✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

126. Needs Must

Spike certainly hadn't been okay walking into school that day. Even after all his injuries had been properly cleaned up, the doctors wanted to keep an eye on him. He would be staying at Pine Ridge for a couple of days. He had a drip next to him which would let him press a button to give him something for the pain, and made a half-hearted joke about how much Shawna would have liked that. It fell flat.

Tess couldn't stop worrying. They discussed her plans for trying to remove Duke Torrance from the picture; but Spike was nervous and could only talk about it for a few minutes at a time before he needed to change the subject. Slowly, she gained confidence that he understood what they were doing, and that he was willing to go ahead with their plan. It might take a while, but before long he would have a safe place to call home, and he wouldn't have to keep worrying about the safety of the people close to him.

She couldn't stay with him when a couple of police officers came in to interrogate him. She found herself pacing up and down the corridor again, and trying to think of any little things she could do to make him more comfortable. She walked down to the ward entrance, and bought an entertainment card from a vending machine; if she understood the posters correctly, it would let Spike watch pay-per-view movies and sports on the TV over his bed, as well as giving him the ability to unlock extra channels. She didn't know how much he would use it, but she guessed that just lying in bed attached to a drip could get boring quickly.

The police were still in there. So she went across to the next building, where there was a small shop selling refreshments and other miscellany to raise money for charity. There was a shelf of cheap books, as well as a box where patients checking out could donate whatever they'd finished reading. Tess looked through the shelf for a while, and picked out three books that she thought Spike would enjoy. A thriller with a backwards hammer and sickle on the cover, a romance/comedy set in a hippy commune, and a science fiction epic which – after reading the description on the back cover – Tess judged was likely to be a romance/comedy set in a hippy commune on another planet.

After a little more thought, she got a book for herself as well. And a cheap generic phone charger, because she thought Spike would likely be in here long enough to need one.

When she got back to the room, the police were still talking to Spike. They apparently had a lot to talk about, which she could only assume with a good thing. But she could feel the tension ratcheting up inside her the longer she spent just waiting to see how it had gone. She wanted to protect Spike, but he was having to do so much by himself, and she couldn't even be there beside him.

"Are you okay, dear?" one of the nurses came up beside her while she was pacing. "Worried about your brother? He's in good hands here, the doctors won't let anything happen. Are your parents here somewhere?"

"I'm not a baby," she answered, distractedly. "I'm older than I look. One of those weird genetic things, you know? So don't talk like I'm a little kid. I've got him books and a TV card, so he won't be bored. They said he'll be staying in, so what else will he need? Toothbrush and toothpaste, I suppose. And a dressing gown."

"You shouldn't worry about that, dear. See if your parents can take you home, and they can bring back anything he needs. You shouldn't be–"

"Ffrances!" Tess called, as she saw the older woman approaching down the corridor. "What's happening?"

"Oh?" the nurse turned around. She seemed young, and a little inexperienced, but her insistence on treating Tess like a child was already starting to get annoying. Ffrances had arrived at the perfect time. "Oh, Doctor Jones. Do you need something?"

"Just checking on the patient," Ffrances said with a smile, and brushed her aside as she came to talk to Tess. "How is he?"

"They said he needs to stay in for a few days. The police are talking to him now. I told him to tell them the truth, but he might be too scared."