Endgame (Book 3)

Chapter 9

The nurse spoke first.

"As soon as you are ready, you are free to go," she said. "But I wouldn't exercise or do too much for the next few weeks. That's a nasty cut."

"Yeah," I said with a grim smile. "Did I get poisoned or anything, by any chance?"

"Well, yes, but we were able to extract it before it did damage. How did you get in this incident, do you think?" She looked at Sierra like she was going to catch her in a lie.

"Um, I was just running away with everyone else at the school," I lied. "In all the confusion, I tripped on something and cut my chest on a piece of metal. I had no idea why something like that was in the street."

"Mm-hm," she said, nodding her head slowly. "And what did this piece of metal look like? Why would it have had poison on the edge?"

I stuttered. "W-well-"

"Nurse Hawthorne, this isn't an interrogation. We're not paying you to hound our son," my mother interrupted.

Now Hawthorne was the one put on the defensive. "Sorry, Mrs. West."

My mother was a force to be reckoned with when it came to her children, powers or no powers.

"Leave. Now," my father commanded her.

She put her head down and swiftly exited the room. I felt sorry for the woman.

"Is Sage okay?" I asked after the woman was out of earshot.

"For the most part. She won't be doing any running anytime soon, though. Or fighting, for that matter."

Mom glared at Sierra.

Then, I glared at her. "You told her?"

Sierra raised her hands. "Hey, I can't resist your father. He made me do it."

I shook my head. "No, Sierra. There are ways for you to get around that."

"No matter what your father did, you did exactly what we told you not to!" Mom exclaimed. "And now look! It'll take weeks for Sage's leg to heal. Until then, she'll be going nowhere. And guess who's fault that is?"

My face hardened as her accusation sunk in. "She wasn't going to stand by and let the city be destroyed- just like the rest of us."

I felt awful for letting her get hurt, but that was the terrible truth of it. She didn't really have a choice. But that took no less of the fault off my shoulders.

There was more to it than I was ever going to tell them. They were worried enough.

"We're just glad you're alright." Dad defused the situation, putting his hand on Mom's left shoulder. "Please don't try it again."

I can't make any promises, I thought.

"No, you can't," Zero agreed.

"Okay," I said.

Mom nodded her head in satisfaction. "We'll leave you in here for another day, but after that, you're out. In the meantime, your father and I are going to help out with the cleanup."

"Bye, then," Zero said.

It occurred to me that Zero looked at them as his parents as well. He couldn't actually talk to them, though. I pitied him.

"Sierra's going to watch you while we're out. Behave," Dad warned. Mom was already nearly out the door.

"Understood," I waved him off, wincing as the small motion caused my chest to burn.

He followed her out, and they closed the door behind them.

"Wow, I wish my parents were that calm about me fighting metahumans," she said, watching the door close.

"Something tells me they've had practice," I said, almost as an afterthought. She didn't hear me.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "I almost forgot. Cassie asked me to call her if you woke up while she wasn't here."

"Where is she?" I asked curiously.

"She stepped out to check on her family. I had to pretty much push her out the door to get her to leave your side," she said with a smile. "You really have caught yourself a good one."

She talked as if we were good friends. That reminded me of our earlier conversation.

But she had already exited the room to make the call, so I resolved to wait until she was finished.

With nothing else to focus on, I looked at the Manila folder on the counter. I should have been itching to find out what was inside, but I found myself reluctant to get it. How could I trust anything Zero tried to give me?

"Because I have nothing to gain by not letting you see them," he answered for me.

Nothing to gain? What was his agenda, his master plan? He had tried to use another metahuman against me, and that was after he went after me once already and I was going to trust him just like that?

But, then again, when given the chance to actually kill me, he had chosen not to. He hesitated, which meant there was definitely something I needed to know about why he was holding back. Because if it had anything to do with Jay West, whichever one of us he was, I was just as eager to find out about him as he would be.

No, I won't trust him. But that doesn't mean I can't interact with him, right? I thought.

I floated the folder over to me by creating a force field around it and pulling it to the bed. I was going to read  it. All of it.

"Smart choice," Zero commented.

Curiosity did kill the cat, I thought.

Despite the thought, I opened it anyway.