Scene 7-VI

He’s standing outside a hospital room, and he’s afraid to go in.

He’s standing outside a hospital room…

“He’s still unconscious; would you like us to wake him up?”

Lawrence turns, stares blankly, turns back, stares blankly. “No…” He says slowly. “That would be bad. On many levels. No. Keep him asleep until his doctor gets here. Or this place will come down around your ears. Actually, the only reason it hasn’t already is ‘cause I have Polly keeping the weather around here locked down so tight that your air is probably getting stale. But if Luke were awake? No contest. Keep him asleep. Jase will be here soon.”

The doctor watches him and raises his eyebrows. “Alright.”

“Good.”

“Would you like to see him?” He asks, reaching for the doorknob.

“No!” Lawrence says, knocking his hand away, and his eyes are a bit glazed over. The doctor retracts his hand, rubbing it absently, and takes a step back. Lawrence sighs. “I’m sorry. I—not yet.”

“Okay,” The doctor says slowly. “If you would like to contact his doctor now, we have an office you can use.”

“Yes.” Lawrence wipes sweating palms on his uniform, the heat radiating from Luke’s room not helping things. “Yes.”

“This way please.”

Lawrence follows him back down the hallway, through guarded doors, and into the main hospital again. They’re keeping Luke in the prisoners’ ward, and Jase is going to have something to say about that, but, but. This office is behind the main reception, and it’s small, small and cramped, but good enough, he guesses, because too much space right now and probably he’ll faint.

The doctor, and Lawrence doesn’t even know his name, leaves him with instructions to go to the reception after he’s done, and someone will come to meet him, and closes the door behind him. Lawrence considers opening the door and booking it for the docks, but no, so he sits, and he pokes at the comms board, and the headset is cold in his hand.

“Njord, CA Donnett speaking.” Jansen says, and he sounds as tired as Lawrence looks and feels.

“Jansen, it’s Lawrence.” He says, and slips his shoes off to rub his feet against the carpet, in just one more attempt to stay grounded. It backfires, predictably, and as he fiddles with the volume, he gets a shock. “I need to speak with Jase.”

“Uh…” Jansen says.

“Jansen?”

“He’s in a bit of a mood, sir.” Jansen explains. “Prisoners in the sick bay.”

“That’s alright,” Lawrence says. “Could you get him?”

“Yeah, and I apologize in advance.”

Lawrence groans, and rests his head on the desk, letting the smooth wood support him, because agh, and that’s all there is to it.

“Commander?” Jase says, and yeah, he’s surly.

“How are the prisoners?” Lawrence asks, slowly prying his head from the desk.

“Disgustingly alive.” Jase says, and Lawrence can feel the scowl. He stops trying, and just lets his head go, half sprawled across the desk at this point, headset squished between ear and wood, and he’ll probably have a welt there for a few days.

“Ah.” He says. “Well.”

“Lawrence?”

“You… need to catch the next express to Ptok.” Lawrence blurts out, and most likely that was just a blur of syllables.

There’s silence on the other end, possibly Jase work out what the hell he’d said, probably Jase struggling to breathe. Either way, he sympathizes.

“What’s wrong?” He says at last, and damnit, Lawrence sooo doesn’t want to answer that.

“Luke’s in the hospital.”

“I figured.” Jase says, and it’s frightening how homicidal he made two very neutral words sound.

“It’s—bad.”

“It always is.” Jase spits, and Lawrence really wants to fix everything for him, all of a sudden, and he can’t, and it hurts.

“I’m sorry.” He says. “We need you up here. As soon as possible. They’re going to keep him unconscious until you arrive.”

It’s silent again, and then something crashes.

Lawrence closes his eyes, and waits, because he’s miles away, and that’s all he can do.

“I’ll be there soon.” Jase says, and his voice is thick and scratchy. “There’s an express out of Löchen tonight. I’ll be on it.”

“Alright. I’ll be here.”

There’s no answer, because the line has clicked out, and Lawrence is afraid for those prisoners, a bit, because Jase—Jase is dangerous sometimes, and now is one such. Then he remembers Rak and Mul, and he hopes Fosher doesn’t get to Jase before Jase gets to them, and maybe it makes him a little sick, but that’s easy enough to repress.

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Scene 7-VI

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