CRESSWELL: The Lunar Chronicles

Chapter 2

Hi again. Hoped you liked it. Here's the second chapter.

Thorne set Cress on her bed. "Shhh, it's alright," he said, brushing the hair out if her face. "Where does it hurt?"

Cress put a hand on her stomach and looked at her legs. Thorne followed her gaze, and that was the answer he needed. There where already a few bruises on her shins, and one on her knee. "Do you think anything's broken?" Cress just shrugged.

"Um, OK, um, I'll get-" Thorne was interupted by a knock on the open door. It was Wolf, carrying some bandages, and a few canisters of healing cream. Neither Cress nor Thorne had noticed, until now, that the ship stopped shaking, which means Scarlet must have landed the ship.

"Well Thorne, the president is waiting outside, you need to go. I'll tend to Cress" It was Scarlet, who now joined Wolf at the doorway. Thorne just sat there stroking Cress' hair. "Thorne, come on. I'll tend to her and we can bring her to the nearest med-clinic"

"Al-alright." he kissed Cress on the forehead, and walked out to lower the ramp. He was massaging the back of his neck, with deep concern on his face. Cress cought a glipse of his face, and already knew that he was thinking of the day in the throne room while he was under Lavana's control. They would talk about it later. Now she was focused on getting the feeling back to her legs.

Wolf set all the medical supplies on the bed and left Scarlet to tend to her. Scarlet too, began to sroke Cress' hair. Cress' wimpers had died down to a few sniffles. Scarlet opened one of the cream canisters. She applied it to Cress' small legs. Then she wrapped her legs with the bandages.

"Better?" Cress nodded and Scarlet helped her sit up. They both put one arm around each other's shoulders so Scarlet could help her walk. They made their way to the ramp and Cress saw President Vargas, a gaurd, a couple androids, Wolf, and Thorne.

The president saw Scarlet and Cress walking down the ramp and stopped talking. Wolf and Thorne turned around, and Thorne started towards Cress. "Are you alright? President Vargas has a med-clinic in the White House."

Cress nodded and Thorne scooped her up again. "Scarlet, Wolf, can you take care of unloading the antidotes?"

"Yes, yes, we can take over, now go," Scarlet said, motioning Thorne away from the Rampion.

§§§

Thorne followed an android to the med-clinic, which was about a 5 minute walk. No one was inside waiting, so Thorne went to the desk with another android sitting behind it.

"Um..." the android looked up, examining the pair in front of it. Suddenly her sensor flashed with recognition. Still not saying a word, the android typed something in a portscreen and gestured toward the door to their left.

Thorne carried Cress through it. Inside it was a normal doctor's room. An examination table, a counter along the wall with various tools, a few chairs, an overhead light above the table, and another door.

Just then, a person came through that door with a med-droid trailing behind him. He looked to be in his early 40s and had slightly graying brown hair. Thorne sat Cress down on the examination table. "Good morning, I'm Dr. David Felton and this is Sheri," he gestured to the med-droid, "I recieved a comm about a patient...um, Cress?"

Cress looked up at Dr. Felton through her hair. She tried to say, "that's me." but it came out in a weird squeak. Thorne picked up on it and said "Um, yea, that's her. We're delivering lutemosis antidotes. You may recognize me. I'm Captain Carswell Thorne. I recently just saved your planet from the wrath of Queen Levana." He flashed his one-sided grin, but the docter looked unimpressed.

"Yes, yes. Now what is the patient's problem?"

Thorne looked a little dismayed that his charm had failed. "Well, you see, there was an accident...I was landing my ship when something went wrong in the engine. The ship started shaking and Cress her fell and boxes of cans fell on her." he kept glancing at Cress, who didn't show any signs if annoyance at Thorne twisting the story.

"I see," Dr. Felton said. He told the android to get some kind of cream and then he began to unravel Cress' legs. "They don't look too severe. Just some minor bruising. They should clear within the next week. On a scale of 1-10, how bad is the pain?"

Cress was unaware he asked her a question until she saw Thorne and Dr. Felton looking at her. She searched for her voice and said "Um...8?"

The doctor nodded and began to swing her legs back and forth, "Does this hurt?" Cress shook her head a little and said "I think it's only when I walk."

"Alright. Let's try to stand." he placed a hand on her back and Thorne jumped with an alarming look. He moved to Cress to help the doctor. Cress stood with her hand holding onto the table until her knuckles turned white. Then she moved one hand to take Thorne's.

"How is it?" Dr. Felton asked.

"It is not as bad as the first time. And I can feel them again." Thorne let out a nervous chuckle when he saw that Cress was smiling.

Just then the med-droid came back with two canisters of a cream and a bottle of pills. "Thank you, Sheri. Here. You can apply this twice a day until the pain wares off. And here are some pills in case of some really bad days." He smiled at Cress and gave Thorne the medications.

"Thank you," said Cress as she wobbled out of the doctor's room. Before Thorne closed the door, Dr. Felton caught it and said, "Don't worry about the pay. Think of it as my thanks for saving my planet "

Thorne winked at him mumbled under his breath to Cress, "I knew he would fall for me" Cress giggled as they started back to the Rampion.