Played For A Fool

Blue

Iko sighed in relief, sagging against her pillows. The days had been long since the night they adventured into Luna Hospital, giving her more anxiety than she had ever felt before. The waiting had been a terrible punishment, but now that it was finally over, Iko could breathe again.

The nurse left with a smile on her face after delivering Iko the news that Cinder had finally woken up. Iko, of course, had started squealing with exhilaration. It was the best news that Iko had ever heard. That moment might as well have been one of the happiest of her life. It was even better than when she had watched Catching Fire and fangirled over her three biggest celebrity crushes all in the same movie.

Nurse Poppy would be back at any moment, ready to take Iko to Cinder. The only catch with the situation was that Iko would have to sit in a wheelchair. She had protested, telling the woman that she was perfectly capable of walking, and that the monster had broken her arm, not her leg, but the nurse had been firm. Iko rolled her eyes, but that had been their compromise. Iko had to go in a wheelchair in order to visit Cinder, or else she didn't get to go at all.

Out of all the injuries sustained the night at Luna Hospital, Cinder's had been the worst. She had been pronounced clinically dead when the medics got to her, though they had been able to restart her heart with a defibrillator and her breathing had come right along with it. The only problem had been Cinder's major loss of blood. They thought for days that she might not wake up. Good thing that she finally had, or else Iko would have had to kill her.

Second on the scale of worst injuries, miles behind Cinder, was Iko. She had been walking through the dank halls of Luna Hospital when she and Kinney had stumbled on a mutant locked in a cell. When they had investigated, another wolf attacked them, breaking Iko's arm and nearly strangling her to death. It had been a close call, but Iko was completely fine now, or at least she thought she was.

Iko had barely anything to show for her battles, besides the soft cast with sixty-four stitches underneath, and some dark bruises outlining her neck and eyes. Her stitches would come out soon, and then she would get a real cast to mend her broken arm.

All of the nurses had been terribly kind to her during her stay, but Iko just wanted to go see Cinder. They had been best friends for over five years and waiting all by herself for three days was pure torture. If someone besides the nurses had come to tell her what was going on, it would be a different story, but it seemed that everyone else was busy.

Only two people had come to visit Iko in the past three days. The first had been Winter, who was sweet as could be, but also a bit off. It wasn't that she had any disabilities, more like she wasn't completely present mentally. She had asked Iko if she was okay, to which she had responded with a, "how is Cinder doing?". Winter had only looked sad, and shortly after left with Officer Clay.

The second person to visit Iko was Thorne. He had been wearing sunglasses and carrying a walking stick. He was still good looking as ever, but a little worse for wear with some bruises and a couple missing fingers. He had been kind to Iko, almost throwing her off with his sweet sincerity. Something had changed with him, like he had lost his will to joke around. There was a broken quality that Iko could sense around him, and Iko wondered what they did to him at Luna Hospital.

No one had stopped in to see her since. Iko understood. Hardly anyone involved in saving Cinder had met her before that day at the hospital, and everyone was too traumatized. The only person who Iko had been disappointed in not seeing was Officer Kinney. He had been with her when the monster attacked, and was supposedly the one to have gotten Iko to safety.

Winter had informed Iko that Kinney had been the one to carry her unconscious body out of the hospital. She had even told Iko that he looked horrified, but Iko would never believe that. If anything, the grouch would be nothing but happy at Iko's silence. The only thing he would be worried about was losing his position.