Chapter 9
What Meeting?
The Pooka turned and pressed the stone against North´s cast, leaning over to look through it before he answered.
"If you hadn´t punched me in the jaw, I wouldn´t have lost my balance and stabbed you like that."
Sandy chuckled as Jack´s eyebrows shot up, his mouth forming a small o at the new development in their entertainment.
"If you had stopped threaten me with needle, I would not have hit you," hissed North, pointing a scolding finger at the doctor.
Bunny hummed indifferently and adjusted the stone, tapping it a few times and changing position before answering.
"Then you had to make it worse by fainting and smacking your head on that rock. But really, I shouldn´t be upset about that. It gave me the peace I needed to finally set the bone. Toes toward Sandy."
North twisted his leg at the hip so that the whole limb turned to the side.
"You admit that concussion was your fault, remember?" he claimed, pointing accusingly again. The doctor huffed.
"I never said it was my fault. I said 'I should´ve thought to get you a pillow'. Turn this way now."
"Is same thing."
"No, since you wouldn´t have needed a pillow if you had kept calm like I told you." Bunny leaned up to sniff at the top of the cast.
"I would have been calm if you had put away the needle like I told you to," countered North.
"If you had asked me calmly instead of panicking outright, I might have considered it."
Bunny crouched again and looked through the stone one more time before he stood up and straightened his vest, his nose twitching.
"Well, both bones are still in place and the stitches look good. No sign of infection. All the same, keep off it. I want to check on you again in about a week to give you some exercises." Bunny patted the cast and turned to go wash his hands again.
Sandy offered the large platter of disappearing snacks to a sulking North, and soon all three of them were munching away and swallowing from the community mug in turns.
"I want you to rest for at least four extra hours each day, but you should be fine to go back to work as long as you keep using your chair," said Bunny over his shoulder.
"Gof goarse," said North around a mouthful of cream-colored cranberries, his mood lightening with the exotic refreshments.
Another metal egg with the coloring of a fresh peach with small blue and purple flowers added as accents ran in and ticked rapidly in front of Bunnymund. This one was only about knee high, so Bunny had to crouch down to talk to it as the others watched with mild interest or picked through the few remaining snacks.
"Agatha, what are the numbers?"
"Tock tock ae," she said, her eyes flashing from orange to red in turns.
Bunny´s expression showed confusion and dismay as his ears drooped for half a second.
The movement caught Sandy´s attention and a golden question mark formed itself above his head as he watched Bunnymund lean closer to his minion and lower his voice.
"That´s barely thirty-two percent more than before. . ." he said to her. She nodded, her eyes dimming slightly and staying on orange for a moment. Bunny shook his head slightly.
"Are you sure? Absolutely certain? Did you double check?" he whispered earnestly.
The small egg ticked and vocalized some more before Bunny brought a hand up to rub the bridge of his nose. He stayed like that and muttered to himself about "Find where it´s going" and "Too low." Agatha´s eyes added a few yellow blinks to her orange and red light show as he thought aloud.
Sandy glanced at his companions to see if they were paying attention, but they were too busy competing to see who could toss and catch more cherry tomatoes in their mouths in a row to notice. He rolled his eyes a little and chuckled at their antics before looking back to watch Bunnymund and his assistant again.
The doctor was now fiddling with one of his buttons and his eyes were darting back and forth at nothing as he appeared to consider his options.
"Alright, there´s nothing else for it," he finally said quietly with a sigh. "Ask Socrates to get more water jugs for me, and then gather the others so I can talk to you all at once before going down again. I´ll meet you in the prep room as soon as I've eaten and this lot have left," he ordered, motioning toward his intruders with his head.
"Tika!" said Agatha, her eyes settling on red just before she scuttled away.
The Pooka stood up slowly, straightened his vest and turned to the guardians. His eyebrows raised as he observed the near-empty platter Socrates had brought.
"Hungry were we?" he asked humorlessly.
Jack and North nodded and complimented their host on the food, but Sandy felt a bit of regret as he realized that the food Socrates brought had been intended for his master, not his master's company. He gave Bunny an apologetic look, but was waved off as Bunny shook his head and began stretching his neck.
"Don´t worry about it, Sandy; I should´ve realized what assumption you´d all make," he said quietly.
His neck made a soft popping noise before he massaged it briefly. Then he hopped neatly over to Jack.
"I´m sorry mates, but something´s come up and I have to take care of it. Jack, I need to meet with you later. When´s good?"
Jack swallowed and nodded. "Sure thing! Now that it´s spring, my schedule is pretty open until winter starts down south. We could go to the meeting early and do it then if you want" he suggested.
North and Sandy froze, their statue eyes slightly widened. One of them had his lips pursed, and the other had a wince in his teeth.
Their host didn´t notice, as he was turning away from them and toward the table.
"Meeting? What meeting?" asked Bunny in his quick, no nonsense way.
Jack turned to the other two and paused when he saw their uh oh expressions.
". . .Uh. . ."
Jack was saved by North who, recovered, spoke with an air of nonchalance.
"Ah, is because after you left, we discussed meeting together more often. . . now that we have new guardian!" said the large man lightly.
Bunny was now organizing the medical case he had used and had only his ear turned toward the others to show that he was listening.
"We already have regular meetings, sparring practice, and the odd skirmish here and there; not to mention your eternal accidents," he replied flatly.
North didn´t even say something snarky back. Instead, he said:
"Well, yes, we used to meet always every half century for an hour, and guardian work does come up, and sparring practice is still going to probably be the same. . ."
North glanced between the back of Bunny´s head, and Sandy. The small golden man sent him a thumbs up and a tight smile, motioning him to continue.
"That doesn´t answer my question," grouched the doctor, still organizing his things. North cleared his throat and squared his shoulders.
". . .Well uh, Sandy, Tooth, Jack and I all agree that we should plan to meet more often to build trust and teamwork, before new problem arises. . . because we now have new member!"
Bunnymund spared a brief glance at North before turning back to the case and rolling up the blood pressure instruments.
"That makes sense. So, what. . . every quarter century?"
Jack suddenly remembered their discussion on how anti-social Bunny was, understanding how hesitant the others had been to ask Bunny to come back after he left. He shrank back slightly as he mechanically shoved the last blue sugar pea pod into his mouth.
North considered his wording for a moment before answering.
"We were thinking much more often than that. . ." he said slowly.
Bunny was now folding a wrinkled triangle bandage, his back still to them as he answered.
"Every decade? That seems a bit excessive, but I´ll go with it for now."
Jack choked on the pea pod and he sent a panicked look to Sandy and North.
"Is fine," assured North in a whisper before he looked back at the doctor; Sandy pounded Jack on the back a few times until he could breathe again.
"We decide two or three hours every other Thursday, so we don´t drift apart like before!" burst North with a cringe and a toothy smile.
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Guest! Your review are the best. Thank you so much for your support, it really helps me to look forward to posting these. I hope you find this chapter to be interesting! The plot is just beginning to thicken! Anyway, I laughed at the conversation between you friend and her husband. I absolutely love watching people bounce back and forth in their conversations to each other like that, so thanks for sharing. I would love to know what you think of Bunnymund in this chapter. Or any other thoughts, really.
Please leave a review!
If you were Sandy, what would you think Agatha and Bunny were talking about?
How do you think Bunny will react to the new meeting schedule?
If you were North, how would you have broken the news about so many meetings to Bunny?
What do you usually do when you have to tell someone something, and you know they´re not going to be happy with you? Example?