Page 71 of Iced Out Mate

“No problem.” He took the empty cups back and tossed them in the bin next to a large fern that had dark blue leaves rather than the typical green. He sat down just as the doctor walked out of the double doors that separated us from the operating rooms. Everyone got back onto their feet. Raquel was first at his side, asking for an update. He waited a brief moment for us all to gather around him in a loose circle.

“He’s alive,” the doctor started, which earned a unified sigh of relief. He had stress lines around his eyes, but he didn’t look like someone ready to deliver terrible news. “He is in a medically induced coma at the moment. The silver bullet went through his chest and collapsed a lung. It missed his heart and his spine, which I think is a bright spot. Unfortunately, the silver isn’t allowing his body to heal properly. He keeps regenerating and then breaking down the tissue almost instantly. Even when we try and go in with both surgical tools and druidic medicine, it appears that his body rejects it. We’re still working on him and will probably be in there until the morning—but I do want to prepare you for the fact that we may keep him in the coma until we can figure out how to heal him.”

Raquel’s hand rose to her mouth. It muffled a cry. Yuni put an arm around her, as did Gabe.

“Is the bullet still in him?” Chris asked.

“No, no. There’s an entrance and an exit wound. But the silver itself poisons anything it touches if it breaches the skin of a shifter. I have our alchemists working on a potential tonic that could help cleanse him but unfortunately the process to create it is extensive and time-consuming.”

“How long do you need?”

The doctor—Doctor Rosario according to the name badge—shook his head. “A week or two. It’s heavily reliant on the moon cycle in order to infuse some of the ingredients.”

Chris sucked in a deep breath. Miles cleared his throat. The air inside the room felt thick even though all the plants and running air conditioning would have suggested the opposite. There was so much tension and fear that it felt like we stood ankle-deep in a humid swamp.

“Can we see him?” Miles asked. He sounded meeker than I’d ever heard him. I reached for his hand, finding it, holding it. This wouldn’t have happened just a few days ago, but at this point I don’t think either of us cared who knew we were together.

“Unfortunately, not right now, no. You won’t be able to see him until we move him from the OR to a room. I’ll be right out the second that we do.”

“He will survive this, right?” Raquel asked. It almost sounded like a rhetorical question. As if we all already knew the answer. Except Doctor Rosario didn’t say what we all expected him to say, what we all hoped he would say.

“The damage is extensive and silver poisoning can spread over time. We think we can at least contain it, but we still need to figure out a way to cleanse it. There are a lot of steps. I’m sorry, I don’t have a better answer for you.”

Raquel nodded, understanding. The weight felt like an anchor falling on my chest.

With that, the doctor turned and went back to the operating room. Raquel wordlessly walked over to a chair and slumped into it.

Chris came over to Miles and me, placing a hand on both of our shoulders. “You two have had a long day. Go home. Rest. Keep your phones on and I’ll call you if there are any updates.”

I mustered up a smile for my best friend. He was always an “alpha” type of guy, someone I tended to lean on and go to for advice, but the gravity of tonight seemed to have unlocked something else in him.

“Are you sure?” I asked. I wanted to stay for as long as it took to see Emmy, to know he was alive. But I also trusted that the druids were doing everything in their power to heal him and that me sitting in the waiting room wasn’t going to help with that. I wasn’t even sure if I could go to sleep, but I did know that I was dying to just lie down in a dark room with Miles next to me, both of us quiet and safe and comfortable and together.

“Yes. You need to rest.” Chris nodded and stared me dead in the eyes. I could tell he’d argue the point if I decided to stay. I must have looked more tired than I felt.

I turned to Miles. He had washed his hands of the blood but some of it had gotten onto the side of his face, speckling his cheek and ear. His dark hair was a mess of sweat and crusted blood that he must have spread through when he ran a hand through it.

He needed a shower and a rest as badly as I did.

“Let’s go,” I said. Miles didn’t argue. He was oddly silent as we left the hospital. I didn’t want to poke and prod at him. I didn’t think we needed to talk. Enough was said. We could just chill together in silence, taking it all in, and speaking when we felt ready. That was the comforting part of being with someone you so deeply connected with. You didn’t need to fill in silence or empty space with words. Just being together was enough.

As we got into the car, my phone buzzed with a notification. I needed a distraction. Maybe it was someone sending me a silly meme, something to make me laugh.

I unlocked my phone and read the notification. Then I had to read it again. Then one more time.

“Holy shit,” I said out loud, breaking the silence as I was shocked for the thousandth time tonight.

“What? What is it?”

“It’s my cousin,” I answered. “He wants to meet up. Says he’s actually stopping in Burlington soon. That he’s been approached to join—fucking shit—to join the Bobcats.”

“No fucking way. Really? You’re not bullshitting?”

“No, you know I can’t bullshit. I laugh too much. Give everything away… holy shit.”

“That’s amazing, Dyl. What are you going to say?”

“That I sent my first message by accident and don’t feel good meeting up.”