Thunder and Storm

The Healing

SALLY.



I opened my eyes and the first thing I heard was the steady beeping of a heart monitor. I was in a hospital room. At first, I thought I had been taken back to the Underground and my heartbeat skyrocketed. I pushed myself off the bed and started pulling off the wires attached to my body.

“Hey, hey, hey, calm down,” someone rushed to me and grabbed my hands.

“Cameron?”

“Yeah, it’s me. You’re safe.”

I looked around the room not sure how or why we were at a hospital. “What am I doing here? Where are we?”

“We’re in one of the safe houses at Los Angeles.” He picked the loose tendrils of my hair and put them behind my ear. I looked down at his hand on mine and gasped.

“You’re touching me.” I moved my hand out of his. “What is wrong with you? You know I could–“

“It’s okay,” he cut me off and grabbed my hand again. “I don’t care about that.”

I tried to calm down my racing heart. It felt good to feel his skin on mine but I didn’t want to hurt him. I tried to move my hand and he held it tighter. He intertwined our fingers and gave me a small smile. His blue eyes were clearer now, his face free of the harsh lines that were once a permanent fixture. He moved his thumb over my knuckle, caressing my skin. It did funny things to my stomach.

“I think you’re more in control of your power than you thought.”

I looked down at our hands and he was right. I wasn’t absorbing his power. “You were right.” I looked up, “Grayson wasn’t in the school. You were right about him.” I had trusted him, risked myself to go save him and he had betrayed us. My chest ached and I leaned back on the bed and closed my eyes.

Cameron’s hand tightened on mine. “I don’t know where Grayson went or why he left but he wasn’t the mole. It was Petra.”

“What?” my eyes opened.

“She led us into a trap on the ship. All this time, it had been her betraying us at every turn. Now that I think about it, it should’ve been obvious. It was totally something she could do.”
I clenched my jaw. I remembered that night on the roof. We had shared a moment. I had thought it was the beginning of a friendship, I had been naive. She had never been a good person right from the start.

A knock sounded at the door and it opened. Gail peeked into the room and seeing Cameron, she apologized. “I would just come back later,” she said.

“Its fine, Gail. You can come in,” he said. He turned to me and smiled, “I’ll just be outside.”

He left and Gail moved further into the room. She wrung her hands together and chewed on her lips. “I just want to say I’m sorry,” she said in a quiet voice and pushed up her glasses then cleared her throat. “I’m really sorry, Sally. What I did was horrible. I just really hate liars, I’ve not had a good experience with liars in the past and it’s a real sore spot for me.”

“I probably took it too far making them vote to kick you out of the school when I knew how dangerous it was out there.” Her face scrunched up and she looked like she was going to cry. “I’m so sorry. You were just so different from everyone else and–“ she sniffed. She looked like she was going to burst into tears if she kept talking.

“Its okay, Gail. I’m not mad at you,” I cut her off.

“You’re not?” She looked surprised.

“I’m not.”

“Can I give you a hug?” She opened her arms and bent towards me.
“Maybe... Maybe not, okay. It’s too soon.” I shook my head.

“Right, right of course. I’m sorry.” She straightened and took a step back. “I’m just gonna... I’m gonna go.” She pointed behind her and I nodded. “Bye.” She waved a little and went out the door.

Cameron came back in and sat back on his seat. “What did she say?” He grabbed my hand again.

“She wanted to apologise for how she had behaved earlier.” He nodded and caressed my hand again.

“I thought I had lost you. I almost did.” The way he looked at me made me almost forget he had a girlfriend. Almost.

I cleared my throat and removed my hand from his. “How is–How is Jemma?”

“She’s fine. She’s getting better. The cure worked.” He smiled.

“That’s great,” I said. “Shouldn’t you go be with her?”

“Why? I wanna be here with you,” he replied.

“She’s your girlfriend, Cameron. You should go be with her.”

“What?” he laughed. “Who told you that? She’s not my girlfriend.”

I blinked. Did I miss something? “Ryan said she was your girlfriend.”

He snorted. “Ryan’s an asshole. Jemma has never been my girlfriend. She’s like a sister to me. She’s Jeffery’s daughter.”

I coughed. My throat was so dry I started to wheeze. “Water,” I managed to croak out.

“Of course, water.” He rushed out of his seat and went out the door. She was nothing but a sister to him? Ryan had lied to me and I’d fallen for it like an idiot. To think I almost left because of that. He came back with a glass of water and I guzzled it down like my life depended on it.

“Are you trying to choke my patient to death, Downing?” A man in a lab coat walked in. He was of average height with average body size, dark brown hair, and cornflower blue eyes. They reminded me of my mom’s. He smiled at me and held out his hand. “I’m Jeffrey. Dr. Jeffrey Larsson.”

“Hello, Dr. Larsson. I’m Sally,” I shook his hand.

“I’ll just return this,” Cameron took the empty glass from my hand and left the room.

“Cameron told me a lot about you. How you gave yourself up to save my daughter,” he said as he checked my vitals. “Thank you. I couldn’t be with them through their journey and I’m glad they had friends like you and you guys had each other. Can you move every part of your body?”

“Yes.” He took out a small torch from his coat and flashed it in my eyes. “Do you feel any pain?”

“Yes, my abdomen hurts quite a bit.”

“As expected, we almost lost you. You were asleep for a long time,” he said. “I almost thought you were going to slip into a coma. You were badly injured when they brought you.”

“How long have I been asleep for?” Please don’t say months. I held my breath.

“A few days.” He pocketed the torch. I breathed out in relief. “I’ll send someone to get you something to eat. You must be hungry.”

Oddly enough, I wasn’t. “That would be nice, thank you.”

Cameron came back into the room just as the doctor was leaving. “Take care of her, Cam, and remember you shouldn’t stress her. She just woke up and she needs all the rest she can get.”

He nodded and came to sit beside me. “I wanna show you something.” He lifted the covers off my legs and helped me to my feet.

“The doctor said–“ I winced as my feet touched the floor. I grabbed my stomach and held it tight.

“Don’t listen to Jeff, he’s just being a doctor.” He led me out of the room and past the hall. There was hardly anyone in the hospital. A few stragglers hung in the hall and a nurse was at the desk but that was about it.

“Where’s everyone?” I asked. “You said this was one of the safe houses.”

“It’s not anymore.” He led me out of the hospital and into the streets. “Vaccination ended a few days ago and everyone was allowed to go home.”

The sun was shining brightly. Cars honked as they drove past. Pedestrians walked the empty pavements. The streets were busy like it used to be. A few places were still closed but this was a whole upgrade from the world I’d woken up to months ago.

“You did it.” I couldn’t believe it. He had managed to heal the world.

“No, we did it. We can finally have our old lives back.”

I smiled. We did it. Everything was back to the way it once was. At least for some people, nothing would ever be the same for me. I couldn’t go back home. There was no home to go back to. I sighed.
“What’s wrong? I thought you’d be happy.”
“I am happy. I’m happy everyone can finally have their lives back but this doesn’t change anything for me. I have nowhere to go.”

“You don’t have to go anywhere.” He turned me to face him. “You can stay here with us. We’re a family, remember?”

Still, doubt crept up and I felt uneasy. Someone was still after me. “I can’t stay here. Kowalski would come after me. He would never stop.”

“I have a feeling he won’t be doing that.” He smiled; I frowned.

“What do you mean? What did you do?”

“Let’s just say I made it clear to him that he could never take you away.” He cupped my face and I found myself smiling at him.

“What happens now?” I licked my dry lips.

“Now, I get to do this.” He dipped his head and kissed me.