Page 83 of Captive Omega

Dizzy? No. Not until I saw…

Okay. I’ll try not to think about it.

Yes, I got up fast.

Happened before? Uh… in winter. My feet sometimes… Disease. Something beginning with R. I can’t remember… yeah. That’s it. Poor circulation.

Then it’s time for the scan.

I don’t think I can look if something is wrong. When I angle my head away from the monitor, my gaze clashes with Garrison.

He’s standing directly outside my room, hands by his side, looking right at me.

I don’t know what he sees to have him walk toward me without a word. Sadie says something. Don’t hear her. I’m too busy looking at Garrison.

When he takes the hand I’m clenching in a sheet, I don’t scream at him to get out.

“It’s okay, Resa,” he says softly, squeezing my hand. “Everything will be okay.”

I squeeze his hand right back and I squeeze it tight, never taking my eyes off him as Sadie does the scan. He can’t possibly know if things will be okay, but he looks like he believes it, so I try to believe it too.

Then it’s over and Sadie is assuring me everything looks okay, and I should try to get some rest. But sleep feels impossible.

“Do you want me to stay?” Garrison asks after Sadie and the nurses have pulled the sheets up over me and wheeled the machine out, leaving us alone.

I want to tell him yes, but I’ve leaned on his strength for too long, I need to stop before it becomes a habit.

“No, I’m okay,” I say, pulling my hand from his.

“Then I’ll be just outside, okay? If there’s anything you need, I’ll be right there.” He nods toward the open doorway.

I’d rather not stay in the hospital overnight, but I need to make sure everything is okay, so when Garrison walks out of my room, pulling the door closed after him, I turn my back to the door so I won’t wake up and come face to face with a doctor in a white coat.

My eyes flutter closed to the murmur of Garrison’s voice outside my room. I don’t know who he’s talking to since we left Vaughn and Blaine at the front of the clinic. I just know he’s there.

Something about his presence, close enough to call out to, far enough he can’t see me shivering under a cover in a room that isn’t the least bit cold, makes it a little easier to sink into the exhaustion seeping into my bones.

And I hope with every breath in my body that I don’t fall into a nightmare as terrifying as the reality I’m eager to escape.

Chapter 24

Resa

Ipry my eyelids open.

Sunlight filters through the blinds as Vaughn sits on the floor beside my door, an open book in his hand that he immediately snaps shut when I stir.

I must have rolled over in the middle of the night, and seeing him and not a doctor in a hated white coat is a relief like nothing else.

“Morning.” He gets to his feet, shoving the book into a black bag he has on the floor before I can read the title. “How do you feel?”

“Okay,” I say automatically, as I sit up.

I’m surprisingly well-rested, which is a first. I’m tempted to think Sadie gave me something to sleep, but I remember dozing off myself.

Vaughn hefts the bag over one shoulder and I eye it curiously. I would have been less surprised if I’d woken up to find him juggling his throwing stars. “What were you reading?”

“This? Ah, homework.”

---