Forgotten ✓︎

Chapter 23

Jared

Megan spent the rest of the week at home, out sick. I knew she was going to be upset about the work piling up, so I offered to bring it to her. We had one more week before spring break, and I was growing concerned for her. 

Since that day in the office, her headaches were growing again both in frequency and pain. She spent more time sleeping and resting than she did awake. Her therapist had decided to cancel their session this week with the concern of worsening Megan's headaches. Even the doctors weren't sure what to do, so they ordered lots of fluids and rest. 

Between school, training, and taking care of Megan, I hadn't had much free time, but what little free time I did have was spent on communicating with Luke and Zia to help Megan answer some questions. All of us were intrigued and had more questions than answers at this point. Megan's dad and Zia's parents had worked together, but we hadn't been able to find what their actual jobs were. Luke had enlisted a friend to help us do a deep dive, but we kept hitting walls.

As best we could figure, their parents had been involved in some kind of intelligence work and something had gone wrong. Zia's dad still spent more time traveling than he did at home, so she was often home alone. Her brothers checked in with her now and again, but she usually had the house to herself. I had offered to drive over after training to go over any new information that she and Luke had discovered. 

"What's going on in that brain of yours?" my trainer asked me. 

I shook myself out of my thoughts and looked at him as I finished lacing up my shoes. My warmup had been done on autopilot. I hadn't realized how preoccupied I was. 

"Nothing and everything," I answered him. 

"I need you here, son," he reminded me. "We're sparring today, remember?"

I groaned internally. My trainer may have been getting older, but he could beat any of us in a fight in this gym. The guy had been some kind of legend in his prime but had chosen to retire quietly, choosing to spend more time with his family than in the ring. I had started training in this gym after Megan's accident, and he had become a father figure to me. 

"I'll make sure I grab some ice on the way for that bath I'll need," I laughed as I started wrapping my hands. 

He laughed as he walked over to help me wrap my hands nice and snugly. I had been known to wrap my hands incorrectly and walk away with bruised or bleeding knuckles. It drove my trainer nuts given the amount of time I had been doing this. 

"You sure you don't want to take me on my offer of expanding?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I appreciate it, but I don't know that I want to keep doing this after I graduate. I kind of prefer having my face and body intact."

"You mean you don't want to mess that pretty face up because of your girl," he teased.

I groaned.

He laughed, lightly punching my shoulder. "I know you better than you think, son. Come on. It's time I put a beating on you again. Been too long between the last one and this one."

I rolled my eyes playfully as I shoved him towards the ring. 

I hadn't been beat in a fight in a long time, but I always lost to my trainer. He still had things to teach me after all this time, and it was something I appreciated. I was always learning something or the other. 

"Come on, keep those hands up," he coached as we circled each other. 

I tried to shake off the fatigue that was starting to settle in after ten minutes in the ring. I had taken some hard hits, but I had also returned some of them. It was the best I had done against him, but I was starting to wear down.