BOOK 3 of the ORPHIC Series
CHURLISH
/ˈCHərliSH/
marked by a lack of civility.
~~~~~
Lucille 'Lucy' Opal Baker finds herself in the 21 century sporting the title of Aunt while lugging along h...
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"Maybe this time, I'm hoping if you play this back, it's in celebration. I hope families are reunited, I hope we get it back, and something like a normal version of the planet has been restored. If there ever was, such a thing."
New York June, 2023
IN THE END, JAMES WAITED three days. He sat by Lucy's side, and held her hand with a gentle touch. He didn't move when the nurses entered to change her IV and check her temperature. He didn't move when Steve and Sam brought food, keeping him company with so much worry in their gazes. Even now, his hand remained on hers, careful and so utterly comforting.
When they moved from the battlefield to the hospital with frantic nurses and doctors, still getting themselves back in order, James had been a force to be reckoned with. He did not let a doctor speak to him until Lucy was laid in a bed and was being helped.
They told him the nerve endings in her fingertips had decayed, and that her hands were most-likely paralyzed. They told him it was up to her elbows. They told him her circulatory system was permanently damaged, that her heart was decaying in her chest.
They told him she shouldn't have been alive.
But she was.
And that was all that mattered.
James gave himself exactly three days. Three days, and if Lucy didn't wake up he would do something. Three days, and if Lucy's heart threatened to flatline even once he was going to do something. Three days, and he wouldn't have a choice, because the only person he knew that could save her was Dr. Schaffer.
So he waited three days, before he could no longer wait.
The door to the room creaked open.
James didn't look up.
"Bucky." Steve's voice was soft. "Schaffer looked at the medical scans. He. . .he can wake her up, but at a cost."
James rubbed the back of Lucy's hand. His eyes flicked over her features, memorizing the way her eyelashes lay shit, her chest rising and falling so softly, so peacefully.
"What does he want?" He didn't find himself surprised by the fact he was willing to do anything.
Steve stepped further into the room.
He crossed his arms over his chest, unsure.
"Well, it's not really what he wants either." Steve admitted. "It's just–he said there is a risk that Lucy could. . ."
