Hehe. After last chapter, you'll be wanting an explanation.
It just didn't feel right to put these into the same chapter, so I split it into mini-segments.
"Well done, young man."- Sam and Noah for best father/son.
Noah was at Lorali. Dreaded Lorali. He didn't know how he was here, but he was.
His feet were cemented to the ground. He felt like a wax statue, unable to move. And Noah was quite possibly in the worst place he could have imagined. Trapped in the old man's apartment in a staring contest with Royce.
Royce had the demonic expression of a man poised to kill. Still, John seemed so relaxed. So... Unconcerned. As if he had killed so many times in his life before, it just didn't phase him anymore. Forcefully removing a man from the face of the earth just wasn't a big deal.
Noah stared at the Taurus PT945. It was indeed a beautiful gun. And a powerful gun as well. Both usefulness and elegance in one place. Noah sighed inwardly. Too bad he was staring through the business end of it.
The entire apartment was frozen in time. No one moved. No one breathed. They didn't even blink.
The young Deputy Marshal braced himself. He knew what was coming. Time resumed in slow motion.
Noah heard a shot. He felt the splintering wood of the doorframe behind him. The blood suddenly ran cold in his veins. Noah felt himself fall backwards. He felt his blood turn to liquid fire as he hit the doorframe. His shirt was soaked in what he could only assume was his lifeblood. Noah's eyes closed.
Not again! Please! No! Please not again!...
Noah's eyes flew open.
"ROYCE!"
He took a breath. The room was fairly dark, the only light source at the other end of the room. He obviously wasn't at Lorali. He wasn't anywhere he knew.
His mind shifted to other places.
Ooh. I itch.
Noah tried to move his left arm to scratch, but something held it back. He turned his head to see why, using up a surprising amount of his energy.
His arm looked like a pincushion. Noah's eyes went wide. There were monitors stuck up and down his forearm, not to mention an IV line in the crook of his elbow.
His eyes shifted to his torso. Huge bandages covered up almost everything that his button-up shirt didn't. There was yet another tube sticking out from under the bandages. It was piping away a pale red-ish liquid that Noah could only assume was drainage. Not to mention there were another half a million monitors.
His vision was still foggy, but he made out a shape on a chair across the room. It was snoring. Only one person he knew snored like that.
Noah tried to speak. It didn't turn out too well.
"Thah... Ou..ae..k...Up..." His mouth felt like he had eaten a bag of cotton balls.
Despite being a terrible attempt to make intelligible words, the noise woke the shape on the chair.
"Huh? Oh!" The shape, now revealed to be Sam Gerard, jumped up and was by the side of the bed in an instant.
"How are you feeling, kid?"
Noah looked up at Sam. "Ou... A.. Tr..."
Sam stared at Noah in confusion at first. His gaze traveled to the glass.
"Water?"
Noah looked at Sam expectantly.
"Well, as far as I know, a little water won't hurt. I'm not going to give you too much, OK? You've been through a lot and I don't know how well your engine is working."
Noah watched as Sam dipped a clean cloth into the glass. Noah sipped the water out of the fabric.
Sam dipped the cloth in once more. It was enough to allow Noah to speak. Still, it was more in the way of a whisper.
"Thanks, Sam."
"You're welcome." Sam paused. "Hold a sec."
He was out of the room in less than a second.
In exchange, the entire rest of the team strolled inside. They were chattering the entire way.
"Hey Hey! The miracle kid lives!" Biggs gave a broad smile and a hearty laugh."
"How are you doing, Noah?" Cosmo looked genuinely concerned.
"Hi, Noah. It's good to see you awake."
Noah smiled at them. "Hi guys," he whispered. "It's good to see you, too. How did you even get in here?"
Biggs chuckled. "I'm your brother. Savannah and Cosmo are your cousins."
"Some family." Noah rolled his eyes, which took more energy than he expected. "And the hospital staff actually fell for that?"
"Hook, line, and sinker." Cosmo looked back out the doorway, seemingly nervous that someone might catch them there.
"Wow... Say, where did Sam go?"
"The doctors wanted to run some more tests on you once you were awake," Savannah explained. "I guess he figures that there's no time like the present."
Noah humphed. "Well, anyways it's nice to know you care... But how did you all get vacation?"
Before someone could answer, Sam came strolling back in, the doctor hot on his tracks.
"Hullo!" The doctor was a tall, middle aged man with brown hair and paling sideburns. "And how are you all to-day?"
Noah recoiled slightly. This fellow seemed more than a bit strange.
The doctor only smiled. "I'm Dr. Joshua McClaine. You've been assigned to my care." He paused and looked at all of the people in the room.
Cosmo awkwardly looked to the ground. He looked like a kid caught with a hand in the cookie jar.
The doctor took it in stride. "If you all don't mind, would you stop off for a few minutes in the cafeteria? I need to run a few tests on your... cousin."
The entire room seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. Dr. McClaine wouldn't kick them out permanently.
The rest of the team filed out. Sam stayed.
The doctor turned to Sam. "Are you his father?" He stared Sam down. "Answer truthfully. I need to know."
"No... I'm not his father."
Dr. McClaine made eye contact with Noah. "Hm... Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to kick him out. I know how much it means to have family visit."
He picked up the clipboard at the end of the hospital bed.
"You have some good friends, Noah- Is it OK if I call you Noah?"
Said person nodded slightly.
"You have really good friends. Not many people are willing to go to the lengths your friends did to find you. Not many people are willing to get into that much trouble for someone. You must all be close."
Noah replied in a scratchy voice, "We are."
The doctor scribbled something on the clipboard. "So, you can call me Josh if you want to..."
"Okay... Josh."
"Alright, I need you to do something for me. I'm just going to run a quick test, and it goes much easier if you close your eyes. You know- out of sight, out of mind."
"Ok, Josh."
Noah closed his eyes.
"You have them closed?"
"M-hmm."
Noah began to get uneasy after ten seconds of silence.
"Noah, do you know what I'm doing?"
"Ummm... I've got my eyes closed."
"Well, can you tell me exactly what I'm doing?"
"... You're... talking to me. That's it. Is there something else I should know?"
"Hmmm..." Three more seconds of silence. "OK, you can open your eyes now."
Noah opened his eyes, afraid of what he would see. The room was completely unchanged. The doctor was scribbling more notes. Noah looked at Sam.
Sam's face had turned deathly pale. Sam looked more terrified than Noah had ever seen him in his life. It made Noah uneasy.
Dr. McClaine finished writing his notes. He sat down on a stool next to the bed. "Tell me, Noah, are you ticklish?"
"Ticklish?"
"Yeah- are you ticklish?"
"You've gotta be kidding me... OK... You aren't kidding."
"For the tests I need to know if you're ticklish or not- and, if so, where."
"Yeah, I'm ticklish. Extremely so. Arms. Sides. Feet... Just about everywhere."
"I see." The doctor's face fell.
"Is that bad?"
The doctor put his head in his hands. Sam paled even more.
"Doc, I want to know... Listen, I'm a Deputy Marshal. I've seen it all. I can take it."
"Good news first, or bad news?"
Noah braced himself. "The bad news. What's going on with me, doc?"
"When you were shot, the slug that hit your abdomen caused a lot of damage. We patched you up the best we could..."
"Cut to the chase; what's up?"
"The bullet nicked the spinal cord. It wasn't severed- just... Damaged."
Noah blinked. Sam went to sit down.
"There is a slight possibility that you regain some limited movement in your legs, but with the nerve deterioration... The odds are stacked up pretty high against you. Simply put..."
Noah stared at him.
"I am so sorry, son. You're never going to walk again."
Why do I do this?
Poor guy. I just keep tormenting him.
Please review.
Please excuse grammatical errors.
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