Page 30 of Poe: Nevermore

His smile turned tight and rueful. “I don’t know. I think handcuffing you to a radiator and leaving you to bleed out would have normally been plenty sufficient. Five more minutes and he would’ve succeeded.”

Frost let his head rest in his hand, his elbow upon the armrest of his chair, and I watched as his shoulders slumped and his eyes fell shut. If I was to paint exhaustion, I’d take a snapshot in my mind of Frost at that moment and transfer it to oil and canvas. “Frost. Go home.” He looked up wearily and I smiled grimly. “You look worse than I do. Please.”

He didn’t even consider the offer, shaking his head almost immediately. “Thanks, but no. Someone should stay with you.” He rubbed his temples, as if warding off a headache, then nodded toJane Eyre, lying on a nearby counter. “Are you reading that right now or thinking?”

I frowned, deepening my study of him. He looked like absolute hell. “Thinking. Why?”

“Unless you’d rather talk, I’d like to read it. Maybe it’ll keep me awake.” He rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand and blinked hard.

I shook my head. “No way. If you’re going to stay, then at least sleep. Seriously, Frost, you look miserable.”

He stared at me for a moment, as if weighing the temptation of sleep against arguing with me on it. Finally, he sank down in the plastic chair, letting his head rest in his hand. “Okay. You win. Wake me if…”

But, he didn’t get the chance to tell me why I should wake him because just then the dark green curtain surrounding our corner of the room was roughly flung aside. Dr. Robinson stood on the other side. “Well, well, fancy seeing you again, Miss Poe,” he drawled. Frost blinked hard again and sat upright as the doctor checked my charts. I looked to his bloodshot blue eyes sadly and gritted my teeth in irritation. I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t seem to catch a break lately. “How are you feeling?” Robinson asked.

I shrugged as he did some scribbling on his tablet, then moved around to the opposite side of the hospital bed from Frost. “Alright. Woozy…I think the morphine is helping a lot.” Frost gave me a dark look and I gave him a pointed one back. I was not intending to stay in the hospital another night if I could help it. Robinson carefully pushed my hospital gown up on my side, discreetly checking under the bandages. I flinched and tightened one fist uncomfortably, but he nodded in approval and replaced the bandages and my blankets quickly. “Well. Looks good. I think it’d be best if we kept you overnight again for observation, but…”

“But?” I interjected anxiously.

He smiled broadly, shooting me a glance of nauseatingly bright white teeth. “We’ll see how it goes.”

He turned to go and I gritted my teeth, asking at the last minute before he left, “Doctor?”

Robinson turned back to me curiously and I hesitated, looking to Frost first. He frowned deeply in concern and I said quietly, through my teeth, “I…can’t stand…hospitals. Especially at night. It’s a…phobia. If there’s any chance…?”

The doctor smiled again and took his tablet. “I’ll be back in a few hours. I would be optimistic if I were you, though, Miss Poe. It seems you are recovering very well.”

When he had left, Frost slid his chair over closer to me and nodded to my hand. “Can I?”

I raised an eyebrow and half-smiled sardonically. “You’ve never asked before.”

He shrugged and took my hand gently. “I saw the way you looked at him when he checked your bandages. I don’t want you to punch me.” He sighed, staring down at my hand in his. “Poe, I know you’re not okay. Are you sure you don’t want to stay another night? You were nearly killed last night. You had surgery to stitch that mess up. There was internal bleeding…”

I shook my head vehemently. “No. I can’t stay overnight. I don’t care what the risks are; I can’t do it.”

“Would you tell me why?”

When I met his worried gaze, tears came to my eyes and I shook my head again. “I couldn’t bear to tell you and you couldn’t bear to listen. If you’re lucky, you’ll never know.”

He tipped his head slightly and in that moment, it was like I could see something in the depths of his soul bleeding, as if the bloodshot veins in his eyes were only the tip of a massive iceberg. He looked to the lump at my side under my hospital gown where the bandages were and grimaced. “Poe…you’ve been through hell….”

Just then, a shock of pain rippled through my side and I grimaced, tightening my grip on his hand until my knuckles stood out snow-white. I felt his gaze on my face and his hand tighten around mine in turn, but I didn’t dare look at him. After a brief moment, it passed and I relaxed my grip on him. “Sorry,” I whispered.

“My point exactly,” he returned quietly. “You’re not fit to leave.”

“Give it a few hours. I’ve had worse. It’s not much different than a bad day with my old scars, honestly. I think the worst is the nausea from the drugs.”

“But if you’re in this much painwiththe drugs…”

“They’ll prescribe me something. I’ve done this before, Frost.” I sighed ruefully and tried to shake off the memories. “Let’s talk about something else. Like you taking a nap.”

He nodded in agreement. “That’s going to happen. But first, let’s discuss where you’re goingifyou’re released tonight.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean ‘where I’m going’? I’ll go back to my apartment, of course.”

“With me?” Frost gave me an apologetic look. “Second major concussion in three days? You can’t stay alone tonight.”

I gave him a long withering look before grimacing and tipping my head back to count the dots in the ceiling tiles. “Oh God, no…. Frost, it’s ridiculous.”

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