The End - Blackbird book 7

4. awake

The chief nurse let King Gillian stay thirty minutes. Before the clock stroke thirty-one, she stalked into the room, checked Gillian's vital once again and faced the man across the bed.

"I'm afraid I need to ask you to leave now," she whispered, determined to drag him out if she had to.

But she didn't. King Gillian stood up and left his daughter's hand back on the bed. Her eyes fluttered slightly open. Her lips moved. He leaned closer to her.

"You didn't have to..." she murmured.

King Gillian smiled. "I know. But I wanted to." He kissed her hair and left, escorted by the chief nurse like a soldier.

Gillian let out a soft sigh, eyes closed again. She was still too deep in morphine to think at all. Her head felt like wet cotton again, her body was a distant bag of rocks. Her father was there, out of the blue. And it'd felt good. There'd be time to ponder what it really meant for her. When the morphine washed off, in a year or two.

She slid into a light sleep, grateful that somebody had closed the curtains, isolating her from the bright lights from the hall. A minute or an hour later—it was hard to tell—more people tiptoed into her room. No touching and checking, so it wasn't the annoying nurses. She vaguely hoped it wasn't Connor. She didn't want him to spend the night at the hospital. She tried to sniff the air and felt disappointed when she didn't smell Brock's cologne anywhere near.

So she commanded her eyelids to get out of the way and glanced at her left. That was a woman.

"Al..." she mumbled.

Aldana sat up and leaned toward her with a smile. All of a sudden everybody smiled at her. Was she in such a bad shape?

"Hey, Reg. How're you holding up?"

She only nodded.

"Good. Connor's home with his friends and T." That was Aldana, always straight to what she wanted to know. "Now try to sleep. You were supposed to be out until the morning, and it's only ten p.m."

"Well..." There was something white in Aldana's hand. Something with a smell that spoke straight to her belly. "Coffee...?"

"Yep. Forget about it."

"Killjoy." She felt a little more lucid. She turned her head and found Cassidy at the other side of the bed. "Jeez. You here? Am I dying?"

Gillian glanced at Aldana, who nodded and stood up. "Don't let the nurses notice you're up," she said. She met Cassidy's eyes with a warning look and walked out.

Gillian tried to move, but she couldn't. The tight dressing around her chest and shoulder, and all the crap plugged to her body, wouldn't let her change position.

"Still my boss?" she asked. The morphine cloud in her head cleared a little, allowing her some basic thoughts. It felt damn good, holding the wheel of her own mind again.

"I'm afraid so," replied Cassidy.

"Good."

"Thought you'd be disappointed."

"Fool... Why would I...?"

"That's morphine talking, Gillian."

She let out something close to a scoff, enjoying the thrill of having a conversation.

"Hope you learned your lesson."

"I'm not you, Gillian. I'm in for the politics."

"Pity. Else, you'd be the best boss I..." The sentence got too long and she needed a pause to breathe." ...I ever had."

"Really."

"No. Cooper's the best... You came next..."

"Nice of you to say it, anyway."

"Need a hug?"

Cassidy chuckled under his breath and patted her hand.

"Miles is right, Gillian, you need to rest," he said gently. "Go back to sleep."

She felt a total champion when she was able to frown. She didn't want to sleep. She was sick and tired of being out or numb. Among other things, because she seemed incapable to assess what she should say or not. So the name just dropped from her mouth as a question.

"Brockner...?"

"I sent'im home for the night. Bet he's gonna be back soon."

She hated herself, but she just couldn't keep her lips from curling up. Lucky her, Aldana came back before she could embarrass herself any more.

"Ron says you better behave and go to sleep, or you're babysitting Penny for a week."

Gillian was able to stop herself before explaining she'd sleep only after seeing Brock. The stupid morphine seemed to enhance her emotions and she couldn't fight how much she needed to see him. From the moment she was shot, closing her eyes without him near fed an irrational fear of losing him forever. She needed him by her side. Everything would be fine if he was there.