Outrageous Fortune-Errant Freight Book One

Chapter 43

Jagati became vaguely aware she was lying down, and that her leg hurt, which sent a rush memory back into her head.

Her eyes popped open and in one move she swung up to sit, only to come face to chest with John, who was sitting on the edge of the cot.

Cot.

Medbay.

Right.

Eyes set determinedly on what was directly in front of her, she frowned. Clearly, she had passed out from loss of blood down in the cargo bay, and that had made her imagine things. Things like John's arms around her and the spark that hit when his lips...

"Back," John interrupted the (it had to be) hallucination by setting a hand to her shoulder and giving a push that, while gentle, had her plopping back to the pillow. "Rory cleaned the wound, but not fast enough to avoid infection. You're on bedrest until the antibiotic gel finishes its job."

The ubiquitous stream of muttered curses vented her opinion on that before she allowed her (narrowed) eyes to finally make contact with his. She hated lying around doing nothing. Hated it enough that her mind started working out potential loopholes to the proscription which, conveniently, pushed worries about hallucinatory kisses to the back of her brain (where they could sit and think about what they'd done).

"You're worried about missing all the excitement, aren't you?" he asked, apparently developing the same Sensitivity Eitan swore she possessed.

"Not quite how I would put it." The grumble was accompanied by her arms crossing over her chest. Yes, yes, I am twelve.

His head tilted to the right. "How would you put it?"

"Being concerned that while the Errant is filled with people trying to kill everyone, you're down a hand?" Her lids dipped further as she studied him. No indication of affection, no hint of desire, nothing from John's quarter. Definitely a hallucination.

"Which might be a valid objection," he said with a nod of understanding. "Except said people are no longer aboard."

"What? When?" She started to sit up, but at his raised eyebrow settled back with a grunt. "What have I missed?"

"Quite a bit." He smiled and patted her arm like some smogging medic.

"Such as?"

"We left Galileo and company at Lycos Keep. You've been out for over twelve hours."

"I what?" She struggled upright again. "It was nothing. A smogging puncture..."

"It was not nothing," he countered, pushing her back again. And while his tone remained light, looking more closely, she could see the dark circles under his eyes and the lines of strain in his face. "You lost a great deal of blood, plus the infection, plus you hadn't fully recovered from the altitude sickness before heading outside to retrieve the calculator." He paused, took a breath, released it. "You were a mess, and we were lucky the Keepers had a trauma specialist on staff and enough antibiotics to spare the gel for you."

Jagati crossed her arms over her chest again and grunted. "Getting old."

"No more than the rest of us." He patted her arm again. "So, do you want to lie here and sulk? Or would you like to hear why we're not being 'shipped to the Barrens for dealing in illegal tech?"

She looked up into his honest face and let a smile tug at the corner of her mouth. "Didn't even cross my mind; figured you could honey-talk us out of anything."

"As much as I appreciate the sentiment, as it happens, I didn't need to say anything. And we can thank Tariq for that," he said, then, as her jaw dropped, told her what had happened at Lycos, and who Tariq really worked for.