Myths & Rejections

Chapter 14 - The Morning After

Word Count : 4152

The sound of splashing woke Harper suddenly, and she jerked upright on the gurney, her eyes immediately going to the tank where Matt lay. He was sitting up in the water, his forearms resting on the sides looking at her. She immediately rolled off the bed and went to his side, she placed her hands on his cheeks and pulled his face close for a kiss, when she pulled back she looked deeply into his eyes.

"I thought I lost you." Harper whispered.

"I told you I'd come back." Matt said, putting his hand over hers.

"You almost didn't." Harper replied. "Let me look at you."

Harper pressed a button to raise him in the water, and he laid back allowing her access to look at all his wounds. She gently prodded and pressed each one, measuring his response, he only grunted a few times when she pressed the deepest ones across his chest and ribs. They seemed to be healing well, the rips were completely closed, and she would probably be able to remove all the stitches tonight. There were deep bruises surrounding each claw mark, but the angry red and purple tissue from last night had mostly faded. Overall he was healing a little slower than usual, but he had a lot more injuries than he'd ever had before, so his body had a lot more work to do to heal him than it had ever had before.

"I think you're going to need to stay in here for another day. Some of these are really deep and you're not healing as fast as you normally do. What happened out there Mattie?" Harper asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "You were hurt so bad, you almost died, you almost bled to death before we could get you here. If Adam hadn't been with us, you wouldn't have made it! Did you know there was more than one? Did you go looking for them after you smelled them?"

"It's OK, Harp..." Matt started. "It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?!" Harper practically yelled, tears in her eyes, his answer told her the truth, he'd known there was more than one, he'd gone after them anyway after he told her he wouldn't. "Not a big fucking deal! How would you feel if it were me out there? How would you feel if it was my blood all over the sand?! Don't tell me it's not a big deal!"

"You're right, you're right." Matt soothed her. "I'm sorry I said that."

"I'm going to go get you something to eat. You need it to heal." Harper said, standing up. "I need to find some more of the healing seaweed and chop up and dump the bodies before the smell draws someone to them."

"Harp wait..." Matt tried but she was already walking out the door.

**

Adam jerked awake at the pounding on his door, it was only a little after 9 am, and he'd only had about 4 hours sleep, he groaned, pulling the pillow over his head.

Adam, get up. Callum's voice sounded through the mind link. We've got shit to do today, we need to get to the rental car place, and I want to get over to Harper's clinic around lunchtime. I know you want to go see Celie so get up.

I saw Cel last night. Adam replied, dragging himself out of bed and going to the door, he knew they were not going to let him sleep in.

"What do you mean you saw Celie last night?" Callum demanded the second Adam opened the door.

"Come on in." Adam snarked as Callum, with Reese behind him barged into his room.

"How did you see Celie last night?" Callum asked again. "You went to bed; I was with you when you went into your room."

"I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk, I ran into her while she was out jogging." Adam asked, trying to be vague. He had been so tired and freaked out last night he hadn't had a chance to come up with a cover story.