𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍 ; 𝐉𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐃

【6】

(06) ALL THE GOOD THINGS IN LIFE

Irene tried ignoring the knots in her shoulders and stretched her arms out, sliding gracefully on the hard ice. The man had his eyebrows deeply furrowed at the end of the rink, staring with watchful eyes. She inhaled deeply, trying to regulate her breathing before attempting her first triple axel, and that landed her in the hospital.

She was sure her arms would suffer even more nasty frost bites after she fell uneventfully. Of course, this wasn't her first fall, the tremendous amount of training needed to perfect this technique was exhausting and she was convinced she wouldn't be able to master it in the remaining months left for the North American Championship. The coach only sighed, skating to the collapsed girl and picking her up by hooking his arms underneath her armpits. Irene apologised, utterly disappointed by her failure while her ankle throbbed and begged to be let out of her boot.

The distinct scent of antiseptic spray ran through her nose as she sat on the spongy hospital bed. Her eyes went to the mattress beside her as the nurse cleaned up the wound of a middle-aged patient. She kept her hands to her sprained ankle, waiting for anyone to show up. Her greying coach came into the room, sitting on the chair beside her as he told her her father would show up soon. He softly patted her shoulder and tried giving her a few words of encouragement which only worsened her guilt. Irene tried keeping as still as possible as any single movement would only cause the pain to boosting up even faster. She exhaled, tilting her head backwards so that it rested gently on the wall.

She watched as a young man with light brown hair entered the room, a clipboard in his hands. He smiled, heading to the end of her bed and introducing himself. Irene wished she could return the slightest of a smile but the least she could do was grimace at the pain. She let go of her ankle so that doctor could instead grasp it. His fingers ran down her foot and Irene felt oddly uncomfortable as she glanced elsewhere, slightly sceptical as the grey eyes of the doctor stared at her for a couple of full minutes. The strange glint in his eyes made her insides squirm in a bad way and she wished she had never gotten hurt during practice. He asked a couple of questions and with that, he gently placed her foot on the bed.

"Thank you, Doctor Blaine," She said quietly, glancing to his name embroidered on his scrubs. He smiled, slightly bowing his head before leaving the room after muttering a few words to the nurse who wrapped her ankle carefully.

Sitting idle was never something Irene like to do, she didn't like wasting time and she hated being on bed rest. She was itching to go back on patrol. The girl walked slowly to the glass tank in the corner of the room, sliding the door open, she looked inside carefully for the small bundle of scales. His small head lifted and a hiss escaped as he slid under the substrate to sit on her palm. The Ball Python was several months old and she definitely had to divide her time between her curly-haired rat and him. The last thing she wanted was William, her snake, swallowing her poor rat whole.

Her dad wasn't happy about her bringing home a snake, Alfred was even more unimpressed. Dick was very doubtful and Jason was completely for it. Irene had well played her cards, she sneaked up to her dad while he was trying to solve a case and silently asked him if she could get a danger noodle, Bruce being completely distracted had given her the okay, not bothering to decipher the meaning of the latter. He even absently gave her his wallet. The leather pouch consisted of a few credit cards, business cards and photographs he kept tucked into a little fold. Her fingers slipped into the fold and she removed three small photographs. The first she saw was one of Dick's, with his white dress shirt and blue knitted vest matching his twinkling eyes. The second was one of Jason wearing a dark shirt, the shade very similar to his shiny hair, along with his favourite red jacket. Then finally, the third and final picture was one of her wearing one of her dad's old turtleneck which she obviously was drowning in, she recalled it being her favourite shirt just because it smelled exactly like her dad. Her lips tugged into a small smile, Irene remembered how she would wear it as a dress when she was younger. Her eyes broke away and she looked up, hastily stuffing them back into the leather pouch and silently leaving it on her dad's bedside table.