The Guardians of Gaia

Chapter Twenty-One

Marshall, Faust and Ophelia were gathered around Otto's hospital bed in Northbury General. Otto decided to go as himself and not his identity as Astroman, passing his wound off as an injury he got from a fight. "Say it's a knife fight if they press you for details!" Marshall suggested earlier.

Nurse Jordan popped into Otto's shared room to check up on Otto change his bandages. The nurse's light brown eyes widened when he saw the multitude of others gathered around Otto's bed. "Wow! Looks like a party in here."

Otto smirked. He sat with his left leg extended in front of him but his right leg was crossed. Bandages peaked out from beneath the hem of the plaid shorts he wore beneath his backless, baby blue hospital gown.

"So tell me how you got this cut again?" Jordan said as he scrawled a few notes on his clipboard.

Otto hoped Jordan wasn't taking this information down. He swallowed his fear down and spoke. "I was in a fight and it got a little out of hand."

Jordan looked incredulously at Otto, appraising his cheerful countenance and then at the gangly pale man, the bald muscled boy and the composed, regal girl. Something about this crowd gave him the sense that his patient certainly wasn't the sort of person to get into a knife fight. "Well you got very lucky. The knife just missed your great saphenous vein."

After Jordan left, the group decided to get back to what they were discussing before the nurse had interrupted him. But they spoke in code, as Otto shared a room with a man who had just removed his appendix.

"Have you been to Roarke's yet?" Ophelia asked Marshall.

"Not yet. I don't know when I'm ever going to go down there. I know I have to go one day, to clean it out, to look for clues, to have it demolished – but I don't know when I'll get around to that," Marshall mused. The late afternoon sun streaming through the window bathed Marshall's head in warmth and illuminated the fresh fuzz that was finally beginning to grow.

"Where's Theo?" 

"Closing the deal on selling Roose Pharmaceuticals."

"Didn't you want to keep at least partial ownership? Or some shares?" Faust asked without looking at Marshall. He hadn't made eye contact with him in days, no matter how hard Marshall tried.

"No. Once people find out about the trials in the 90s it's going to go under. Better get rid of it while we can still get a decent amount of money for it." Marshall fiddled with his fingers.

Marshall and Theo finally made peace with their parents, once they found out the truth that they had not abandoned them but rather they had been taken from them. Ophelia pleaded with Duncan and Elena to join their team (particularly Duncan with his strong telekinetic powers) but they both refused. "I just want to live a normal life. And now that I know Dr. Saber is gone I can feel like I can finally get on with my life," Elena had said.

Theo walked into the room at that moment and his normally bright head of hair had been mowed down right to his skull.

Otto laughed. "Nice dome."

"Shaddup," Theo quipped. Theo's eyes met his brothers, he gave Marshall a warm smile and nodded. Marshall's lips widened into a big smile. He plunked himself down into the last chair beside Otto's bed.

"It's odd to think that B – Roarke's dead," Otto said quietly. "He was such a big part of all of our lives."

"Some more so then others," Ophelia said, glancing at Marshall. "I'd understand it if you missed him."