Page 7 of Protecting Salvation

“Want to elaborate, big guy?”

“It’s a benign brain tumour.”

“Ah, fuck.”

“Shit.”

He let them voice their feelings and then went on. “Symptoms include headaches, low blood pressure, hence the fainting, blurry vision, and some other stuff.”

“You can have surgery and get it removed though, right?”

He glanced at Lotus who was biting her lip. “It’s tricky. I have a rare blood type.”

Bishop looked at Bás who was watching him with arms folded. “How rare?”

“Only fifty people in the world.”

“Well, shit,” Bein spat and Hurricane tried not to smile.

“It’s called golden blood because of some of the properties but it makes any kind of surgery very tricky, and that’s without the fact I don’t exist on paper.”

“I told you we can make it work, Hurricane,” Bás stated.

He dipped his head to acknowledge it. The truth was that doing so would risk the entire team and he wouldn’t allow that. “I know and Savannah is going to look into some options for me.” He knew that was probably a dead end but if it gave his friends hope, he was good with it. “Until then, I’ll be stepping back from my role here. I can’t, in good conscience, fly you guys around when my vision isn’t perfect and I might pass out at any given moment.”

“You’re not leaving?” Snow looked distraught as Sebastian held her back to his front and whispered something to her.

“No, I’m just going to stick around here doing more desk-type work.”

Bás had agreed with him about flying and while it killed him to admit it, he couldn’t risk the people he cared about. Bás was going to ask Santa to step in as he flew Apache helicopters. Hurricane didn’t know the new guys well but he knew enough to trust that they were a good fit for this team. He’d also be keeping Watchdog company so that he didn’t slide so far into a pit that nobody would be able to reach him.

“Right. If that’s it, can we eat? I’m fucking starving.”

Duchess smirked. “When aren’t you hungry, Hurricane?”

And just like that it was back to normal. His chest relaxed as Val handed him a heaping bowl of chilli and cornbread. The sky hadn’t fallen, the world hadn’t ended, and nobody was looking at him differently. They laughed, they teased each other, and life went on just how he’d wanted it, yet he still felt an emptiness in his gut. No, loneliness. Especially when all the couples began to disappear to their own rooms.

He’d never been one to dream of a wife and kids, flying had always been his life. Perhaps it was losing that part of himself that shone a spotlight on the rest of his life. He didn’t know and he didn’t want to wallow.

“Hey, Hurricane, you want to see who can do a hundred sit-ups on the bars the fastest or are you too chicken?”

His eyes widened and a big grin split his face as Lotus challenged him. “Oh, you’re gonna be sorry, little girl.”

“Yeah, we’ll see, loser.”

As she raced ahead of him, his worries were forgotten. For now.