The Sinner's Saint

MISTAKE

Alex doesn't know what time it is when she wakes up, just knows the sun's right in her eyes and something tiny is tapping her arm. She jolts up saying "mhm. I'm awake, I'm awake" before her eyes are even fully open, voice all croaky and half asleep.

First thing she does, even before she's all the way conscious, is check Lev, and he's already looking right at her, eyes open, actually present this time. Relief hits her so hard for a second she forgets something tiny was in the room.

She looks around and nearly jumps outta her skin. Santiago, Canaan, Emiliano, and Niko are just standing around the bed like this is some kind of intervention.

"Fuck. Oh my god." She tries to sit up straight and act like she's got it together, about to greet everybody proper like company just walked in, but Canaan stops her, waving her back down.

"Sit, sit, you don't need to get up." She nods and excuses herself real quick before any conversation really gets going to brush her teeth, there was no way in hell she was having a whole conversation with this many people in the room with morning breath, least of all in front of Lev. She comes back in wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and sits back into the chair.

"Okay." Canaan's got her arms crossed with a look on her face that says she already knows this is gonna be a lot.

"Tell us everything. From the start."

"I woke up 'cause I heard him making this sound," Alex starts, glancing at Lev, who by the way now has his headphones in, not even paying attention, before looking back at everybody else. "Like a pained kinda sound. I touched him and he was burning up, like actually burning, so I checked his temp and it was reading 103.8."

"103.8," Santiago repeats in shock, brows going up.

"Yeah. So I started icing him down, wet towels, all that, tried to keep him cool, and when it eased a bit I called y'all." She shrugs like it's simple, like it wasn't three hours of pure panic fixed up as competence.

"That's it?" Emiliano's got his head tilted, not buying the shortened version for a second. "That's the whole story?" Before Alex can answer, he cuts in, arms crossed, smirking a little.

"Funny, 'cause one of the guards outside told me somethin' different." Alex's stomach drops a little. Theres no real reason to it, she did nothing wrong, it just does.

"What'd he say?"

"Said you damn near ate it running to the kitchen, sliding around in your socks like you was on ice skates, nearly busted your head open going for that freezer." Everyone except Lev obvi are actively dying trying to breathe from laughing. "He said you looked possessed."

"I did not almost fall." Alex crosses her arms, defensive, even though her face is already giving her away.

"He said and I quote," Emiliano continues, clearly enjoying himself way too much, "'she came round that corner like the house was on fire.'"

"Okay, maybe I slipped a little." Alex rolls her eyes, cheeks warm. "I was busy, sue me." Canaan's just watching her with this soft, tired look.

"You should've woken somebody up or called the doctor, Alex."

"Emine didn't give any doctor's number and there wasn't time," Alex says it simple, no drama attached, like it's just fact. "Every minute mattered. I wasn't about to go knock on doors while he's lying there like that." Nobody's got a comeback for that one. The room goes quiet for a second, and even Emiliano's smirk softens into something more sincere.

"Well." Nikolai finally speaks up from the corner of the bed "On a good note, the other guards have a whole new level of respect for you now. Especially since you feed them 'good food'" he air quotes good food like he doesn't come for seconds when I cook.