The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier

Chapter 50 - A Hospital Visit

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

In the chapter below, the hospitalized Kai gets a visitor...

Chapter 50 - A Hospital Visit

Whereas most sick or injured Yellow Army detainees at Kryptarium Prison were cared for in the main room of the prisoner hospital ward, which contained two long rows of beds, Kai occupied a bed in one of the few private rooms. He figured Skylor had used her influence to make this arrangement. This room had a nice-sized window, so he had the opportunity to entertain himself by watching what was going on in the world outside.

Even though his face was turned toward the window, he was not in a mood for amusement. He had laid on his stomach on this bed for five days now, his back feeling extremely uncomfortable. And he had talked to no one, save for the doctors and nurses who had come by to take care of his burn wounds. So he was alone with his thoughts most of the time.

His most pressing thoughts were about Sam.

Should he believe what Colonel Doolverr had said about Sam last Sunday, just before Kai was burned with the fireplace poker? Was his beloved wife really subjecting herself to personal violation by a Purple scoundrel for his sake? His blood boiled at the thought of his sweet Sam being coerced like that so that another man could sample her womanly charms. Charms that were meant only for Kai.

And who was it that was doing this? Was it that former sweetheart of hers, Jake, who was perhaps getting some revenge on her for spurning him years ago? Whoever it was, Kai vowed to find out and make him wish he'd never been born. And if he could, he'd send the rest of the Purples to Snake Territory and never let them set foot in Ninjago again.

Well, maybe a certain Purple soldier wasn't so bad. Brossette was a friend, just as he had seemed to be when Kai and Jay had met him, on the day they had arrived at Kryptarium Prison. The sergeant was easy-going and liked to talk, reminding Kai of Jay. Through their conversations, Kai had learned that Brossette was about ten years older, in his thirties. He hailed from the swamplands of southern Ninjago and had never married.

Another question on Kai's mind was how would he explain to Sam how he had acquired the scars on his back that would no doubt stay with him for the rest of his life? Sam would not be happy to learn that it all started when he was in a room all alone with a beautiful woman - his former sweetheart, no less - while he was wearing only a towel and she was wearing only a wrapper. It sure would seem to Sam like he was having fun while she was enduring personal indignity, even though he was innocent. He had been trying to retrieve his clothes, in fact.

Too much thinking can tire a person, and Kai dozed off after the latest round of thoughts.

When he woke up and opened his eyes, he could tell he had slept for several hours. He still faced the window, and the angle of the sunlight outside was noticeably different. He yawned.

"Hey, cow rassler!"

Is that who I think it is? Kai lifted his cheek off his pillow and swiveled his neck to face Sergeant Brossette, who was sitting in the bedside chair, grinning at him.

"Better get well soon, Smith, so we can have a contest. You rassle a cow, I rassle a cocodril, and we see who finishes first!" Brossette teased.

Kai smiled wanly at his visitor, pleased to see the friendliest face for miles around but lacking energy due to enduring constant pain for the better part of a week. "No one beats a Garmadon Ranch cowboy at rasslin', pardner!" he countered good naturedly, despite feeling weak.

"We shall see," Brossette chuckled. "Mon ami, I'm glad to see you still have the fah-yuh in your belly." From his sitting position in the bedside chair, he leaned over and patted Kai's forearm which was dangling over the side of the bed. It was one of the few parts of the Yellow prisoner's upper body which remained uncovered by bandages.

"They been feedin' ya well here in the hospital?" Brossette asked, standing up from the guest chair to walk around the bed and toward the window. "Or are the cooks the same ones who stir up the slop for the prisoners and the enlisted men?"

"Food's all right. I can't quite feed myself yet. A nurse has got to spoon it in me," Kai answered, swiveling his head back toward the window to follow Brossette.

Brossette paused to look out the window. He could see the steamy breaths of the men walking past, thanks to the cold temperature outside. "One good thing is you can stay in this warm hospital instead of your cold prisoner shanty."

Kai grimaced. He didn't know what was better - shivering in the shanty or enduring the burns on his back. Neither option was appealing. Not wanting to dwell on it, he set about changing the subject. "So what's been going on outside this building in the past few days? Anything new?" he asked.

Brossette turned from the window to face his friend. "Well, funny you should ask that, mon ami. There IS something new. I got me a woman now," he grinned.

"You do?" Kai raised an eyebrow. "How'd you lasso her?"

"Well, she kinda threw herself at me, and I caught her," Brossette shrugged, smiling.

A knocking of the door interrupted their conversation. Brossette walked around the bed and across the room to open it. Kai didn't bother to turn his head to follow the Purple soldier's movement.

"Just a few more minutes," he heard the sergeant say to the person who had knocked. The door closed once more and Brossette walked back to the window, within Kai's line of sight.

"So what does she look like, this new woman?" Kai asked, resuming their conversation.

"Ah, she has the most beautiful red hair," Brossette answered dreamily. "It cascades down her back like Spanish moss from the cypress trees in the bayou. And her emerald eyes are as green as the lawn of a sugar baron's mansion in springtime...so hypnotizing."

"Sounds like a description of Skylor...er, Major Amber," Kai commented, adding Skylor's official title in case Brossette did not know her first name. He chuckled, but the laugh contained a tinge of bitterness at the thought of the woman who was responsible for him being in this hospital.

Brossette had a sheepish look on his face. He said nothing, but his silence spoke volumes.

"Brossette, is Skylor your woman?!" Kai demanded.

The Purple soldier nodded, quietly bracing himself for Kai's reaction. "She is, mon ami."

"But...what happened to her engagement to that Purple officer?"

"Earlier this week she found out about a lady friend he has in Shanville, so she made the decision to break it."

Kai turned his head to face away from Brossette. His emotions churned. He felt some sympathy for Skylor, and he remembered the unhappiness she had admitted to, just before Doolverr showed up at the registration building. But all this week he had wondered what he himself had ever seen in her, back when she lived in Ninjago Town. She was beautiful, sure. And she could say the right things and sweet-talk him into providing her with things like dinners, money, and the use of his horse Flame on occasion.

But she was deceptive. Those men he sometimes caught her walking with around town...she managed to convince him that they were fellow magazine reporters from her employer when they were really recruits for the Purple cause. And in the two recent encounters with her here at Kryptarium Prison, she was manipulative, disloyal, and, well, immoral. And because of her false accusation that he had attempted to assault her, he was now physically injured.

And now his only friend within 500 miles was smitten with her.

"Are you sure you know what you're getting into, Brossette?" Kai asked, still not looking at the sergeant.

"Look, Smith, I can't fault you for blaming your presence here in the hospital on Skylor, but the way I see it, she was bullied by that peeshwank Doolverr. And she is truly sorry. If you could have seen her anguish that night, mon ami, you would forgive her."

"Not sure I can do that, pardner."

"Let her speak to you herself. Then you will see," Brossette suggested, almost pleading. "She is waiting outside the room."

Kai sighed resignedly, in deference to his friend. "Let her in."