stubbornly.
Where is the fucking hospital?
Lightning lanced up her hip as her shoulder fired forth needle sharp pain across her chest. Her heart drummed with a frequency that scared her. Pressure mounted in her head with every breath, every step, every pulse of her heart. Her lungs heaved harder for air that couldn't quite come. Fear was a tangible weight squeezing her ribs. "Just let me make it there, please," she whispered.
A cluster of buildings loomed ahead, one rose above the others like a pillar holding up the sky. White-washed walls with glass panels tiling the exterior, the universal sign of the red cross glowed in the dim dawn light. It was the hospital.
Relief washed over her, vertigo followed quickly after. "Nike, hurry!" Tiny called out, launching himself ahead, hands beckoning, his slippers slapping hard against the concrete pavement.
"Coming."
Her strength was ebbing away, leaking out of her body like blood from her wounds. Tiny was sprinting or her legs weren't moving. She couldn't tell.
"Come on!" he said, racing ahead.
"Not so—"
The curb fouled her step, and she went sprawling again. Her chin struck the ground. Her teeth sliced into her tongue. Warm and metallic liquid pooled in her mouth. Nike spat and red splattering the grey cracked concrete.
Too exhausted to do more than lay on the damp, cold unyielding ground, she lay there. Somehow she kept her grip on Alex. Where her palm pressed against Alex's skin, she could feel how cool it was.
Not good, not good.
Nike did not come this far just to fail here. Groaning, she pushed herself off the ground. Alex started to slide off. She struggled, limbs trembling from the effort, head too foggy for thought, only to slam back onto the ground. Done, she was utterly done.
There was a quick slap, slap. slap of slippers running towards her. A voice, high pitched and panicky, screamed, but she could not make out the words. Small hands tugged at her as she sagged back to the ground. The footsteps drifted away again. She lay on her chest, Alex's weight crushing her lungs as she gasped. Her eyelids were heavy, her limbs anchors, but she was so close.
Get up! Fucking get up!
Nike craned her neck and found vague dark figures rushing towards them. Who were they? Had she let her guard down? Were they the Dowager's people?
Fuck, no. I can't, I don't have any more Red Sand left.
But Nike wasn't the Champion because she rolled over and gave up. She had to try. Pulling at her core, scraping for more where there was none. Her biotics remain inert. Hands grabbed at Alex.
No. no, no. Where are you taking her? She needs help.
Nike fought them with her bare hands, tightening her grip on Alex. Then, blue flooded her vision. It wasn't biotics but a pair of blue hands. They gripped her shoulders. That only activated Nike's fight or flight instincts, and for Nike she would always fight. Groaning — pain creeping across her chest, seizing her heart and not letting go — she refused to let Alex go.
No, no, no!
The blue face spoke, her voice piercing through her fog. It was low and calm, almost lyrical, but completely alien. Nike couldn't understand any of it, not when she didn't have her omni-tool translating. Pain glazed as her vision was, there was something in those eyes comforted her. The voice repeated the words again. She wanted to trust, she had no choice but to trust. The encroaching darkness wouldn't be denied any longer. Like a puppet with strings cut, her eyes sagged shut.
And she let go.
Voices came and went like waves lapping against her consciousness.
Slum rat… Red Sand addict…Energy had fled her body, she was all hollowed out.
Treatment… credits… multiple gunshot wounds…Hands shifted her, poking and prodding, waking up all the pain that laid dormant.
Not worth it…Somewhere to her side, a monitor started screaming.
Voices rose high and loud. They warred over her body as if dogs fighting over scraps. She couldn't summon the capacity to care. She was just tired.
The relative peace was short lived. Lightning struck inside her head. She jerked. Electricity coursed through her brain, burning a path through her synapses. Her head slammed against the hard bed she laid on again and again.
"She's seizing! Where's the anticonvulsant?"
"But the director…"
"We are doctors first, saving lives is why we're here."
Muscles clenched and relaxed in quick succession, twisting what was already broken, shattering what was already cracked. A fire ripped across her mind, hellbent on cracking her open from the inside out. Her mouth opened wide, but she couldn't speak. She couldn't even scream.
A lady with blue skin hovered over her. Nike stared. The lady barked at the others, her voice carried an edge of urgency. This time Nike understood. Something was translating the lady's words nearby, but her mind was too fried to puzzle out what changed.
"She is a biotic!"
"Are you sure?"
"I am an asari, trust me. Her biotics pressure is building to dangerous levels," the blue lady went on. "She needs the inhibitor, not the anticonvulsant."
"If you're wrong, T'Perro…"
"I am not," the blue lady insisted.
The pulsing in Nike's head intensified. Muscles strained to tear themselves apart. Her heart stuttered and laboured. Everything that could hurt did.
"She'll crash! Her heart wouldn't be able to take the stress."
"That's what we are here for," she said. "We're doctors, we save lives. If her biotics discharges with this level of pressure, it's certain death. With the inhibitor, she'd have a chance."
"I hope you know what you're doing."
"Get ready to secure her airway and start CPR."
Chest heaving, lungs labouring, her breath came in thin wheezes. Her mouth opened and closed uselessly like a fish out of water. Blood poured from her nose unabated. For the first time, Nike wondered if this was it, but giving up wasn't up to her, her body would go till she imploded like Krycek.
A pair of hands gripped her forehead, twisting her head to expose the back of her neck. A familiar prick against her neck, and a rush of ice flooded up her head.
Sounds grew muted, only the monitor remained loud and shrill. Nike was the one static point in the middle of the chaos. Everyone was bustling about in hyper speed, blurs that she could barely make out. Hollow voices yelled commands.
Her head was roughly tilted back, a finger shoved her chin down. She had no choice but to accept everything that was being done to her. She was merely a passenger in her body, here for the ride in the backseat. Something hard and unyielding shoved her jaw open, a long tube threaded down her throat. It was choking her. She coughed and reached frantically for it only to have her arms pinned down.
The blue lady returned, running gloved hands over her forehead. A comforting touch as tears streamed from Nike's pain glazed eyes. "I am only trying to help," the lady said. "I'm trying to help."
The tube scraped against her throat as she gagged and coughed. Her fingers turned into claws as fire burnt through her veins. Her heart thumped once, twice and stopped.
Beep, beep, beep…
The noise dragged its claws across her consciousness, rousing her. But the warm blanket of darkness was comforting, enveloping her in a protective cocoon. Voices, however, dragged her to full consciousness.
"This is the girl?" one asked.
"Yes, collapsed in our driveway, carrying another kid."
Something itched at the back of her mind, something she was missing.
"Didn't think she'd make it, we dug four bullets out of her. And that's after she flatlined on the table."
"T'Perro's little trick worked," the first voice chuckled. "Her vitals look strong."
An urgency tugged at her. Kid, kids… Nike tried to peel her eyes open. Alex! Tiny! What once was a comfort was now a trap, snaring and tying her down.
"Come on, we need to administer her inhibitor and sedative. The SPD will be down soon to question everyone."
Before Nike think about lifting a finger, drugs flooded her bloodstream, and she was dragged back into murky depths again.
Nike snapped awake. Her mind though clearer this time, remained foggy. Something was pressed over her nose and mouth. It was terribly uncomfortable. Her eyes were still stubbornly stuck shut by gunk or grime, she couldn't tell, and she didn't care. Blind but not deaf, she heard someone approaching. Shoes scuffing against a smooth floor.
They found me! Frank had more people. Or it's the Dowager's people!
Frantic hands reached towards her face but only to find that one restrained to the side of the bed, the other too painful to move. The beeping grew shrill and loud as her chest heaved.
"Stop, stop," someone said. "I need some help here."
Another stranger, who is that? I have to get away.
Fear fuelling her, she reached at her core. An inward scratching and clawing for her biotics, an action as innate as breathing to find herself barred form it. The well that resided deep within her wasn't empty, but rather sealed off from her desperate hands.
No, no, no!
"Please stop, you're tearing your wounds open."
The voice was too loud, too here. Nike had to move. Why was she tied down? Every tug, every shake woke pain that threatened to split her in half. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, and slowly she begin to be able to open them. Though everything was a haze, she felt more than she saw a figure hovering over her, keeping her hands pinned down. She flinched. Gasping for air that couldn't quite come, she hissed her defiance.
The door burst opened. A solid blue shape approached, a second voice adding to the chaos of the first. Panic had blocked out all thought. There was only an urgent need to move, to act, to get free.
But—
The words for that blue shape was oddly melodic and calm. It slipped through the noise in her head. Something off to her side translated her alien words with a half second delay. The dissonance was jarring.
A blue hand reached out and touched her forehead, slow, deliberate and gentle. Nike shrank back. A buzzing spread across her skin, gentle like a hug from Meg. Before she understood what was happening, blue enveloped her vision— no, her entire body. This was a sensation she was familiar with. Something was holding her in stasis. The hospital must have some kind of device for this.
Nike was helpless. Her heart hammered against her chest. She blinked hard to clear her vision. The blue shape was resolving into a familiar shape. More words came, long and flowing — glittering like the sun over the surface of brown canal water. It was oddly calming. Slowly Nike understood the blue figure's words were the ones being translated.
"I'm going to clean your eyes now so you can see properly all right."
Nike would have nod if she could. A fabric was dragged over her eyes and then her face. She blinked and stared at the asari looking back at her. Her eyes darted about, taking in the room she was in. White walls, white sheets, white uniforms on the people surrounding her bed. Somehow she wasn't dead, somehow she had survived.
The asari spoke. Nike saw her lips move, they formed and shaped words, but she didn't understand any of it. What she heard was music, tinkling like water out of a public water fountain, light and lilting. An omni-tool next to her bed dutifully translated.
"Hello, my name is Lexi," the omni-tool said in a flat tone. Lexi glanced at the machine that hung above Nike's head. "Your O2 stat looks good, what do you say if we get that mask off your face?"
Oh, so that was what it was. The blue stasis cloud faded, The pressure against her skin faded. Lexi must have deactivated the device. Nike didn't waste time trying to figure it out, already spotting the cup of water Lexi offered her. She took the straw between her lips and drank as fast as she could. "How's Alex? And where's Tiny?" Those were the first words rasping out of her mouth.
Before Lexi could answer, the door opened again. This time uniformed police officers entered. All of them spotted short cropped hair and were similarly armoured and armed, but one of them stepped forward. "Please leave this room now. Do not speak to the suspect."
"She is not a suspect." Lexi drew herself to her full height, taking the time to carefully place the glass of water down. Her eyes hardened and grew flinty. "She is a patient."
The officer tapped his omni-tool, and a document hovered above it. With a couple of quick gestures, he enlarged it so that the words were big enough to read even from her position on the bed. Nike stared at it and cursed that she wasn't able to scan it. It might as well be gibberish to her.
"This is her arrest warrant. She is the prime suspect for the bloodbath we found at the old warehouse district. Do not speak to her. From now onwards, all interactions will be supervised. Per local law, biotic suspects will have inhibitors administered regularly until they are transferred to a freak jail. This is for your own safety."
Though her pain was drugged into controllable levels, her left arm rested in a sling, her shoulder on the same side was heavily bandaged. The ankle she thought was merely twisted had an orange glowing cast wrapped around it. She couldn't bend it at all. A soft restraint wrapped around her right wrist. That was why she couldn't move it earlier. A red wet patch stained her sheets just next to her arm. For all of her efforts earlier, she had only succeeded in tearing her IV out. Tired and exhausted, Nike felt like a washcloth wrung dry. Now with an arrest warrant, Nike was utterly fucked.
Lexi glanced at her, then back at the SPD officer, betraying nothing. "I will administer the inhibitor," she declared. "But first I have to replace her IV."
The officer nodded. Lexi began issuing orders and the other nurse left the room. As Lexi fiddled with her IV, Nike didn't take her eyes off the police officers and neither did they her. The monitor behind her beeped insistently to the pace her heart set. Lexi rubbed her forearm. "Don't look at them, they are not going to hurt you. I won't allow it."
Nike snorted. What was the blue alien going to be able to do against armed men? Risk her job and her neck for a street rat, a murderer? Nike was always her own best weapon. The other nurse returned. Nike stiffened. Her eyes trained on what the nurse held — a small vial and syringe
No. Don't come closer.
The nurse approached, unaware of the fear tightening around Nike's throat.
Please, please, please.
"Hey, hey," Lexi called, squeezing Nike's arm, snapping her out of it.
Had she spoken out loud?
"What's the matter?" Lexi held up a hand to stop her colleague.
Nike's mouth was desert dry, words refused to hold the shape of her fears, rendering her mute. She had enough of needles, of Red Sand. This was a hospital, there wasn't supposed to be anymore of that.
No more, please no more Red Sand.
Nike shifted, kicking feebly, trying her best to get away from the vial. Somewhere at the back of her mind, fire seared its way through her nerves as her breaths came hard and heavy, but she just didn't care. The officers straightened, their gaze sharpened. The one who had spoken before advanced, almost smirking, "Are you resisting? You do not need more charges. Do not force me to—"
Lexi whirled around. "I do not need you to agitate my patient, get your men out of the room, you're only making things worse."
The officer ignored Lexi, his hand shifted to his pistol. Panic overrode what was left of Nike's control. "No, no!" She couldn't decide what was the greater danger, the officer or the vial. Her throat constricted and air just wouldn't come. She sought for an escape, a way out, anything just to get out of the situation.
Door — covered by three men, all armed. Windows — too high. Cornered like the feral creature she had always been. She had no way out.
Lexi glared at the officer, a blue glow surrounded her, there and gone again. It was eloquent enough to freeze him right in his tracks. Nike's eyes widened. Surprise, shock and a tiny amount of relief took hold.
Something passed between Lexi and the officer, but Nike couldn't tell what. Before she could set her mind to figure it out, Lexi turned back to her. Nike shrank back. Even though Lexi had clearly stood up for her just moments before, she was still a stranger. Even though Lexi's gaze was infinitely kinder, gentler than anyone else in the room, she might turn — just like Frank did, just like the rest of them did.
"Look at me," Lexi said.
Nike looked. She looked at the officers. She looked at their guns. She looked at the syringe obviously for her. She looked at the alien who had protected her.
"I know this is all scary, this is all new," Lexi went on, her motion was slow, her hands held where Nike could see them. "But please believe me. I want to help. Please let me."
Nike's instincts screamed for action, but she had no way out. Trust, she had to trust someone. Right now, her choices were down to Lexi or the officers. Nike knew what her choice would be. Taking a shuddering breath, she nodded.
"I'm going to—"
"Get the fuck on with it," the officer barked.
Nike flinched. Lexi stepped close up to the officer. "If you refuse to let me do my job, you can take it up with the hospital administrator. This is a hospital, patient care takes precedence. My safety is clearly not an issue here."
The officer drew himself. "Don't you think I won't," he growled, turning to the person behind he barked, "Watch her."
Nike coudn't tell who the officer was referring to — herself or Lexi. Lexi gave the remaining officers a hard stare. All of them kept their hands well away from their pistols.
Turning back to Nike, Lexi gave a soft huff, not quite a sigh, but enough to indicate frustration. She schooled her features and gave Nike a smile. Taking the syringe and needle from the other nurse, she held them out of Nike's view. Nike couldn't help but got all worried again.
Lexi must be planning something. Why else would she hide it? She lied. Nike had made a grave error. She shouldn't have trusted Lexi. Fighting was the better option after all. Maybe she should make an attempt.
"May I?" Lexi asked. Her voice sliced through Nike's rapidly spiralling thoughts
Nike blinked. What was Lexi asking for? The blue alien indicated at her right hand, the one that was restrained to the bed frame. Warily, she nodded. Lexi took her hand, firm yet gentle. Nike cocked her head, so that was what she was asking for — permission. It had never occured to her this was something people could do. That small act returned what little control she had of the situation.
"What's your name?"
The spot where Lexi's palm met hers buzzed. Was it Lexi's biotic field buzzing against her skin? Nike couldn't tell. It couldn't possibly be hers, she had no access to it.
"Nike."
Lexi hummed in approval. "The Greek Goddess of Victory, whoever named you had been right."
"I named myself," Nike said. The true source of her name was private, and nobody else needed to know.
"Oh." Lexi paused for a beat, a little sad, a little solemn, but brightened a moment later, "Then you're a very smart person."
Nike bristled. This felt like a ploy to distract her. She craned her neck to see where Lexi had hidden the Red Sand only shrink back. "I don't want that anymore. No more fucking Red Sand."
"This?" Lexi held the vial up and showed her. Nike's jaw tightened, her hand gripped Lexi's. Lexi grunted but didn't otherwise give an indication that it hurt. "This isn't Red Sand."
Heart in her mouth, Nike stared. It wasn't Red Sand. The solution was clear, no red particles swirled inside.
"It's an inhibitor for your biotics, which unfortunately, I'll have to administer."
Fear closed around Nike's throat again. She could already feel the scrap of a needle against the back of her neck. Her left hand jerked in an attempt to shield her amp, but she only succeeded in tugging at her wounds. She winced, sinking back against her bed, utterly exhausted.
"You almost died from an overdose and you are going through withdrawals. This fear you're feeling is one of the symptoms."
Withdrawal was what Nike feared, yet it signified something she welcomed at the same time. It meant no more Red Sand for good. She swallowed thickly and waited.
"I'm going to have to administer the inhibitor because that's the law," Lexi went on. "I promise it won't hurt." Nike took a shuddering breath, eyes darting between Lexi and the vial. Lexi squeezed her hand. "It won't hurt."
This was going to happen regardless how Nike felt about it. She took a deep breath and turned her head, offering Lexi the back of her neck, but Lexi stopped her. "No, no more injections to the back of your neck," she said firmly.
Nike couldn't only nod, wary at the anger she felt radiating from Lexi. Did she do something wrong? Lexi shook her head. "I hope the police would do their jobs so that kids are not forced into addicts," she said, her voice directed at the officers. None of them spoke.
Lexi filled the syringe. Nike held herself still, waiting for the moment the officers rushed to hold her down as one of them forced poison into her. Instead, Lexi injected the contents into her IV port. Ice seared up her hand, and she winced.
"I'm sorry, it shouldn't have hurt," Lexi apologised, massaging Nike's arm. It eased the pain.
"It's fine," Nike replied. Lexi had been kinder than almost everyone else she had met in her life, save for Meg and Burger. "I'm used to it."
Lexi only looked sadder. Nike ignored it. Now that it was all out of the way, she needed answers. "Where's Alex? Where's Tiny?"
The door opened, and the lead officer returned. Had he been outside all this time? "Are they your accomplices?" Glee stretched across his face like he had caught her in a lie. "Never fear, we'll find them and arrest them too. They can rot in jail with you forever."
Eyes wide and wild, her panic rose again. This was Frank all over again. Vaguely, she understood the things she did were unlawful, maybe even wrong, but this was what everyone did. It was normal there, it was her everyday.
The officer strode forward and tried to yank Nike's arm out of the sling. "Stop that, her shoulder is healing." Lexi inserted herself between Nike and the officer.
"This is a suspect of multiple murders. We found the scene. It's ugly. Don't let her fool you. This isn't a kid, she is a cold blooded freak."
"By freak do you mean biotic?"
"By freak, I mean freak. Humans are not meant to be able to do those blue swirling things. It's against nature," the officer said.
The line between Lexi's brow deepened.
"It's no wonder her brain snapped and she killed all those people," he went on. He fully intended for his words to goad.
The door opened. In strode another man. He, unlike the officers, was clad in a suit.
The situation spun rapidly out of hand. If she weren't exhausted and scared, she might have been tempted to laugh. Right now, the pendulum that resided in her chest swung between anxiety and dread.
Lexi pointedly guide Nike's arm back in the sling. She reached across and adjusted her IV. Nike's pain grow muted again. Sharp needles riding her nerves turned dull throbbing, easily ignored.
"T'Perro, do not abuse your welcome in my hospital. Your residency and research paper hangs in the balance," the newcomer warned. "You have treated several patients against the hospital's policies. Do not overstep your bounds."
"The medical restraint is too insecure. We have to cuff her using our omni-cuff," the officer growled. "This is just regulation."
Lexi drew herself up, glaring at the officer, opting to ignore the newcomer. "If that is the case, please cuff her right hand. I have put in too much time and effort making sure Nike's shoulder retains full functionnality to have you wreck it."
"But she has one hand free—"
"I assume the SPD's omni-cuffs is not so insecure that a patient who is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds be able to undo without access to an omni-tool right?"
The officer hesitated. "I don't understand why you're protecting this murderer."
Lexi didn't speak. She rubbed Nike's shoulder instead, the good one. That single gesture allowed Nike to relax just a little bit. Lexi planted her feet and stared down the officer, refusing to move from her side of the bed. That left the officer no choice. He stomped over to the other side and undid the medical restraint roughly.
"Do not unseat her IV," Lexi said. "We wouldn't want a lapse in police procedure would we? Everything in this room is being monitored after all."
The officer's face only grew more thunderous. However, he was a lot gentler after that. It didn't stop her stomach from sinking to her feet when the omni-cuff closed around her wrist.
"Enjoy your stay here, you will be transferred to the freak jail soon. There will be no mercy for murderers there."
Lyrics taken from Shasta by Mat Kearney