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“I didn't even know you were going to be here. What happened to the last leg of your trip?”
“We were already booking a flight home when a certain young man stopped answering the phone.” She looks at me pointedly, but not unkindly. “And to be honest, Phil was having some sea-sickness issues, so I'm not sure he wanted to keep going, anyway.”
She's probably full of it and just trying to make me feel better for ruining their vacation, but I leave it. I try to avoid her eyes without being too obvious, but of course it doesn't work. This woman has known me since I was a child. She knows all my secrets and tells.
“What happened, Jackie?”
“A lot. Most of it, I'm pretty sure you don't want to know about. The rest I'm not sure I want to tell you about.” Tears prick, and I roll my eyes up to look at the ceiling to avoid them spilling.
“I can handle more than you think.”
“It's not that, it's just…” I take a deep breath, considering my words first. “When we all left here, we were in more trouble than I let on. Truth be told, we were in more trouble than I even realized. Bennet…he put himself in danger to keep Six safe. To keep all of us safe. A lot of bad things happened, but we got him out. I was hurt, but I'm okay now. We're not sure if Bennet is going to wake up, but we're trying a…new treatment.”
“This treatment is supposed to do what, exactly?”
“First, keep him alive. He survived the trip, which is a good sign. The next thing we're hoping for is any sign of brain activity. There's a chance he could be like this for the rest of his life.”
“Oh, Jackie,” she whispers, reaching to pull me in for a comforting hug.
I can feel her sob against my chest, which breaks my resolve, and I lose control of a tear or two. Not that I'm too macho to cry, but I'm afraid once I start, I won't stop.
Mrs. C straightens herself up and wipes her nose on a tissue. Sniffing, she looks at me as if she could see into my brain, or my soul.
“And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“Jackson…”
“The situation where I got hurt was…intense. I thought I might die. And then I thought I'd never walk again—I know, I'm completely fine now. It's…a long story. The pain was excruciating, but it sort of gave me something to focus on. And then it just stopped. So now I have to process everything that I wasn't processing before. I'll be alright.”
“Are you taking your medicine?” She holds her hands up in front of her and quickly adds, “I know you don't like me asking that or prodding you about stuff like this, but I have to check in, you know I do.”
“I…No. Not on purpose. I think I left them behind when we ran. And everything was fine—”
“Until it wasn't.” Mrs. C looks at me sympathetically. “You don't need me to tell you what you need to do. But I am going to tell you this—I'm here for whatever you need. And so are they. Don't hide your pain, Jackson. That's how it gets worse, remember? Don't hold things inside.”
She doesn't say anything more about it, instead just helps me put together a tray to take upstairs.
“I'll see you in the morning,” she says, kissing my cheek.
I watch her walk towards the Groundskeeper's House, a flashlight illuminating her path. She's right. I know she is. And if it gets bad, I will absolutely get help, either from my doctor or my family. But there's so much happening. It can wait.
When I get back upstairs, tray in hand, they've already drawn Six's blood and run the centrifuge. Making a plate for Six, I hand it to her where she's sitting on the bed. She doesn't seem very interested in eating, but I pull a bottle of her protein shake out of my back pocket and hand it to her.
“If you're going to keep donating to the cause, you need to keep your strength up.”
Luis flexes his hand, fully healed, with not a scar in sight. “He's right.”
She barely nibbles on a mini quiche. My eyes narrow.
“You really want Bennet to wake up and find that you haven't been eating? Or are you going to show him all these new curves you've earned?”
Six rolls her eyes, but unscrews the top of the shake and chugs it.
“Good girl,” I say, but it comes out sounding sarcastic rather than sexy like when Bennet says it. Luis snickers a little.
While we're focused on feeding Six, Micah administers another injection, and Dr. Franks hangs a bag of special saline solution.
