Page 79 of Thorn

She’d picked out the names Honey and Gage along with the one she already knew, Thorn.

Her hand was comfortably warm, and there was a slight pressure. She was holding hands, she realized. And the hand she held was a tether, a grounding cord, an anchor. She rolled her hand and intertwined her fingers, feeling happy. Her lips slid into the ghost of a smile.

She liked it there in this neverland between wake and sleep.

This was peaceful.

The tinnitus was still a high-pitched hum, but it didn’t stab into her brain. She could almost ignore it. Maybe the male voices were a counter balance.

“Hey, Brigitte, how about you, me, and Honey go and get an exfil plan together? Somewhere quiet where we won’t disturb her.”

Silence followed.

“We’ll leave Thorn where he is and fill him in once we have a course of action.”

Another stretch of silence. She didn’t want to wake up. If she opened her eyes, then she’d pull herself away from this moment of contentment. It had been so long since she’d felt this level of peace. She actually couldn’t remember, no, wait, yes, when she was in Tanzania with that amazing herd of elephants. The sun setting, the herd climbing from the water. That had been bliss. It seemed like a lifetime ago. Someone else’s mind and body.

A deeper voice chuckled. “Are you afraid Thorn’s going to scoop her up and run? His orders are to keep eyes on until the exfil, and, that barring a sudden emergency, there should be no exfil without the doctor signing off on her stabilization.”

“Thorn, you aren’t going to go rogue on us, are you?” the other guy asked. “You’re planning on following orders?”

Thorn didn’t answer. She had to assume he’d given them some sign.

A door opened, there were sounds of steps and movement, and then the door snicked shut.

Good. Now there was quiet, and she could float.

“Arya?” The fingers tightened a little on hers. A hand smoothed back her hair then rested on her head. A thumb swiped smoothly across her forehead. “Arya, can you wake up?” the man asked in Arabic.

Maybe she had just been dreaming – a terrible nightmare and then a peaceful dream.

“Arya, I’m sorry to have to do this. But I really need you to wake up now.”

Arya knew that on the other side of wakefulness would be truth. And truth would hurt. Her smile fell off, and she squeezed her eyelids a little tighter together. But far from helping her grip into that space in between, it bobbled her to the surface of consciousness.

“That’s right, you’re doing great. Listen to my voice and wake up. I need you.”

Arya blinked her eyes open. The thumb soothing her forehead stilled. She was staring into deep brown eyes filled with affection and concern.

“I’m Thorn,” he reminded her. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” she spoke to him in Arabic. Her head turned, and her eyes slid around the room.

“You’re in a clinic. You got sick in your room in Paris. I brought you to the clinic.”

“You skipped over the bad people that you beat up to save me.”

Thorn didn’t answer that.

“Your calling me Arya now and not Juliette like last time.”

“Is that your name?” he asked.

She stilled. “Ithinkit is. Ithinkthat my name is Arya Khouri and not Juliette DuBois. Why would I have two names?” she asked.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. My job–” he stopped and gave a little shake of his head. “I want to protect you, and I need to know who it is that wants to hurt you. We’re here in the clinic but we want to take you back to the United States.” He was watching her. He seemed to be absorbing every nuance of her reactions.

She could tell he was trying to say the right thing in the right way for her sake. Arya squeezed his hand to encourage him to just speak.

---