Hidden Creatures

Light of the Lantern (Part 2)

When you woke up, the first thing you noticed was that the air was cold and smelled sterile. You could also hear a steady, rhythmic beeping. There was also an annoying thing in your nose and a poking sensation in the corner of your arm. Then you immediately registered pain in your stomach and struggled not to let out a pained groan or writhe around.

Your eyes were glued shut, so it took you a moment to open them, and when you did, you found yourself in an emergency room with a curtain closed all around you. In a chair next to the bed, Lantern was sitting there, concentrating on his phone with a frown.

"Hey," You croaked groggily. His head snapped up.

"Hey!" He replied softly in a near whisper. There must have been other patients in the curtained off parts of the room. He put his phone in his pocket and stood up, taking your hand. "Are you okay?"

"My stomach hurts," You whined.

"I'll tell the nurses, I'll be right back," He said, and disappeared around the curtain and into the hallway. He returned with a nurse, who was holding a syringe.

"This is just to ease the pain a bit, but we can't give you anything stronger until we know what's going on with you, okay?"

You nodded, and the nurse connected the syringe to the IV, pushing the stopper and flushing the tube with saline before exiting again. The pain didn't go away, but it did slacken enough to be tolerable.

"I'm so glad you woke up," Lantern said, taking your hand again. "I was scared to death I poisoned you with that quiche."

"Is that not what happened?" You asked with a sleepy smile.

He laughed, but looked abashed. "No, the doctor said there was no sign of any sort of bacteria in your blood work that would explain you fainting. They're doing a few more tests now, and we're just waiting on results. You've got a fever and you dehydrated pretty quickly, so they've been pushing fluids. You're going to need to pee so bad pretty soon."

You chuckled. "How long have I been here?"

"A few hours," He replied. "Depending on the outcome of the tests, the doctors said they might admit you."

You groaned; this was the last thing you wanted. You finally got some quality alone time with Lantern that wasn't professional, and your body just had to fall apart.

"I'm sorry about this," You said to him.

"What are you sorry for?" He asked in confused astonishment.

"For getting sick and stuff while we were training."

"It's not like this is something you did on purpose, right? Don't worry about training right now, and don't apologize. Just promise not to scare me like that again and get better."

"I'm trying," You told him. "You don't have to stay with me."

"Nonsense," He replied, tweaking your nose with the very tip of his claw. It looks like it could tear the nose off your face, but it was very gentle. "You're my friend. Where else would I be?"

"Don't you have to train for competitions?"

"I can train anytime. Besides, I haven't signed up for any competitions yet, so I don't have a deadline. I'm more worried about you right now. So you should worry about yourself, too."

"Okay," You said, squeezing his hand. This was nice. If only you didn't feel like hammered dog shit right now, it would be perfect.

He pulled the chair closer to the bed so that the two of you could talk and sat back down.