This is short again, with lots of references to Tyson's stomach!
"Ow!" Tyson yelled. "That hurt!" He wrenched his cut arm out of Hilary's way.

"Well, if you will fall over, what do you expect?" asked an exasperated Hilary. "Anyway, keep your voice down, you might wake Max up."

"Fat chance of that!"

"Tyson!" Hilary exclaimed, shocked.

"Well, it's true," said Tyson sulkily. "He's been asleep for hours!"

"And you think you can complain? You should try waiting for you to wake up in the morning!" With a friendly nudge, Ray slid in next to Hilary, and squeezed her hand in greeting. She smiled at him gratefully. Why was Tyson always this stubborn?

"Hey, Ray!" Tyson's delighted cry tore through her musings and she looked up to see Ray and Tyson slapping hands. She suddenly noticed that Ray's other hand was covered in what looked like…plaster?

"Ray, what happened to your hand?" she asked, before gasping as she suddenly remembered. She looked down, guilt flooding her.

"Tyson, could you go and update Mr Dickenson? Now?" Ray said, pointedly. Understanding…sort of… Tyson ran off. Ray turned and knelt down in front of Hilary, taking one of her hands in both of his.

"Hilary, listen to me. What happened today wasn't your fault. None of it. Do you understand me?" Hilary nodded fractionally, averting her eyes. Ray sighed. It was obvious that she didn't believe him, but until she told everyone what had actually happened, he didn't know what to say. "Come here." he whispered, pulling Hilary towards him. They hugged tightly, Ray gently stroking Hilary's hair, her head buried in his shoulder, the circumstances of their first kiss too strong to attempt a second. She pulled back for a moment.

"When are we going to tell them?"

"When Kai's out of theatre. Everyone's got some bits of the story no-one else's heard."

"But Ray, Kai'll be unconscious when he comes out of theatre!"

"Yeah, so?" Hilary looked, puzzled, at Ray. She shrugged. She'd find out soon enough. Kai was due out of theatre - if nothing had gone wrong - in about ten, maybe fifteen minutes. Once again, Tyson interrupted her thoughts. The younger boy flopped down opposite her, twisting his baseball cap round and round in his hands.

"Hil, I'm starving!" Hilary groaned inwardly. But, she reminded herself, at least he had an excuse this time. None of them had eaten since breakfast, and Tyson's breakfast was lying behind a bush over ten miles away, in a decidedly more liquid state than it had been designed for! She looked at her watch and gasped in shock. No wonder he was hungry. It was five o'clock in the evening! They'd been sitting in this waiting room for four hours! And she was starving too! She, Ray, and Tyson looked at each other. Then she dug out her purse, and chucked three ten pound notes at Tyson.

"Fish and chips shop down the road. Don't care what you get, but it needs to be big!" she snapped.

Tyson's eyes lit up at the thought. Big. Yum.

"Okay!" he grinned, running out of the door.

Ten minutes later, Tyson arrived back, arms filled with paper bags. He tossed the others a bag each, then settled down with his own two bags.

"Tyson! Why have you got two bags?" groaned Hilary. Typical Tyson! she thought wryly.

"I was hungry!" Tyson complained.

"What, too hungry to save some for your best mate?" Everyone's head spun around to see a sleepy, but awake and clearly hungry Max. "C'mon!" he pleaded, stretching out his arms. "I could eat a horse, I'm so hungry!"

"Will some fish and chips do?" Ray asked lazily.

"YES! Oh, come on, guys!"

"Come and get it then!" Tyson teased, holding his second bag just out of Max's reach. Max tried to scramble up, but he was still sleepy and in pain from the broken stitches, His grab went wide and he fell to his knees. Narrowing his eyes in mock annoyance, Max drew his blade. Ray and Tyson tensed up. Max never missed with Draciel. While they were panicking, Max was slowly putting his blade onto his launcher, thinking how he was going to do this. He grinned to himself. If he launched Draciel here…and then here…

"Let it rip!" he cried. Ray and Tyson flinched backwards. Hillary put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud as she watched Draciel circle the two older boys. This was brilliant! Suddenly, she noticed that all three of them looked worn out. Ray was holding his hand awkwardly against his chest, Tyson was sweating, and Max was clutching his side. They were all pale. Better call it a day, she thought, before something ugly happens. She clapped her hands sharply together.

"OK guys, that's enough!" she yelled abruptly. "Glad you all want to show off, but, there's no need, really!" Everyone laughed. "Now, give Max the fish and chips and come and sit down!" She scanned them anxiously. Tyson looked more or less normal now, but Ray and Max were obviously suffering. More tired than they'll admit, she thought. And Max's stitches need attention. "Alright, you lot," she said through a mouthful of chips. "When you've all finished, we're going to go to Mr Dickenson and sort everything out."

"Sort what out?" Ray said, swallowing his own large mouthful of chips.

"Max needs sewn up and Kai should've come out of theatre ten minutes ago." Hilary answered bluntly. She didn't want to admit it, but she was hoping Ray would forget about telling the others what had happened. Every time she thought about it, she went cold all over, had to think about something else to stop herself from screaming out loud… She shivered slightly.

"Don't worry, Kai's probably out and they forgot to tell us." said Ray easily, brushing crumbs off his lap. "So, is everyone finished? Tyson! When I say, is everyone finished, that doesn't mean you reach across and swipe as many of Max's chips as you can hold!" Hillary sighed, wondering if Tyson would ever grow up. She doubted it.

"OK, shall we go?" she asked. The others all muttered an affirmative, except for Tyson, who had too much in his mouth. Groaning inwardly, Hillary stalked off to find Mr Dickenson and Kenny. Heaving himself out of his chair, Ray made to follow her, but stopped suddenly, watching Tyson help Max up. The two younger boys grinned at each other, then made their way out, Max leaning slightly on Tyson. Ray smiled slightly. The two of them were inseparable! He sighed, remembering. He and his old team-mate, Lee, had once been like that. He shook himself. Now was no time for reminiscing! Wincing, the numbing injections they'd given him starting to wear off, he made his way out of the waiting room.


Review, please!