Found (10 page)

Penny

I come to in a strange room, not in the dorm, or on an examination table, but in a bed with metal bars pulled up on both sides. The image of Parker’s burning skin taunts me. The smell of singed hair and blistered flesh tickles my nose.
Too familiar.

NO.

What time of day is it? What day is it? I whip my head from side to side. There’s no clock on the beige walls and, of course, no window for sunlight or moonlight to peek through.

I try to bring my hand up to scratch my nose, but it’s strapped down. They both are. I bang my ankles side to side against the metal rails. I can’t raise them more than three inches off the mattress.

“Hello?” My voice comes out raspy. I take a deep breath, an excruciating jab of pain stopping me short.

There has to be a button to push somewhere. No way are they dumb enough to leave me in here without a way to tell them I’m awake. My hands seek out a remote, a call button. Nothing.

Okay, Penny, don’t panic. They’ve probably got cameras on you. Dr. Avery is on his way. Wyatt, poor, poor Wyatt who is probably getting his ass chewed by every grown-up on Redwood will
come check on you.

I brace myself for the pain and take in a deeper breath, getting more oxygen in my lungs to back up my weak voice.

“Wyatt!” I scream.

Dr. Avery bursts through the door. “I’m so sorry, Penny,” he says, immediately lowering the bars and
unstrapping my wrists and ankles. I scratch my nose at long last. “I had to run to the house for a moment, Zellie’s having strong contractions and is sure our son is coming at any second.” He grins.

I need to check my paranoia. No one here wants to hurt me. “
Mazel Tov,” I say.

Dr. Avery looks over the read-out from the monitor next to the bed. “Thanks, but she’s got another eight hours or so before the real action begins.” He grins again, a little devilish laugh escaping his lips. “Melody’s sitting with her.”

He rolls a squat stool next to the bed. “Let me get you up to speed on you. The two ribs that you cracked previously are now broken. I’ve wrapped you up tightly and am going to keep you here for at least a few more days. What’s your pain level?”

“I can hardly feel it,” I lie. Drugs make the dreams stop and I can’t have that. I can’t have them period. Who knows how long I’ve been in here,
morphined up and sleeping, while things were happening
out there
that I could have been preventing.

“Uh huh,” he says, rolling his eyes at me. “If you really don’t want to alleviate your pain with meds, then I’ll see if Christopher can place a very mild suggestion on you.”

“That would be great, thank you. And could you get me something to eat? That’ll make me heal faster.”

Dr. Avery leans away from me, cocking his head to the side. “What do you mean by that?”

Huh? “I mean…what I said. Obviously, you’re aware that I injure easy, I don’t know how many times I’ve broken my ribs.”

“Six times,” he says, continuing to regard me like I’m doing the backstroke in a
petri dish. “You’ve fractured your ribs six previous times.”

I shrug. “Yeah, so, it wasn’t always real convenient for me to get a proper meal, but when I could, like at a soup kitchen or something, then I always healed up a ton faster.
Usually in a couple of days. Does it take other people longer or about the same?”

Dr. Avery rolls over to a bank of cabinets and opens the door. He rolls back to the bed and hands me a granola bar and one of his special bottles of water. “It takes longer, Penny. It takes
everyone
longer.”

Great.
What’s new? I tear the package open with my teeth and take a bite of the crunchy bar. Peanut butter. “I freaking love peanut butter. Thanks Doc.” He’s for sure going to want to run some weird tests on me now. I eat another four of these babies, and my ribs are likely to move to cracked status within the hour. Which reminds me. “Hey, how long have I been out?”

“Three days.”

Shit
. Not bueno at all. At least Darren didn’t get the formula he was after. Now all I have to do is track him down and see how he likes getting a tazer baton to the balls.

Dr. Avery goes back to looking at doctor-y things on various screens. After five minutes of listening to him mutter to himself, I get my nerve up. “So, uh, where’s Wyatt? Has he asked about me? You know, what happened wasn’t his fault.”

“He’s at school.” Dr. Avery looks above my head.
So, that’s where the clock is!
“Last period, Lookout Ethics, as a matter of fact. Ben’s making him retake it.”

“Will he be bringing my homework to me now that I’m awake?” I try.
If there is homework at this weird ass school
.
We hadn’t had any so far.
“As my Lookout, I’m assuming that’s one of his duties?”

Dr. Avery shakes his head dismissively, still thinking. “Wyatt’s not your Lookout anymore.”

“That’s not fair!” I protest, forcing Dr. Avery to pay attention. “You have me strapped down in case I have a vision, right? None of us knew what happened would.”
Mostly.
“I didn’t realize I knew how to access the alternate exit. If you’re mad at anyone, it should be me.”

“He’s been taken off of Lookout duty because he didn’t ask for help, not because he followed you. Believe me, that wasn’t easy. He wanted to stay with you, but he broke our trust and we…” Dr. Avery pats my arm. “Truth is none of us know what to do with you, Penny. We don’t know how to protect you, how to train you, how to keep you in the building.” He smiles weakly. “Your rewind skills are more than advanced, so there’s no place for you in the Beginning Retroact classes. Ben says you picked up glimpsing in an instant – something that took Zellie years to get control of. I mean, there are other, less useful skills that you should be taught, but they can certainly wait until your body is healed. And even that…people don’t just rapidly heal. Are you sure-”

I hold out my hand. “Give me more granola bars.”

He does his roll over and
roll back routine again. I rip into the bars and shove them in my mouth, chewing methodically. I make a big deal of swallowing, finishing off the water. “Not that I’ve put much thought into this, but I figure it must have something to do with my metabolism. Right now,” I continue, bracing myself to sit up, “I can feel the drugs leaving my system. Morphine, right? I used to love me some morphine.” I sit up and he lunges at me like he’s ready to hold me up if I collapse in pain. I shake my head at him. “It hurts like a bitch, but it’s tolerable. Like, take-a-couple-of-ibuprofen tolerable. My body burns up meds and food and visions. I didn’t know I was different because no one has ever said anything to me about it, but it’s not like I kept all of my well-kid checkups, y’know?”

Dr. Avery nods. “Would you mind if I took a sample of your blood?”

I flop my arm out over the side of the bed. “Go ahead, if you must.”

He tapes the
Insti-stic tube to the inside crook of my elbow with white tape and I feel a little pinch as the needle goes into my vein. The tube fills up with my blood and Dr. Avery untapes it, pressing a cotton ball to the insertion spot. He guides my hand over to it to hold, but I remove the ball and show him that the bleeding has already stopped.

“So, do I ever get to see Wyatt again or am I just stuck here, alone?” I glare the good glare.

“You won’t be alone,” he says, taking a pen out of his pocket and labeling the blood tube. “Christopher and Ben and Raleigh will take shifts. Elle and Kai are free to visit. Maybe Wyatt. There’s still some debate as to whether that’s a good idea. You’ll only be strapped down if one of us has to leave before the next gets here.”

They had it
alllllll figured out. Please.
“And what if I have a vision? Are you all just going to let the victim die?”

Dr. Avery shakes his head emphatically.
“Absolutely not. Ben will take over.”

“By seeing my vision at the same time?
Was that what happened last time? Did he share my vision?”

“He started to – that’s how we knew you were in the yellow hall -- but his husband Connor shook him until he snapped out of it. Ben can turn it off when he needs to; otherwise he’d be sharing the visions and absorbing the powers of every Retro in this place.” He winks at me. “
That
was a super fun skill set he had to pick up the first summer the school opened, and quick.”

Dr. Avery’s Ret-tech vibrates in its holder at his hip. “Sorry,
gotta take this.” He puts it on and flips the microscreen down. “Hey, honeybear.”

“Do NOT
honeybear me, Avery,” I can hear Dr. Adams scream. “I’m about two seconds away from rewinding this whole birthing process and keeping your kid in my belly if you don’t get your ass over here and give me some frickity frackin’ horse tranquilizers. Do you feel me?”

He stands and begins strapping me to the bed again. I don’t bother to resist. “I’ll be right there,
Zel. I’m sorry you’re hurting, sweetheart.” Dr. Avery pushes his microscreen up. “Ben and Christopher will be here as soon as they can.” He rushes out the door.

I’m floating along in that space where I’m about to doze off but still thinking about things too actively to take the plunge, when the door to my room squeaks open. I’m expecting Christopher and Ben, but Wyatt and Reed come in. Wyatt checks the hall behind him and closes the door. He’s holding a cardboard file box.

Reed loosens my wrist restraints while Wyatt sets the box down and gets to work on my ankles.

“Thanks, guys. What are you all doing here?” I say, sitting up too fast, which makes me woozy. I push through the nausea that comes when the morphine is almost out of my system, hoping the guys don’t notice. Being a junkie kicks ass. I smile at Wyatt. “Won’t you get in big trouble?”

Wyatt shrugs and gives me a sly smirk. “Reed’s got it under control.”

Reed grabs my chin and holds my head steady, staring into my eyes. “Feel better, Penny.”

And I do.

The barfiness subsides and the room stays in one place. The pain in my ribcage isn’t even aspirin-worthy anymore.

“Excellent,” Reed says. He does, like, a weird karate bow or whatever and then turns and shoulder bumps Wyatt on his way out the door. “I’ll be right outside.”

I shoot Wyatt a questioning look.

“Christopher asked Reed to come down and suggest some of your pain away. Everyone’s over at Zellie and Avery’s house waiting for the baby to make his appearance, so Reed snuck me down here.” He lowers his gaze. “I’ve been going a little crazy not being able to see you.”

Silence hangs in the room.

I should ask if he and Phoebe have discovered anything about Parker’s death, like who The Crusaders are or why Darren wanted Parker’s formula so badly, but just for a moment I want to forget all that. I want to sit here with this cute boy and talk about silly shit and see if I can get him to laugh that sexy laugh of his. It seems like nearly every minute of my life the past fourteen years has been about surviving. Even when I was with Darren, we shared happy times, but we still had to be vigilant about where we would sleep, where our next meal or fix was coming from.

“Are you excited about being an uncle?” I ask.

His gaze meets mine. He nods. “I am. The whole family is excited.”

“Blood and extended?” I tease.

“Yeah.”

I lean forward to adjust and he’s next to me in an instant fluffing the pillows. “So, which one of the doctors is actually your sibling?” I ask, enjoying the way he’s so eager to take care of me. “You look like Avery in the face, but you’re built more like Zellie.”

“
You been checking me out, Black?” Wyatt grins and sits down at the end of the bed.

Screw it.
“Maybe.”

He cocks an eyebrow at me, his face flushing. It is getting kind of hot in here. But just when I think we’re about to get our flirt on, he abruptly looks down.

“Both.” Wyatt clears his throat. “Zellie is my half sister and Avery is my half brother.” His eyes rise to meet mine, like he’s checking for my reaction.

I…

“My mom is Zellie and Melody’s mom. Avery and I have the same dad, he’s dead by the way, died before I was born, but no biggie because he’s a ghost and I can see him whenever I want. I don’t have a tail or anything, if you’re wondering. I mean, that’s what all the kids I grew up with said about me, that I’m some inbred freak, but Zellie and Avery aren’t related to
each other
.” Wyatt takes a deep breath.

“Oh,” I say, curious as to what the biology teachers in Wyatt’s hometown are teaching kids. Even
me with my lack of proper book learnin’ understands that
were
the doctors actually related, that would still have nothing to do with Wyatt’s DNA. It was like the old thinking that you could “catch” being gay – if people took five seconds to rationally contemplate it, they would understand that it is scientifically impossible. And that they are fidiots.