Intrepid » n.h. au

Chapter 25

I pull my lips between my teeth as she stops all of a sudden, and turns to me, her hands on her hips. "But you," She starts, and I get a sudden uncomfortable feeling that I'm talking to my mother. "You are an adult! You should have known better, you shouldn't have let him do it!"

"Do you think I haven't tried?" I interrupt her, laughing in disbelief. "He's 5'9 and the only time he's ever done any kind of exercise was in his high school gym class. It's like sending a kitten into a minefield."

"Then why did you do it?!" She shouts, and I'm actually starting to feel a little pissed right now. "Why did you let the kitten into the minefield?"

"Are you not listening to me?" I shout back, louder than her, which fortunately gets her to stop talking. "I said I tried, I tried talking him out of it, I knew what could happen to him, I'm not a fucking idiot! I even offered to do it instead of him, but you know what he told me?"

I pause, to look her dead in the eye – she slowly crosses her arms over her chest, looking vulnerable all of a sudden. "He told me he needs to do this himself. Because he cares about you. Because he loves you, and no man wants another man fighting for his girl. He wouldn't have given up on it no matter what I said to him."

She lets out a shaky breath, but forcefully rolls her eyes in fake annoyance to hide how she's really feeling. "You just- ugh. Just, just stop talking, you have the most annoying accent I've ever heard."

Ignoring her insult – because I honestly can't get angry about it anymore – I stand up, and walk around the coffee table to reach Freya, and pull her in a rather awkward hug. Her arms are still crossed, and the top of her head is barely reaching my shoulders. It's like her existence is refusing to cooperate.

"He's going to be fine," I say firmly, not letting my discomfort get the better of me. "He wasn't in a damn plane crash or something, it can't be that serious, right? Come on, you're a future brain surgeon, this is your area of expertise. Work with me."

"Ass-kissing isn't going to help you here," She mumbles against my jacket, and pushes me away from her, earning a sigh from me. "He's... he's in a coma."

"Okay, but," I begin, desperately trying to recall everything that I know about being in a comatose state. "Did they tell you anything about his pupils?"

I raise my brows as she swiftly turns around, a careful look in her eyes. "Yes, they said they're... they're normal."

"Normal?" I repeat, taking a few steps toward her. "Equal in size?"

At first she nods, but then, "But they also said that he's not responding to light-"

"But his pupils are normal," I cut her off determinedly, "Which means that he's probably just lethargic."

Freya narrows her eyes at me, but she doesn't seem angry anymore. I understand that she's worried and upset about Niall, but I'm really trying to make her think logically. "How do you even know about comas?"

"Everyone knows that," I defend. And my original plan was to go to a med school, but then I didn't get in, and now I'm stuck majoring in English and probably being an English teacher until I retire, I add in my head.

She shrugs, looking at her bare feet silently. Okay, I know she wasn't expecting me this early, but she should feel at least a little awkward about only wearing a hoodie and boy shorts right now. "Whatever, I'm- I'm tired, let's just get this over with."

I frown as she starts walking out of the room, "What?" I say bluntly, causing her to stop and look at me. "'Get this over with'? You mean you-"

"Yeah, I know why you're here," She snaps in a bored tone, "I just need your help with a few things."