Spy School: Broken Bonds

Chapter 13: Useless

London

ANOTHER Hospital

Monday

2200 Hours

I've been anxiously pacing back and forth (pacing as well as I could for a person with a broken leg) for what seemed like hours, waiting for Erica to wake up. The others left a while ago so they can rest for their mission tomorrow, leaving me alone with the doctors. They all tried to get me to go with them, saying "She'll be all right" or "You need to rest, especially with that leg of yours" but I didn't budge. I needed to be there when Erica woke up. It was my fault.

flashback...flashback

"Hmm, it seems that the infection that has taken over her legs has entered her bloodstream. Before the seizure, there must have been a rush of blood to the brain causing white blood cells to start trying to destroy the infection. The sudden amount of white blood cells fighting in her brain must have over strained her body, causing a seizure" the doctor said to us while looking at his clipboard, flipping through the pages. None of us could really say anything after that. We sat down in some crummy, foldable chairs outside in the hallway. The whole place was dark, very different from the hospital that I was in. We had brought Erica to a secret hospital underground. Where we were was apparently used as a Military base by Britain before it was retired in 1785 after the revolutionary war. The CIA quickly picked it up and secretly set up a spy station down here. They wouldn't think to check their own abandoned station for spies.

We all sat here in this musty tunnel, not daring to say anything to each other. I felt miserable, I felt like I could have prevented this. I mean, what was I thinking letting Zoe dare Erica, of course she would do something involving her kissing me. It's honestly kinda weird how much she wants us to kiss now that I think about it. It doesn't matter at this point. All that matters is that Erica got hurt and I could have prevented it. I could've dared Erica instead of Zoe. Buts that all done with now.

flashback end...flashback end

I was kneeling next to her hospital bed when I was done zoning out. I don't remember even stopping to put down my crutches. I stared at her, wondering how things may have been different if I never dropped the ball at the island. She's not going to die, at least not yet, but with her condition getting worse, it's basically torture. I just wish that there was another way to help her other than working for SPYDER. "I hope that wh-" is how far I got in my head before I felt the touch of a warm hand on mine.

"Ben, you okay. You seem spaced out" Erica said, laughing a bit to herself. "Oh!..uh, hey" I said a bit surprised by her sudden awakening, or maybe she woke up a while ago but I was too zoned out to tell. "Ben, stop worrying, I'm ok. Now, has there been any new news on SPYDER's whereabouts?" she said. Typical Erica, its always about the mission. "Erica, you just woke up in a hospital after a seizure, you don't need to worry about the mission right now, you need rest." "Ben. I'm fine, ok, now, have we learned anything?" I sighed knowing I'm not going to be able to convince her to just rest. "No, not really. Just that the base we blew up was a fake." "That's it!?-" Erica said, annoyed, "-what have we been doing since I've been here?" "Mostly waiting for you to wake up, I stayed while the others went to the hotel to sleep and get ready for tomorrow" I said. "Ben, we don't have much time left and we still have no info on the algorithm."

"Erica, we still have most of the week to figure it out?" I said confused. "Uh... yeah I guess, but we still haven't done anything" she said, like she was trying to hide something. "Are you alright Erica." "Yes, now may you give me a phone please, I need to call mom." "Why?" I said, which got me an annoyed look from Erica. "I'm literally in a hospital Ben" she said as I handed her my untraceable phone. She opened my phone, bypassing my lock somehow, and tried to dial Catherine when it went straight to voicemail. "What type of hospital doesn't have cell service!" she said annoyed once again. "We're underground in an abandoned military base." "The old Agger Foraminis?" "I guess?" I said not knowing what that meant.

"Whatever, I need to get out of here so that I can get intel" she said slowly trying to get up. She promptly put her hand on her head and groaned. I lightly put her down and said "We can get you a laptop but you really shouldn't strain yourself, you can't leave this bed." "I need to though, we don't have time to waste" she said once again trying to get up. "We still have this week Erica and we haven't been wasting it, why do you want to leave so badly" I said. "Ben, what if we don't!" she said taking off one of the electrocardiograms. "What are you talking about Erica, you need to lay back down. You need rest Erica, you can't just get up and go back out onto the street." "Watch me" she said coldly as she took off her covers. "Erica, we have time for the mission, what's wrong" I said trying to keep her in the bed. "Ben, what if I don't have time" she said once again holding her head in pain.

"Time to do anything useful. I haven't been able to be helpful for weeks and now I'm in the hospital, still doing nothing. I don't know how much time I have left and I don't want to waste it being useless" she said, trying not to tear-up. I looked at her, not knowing what to say. I didn't know she felt useless. "Erica, you're not useless. You helped find me after all. And without you, I would have been dead plenty of times" I said trying to help her. "Mom was the one who found you, and when have I saved you since we had our 'time off'." I looked at her, sad that she actually thought she was useless. "Erica, you helped me drive a car and helped me stop the bomb, that doesn't seem useless." "That doesn't matter, you could have done all that by yourself Ben, I barely contributed anything to that mission or this one even" she said as her face started turning red from her holding in her tears.

"Erica, just because you can't walk doesn't mean your not a great spy. You've done so many great things already and you'll continue to do great things for many years. You are an invaluable asset to this team and nobody thinks you're useless, if you really were , you wouldn't be on this mission. You're important Erica, don't let the hospital get to you, you're going to be fine and come out of this better than ever, I love you Erica." Suddenly she threw her arms around me and started lightly sobbing into my shoulder. "Th...thank you Ben" she sniffled. She cried for a bit longer before finally settling down. She laid her head down on her pillow and looked at me with a face of dried tears. "I love you too" she said before going to sleep. She was now peacefully dozing, but still, she had felt like this all because of Murray. "It's all Murray's fault I thought" before I promptly turned around.

I started to hobble back aboveground. 'I was furious' is as simple as I could put it. If Murray would have never tried that toxin against us, Erica would be fine. Yet, I was still under his rule, anything he told me to do I had to do it. But I'm done with that, I can't keep pretending that this isn't affecting Erica anymore. I need the cure now. "She won't be fine, so I'm going to fix it" I thought to myself  as I hobbled myself out of some old gas station beer freezer. Apparently that was the best secret exit they could come up with. I hobbled around outside a bit while looking around before pulling out my phone and dialing a number.

ring....ring....ring....ring....ring....ring  "Yawn Hello, why are you calling Ben, I'm supposed to call you" Murray answered after being woken up. "I need the algorithm file so i can finish the program" I said bluntly. "No can do buddy" he said, almost giddy. "And why not" I said getting annoyed. "Because Ben, it's already finished. You were taking too long so we hired some people to finish up the code." "Then can I get the cure." "The deal was for you to make us the algorithm in exchange for the cure. We had to spend our own money on finishing up the code, so technically you didn't complete the algorithm Ben, therefore were keeping the cure" Murray said. I could see the smug look on his face just by hearing him. I only had two words to say to him before I hung up. "Get ready."

I hope you guys liked this chapter! Sorry it took a while to finish it, I was in not the best headspace and I was sick for a while, buuuuuut I'm back now! So again sorry it took a while and have a good day.😁

PS. If this chapter feels weird, IDK if it does, but if it does its probably because I started it last month and only just now finished it, sorry.