The Future Chosen [was Anti-Dynasty/Extraordinary]

Broken Chapter 9

"I'm sorry."

"Hmm?"

"You probably get this a lot."

Lourdes knew what was coming, because she did.

"I grew up thinking your grandmother was a hero."

As far as Lourdes was concerned, Dr. Pedralzo could fangirl a former president all she wanted--as long as she kept her fingers steady while she took out her stitches. So far, so good.

"You know why, though? It's not that she's a woman. I mean, we've had women leaders before..."

To her credit, Dr. Pedralzo's touch was light and not at all distracted.

"It was her handling of the storm refugees. I was a teenager at the time, and I thought...this was how we should live, you know? This was how a nation should be to others. It's why I became a doctor."

Lourdes did some quick math; Dr. Pedralzo was too young to have remembered her grandmother as a sitting president. What she was talking about was something MLR1 did post-presidency, when she handled a diplomatic and philanthropic post on a regional natural disaster commission. One particularly obnoxious hurricane swept through Isla and the poorer neighboring countries, and MLR1 lobbied for, and succeeded in, allowing ten thousand "storm refugees" into Isla, giving them new homes and residency status. It began a chain of events that affected Lourdes to this day, because immigration that continued on a faster, larger scale between Isla and those nations put pressure on all social services including public education and now that she was in the youth commission, she had to address some of those concerns.

But that was the cost of doing what they did; she still thought her grandmother was awesome. Lourdes didn't expect her life to be any easier, just because the ones who came before her made the tough decisions.

"I'm glad," Lourdes said. "It means a lot to hear how great she was to people."

"Oh right," Dr. Pedralzo mused, as she finished her work. "You never met her."

She didn't. She was eligible for public office because she had been born after MLR1 had died. The same way Andres never met his senator-uncle. They had been real people to others, but to the next generation of the chosen, these people were merely names. Legends. Heroes and saints.

"Well, you must be doing something right," Dr. Pedralzo said, as she took off the latex gloves she'd been using. "Because you're only twenty-four years old and not even an elected official yet. Who would want to shoot you? Only someone truly threatened, right?"

***

"It's healing well."

"Yeah, you're an expert all of a sudden."

She didn't mean to snap at him, but there was no one else to snap at. Her image and the strict rules of showing her face in public demanded it. There were things that made Lourdes want to vent, rant, scream, and this was one of those things.

"Hey. What's wrong, Loony?"

They didn't risk it that evening by going out again, so it was dinner in her room, with the door closed. Lourdes had been pacing around and around inside it, when he arrived with the hospital food. "Who are they saying did it?"

"They didn't tell you? You're not watching the news?"

"I think they've filtered mine. I'm not seeing local anything."

"They're saying it's the Chattleys. They arrested someone and he confessed, but they're saying he was hired by the Chattleys."

"That is a lack of imagination worse than...a Chattley." And it wasn't at all comforting. The Riorosas, like any political family worth anything, had a rival in the district. Except the Chattleys actually held a government position now, whereas the Riorosas had to wait for Lourdes to grow up.

"Getting rid of me won't help them," Lourdes said, her voice stuttering from her thoughts being too fast. "It's not like they'll have anyone running against me directly...and they already have the seat in congress..."

"Hey." Andres let her shirt fall, covering the scar he'd been inspecting, and pulled her into his arms. "These things aren't supposed to make sense. Anyone who plans to go to a damn school and shoot people is not reasonable. Anyone who hired that person to do it is dangerous."

"It can't be the Chattleys. If they're focusing on investigating the wrong people then the ones who did this are still out there."

"I don't think it's them."

"Then who?"

"If you want to find out then we'll find out. But shit, that's why I'm here. You know that, don't you?"

Lourdes looked up at him, into those eyes she knew so well. And maybe...maybe this wasn't just Andres needing to know she was recovering well. Maybe this was...

Maybe this was them, again.

It could be.

She touched his mouth with her fingers, and then with her lips, and then with her tongue. She hooked her legs around his hips and pulled him closer, toward the hospital bed.

"But your injury..." His voice was low, struggling to sound responsible, and say the responsible thing. She admired that. But she was over it.

"I'm ready," she said. "What I'm not sure I can be is quiet."

He stifled a laugh. "Maybe if my mouth was on yours the whole time."

"Shut up then and let's do this already."