Between The Lines

12.

"Well," said Gabriel, a big sigh of relief, "that went well. Come on." He started toward his house, completely casual.

I was about to ask about the four other times when Eli said, "Thanks for-"

"You don't need to thank me, Mr. Sans." He unlocked the door and held it open for us. "We'll figure this all out."

"All we're figuring out is the driver," said Eli, stopping in the small living room. "That's all we can do. If we wake up, I'll still be considered a mugger."

"What's this 'if' business?" I cut in. "We are going to wake up. And we'll clear your name."

He frowned. "You're going to lie."

I shrugged. "I was crossing the street. I wasn't paying attention and you tried to push me out of the way-though it clearly didn't work out. Plain and simple."

Eli turned to Gabriel, about to protest. Gabriel shook his head. "No point arguing. I'd do the same thing. Now, make yourselves comfortable-if you can. I'm going to make myself something to eat-I skipped breakfast." He disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Eli and I alone.

"Look, Eli," I said, "I wouldn't be lying to the authorities if I didn't know if it was right...." I frowned at my wording. "If that makes sense.... You know what I mean."

He sighed, eyebrows furrowed in though. "I guess that's one less thing to worry about.... Now, to the issue at hand: there's still Gabriel to worry about," he said quietly, "and the driver and his accomplice." Eli went over to the couch and hesitantly tried to sit on it-and couldn't, almost falling back. He groaned. "This is starting to get annoying." He sat at one end of the coffee table.

I sat on the floor across from him. "We already have Olivia as our lead. She's clearly not the leader-she will check in with whoever was driving or organized the break-in." I frowned. "I think we'll have to follow her."

"We'll also have to watch the police. They should've put out an APB on a Ford by now. We need to keep track of that."

"Can you imagine how many Fords are in this part of town alone?"

Gabriel came in with two ham sandwiches loaded with everything. "You guys are gonna have to fill me in on everything you've been up to in a minute, but I've got to tell you something first, something I learned at the hospital." He settled himself in on the floor between us, setting his plate on the table. "First, I met your Mom, Danity-she's really nice. And I told her Mr. Sans would never hurt a fly, and she seemed to believe me, so," he turned to Eli, "one less enemy for you."

"Thanks," he said wryly.

"Second, I stopped by your room, Mr.-"

"Just call me Eli. You don't work for me anymore."

"Okay... Eli-eesh, that's weird," he shuddered. "Anyway, the Mrs. was there. She's looking great, by the way-pregnancy suits her-and she told me something about you, something the doctors had told her." We immediately sat up. "It's not something to worry about now-it's all fine-but more for future reference. He said around six o'clock, there was a change in your condition, Eli. Your machines beeped for a few minutes. They weren't sure what the problem was, but it'd fixed itself by the time they could figure anything out. So... what happened to you around six this morning?"

Eli told him about our run-in with that group of ghosts outside the hospital, even the man in the hospital gown. He better described the feeling of his spine being twisted this time, almost like he'd given it some thought.