Chapter 16

Having Words

The moment Alex got to the hospital, she bolted it threw the hallways, getting scolded by several members of the faculty, until she made it to the waiting room. She found Zack hunched over in one of the uncomfortable wooden chairs while Nathan paced back and forth. In the corner of the room was Mortu, who looked completely out of place in the room. Alex narrowed her eyes at the man for a moment before going to her brothers, hugging them both.

"Okay, so how is he doing? What's his condition?" she asked Nathan, whom Zack had said had talked to the doctors.

"He was in bad condition, but they're hopeful. The surgery was fast and it's already done. He's in recovery right now, waiting to go up to the ICU," Nathan told her.

"Oh thank God," she sighed in relief.

"The docs way he'll be out for a couple hours because of the pain meds, but we might be able to go in once he's in the ICU to sit with him. They normally only let three people at a time for about thirty minutes, but I think they said they'd make an exception," Nathan continue. "Mr. Mortue spoke to them about it."

Alex resisted the urge to scoff. Mortu spoke to them? Right, he's the reason he's in the hospital in the first place, she thought. Alex glanced at Mortu. She nodded to her brothers and walked over to her boss. "Can I talk to you outside for a moment, Sir?" she asked, trying to keep her volume down, her tone even.

"Of course," he told her with a nod. He stood up and followed her out of the waiting room and into the rather empty hallway. "What it it, dear?"

"What was he doing?" she demanded. "What was he doing for the Guardians when he was hurt?"

"You know I can't discuss that with you, Alexandra," he told her.

Can't tell me? Can't tell me? What the fuck! This is my brother!

"You're still in training, and your brother's missions are strictly classi-"

"Bullshit!" she yelled, her fist punching the sterile white washed wall next to her. SHe left a hole in the plaster, surprising not only Mortu but herself as well by her outburst.

She hushed her voice more as she continued in a harsh whisper; "You brought me into this because you know I could do it. Because I can fight. Because I'm like my brother, the brother that's in the hospital because of you! So you better tell me what the fuck my brother was doing, Sir, or I'm out, and I'll tell my brother you tried to recruit me. And I know you don't want that."

Mortu sighed, taking his glasses off to rub his eyes. "All right," he told her. "I knew you would be a handfull, but that's exactly why you're perfect for this job. You're strong willed and you have a good heart." He put his glasses back on. "You're brother was on a reconnaissance mission, gathering intel on the Shredder. I believe he was discovered and attacked. He was greatly outnumbered."

"Do…" Alex thought, trying to find the right words. "Do they know his identity? That he has family? Could they try and attack the rest of us? The guys?"

"I don't believe so, but I cannot know for certain until I debrief your brother," he informed her.

"Alright," she sighed. "Thank you, and I'm sorry for my reaction. That was out of line."

"No, it is perfectly understandable," he told her. "And I am sorry, Alexandra. That is the truth." He patted her arm before returning to the waiting room to take his previous seat.

They barely had time to register the fast running footsteps approaching the door before it slammed open, almost denting the wooden wall it hit, just about swinging back closed from the leftover force. Kerry's boot shot out to stop it as she stepped in, breathless, make-upless, and out of her mind. Her tears had dried on her cheeks on the drive over and had been replaced with fury. The only evidence there had been tears where her red eyes, swollen cheeks (which weirdly had the slight outline of a smiley face and a heart), and her hiccupping.

"I-Is he...?"Kerry panted as other running footsteps approached from behind. "Elliot, i-is he..?" her eyes scanned around before she spotted Alex. She rushed forward and her arms wrapped around her.

"He's out of surgery," Alex told her, hugging her back. "They said he should be okay."

"Thank God," Kerry breathed a bit as she calmed down a bit more and the two boys entered into the room, shooting a glance at the poorly treated door. "What the hell happened?" she asked her.

"Work accident," Alex told her.

"W-Work accident..."Kerry asked pulling back to blink before her dark green eyes turned to Mortu...oh no. "What the ever flying fuck do you think-" Kerry threaten to take a step towards him, hands clenching.

"Kerry," Don said, trying to hush the girl. "We're in a hospital. You need to be quieter and calm down."

"How am I supposed to calm down, Donnie?" Kerry asked him, though her voice did quiet down. "Elliot's under the knife and this ass won't tell me what happened to my brother!" Kerry said glaring at Mortu.

"Kerry, it was an accident," Alex told her.

"Yeah, one he conveniently can't tell us about." Kerry grumbled gritting her teeth. She looked away, knowing she needed to calm down.

Alex shifted uncomfortably on her heels. She knew what happened, but she obviously couldn't tell her brothers, her boyfriend, Kerry or Don. It hurt, but she knew she was going to have to lie to them eventually. Now just happened to really be the first time she had to.

Raph looked at her oddly as he walked over to her, seeing her look but didn't question it. He probably thought she was uncomfortable with Kerry's temper. He touched her face gently kissing her forehead.

"...found Kerry." he joked softly, trying to cheer her up.

"It doesn't sit right with me, okay?" Kerry said crossing her arms, as if trying to hold her self together. "It's too weird. I have a gut feeling about it."

"Kerry! Shut up!" she took in a deep breathe to try and calm herself down. "It was an accident Kerry. Just drop it, okay?" she begged.

Kerry blinked at her before narrowing her eyes. "Drop it? You want me to drop it?"

"Yes I want you to fucking drop it!" Alex yelled again. "This is my brother! We don't need someone going around saying what's true isn't. We need to just be here for Elliott! Is that so much to fucking ask of you?"

"Alex," Raph said slowly, kind of shocked to having to be the one to calm someone down.

"I'm not going around anywhere saying anything. I'm speaking to you!" Kerry said lowly. This was scarier than her yelling, Kerry yelled all the time, she was loud. This quiet, subtle anger was something new to their friendship. "I am here for Elliot, I thought I would be able to to talk to you about the concerns I have! I'm fucking scared okay? What if this happens again huh? I'm so fucking sorry, Alex for being proactive and trying to see if there is a way to keep our-...your brother out from under the knife!" she hissed to her whirling away from her, teeth grinding in irritation.

"Nobody asked you to!" Alex told the girl, her voice lowering as well. "This is my family, Kerry. Not yours."

One could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed those words, no one moved, no one even breathed. Kerry was frozen in place, her back to Alex.

The moment the words left her mouth, Alex knew what she had said was wrong. She knew it wasn't true and that Kerry was just as upset about all this. She sighed and went to open her mouth to apologize.

"What in the world is going on in here?" A soft voice asked at the door.

At the end of the hallway stood a small familiar figure. Esme looked at the four teenagers, Jax was laying on the floor beside her, his ears down, tail between his legs.

"I-I got a call that Kerry was here," Esme said, having been listed as a guardian of sorts over Kerry. "Alex? Boys?" she asked slowly looking over them slowly. "What are..." she took a head count and saw who was missing. "Marcus? ...E-Elliot?" she asked fearfully.

Alex looked down at the floor. She didn't want to tell the woman that the man she had gone on a date with was in the hospital. "E-Elliott was in an accident," she informed with with difficulty.

"O-oh."Esme swallowed and Jax sat up quickly, whining a bit as he picked up on her invisible stress signals. "W-What kind of accident? ...A car?" she asked softly, trying to force herself to be professional, for the boys and her.

"Uh, work, actually," she added. "They're moving him to the ICU soon."

"I'm so sorry," Esme said, seeming calmer now for some reason, coming closer peering between her, Kerry, Nathan, and Zack. "I'm sure he'll be fine." she said evaluating everyone with intelligent eyes. She determined Alex did not want to be touched by her, Nathan was stable enough to calm himself, Kerry just might rip her arm off if she tried hugging her now, so she ended up going to Zack and taking his hand. "You're brother is the strongest man I've met in a long time. He's too stubborn to be beat as well." Esme smiled at Zack, though her word projected to everyone.

"The doctors said he should make a full recovery," Nathan told Esme, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

"Thank goodness," Esme said softly mostly to herself now. "That's good," she said louder standing up. "I have clearance on the ICU level...I can go check on him if you want." she said to them. Knowing that was what they would want now, information.

"He's still in recovery right now," Nathan said. "They said they're going to call down to us when they get him settled in, but thank you."

"That's a good sign," Esme breathed out. "If he's not isolated for now, the surgery must have gone on without a hitch then." She was trying to give them as much information as she could to assure them.

"I'm getting some air." Kerry mumbled. "Text me when he's moved." she said before heading to the door she abused and slipping out, not even bothering to look at any of them.

"Don?" ALex asked without looking at the brunet.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"You should go check on Kerry," Alex told him.

"O-Okay," he said, slowing moving away from the group. Before he left, however, he gave a look at Raph.

Raph nodded to him, waving him on in a 'I got this' motion. After his brother left, the red head touched his girlfriends shoulder. "Just let Don talk her down, he's good at that," Raph said to her. "She just needs some cool down time."

"I shouldn't have said what I did," Alex muttered, making her way to the hallway again. She leaned against the wall, right next to where she had punched the hole. "I'm such a bitch."

He was right on her heels. Raph peered at the hole before sighing. "Alex, people say things in the heat of the moment, I mean look who you're talking too." Raph sighed. "You are not a bitch."

"Yes I am," she sighed, sliding down the wall until her knees were pulled up to her chest. "I mean, we both know that Kerry's a part of this family. Imagine how that made her feel?"

"Kerry just needs to blow off steam, she's just like me in that way I suppose." Raph mumbled a bit as he sat next to her. "Leo and I, we've always had fights but this one time we really hashed it out. We snapped at each other, saying stuff we really didn't mean, things we almost instantly regretted." Raph sighed a bit closing his eyes as he reminisced. "It caused us a lot of problems, I was out of line, and so was he. But do you know where we were a few days later?" he asked her. When he didn't receive an answer he went on, "We were sparing as if nothing happened, in fact because we overcame it we were stronger. But we needed time to calm down before even thinking about fixing it. I'm lucky how patient Leo was with me...and that Donnie is really good at calming people down." he joked.

"I just…" Alex muttered. "I can't lose anybody else. Not Elliott. Not my brothers. And I was upset. I didn't...I didn't me-" Alex took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.

"Alex!" Nathan came out into the hallway. "They called, we can go up."

She sighed, standing up slowly. "Okay," she said, her voice sounding extremely tired all of a sudden.

Raph looked up at her and asked her with his eyes if she wanted him to come. Alex smiled softly at him, pecking his lips. "They can only let the family in, right now," she told him. "Thanks," she told him, not only for being there but as well as the talk.

"No problem and uh,"Raph said. "We'll take care of her. You know, make sure she eats and sleeps and stuff." he said rubbing the back of his neck. "You don't need anything else to worry about tonight." He said knowing she'd be worrying about Kerry. Always putting others above herself.

Alex sighed in relief. "You're too good to me, Pumpkin," she told him, kissing his cheek. "Don't stay too long," she added. "Go home and get some rest."

"I love you." Raph said kissing her lips. "Take care of yourself too."

"I love you too," she told him.

I has been several hours after Alex and her brothers were let into Elliot's room. After a couple hours, Zack had finally been able to get in touch with Marcus, who showed up at the hospital not long after that. They spent a couple more hours in there together before Alex insisted Nathan and Zack take Marcus home to sober up more, and to shower since he reeked of sweat and alcohol.

Alex remained in Elliot's hospital room alone, though Emse stopped by about every half hour to see how Elliott was and to see if Alex or her brothers needed anything. However, after a while Alex fell asleep in her chair.

She woke up to hear a soft groan. She sat up in her hair, taking Elliot's hand as he slowly woke up. His eyes opened and tried to focus up at the ceiling before he shifted them down to Alex. "Munchmallow," he croaked out.

"You ruined my date night, Dick," she told him, though a clear smile was on her face in relief.

"Yay, a cockblock even when I'm unconscious," he muttered with a laugh though ended up coughing and groaning from the pain in his stomach, where his wound was.

"Easy," Alex told him. "You've gotta take it easy, Ellie."

"Easy? I don't know the meaning of the word easy," he retorted.

"Really? I recall you saying it was fairly easy to beat Marcus's ass when sparring," Alex reminded.

"Don't get all technical on me," he pretended to scold her.

"I'll get as technical as I want," Alex said, moving to carefully sit on the edge of his bed.

"You're not the boss of me," Elliott said.

"Oh, yes I am," Alex said. "Your boss, Mortu? Yeah, he stopped by to make sure you were okay. He said you're going to be out of work for a while because of this, so I'm to order you to stay in bed."

"What?" Elliott exclaimed, which hurt himself. "Ow, oh come on!"

"Hey, you're lucky to be alive," Alex told him. "A couple months or so off isn't going to kill you. If you don't get rest, on the other hand, I just might kill you myself!"

"That would be rather counter productive, wouldn't it?" Elliott stated.

"You can count me in," Esme said as she slowly opened the door, knocking slightly. "He's giving me grey hairs," she said smiling softly.

"And you would still be as beautiful as ever, Beautiful," Elliott gushed. "What are you doing here? Were you worried about little ol' me?"

"Elliot, we talked about this, it's Esme or Essy." she sighed though it wasn't exactly an irritated one. "And I work here."

"But you're my Beautiful!" he exclaimed, hurting his stomach again. "Ow!"

"Hey, don't yell or move so much!" Esme said softly coming forward quickly and placing a hand softly on his side.

"S-So you didn't come to see me?" he asked, sounding a little down about that. "Uh, sorry," he added.

"...I might work here but I made sure to come by and see you, Elliott," Esme mumbled.

Elliott looked up at the woman, a small smile, not a smirk, on his lips. "I knew you liked me, Beautiful."

"You grew on me, I suppose." Esme said taking his hand into her smaller .

"Like a fungus," Alex said. "That's what you are, fungi."

"Right, I'm a fun guy!" Elliott said.

"You're taking that out of context, Dick," Alex sighed.

"Exactly like a fungus." Esme sighed rolling her grey eyes.

"You two are so mean to me," he pouted. "Come on, I'm in the hospital for crying out loud!"

"My father used to say if you can whine you're fine." Esme said putting a hand on her hip.

"Smart man," Alex said. "Now shut your trap, El."

"You're creating a hostile environment! I could have you removed!" he joked.

"We can go, since you're fine," Alex said, standing up. "Have fun hanging by yourself, Dick!"
"You want me to leave?" Esme said, grey eyes seemingly to go watery and her dark curls falling over her shoulder as her head tilted. The face was so heartbreaking, it stung. She turned to follow Alex.

"Alex, don't be like that. Esme!" Elliott called. "Oh come on! I was joking! No, Beautiful, don't cry! Please don't cry. I want you here, I swear. J-Just please don't cry."

Esme's face morphed into a smirk. "Play with a girls emotion huh?" she said hands back on her hips. "You're cruel." she pretended to huff.

"Oh, I see how it is," he said. He narrowed his eyes, a smirk firmly in place. "Beautifully played, Beautiful. Beautifully played."

"If I'm going to be dealing with you, I need to be at the top of my game." Esme said innocently.

"Does that mean you're going to stick around?" he asked, his double meaning clear to the two girls in the room.

"...I suppose it does." Esme said looking away from him.

"Good," Alex said. "He's actually more bearable since you've been around."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"No, you resemble that," Alex corrected.

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Alex, I have a way with reining people in." Esme joked.

"And that is exactly why I approve," Alex muttered.

"Approve?" Esme asked. "Approve of what?"

"You," both Elliott and Alex stated.

Esme blinked at them for a moment before tumbling over her words. "Y-You two just love teasing me, don't you!" she finally got out.

"Oh, she isn't teasing," Elliott stated. "She hated the last girl I went out with."

"I did," Alex admitted.

"She hid it very well, but we all knew you didn't like that I was going out with her," Elliott said.

"What can I say? I'm a good judge of character," she said. "What did I say was going to happen?"

"She'd cheat."

"What happened?"

"She cheated."

"Exactly my point."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear your last girlfriend was...like that," Esme said. Was she for real? Not even a swear? Or even maybe a mean word? How did she put up with Kerry's foul mouth? "It aggravates me when women do that, gives the rest of us poor names. Right Alex?"

"Word."

"Don't be gangster," Elliott said.

"I'm more gangster than you," Alex said.

"Puh-lease! I'm badass." He did a weird motion with his hands, ending up hurting his side.

"Okay Badass. Relax," Alex said with a roll of her eyes.

"Neither of you are gangster, you're so un-gangster it's sad." Esme said blandly, crossing her arms and shaking her head pitifully. She walked over to Elliot to make him sit here. "I'm serious, I am not above tying you to this bed if you don't settle down." she huffed to him.

"Would you?" Elliott asked. "That's the kinkiest thing you've ever said to me, Beautiful. And I'm all for it."

"Ew, ew, ew." Alex covered her ears, shaking her head in disgust.

Esme did not hesitate in slapping his cheek, not hard enough to hurt him, just to get his attention. "Behave." she said narrowing her grey eyes at him, glinting like the steel of a sword.

"Okay, okay," he sighed.

"I mean it. You're going to be on bed rest for at least a month and knowing you, you'll go stir crazy and drive everyone else regular crazy." she huffed.

"You could always come and watch movies with me, Beautiful," Elliott suggested.

"I just might, out of mercy for your sister," Esme said. "Poor girl needs someone sane to help her take care of you."

"That would help," Alex said. "I mean, I have Nathan, but he's in school too and Zack's around some of the time, but he's upstate a lot. And Marcus would just get annoyed."

"Alright, I won't mind coming over and babysitting." Esme chuckled. "I can bring Kerry as well and you two can go off and have fun." she smiled.

Alex's smile fell at the mention of Kerry. Don and Raph had taken her home hours ago. None of them had been able to go and visit the unconscious Elliott due to the fact that they weren't family. Alex sighed. She needed to go apologize.

"Alex, are you alright?" Esme asked her. "If there's something wrong you can tell me, or I can leave and you can talk to Elliot alone."

"No, it's, uh, okay," Alex said. "Kerry and I just got into a fight. And I've gotta apologize to her later."

"Oh, well I wouldn't worry too much," Esme assured hand on her shoulder. "Kerry might come off all tough, but she isn't one to really hold grudges or stay too mad for too long."

"I know, I just said some things I shouldn't have. Things I didn't mean," Alex said.

"We all do,"Esme said. "But if you tell her that she'll understand. She knows people makes mistakes from her own experiences."

"I know, and I'll talk to her soon, but right now, I'm here for Elliott," Alex said.

"Of course."Esme nodded. She looked at her watch. "I have to get back to work. I'll see you two later, ya?" she said hugging Alex and planting a soft kiss on top of her head. She leaned down and kissed Elliot's forehead before heading to the door.

"Thanks for coming by, Esme," Elliott told her.

"Of course," Esme smiled at him. "I'll see you." she repeated before closing the door.

"Goodbye beautiful!" Elliott yelled as she exited.

"You are such a flirt."

"Am not."

"Are too."