Scorpion Ships

Sylvester

"Is Megan O'Brian still in room 205?" Walter asked the woman at the front desk.

She typed something into the computer, probably O'Brian, and then nodded.

"Yes, relation?" She looked at all of us with eyebrows raised.

"Brother," Walter said softly.

Four "friend"s later, I hesitated. Was I just a friend?

"Friend," I finally decided, my lips curling down. This was stupid. It wasn't a life decision or anything, it was just a question. An insignificant question that this woman probably asked about three hundred times a work day.

I wondered what it actually would be. Around 20 people were in the waiting room right now, a typical day probably got around 230 visitors. . . but she would start to recognize the people after a few days. Factor in the big events, like yesterday, where a lot of people got hurt. . .I flinched, stopped thinking about it.

"Okay," she said doubtfully. "What a popular girl!"

We could all see Walter's fingers twitch the tiniest bit.

"Go on down." She looked back at her work and pointed to a hallway. . .the wrong hallway. Toby rolled his eyes.

We took the right one. Walter led, like yesterday, but I was closer behind this time, wanting to see Megan and being confused about the desire.

Walter stopped in front of the door, and I had a strange sense of déjà vu. He hesitated a moment, probably because the door was closed, then knocked.

"Yeah, go away! I don't want any more medication. I'm fine," Megan yelled from inside.

"It's just us," I spoke up before Walter could.

"Oh, hey, badass geniuses. Come on in."

I smiled at her sense of humor, noticed Walter looking at me, and hastily stopped.

He opened the door to reveal Megan lying in her bed, attempting to sit up.

"You don't have to sit up," Walter said hurriedly, as he had yesterday, but like yesterday, Megan ignored him.

"Hey." Walter smiled. "How you feeling?"

"Could be better." She grinned, and my stomach fluttered. Odd. Perhaps I was coming down with something. "Could be worse. You?"

I got the feeling she was addressing the whole room, but Walter still spoke first. "Good. Great, actually, and I, um, think I should tell you something." Walter hesitating? Walter saying 'um'? Oh, God, this wasn't going to end well.

"Okay," Megan said warily.

"Paige and I. . we're kind of together now. Like, romantically."

"Um, I wouldn't say, together, exactly," Paige cut in, and Walter nodded in agreement.

He watched her like a hawk, but I watched everyone else. Cabe leaned forward the barest bit, looking eager. Toby glanced at Megan, rolled his eyes and continued flashing metaphorical heart eyes at Happy. Happy glared at Toby. And Paige watched Walter. I looked at the floor, feeling the weight of Megan's stare on me.

"Since when?" she demanded in a soft voice.

"Um. . .I'd say yesterday," Walter replied quickly.

"It was a long time coming," Happy muttered, and Megan flashed her that smile before looking at me again, betrayal written all over her face. Toby glanced at her again, took a double take, looked at me, and made a face that clearly conveyed, 'um, why's she looking at you like that?'