Chapter 10: Jada
I can’t feel my legs and my arms are really numb. I guess that’s a good thing, because that also means that I can’t feel if there’s any pain on my body. My head is still swirling from the medication the medics have been feeding me.
I guess a signal has just been sent out from one of the machines, because it doesn’t feel like barely five minutes before there is a team of medics coming into my room to examine me. I recognize one of the medics, the one that called me “Sweetheart” and injected me with something to make me sleep, but are the other two the ones who helped him with my operation?
“Hey there, Jada,” the medic says as he pulls on a pair latex gloves. He’s smiling a lot. When I don’t. Acknowledge him, continues, “I don’t think I introduced myself the last time. I’m Doctor Ken, I am on of the lead doctors here. I know your friend, Melissa. She’s one of the best medics I know.”
I’m still silent as Dr. Ken and his assistants begin to remove the bandages from me. To my surprise, there’s no blood left on my body. The bandages come off almost white. The only discoloration comes from the medicine, which smells sort of minty.
“I’m impressed,” the doctor goes on as runs his fingers across my leg, “You cuts have seemingly healed over night. Do you feel any pain anywhere along your body?”
I shake my head and softly, almost inaudibly, say no.
Dr. Ken looks confused. “Do you feel my fingers along your leg?”
“Yes,” I say a little louder. Dr. Ken looks over to the other two medics, who look just as confounded as he does. “Is there something wrong?”
It’s as if they ignore me. They are huddled together, whispering, looking at images on the clipboard, discussing me. Occasionally, one of them would look towards my direction or cup their hand across their mouth, as if to block what they’re saying.
Maybe it’s because no one seems to be acknowledging that I’m even here anymore, but I’m highly impatient now. Right before I’m about to shout at them, Dr. Ken turns to look at me. He pulls out a flashlight and asks me to stare forward as he examines my eyes. He asks me a series of questions like what I remember, what medications I take, if I knew my family’s medical history, even if my diet consisted of anything other than the dining hall. I answer all of them truthfully, extremely confused as to what the relevance of all these questions is based on.
Dr. Ken asks if it would be alright to draw some blood from me. I give him my consent after he promises that it would be a very tiny bit of blood. I shut my eyes as the needle pinches my arm and I feel my blood leaving my veins. When I open my eyes, there’s a patch on my arm and the doctor is holding a three inch syringe that’s about a quarter inch thick filled with my blood. He then redirects his attention to me.
“Sweetheart, I mean Jada,” he fumbles the words, “you suffered a severe injury that takes weeks to fully recover from.”
“So I’ve been unconscious for weeks,” I state, but Dr. Ken shakes his head.
“More like just two days,” he says. Now I join into their confused looks. Two days? I have been out for two days? Only two days?
“It would seem that your friend’s blood might be a cause of that,” Dr. Ken states, “You have a very rare blood type here, so he came in demanding that we use his since he had the nearest match.”
He. “Clayton?” I ask.
The doctor shakes his head, confused by the name. “A Xain Austin, apparently a famous fighter.”
My heart stopped after he said “Xain Austin”. I’m shaking and beginning to breathe very hard. All three of the medics rush over to try and fix whatever the problem might be, not knowing that there wasn’t one—not a physical one, atleast—to begin with. Xain Austin gave blood to me. TO ME! He was within reach, and I was unconscious. I’m about to say something when I feel a poke in my arm and black out.
When I awake from my induced slumber, it’s not the medics that I see, but Melissa. She’s just sitting in a chair and looking at me with a crazed look on her face. I can’t tell if she’s holding back tears or choking on words. Either way, she’s been here a while.
“Hey,” I say softly and try to smile. My voice is hoarse, probably from lack of use.
Melissa just sits with the same expression on her face. It’s a little scary. Her face is pale white along with paled blue eyes. Her hair is frizzled, as if she just woke up or got out of bed. She definitely just got out of bed. She’s still in her fitted pajama sweats and shirt. I’m guessing that she ran all of the way here when she found out I had awoken.
“Mel,” I start after a brief silence, “I’m s...”
Melissa hops from the chair and plants her face into the bottom of my ribs. She is bursting into tears, and within seconds, I’m soaked.
“Jada, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean what I said, I was just talking. I didn’t mean for you to get mad. It’s all my fault that you got hurt and had to be here. And...and...”
She’s overwelmed by the tears. I feel around for my legs, and when I feel them, I sit upright as best as I can. Melissa slips onto the bed and joins me, now crying in my lap. I’m stroking her hair as her tears dampen my legs. We just stay like that for about another ten minutes. I notice that she is bare-footed, proving that she just woke up and ran here.
“Jada?” Melissa says almost inaudibly.
“Yeah,” I answer, still stroking her coarse, blond hair.
“I thought you were dead,” she says a little louder, “It’s all my fault you’re here.”
“No, Mel,” I start, “it’s not your fault.”
“If I hadn’t said those things, you wouldn’t have gotten angry and stormed to your room, and you wouldn’t have cut yourself,” Mel continues in her same position on my lap.
“If I hadn’t gotten angry like I did, I wouldn’t have stormed off and accidentally knocked over the vase,” I respond to try and take the blame off of her, “It’s not your fault Mel, it’s mine. I went for Xain’s rose.”
At those words, I realize it was no longer clasped in my hands. I’m about to hop down when Melissa sits up and points to an end table with three vases. Xain’s rose is the center one. The others are an assortment of wild flowers.
“You had visitors,” Melissa says while still pointing at the vases, “Katya left wild flowers from her own miniature garden, and Clay left some flowers he...‘picked up’ from bushes outside.”
I smile, because I know what is meant by “picked up”. Melissa looks at me with a slight smile. “He was here, you know.”
“I know,” I say, trying to smile, “He gave me blood.”
“He saved your life,” Melissa’s smile grows wider, “Can you believe you two are the only ones with a rare blood type?”
“Wait,” I say. I’m confused. “What are you talking about?”
“What?” Melissa answers just as confused.
“You said he saved my life,” I respond, “What do you mean by that?”
“You were dying,” Melissa answers as her smile melts away, “You lost so much blood that your body couldn’t reproduce enough to keep you alive. Only way you would be able to live was by a transfusion. Xain came here with Katya and found out that he was a match, so he offered to donate. He didn’t even care about the amount of blood they were taking, only that there was a chance it would help you.”
I rub my arm where the tube is still connected. Xain’s blood is inside of my body. I don’t know what to say, only that I’m in his debt. “Where is he?”
“Asleep,” Melissa says, and then cracks a smile and says, “in my room.”
My eyes shoot open. “What’s he doing there?”
“After donating blood, he fainted,” Melissa answers, “The others thought it’d be safe if he awoke and found a familiar face.”
“I bet they did,” I mumble and smile. Melissa joins me. I remeber something else. “Isabelle’s fight is tomorrow.”
Melissa nods. “I know.”
“Can I see him?” I ask. I begin to feel my heart beat harder in my chest.
Melissa shakes her head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I gave him a sedative so that he could be rested enough for her fight.”
“How about her?” I push out. Melissa stares at me with a stunned expression. “Or Abi?”
Melissa gets up and shuffles around for a minute before looking at me again. “Abigail is your best bet,” she says, “Isabelle is trying to stay focused.”
I start to get out of the bed, but Melissa stops me. “I’ll send for her,” she says, “I can’t let you out of bed until tomorrow, no matter how quickly you heal.”
Melissa leaves the room and returns ten minutes later with Abigail. It’s strange seeing them standing next to eachother. You could mistake them for sisters just by the resemblance of their hair. Other than the near same shade of blond, the resemblance ends. Abigail has a half smile and is approaching me slowly. I look at Melissa who nods at me.
“I should check on other patients,” she says as she ducks out of the room, shutting the curtains behind.
Abi stands beside my bed and smoothes back the hair from my forehead and smiles. “Hey there, sweetie. How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay,” I answer her. “You?”
“I’m fine,” Abigail smiles.
“I’m sorry about your sister,” I blurt out. She just continues smiling and stroking my head. “How is she?”
“She’s holding well,” she looks away briefly. I think she’s trying to keep from tears. I sit up on my knees and hug her. I feel her arms drop around me with a gentle grasp.
“I shouldn’t have mentioned that,” I say quietly.
“It’s fine,” Abigail responds, “Everyone has either been telling me that it’ll be the fight of the century or offering early condolences, it’s nice for someone besides Xain to ask how Izzy is actually doing for once.”
I look up and our eyes meet. We both just giggle for a moment, and then she strokes her hand across my forhead and through my hair.
“You remind me a lot of Xain,” she says with a big smile. I bite down on my lips to keep from smiling too hard. “You both have the same loving and caring attitudes, both have the same talent levels entering this place, both have blond haired best friends.”
I have to laugh about that. Now that I think about it, that is true.
“You know he saved me?” I ask. Abigail nods her head.
“Risked his health,” she responds, “I’m sure your friend has told you about him.”
I nod. She steps back and looks at me. “How long do you have to stay here?”
“Tonight,” I tell her, “I’m released tomorrow morning.”
Abigail looks at me and smiles. “Well, I’d say you look well enough already. So, how would you like to sneak out now?”
I crack a smile and hop down, but first I gently pull the thin tube out of my arm. It’s painful at first, but then it feels like a pinch. I figure I won’t bleed out much, but Abi still places a bandage on the spot the needle was removed from. My feet feel wobbly when I plant them on the ground. I suddenly feel light headed, but I feel Abigail grab an arm and pull me over her back. I secure my arms around her neck as she secures hers around her back to make a seat for me. My father used to hold me like this, on his back.
“Ready?” She says as she stands up. I point to the flowers, the rose in particular. She chuckles. “I’m sure Melissa won’t let anything happen to them.”
I smile and tell her I’m ready, and she begins to walk quickly, but carefully, through the infirmary and to an elevator. In the elevator, she begins to punch in a code on the pad. The elevator moves downward and I see the read-out say EIT.
“I thought only medics had access to the EIT.” I say softly and confused.
Abigail only laughs and responds, “Then I guess they should consider making the codes more secretive.”
I like Abigail. Something about how she does things draws me.
We ride a car to Section 3 and travel up to the fourth floor. The elevator opens and she carries me to room 413, and without even setting me down, unlocks her door. Before heading in, she turns and nods towards the room across from her.
“Izzy lives there,” she states and walks right into her room, where she lays me on her bed. I look at the clock hanging on her wall. Almost ten-thirty at night. No wonder Melissa was in pajamas.
“Abigail?” I say in the most girlish voice I know.
“You can call me ‘Abi’ if you like,” Abi answers as she tucks me in.
I draw a deep breath and ask, “Are you scared?”
“A little,” Abi barely looks at me, just rubs my hair, “My sister is strong and has been through a lot. Xain says that she is nearly equal to, if not better than, Vice. I believe my sister is, too.”
I smile at her and we hold a glance. She then gets up and places an extra mattress on the ground. I offer to take the floor or share since there’s more than enough room on the bed I’m on, but she just shrugs and says, “Believe it or not, but Xain has nights he sleeps here, but it’s very rare. Izzy’s the one who sleeps here the most.”
My eyes begin to role back as I let out a wide yawn. “Good night.”
“Yeah, better get your rest,” Abi yawns out as the lights dim out. There’s a pause, and the, “Tomorrow I’ll take you to meet Xain.”
Meet Xain. My favorite person. My gift giver. Now my savior. Xain Austin, the boy who I’m indebted to in many ways. I will pay him back in some way, some day.