"He's waking up."
And wishing that I weren't. Brennan could sense the light outside of his eyelids, and decided on the spot not to look at it. The sledgehammer that was attempting to pound a ten inch spike through his head warned of dire consequences should he be so foolish as to check out his surroundings. If he waited long enough, surely someone would say something else to clue him in as to where he was. And how long it had been.
"Took him long enough." The voice was querulous, and male: Jesse. "Benji recovered from Emma's love pat in under two hours."
Okay, he'd been out cold for more than two hours. That explained the killer head-ache. Waiting for more clues, guys.
The next voice was Shalimar's. "I'll take over now, Emma. You've been here for four hours. Take a break."
Four hours? He'd been unconscious for four hours?
"I'm good." Emma resisted Shalimar's efforts to dislodge her from the stool next to the bio-bed where he lay. Huh? Bio-bed? It started to come back to him: inviting Benji to spar, flying through the air, crunching against the wall. Emma's tiny hand was nestled around his larger one, waiting for him to return to consciousness. He swallowed hard, and begged his eyelids for a peek at whoever was emitting the scent of fresh spring.
The face in front of his was fuzzy, but the bright blonde hair could belong to none other than Shalimar. He waited patiently for the features to focus.
"Welcome back." Shalimar kept her voice soft, and Brennan was grateful. He'd had hangovers that were worse, but not many. He started to pick his head up—
—only to be seized by an agony worse than any he'd ever experienced before.
No, wait. He remembered this exact agony. It always occurred after getting his lights punched out. Which is what had happened here, genius. Cool hands gently eased him back to the bed and he swallowed hard, willing the nausea to recede before something even more unpleasant happened. He swallowed hard again.
"Idiot," Shalimar chided him tenderly. "Lie there and be grateful that nothing is broken besides your ego. You've been napping for almost twelve hours."
Twelve hours? Brennan cringed, and did a quick internal check: the feral was right. Everything hurt, but it was a I've-been-through-a-whupping kind of hurt rather than a something-is-broken hurt. He cautiously opened his eyes again. Contrary to his first impression, the lights were actually turned low. Shalimar was at one side of the bio-bed, holding fiercely onto his hand as though she could pull him back to consciousness, and Emma was on the other with another bed to her far side. Brennan frowned. The second bed was occupied. "Jesse?"
"Right here, Brennan." The molecular's voice didn't have its usual embulliency but at least he was talking. But that didn't make sense to Brennan; Jesse hadn't been tussling with Benji. He'd been in the lab, working with Adam and Dr. Sutter. What was his team mate doing here in the other bio-bed? What had gone on in the last twelve hours?
Another shadow entered the room, and Brennan blinked, trying to persuade his aching brain to process more information. The shadow resolved into Adam, who smiled when he saw Brennan staring dazedly at him. "Ah. You're awake. Good."
"Not by choice," Brennan grumbled.
Adam grinned, shining a pencil flash into the elemental's eyes to check on his progress. "Don't worry. It'll be a temporary condition. Head-ache, I presume?"
"That's like saying Genomex is a nuisance. Ow. What was that, Adam?" Brennan asked, rubbing his arm where Adam had stabbed him with a needle.
"Pain-killer," Adam told him, depositing the used syringe into its receptacle. "Go back to sleep. You'll feel better when you wake up in the morning, and your concussion should be largely resolved." He moved on to his next patient. "Jesse?"
"I can get up, right?"
"Sure, if you want to fall flat on your face. Another three hours, Jesse, and the hole in your spinal cord will have sealed over. How's your head?"
"I could use some of Brennan's pain-killers," Jesse replied pointedly.
"You'll do better by taking a nap," Adam replied. "Heavy duty narcotics are out for now. Sorry."
"Right. That's what you said just before you jabbed the harpoon into my back."
"Wasn't me. It was Bea. And you volunteered, Jesse."
"Don't remind me," he groaned. "You could have told me about this part before I volunteered."
"I did. I said, 'Jesse, the sample that we need from you is cerebral spinal fluid. We get it by inserting a needle between your vertebrae and withdrawing the specimen. It would be incredibly painful if we didn't use a local anesthetic, and you have to lie flat on your back for six hours afterward to prevent a headache the size of Nebraska."
"Whereupon I ran away, screaming in fear."
"Guess I missed that part," Adam grinned, knowing that Jesse had done no such thing. "And you're lucky that Dr. Sutter performed the procedure. She's got a steadier hand than I do. You go back to sleep, Jesse, just like Brennan here, and you'll be up and around in the morning as if nothing happened." He turned to the ladies. "Emma, Shalimar, you don't need to stay here all night. They'll be fine."
Shalimar plopped herself onto the stool that Emma had just vacated. "So will I."
Adam sighed, and rolled his eyes.
Brennan chose that moment to snore.