Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 78 - Shadowcat

Welp. Here it is. The chapter with all the answers. There's another one after this, and then an epilogue, and then we're done. It only took like three years :)

I woke up to the steady beeping of a heart monitor. Still alive, that beeping announced, mocking me. You can't even die properly. I eased my eyes open just a crack, and the light stung, so I stopped at that. I was in the castle - I could tell that much from the glimpse of crumbling grey stone.

My body was warm and comfortable, lying on what felt like a mattress. Nothing amiss there. Except for my wrists, which were ringed by the cold, pinching touch of metal. Restraints? Yes, that must be it. I couldn't move them more than an inch without being stopped short.

"Yes, I'm doing it now," an unfamiliar voice announced. "We'll let the sedative wear off."

Actually, I'm already awake, I protested grumpily. Which you'd know, if you hadn't sedated me.

I lay there, pretending to be asleep, while I listened to a set of footsteps pad closer. I wasn't going to take any chances here. You didn't usually handcuff and sedate your friends, in my experience.

I waited until I could hear the heartbeat of whoever was looming over me, and then I lunged for them. My hand closed around ... something. I found myself staring a familiar middle-aged woman in a white coat.

"Ow," she snapped. "What was that for?"

It was just Hailey. I released her wrist, albeit grudgingly, and then I tried to sit up.

"What are these for?" I shot back, rattling the handcuffs.

"Those will keep you from wandering off while I run some tests," the doctor sighed. "You have a habit of evading my attention until you're about to drop dead."

"I feel fine."

She shook her head. "I didn't get my medical licence revoked for nothing, Rhodric Llewellyn. You are going to stay exactly where you are until I'm sure you've healed."

I just stared at her. Already, I was reaching out with the mind-link, trying to determine who was nearby and who might be inclined to release me. I tried to find Lee for nearly a full minute before I remembered. Tom and Mort felt distant. They were in the woods, I reckoned, and they would take ten minutes just to walk here. Eira was dead, too, of course. I seemed to have run out of friends.

I decided to tolerate the examination. The doctor checked my pulse, my temperate and my blood pressure in the span of a minute. I noticed that someone had changed my blood-soaked clothes. And although I couldn't reach up to check, I was fairly sure there was a few days' worth of stubble on my cheeks.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked warily.

"Three days. I spent nearly eight hours putting your intestines back together, Rhodric, and another two digging that bullet out of your ribcage. Once again, I have no idea how you're still alive."

Three days. Three days? I needed to get the hell out of this bed and find my sons. Hailey had other ideas, apparently. Once she'd finished the vitals, she made me lie back down and prodded my abdomen until I threw up into a clinical waste bin.

"That's not good," Hailey sighed. "I'd like an ultrasound. Maybe Vik Lloyd will let us use the Shadowless med wing for a few hours if you ask really nicely..."

I couldn't help laughing. "Vik Lloyd wants me dead."

"Hasn't he always?" she snapped, draping her stethoscope around her neck so she could properly scowl at me. "He told Tomos to tell me to tell you that he'll forget what happened if you solve the Silver Lake problem for him. Now, I don't know what that means, but-"