“The mittens, they’re Cal’s. She’ll need them more than me,” I replied, holding up the mittens for him to see.
“Atalanta…”
I looked over at him, his face full of concern.
“What's wrong?”
“Cal’s gone,” he said slowly.
My brow furrowed in confusion until I remembered. My eyes slowly moved back down to the mittens, and I croaked. "Oh…right.”
How could I have forgotten about my sister's death? It just didn’t feel real to me, I guess. As the younger sibling, I had never lived without my sister. And even if I had, with how close we are…were…could the average person truly imagine what it was like to lose a sibling unless they had experienced it themselves?
Slowly, I pulled the mittens over my hands. I would need to be careful not to let my claws poke through the fuzzy fabric. Just the idea of destroying Cal’s mittens filled me with such loss and hopelessness I felt tears begin to well up.
A warm palm rested on the top of my head, a comforting pat. Ajax was watching me out of the corner of his eye as he drove down the mountain.
I embraced the small amount of comfort he was trying to provide. Taking a deep breath, I shoved down that welling emotion that told me I was about to start crying. I needed to be strong in this moment. We were on our way to the hospital, and I would need to make sure that Clint and the guys didn’t make the situation any worse by unraveling things that either party couldn’t know.
We made it to the hospital a good five minutes before Percy arrived with Clint. I could only guess Percy purposely took the long way. Surprisingly, the hospital staff we’d run into weren’t suspicious in the least when the two of us came rushing through the door and asking for passes to my father's room.
I mentally prepared to act like a horribly injured girl. Beyond being pretty damaged emotionally and having an extreme level of exhaustion, I was fine. Better than fine, in fact. The few moments I didn’t feel like taking a month-long nap, I felt like I could lift a bus or run like an Olympic gold medalist. My body felt like it could be strong and capable when it wasn’t weighed down. A small part of me, perhaps 2 percent of my subconscious was excited to see what I could do, while the other 98 percent of my being was still a scared little trash pile.
For the betterment of my performance, this was one of those moments my body decided that a nap was better than walking, and my legs gave out from under me as we made our way down the hallway.
Agile as a jaguar, Ajax scooped me up and into his arms before I even hit the ground.
“This might be too much for you.” He muttered into my hair, holding me close.
“I haven’t even done anything yet. I just walked down the hallway.”
“Too much excitement.” Ajax gave me a small smile.
I huffed. “At least I won't have to pretend to be the poor recovering victim now.”
“You are recovering.” He pointed out.
I shrugged. ”Then just make sure I don’t fall asleep.”
He grunted. “No promises.”
“Were you this exhausted after you were turned?” I asked.
His eyes glazed over as he thought back. It was the same look people often got when they remembered an extremely old memory, but it couldn’t have been that old. He didn’t look much older than Percy.
He shook his head. “No, I wasn’t as bad as you. But I…I was turned under different circumstances.”
I wanted to push and to know more, but something told me to drop it.
We made it to the second floor of the hospital without incident. The fact that no one questioned why a bear of a man was carrying around a small bandaged woman made me wonder at the capability of the hospital staff.
We stopped in front of one of the doors and Ajax gently put me down. “This is his room.”
I slowly opened the door and stepped into the room. He looked so small on that bed, hooked up to the machines.
I stumbled over to the visitor's chair next to my father’s bed and slowly lowered myself into it, my eyes never moving from him. “You always see your parents as these indomitable creatures until something like this happens. Have the doctors said anything new? About when he might wake up?”
After I had woken up, Ajax informed me that my father had sustained a pretty bad head injury. Since he was the one to bring my father in, and with Cal and I missing, the hospital made Ajax my father's medical contact.
“He had extensive swelling in his brain. It’s gone down, but they don't feel safe to take him out of the coma just yet.”
I just nodded and continued to stare at my father. Before I knew it, I started speaking again, “I remember this time when I was eight. We were at this little carnival that was set up in a parking lot. I was on that ride, you know the one with the swings that would spin you around in circles super fast? My cousin and I were fooling around, swinging the chairs back and forth till we were bumping into each other while the ride was going.
I chuckled and reached over to grip my father's hand. It was a little cold to the touch. “He thought my cousin had kicked me in the head. He was so worried I was hurt, he strong-armed the guy to stop the ride. Security was called on him, but he wouldn’t even talk to them until he checked on me. Stubborn bastard.”
My voice hitched, and I held his hand tighter.
I felt Ajax moving closer, and I saw him crouch down next to me out of the corner of my eye.
“It’s okay to cry, you know.”
I shook my head vigorously. “I’m not going to cry. I’ve done enough crying over the past few days.”
Despite my words, I felt the tears coming on again. Damn it!
Ajax reached over and brushed the back of his fingers against my cheek, and I felt that overwhelming pool of sadness seep out of me, leaving only warmth. I watched as his shoulders slumped and his mouth turned into a deep frown for a moment before he shook it off and gave me a weary smile.
I narrowed my eyes at him. I had felt this before.
Just as I opened my mouth to say something, Clint and Percy strolled through the door.
“We will talk about this later,” I hissed at Ajax and slowly stood to give an attempted warm smile to Clint. “Hey, Uncle Clint.”
“Hey, Sport! How are you feeling?” He seemed to be about to reach for a hug but thought better of it.
I tilted my head and shrugged. “I’ve seen better days.”
“Looks like it,” He looked over at Percy and Ajax. “Can I have a few moments alone with my niece?”
They nodded, and Percy said, "Of course,” before he stepped closer and hummed. "I’ll leave you alone with your cousin.”
When he pulled away, I had never seen a more cocky look on his face. I felt the blush rise up on my cheeks so fast it almost made me dizzy. Oh, I was in so much trouble. I watched those two swagger off through the door, the biggest smiles on their faces. Dicks.
As soon as they were out of sight, Clint’s friendly, loving smile turned sour.
He stepped super close into my personal space and hissed, "What the hell happened?”
Eyes wide, I stepped back and almost tripped backward.“Didn’t Percy tell you?”
“He told me three of you were out on a boat and got caught in a storm, and now your dad is in a coma, you look like you were thrown into a meat grinder and your sister is dead. I want to know the real story. Were you found?”
I flinched, feeling like he had slapped me in the face. “We weren’t found. There actually was a boat accident.”
“Why didn’t you contact us?”
“I’ve been unconscious. I only just woke up the other day,” I snapped back.
He pointed a perfectly manicured finger in my face. “You know the rules. As soon as you woke up, you should have contacted us.”