Happily Ever After (The Lunar Chronicles story continuation)

Chapter 14: Meanwhile at the hospital

"Why do you have brown hair?" Scarlet asked Cress, who had been sitting next to her.
"You're awake!" Scarlet had been sleeping for four days straight.
"Yes, yes, now answer my question."
"It's auburn," Cress said
"It's brown. Why are you avoiding the question?"
Cress waited a few seconds before she answered. "Wolf had to leave, so I offered to stay with you."
Although Scarlet had to admit to herself that that answered one of her question, it was still not an answer to the one she had asked.
"How are you feeling?" Cress asked hastily
"Better I guess. I no longer feel like a horse trampled all over me after having been digested four times by a cow."
Cress gave a little smile. "You want some cake? We brought some when we came over." Cress failed to mention that the cake was four days old, but she thought it was still all right.
Scarlet wanted to smile back, but suddenly remembered why she was in the hospital bed to begin with. "Stars above," she whispered. "How many?" She asked a little louder.
Cress frowned, "what?"
"How many casualties?"
"67"
Scarlet closed her eyes. Nine more people had died while she had slept. She didn't know how many were wounded, or how many of those were in critical condition, or how many of those were still going to die and contribute to the figure, because that was all it had become, a figure instead of human lives. She didn't know how many people's lives had been wrecked, and would never return to the way they had been. While she knew it wasn't technically true, she couldn't help but feel like she was responsible. She was, although indirectly, the cause of the attack, which made her feel so helpless. She couldn't have known. She couldn't have changed anything, but in her eyes, it was still her fault.

Cress looked at her portscreen, she was receiving a comm from Thorne. A million different scenarios flew through her head. He was hurt. Something horrible had happened.
She left the room to answer it. "Anything wrong?" Cress was careful not to use his name in case anyone was listening in. She had no idea what situation Thorne would be in, and that made her shiver.
"Nah, I'm fine, well, not really, but you can't do anything about it. I just needed to hear your voice." Thorne said softly, not to draw any attention to himself.
Cress felt her cheeks warm and redden. "Where are you?"
"We're in the camp. They gave us our own room with bunk beds and everything. We can't figure out who gets top bunk though. Can you tell Wolf that I should have top bunk?"
Cress barely heard what Thorne had just said, she was still focused on the first words he had said. "You said something was wrong?"
Thorne took a second to think before he spoke. "Take this in the best possible way, but I'm so happy you stayed behind."
Cress frowned and was about to say something, but Thorne hastily continued, "they want to remove our implants."
"What? Who's 'they'?"
Thorne had to remind himself that Cress hadn't been there with him during his latest adventure. "The Lunars from the camp, they think we can't manipulate bio-electricity because we were given the Implant. So yeah, pretty happy you're not here, because I don't know what would happen if they figured out you're a shell."
In some strange way, Cress felt flattered, but she wasn't really sure how that worked.
"Oh, by the way," Thorne said, "Wolf wants to see Scarlet, he won't shut up about it."
She didn't really know how she was going to explain Scarlet any of this, but Cress still went back into the hospital room.
Scarlet looked up at her when Cress entered through the door. Without exchanging a word, Cress slid the portscreen into Scarlets lap. Her face lit up for a second when she saw Wolf, but worry entered her face soon after.
Cress didn't listen in to the short conversation. When they were done, Scarlet handed the portscreen back to Cress.
Scarlet looked at her, really tried to see through her. "Where's Wolf? He's with Thorne, but where the hell are they?"
Cress had no idea what to answer, had no idea what cover story Wolf had told. "What did he say?"
Scarlet squinted slightly at her. "He didn't tell me anything, just that I shouldn't worry. I know he's hiding something, and you're helping him. Please Cress, what are you hiding from me?"
Cress sighed, hating what she was about to do. She had never spent much time with Scarlet. Scarlet had been captured and become a prisoner on Luna when Cress joined the Rampion crew and they had been separated for most of the revolution as well, but she couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her, which is why she ended up telling Scarlet the plain truth. "He's on Luna with Thorne trying to stop the terrorist group that was behind the attack on Rieux."
Scarlet's eyes widened. She stayed silent during a pause and then drew in a deep breath. "Why, I mean, how? What?"
Cress gave a half smile as she continued, "and we work with a secret government organisation called the Intergalactic Crime Association."
Commander Kobe would kill her if he saw her now, spilling the ICA's secrets, but that didn't stop her from telling Scarlet everything about the mission.
Scarlet couldn't stop staring at Cress. "So Wolf is on Luna?" Her surprise was present in every word she uttered.
"Yeah"
"Which means we need to go there too," Scarlet said.
Cress stared blankly for a second, "you want to go there? Stars above, not you too."
"Why not?"
Cress waved her arms around frantically. "First Wolf wants to join us because of the attack on you, and now you want to go because he left. Do you even realise how stupid that sounds? It's not even a vicious cycle, it's just a stupid cycle."
Scarlet looked at Cress with puppy-like eyes.
Cress sighed, "it would have been easier if the ICA had just given the mission to you guys to begin with."