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CHAPTER TWO
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"Well, there are some things a man just can't run away from." - The Ringo Kid (Stagecoach - 1939)
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The first thing Stewart noticed was how dark and dusty the place was. Two windows near the ceiling provided all the light in the room. The only things that told Stewart that this was a hospital were the two beds separated by a curtain and the doctor standing in front of him.
He'd gotten to Amwor nine hours after Droxelle's ring sent out the emergency signal. Her distress call was to anyone but Stewart was the first to answer. He homed in on her ring and found her here in the hospital, where the locals had taken her after her encounter with Daan-Ro. Her ring, which he was relieved to find still on her finger, terminated the signal when it sensed the presence of another Lantern.
The doctor had assured him that she would be up and about by tomorrow, thanks in great part to her Chelorian physiology. He also confided that while the wounds themselves were not life-threatening, they had been strategically placed to inflict the maximum amount of pain possible to her species without killing her.
"Chelorians don't have a centralized nervous system like a lot of humanoids," the doctor said to Stewart in the doorway. "Instead, there are distributed nerve bundles, clusters if you will, below the skin on various points of their bodies that send regionally collected information to the brain. It was almost like the man who did this to her had a body chart that showed him where these clusters were," the doctor said. "I'm sure she was in agony before she passed out. When they brought her in, they said the man who did this touched each one of the eight knives sticking in her after she lost consciousness and the knives jumped right back into his hands."
He gave a long, nasally sigh before continuing. "Surprisingly, there was no foreign material in the wounds. After we cleaned her up, I closed all the punctures. Her nerve clusters are regenerating. She'll regain consciousness when the regeneration is complete … probably in an hour or two." The doctor was silent as he reached in his coat, pulled out a gold coin and offered it to Stewart. "Oh. They brought this in with her, too. I understand he gave it to her."
Stewart looked at the coin, then at the doctor and frowned. "I'll make sure she gets it," he said as he took the money. He decided he'd remain at her side until she woke. He'd go after Daan-Ro after he assessed Droxelle's mental state.
He'd been sitting on a small metal chair next to the cot that passed for her hospital bed for almost an hour when she finally stirred and opened her eyes. "Where am I?" she said softly and then she suddenly tried to sit up as she cried out in alarm, "My ring!" Her voice was raspy and she clutched at her throat, closing her eyes.
"Easy there," Stewart said as he placed his hand on her shoulder to keep her on the cot. "Your ring is on your finger where it belongs. You sent out an emergency beacon to me. I got here as soon as I could and found you here. You're in a hospital and the doctor says you'll be up by tomorrow."
He thought she would be happy with the news, but she continued to frown. Droxelle looked at her ring, then looked up at him. "I've never felt anything like ..."
Her voice trailed off to a whisper and Stewart wondered if it hurt her to talk. She shifted slightly in her bed. "I thought I was dying. After a moment, I hoped for death." She looked around the room then back to Stewart. "How long have I been here?"
"About eight or nine hours," Stewart answered, not really sure. "You're too stubborn to die, but there were times when the doctor thought you might not be stubborn enough. Now, you've got to get well so you can get this guy. I recharged your ring, so tell me: what's your plan?"
She looked at her ring again and then grimaced. "Someone else can go get him." She sighed. "I'm finished."
"Finished? You mean you're quitting?"
She looked away from him and whispered as if she were talking to herself, "Yes."
So. This was her breakpoint, the point where a Lantern realized that the ring couldn't protect him or her from everything. Many Lanterns never learned how to deal with the fact that the ring didn't make them invincible. Unfortunately, some only realized it at the instant they were killed. Droxelle was luckier than most and Stewart would need to remind her of that.
"Are you afraid of him?" he asked quietly, shifting in his seat to lean forward. He knew the answer to this question, but she had to be the one to answer it. She had to confront this fear and that started with acknowledgement.
She turned her head to glare at him. "No," she said, then she closed her eyes and answered, "Yes."
"Look at me, Lantern," he said and she opened her eyes. "Listen, you can take this guy. You just didn't your homework and you didn't wait for me. You didn't call up his file from Oa before you went after him either, did you? Otherwise you would have known he was a yellow shapeshifter." He paused and then added, "Droxelle, he's yours. Now again, how do you plan to take him?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Ever been stabbed?" she asked coolly as she tossed her bed covering aside, revealing multiple blood-stained bandages all over her body. "Like this?" she snapped, pointing to her wounds. In hindsight, he would later recall that despite her sharpness, she seemed as shocked at the appearance of her wounds as he was.
Stewart focused on keeping his tone even, not wanting his voice to give away his surprise at badly she'd been wounded. "No," he said flatly.
"Then don't talk to me until you have. You have no idea …."
He interrupted her, not letting her finish her sentence. "On my world," he said, "we have an expression about getting back on a horse once you've been thrown. Trust me on this. If you don't work through this ... if you don't conquer this … conquer him, you'll live the rest of your life looking over your shoulder everyday wondering where he's at; wondering if he's coming for you again; wondering, not if but when you'll ever have to deal with him again. Do you understand what I'm saying, Green Lantern?"
Droxelle looked away as Stewart stood, replaced the covers back on top of her and sat back down. She said nothing and Stewart was sure she was seconds away from mentally shutting down on him.
"Look," Stewart finally said. "Droxelle, do you want your legacy to be that you quit the Corps 'cause some jerkhole hurt you?"
She sat up. There was no mistaking the rising anger in her voice. "I'd rather it be that than to have it say he killed me. You don't have a clue what it was like. I couldn't focus, I couldn't think. I would have done anything to make the pain stop. Do you understand what I'm saying? Anything!" She rubbed her throat again. "I don't ever want to face him again." She turned her head away and said softly, "I'm not going to face him again."
Sadly, slowly, Stewart stood. He'd failed her as a trainer if she wanted to cut and run because of her defeat. While he had never been stabbed, his enemies had hurt him. Doctor Polaris had broken his leg; the Crumbler had cracked several of his ribs. Talak had broken his hand and beaten him severely. The trick, as Katma would say, was to master your fears and not be a slave to them.
"I guess I should go then," he said. "And you should go back to Chelor and pilot those commercial spacecraft like you used to. While you're there, you can pray to your gods that the Daan-Roes of the universe are brought to justice by somebody who can put their fear behind them and do what needs to be done."
He paused, ensuring he made eye contact and said, "Courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway."
Droxelle ripped the bed covering away and stood. She steadied herself for a moment against the chair Stewart had just vacated and then poked her finger in his chest. Her eyes became narrow slits. "Don't you dare quote your precious John Wayne tripe back to me! Get out!" Her voice cracked.
Stewart looked down at her finger poking his chest and then into her eyes. He stepped back and headed for the door. "Tomorrow at nine o'clock, I'm going to find Daan-Ro and take him to Oa. On your way back to Chelor, make sure you send your ring back to the Guardians." He stopped at the doorway.
"Here," he said as he tossed the gold coin the doctor had given him onto her bed. "I understand Daan-Ro gave you this." She watched as the coin bounced on the bed and settled between the folds of her bed covers. "Right now, he thinks he owns you," Stewart said as he stood in the doorway. "And he's right. He does." Stewart turned and left.
"I said get out!" Stewart heard her scream as he walked down the hall to the building exit. "Screw you and anyone who looks like you!"
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