Plan B

Chapter Fifty-one

Fran needed nearly a hundred stitches in her arm.  The doctors were talking about some cut on a piece of glass when she came around, and she was too dazed to take in a word of what they were saying and do anything other than agree.

Fortunately, Bruno was there with her.  He held her hand through the surgery and talked to the doctors on her behalf.  Fran barely heard a word he uttered, but his presence made her feel safe and he had winced as much as she had at the size of the needle for the local anaesthetic injection for her arm.

By the time that the doctor had tied off the thread and bandaged her arm for her, Fran was beginning to feel a little more lucid.

“What do they make shower doors out of these days?” the doctor muttered as the attending nurse ran through a list of all the things that Fran oughtn’t to attempt doing until her arm had healed, and some daily exercises that were a good idea to carry out.  “It’s dangerous if they’re going to go shattering because somebody leans against them.”

“Why do they all think I cut my arm on a broken shower door?” Fran asked Bruno as he escorted her out of the hospital.  It was dark and chilly outside, and she hugged herself with her left arm, shivering.  Her right arm was still completely numb, and she had a nasty feeling it was going to be extremely painful when the anaesthetic wore off.

“Brookie seemed to think you’d prefer not to go to a psychiatric ward,” Bruno replied.  “And from experience, I think I agree.”

Fran bit her lip.  If it was a story Brookie had made up, then it was the second time he’d saved her life.

“What happened?” she asked in a small voice.  “Are they… are they angry with me?”

Bruno came to a halt and turned around.  Fran had to look up to see his face, which was lit by the lights shining through the hospital windows.  He was wearing the strangest of expressions.

“Angry?” he repeated.  “Why in the world would anybody be angry with you?”

Fran blinked.  “B-because….”  Her voice trailed off and she was suddenly unable to meet his eyes, so she stared at the ground and scuffed her heel against the paving stones.  It just made sense that people would be angry.  She’d probably left an awful mess, and they probably hated her for causing so much trouble.

There was a rustle of clothing as Bruno crouched so their faces were on the same level.  He reached out with a warm hand and tilted her chin up so that she was looking at him.

“Nobody’s angry with you,” he reassured her softly.  “They’re worried and a little scared because Rico found you in a mess of glass and water with blood all over the place, but nobody’s angry.”

Fran bit her lip.  She wanted to believe him, but she wasn’t sure if she could.

“Rico found me?”

“Yes.”

A bolt of panic hit Fran and she clutched frantically at Bruno’s shirt.  Bruno’s hands closed over her own.

“Rico found me?!  Does he know I’m a girl?!”

“No,” said Bruno, gently taking her hands off him, but he kept them clasped in his own.  “And by the way, Conrad’s chest compressor alterations seem to have worked.  Brookie complained about being electrified.”

Fran barely heard anything past the “no”.  She slumped with relief.  Despite that, though, she couldn’t help a little pang of disappointment that Rico hadn’t found out.  Since Brookie had been around, all of the complications could have been explained and out of the way by the time she was back, and then things would be… well, probably still as awkward as they had ever been in the dorm.