Page 80 of Lifeline

“Just like that?” Aidan asked in surprise, and I let my eyes roll to the heavens because I swore if anyone said that, even me, I was going to end up on the news.

“No,” Xander said, and I could actually hear the scowl in his voice. “You’re up shit creek, your paddle is long fucking gone, and your raft is falling apart. Do you know what punishment duty is?”

“Vaguely,” Aidan said, looking nervous.

“Well, you’re going to get firsthand experience,” Xander said. “And, this one is from me and me alone. I want access to your emails.”

“Uh…all my emails?” Aidan asked, and I couldn’t believe he was protesting when he was being given a foot in the door. “What? There’s some old emails I need to clear out that would scar him and anyone else for life!”

“I don’t want to know,” Xander grunted. “I meant the ones you sent to a certain sniveling, infantile, greasy-haired shit for brains.”

“Oh,” Aidan said and laughed. “I was going to hand those to you whether I was beaten and left on the side of the road, fired, or given another chance.”

There was a pause. “Were you now?”

“I was,” Aidan said with a shrug. “I was being a bitch about fessing up to you guys, but I was going to hand them over. What’s the point of coming clean if I kept those in my back pocket? If you guys are going to be pissed at me, at least be pissed at me with all the facts.”

Xander grunted again, but it was an oddly satisfied sound. “Good. You realize I can’t enforce anything that restricts your access to the net, right?”

“I’m aware,” Aidan said. “You can have Mika go through my phone. Probably safer he does unless you want an eye full of, uh…me.”

“No,” Xander said, and I hit the mute button.

“Eye full of what on your phone now?” I asked him wryly.

“I was single, I have nudes for apps,” he said with a snort. “You can have them if you want.”

“When I feel like I could get you naked and vulnerable without wanting to hit you with a toaster oven, I’ll appreciate the real thing,” I said.

“Toaster oven is oddly specific,” Aidan said.

“Excuse me,” Xander’s voice cut through. “Get me off mute, I can hear the lack of noise in the background.”

“Sorry,” I said after unmuting it.

“Good. Now I’m not making any fucking promises here, like I said, you’re in the shit with all of us. But the vote, for the conscious members of the group, was in your favor.”

“How…how many weren’t?” Aidan wondered. “No names, just…wondering.”

“One so far,” Xander said. “That was me.”

“Your honesty is appreciated and expected,” Aidan said, with a shake of his head.

“Uh-huh, don’t fuck it up. And don’t expect me to pretend like I want you here,” Xander said, but I wasn’t totally buying it. He might have put it to a vote and was willing to go with the vote, but if he wanted to be rid of Aidan, he could have overridden every one of us and not had to lose a bit of sleep over it. “And don’t count on Jake for being a yes vote either; he takes shit seriously. He’s outvoted even if he does, but you gotta work with him, you just have to work for me.”

“Hmm, good point,” Aidan said, looking troubled.

“You’re all on medical leave until we find out how long you’re down and out,” Xander said. “On top of your punishment duty, you’re getting more training. What you pulled was fucking stupid and could have got you killed…that said, you’re obviously ready to try being more use around here than putting up pretty pictures and typing nice things about us. So have fun with the extra training on top of everything else.”

Aidan met my eyes, and I shrugged. That was Xander’s way of telling him, ‘Good job, you fucking idiot,’ but it was probably too uncomfortable to say when he was already pissed off at Aidan. Or maybe it was just because it was Xander, who wasn’t exactly the soft and squishy type.

He jumped when the room phone trilled softly and snatched it up. “Hello? Oh, hey, yeah, no, he’s still…yeah, he’s on the phone with us right…seriously? Fuck, and what did they say? Shit, okay, yeah, yeah, no I will, yeah just…you, uh, be there, he’ll need it, trust me. Yeah, I know.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Xander demanded and I could hear the tension in his voice.

“That was Reno,” Aidan said, grinning. “Jake woke up, and he’s talking. Not a lot; he’s a bit out of it, but the doctors are ‘making happy noises’ as Reno put it.”

“Fucking Christ,” Xander said. “Fucking idiot can’t even…whatever. I said my piece, and you tell Reno he better think real hard if he wants to spend more time with his butt buddy, or whether not pissing off his medic because he’s not getting any rest is worth it. Especially because I have Colin in my ear over it and I have enough to deal with!”