Blood, Sweat, and Schradieck

Chapter Eighteen - Alyss

Alyss feels a bit better when she wakes up the next morning. Her head has cleared some, and her chest doesn't hurt quite as badly. It's still difficult to breathe, but at least it doesn't feel like there's a hot knife in between her ribs every time she inhales.

The painkillers for her leg have finally kicked in, so instead of the agony from yesterday, she feels nothing from the waist down. It feels a little strange, but it's better than before, so she's not complaining.

Dr. Hanne appears a few minutes after Alyss wakes, and she seems pleased by Alyss's progress. She exchanges the clear plastic oxygen mask over Alyss's mouth and nose with a smaller tube that snakes across Alyss's cheeks and under her nose, which Alyss finds much more comfortable. 

Mrs. DuLacy enters the room a little bit after eight, and smiles in relief as she sees Alyss sitting up in bed, leaning back against the pillows and eating breakfast. Well, if cherry-flavored gelatin and plain yogurt counts as breakfast. 

"Good morning, Alyss!" her teacher says, taking the chair next to Alyss's bed. "Are you feeling any better this morning?"

"A bit," Alyss says evenly. "My head feels better, at least. I can't feel my legs, which is good."

Mrs. DuLacy nods. "Dr. Hanne said last night she was going to increase your painkillers since you were more alert."

"I'm much more comfortable now," Alyss says. She finishes the last of her gelatin, and sets the tray aside. Mrs. DuLacy hands her the cup of water from the bedside table.

"Malcolm said he's planning to come in to see you a little bit later," Mrs. DuLacy says.

"I would like that," Alyss replies, tilting her head a bit. She is genuinely fond of the gentle, compassionate medic in charge of the Redmont Conservatory infirmary. 

Mrs. DuLacy eyes her cautiously. "Halt says to tell you hi," she finally says.

Alyss feels a pang of guilt for how she treated him yesterday. But she can't see him, can't look at him, not now, without thinking of Will. How the two are inexorably intertwined. One cannot exist without the other. And when she thinks of Will, the pain comes back, almost worse than her chest and her leg, all over again.

The only way she can drown that pain out is by banishing it from her mind. With some difficulty, she pushes the thought away, only then realizing that Mrs. DuLacy is watching her closely, waiting for a response.

"Oh," is the best thing Alyss can come up with. Not her brightest moment. She's convinced the painkillers are doing something to her mind. 

The two fall into silence - not exactly a comfortable one, as the atmosphere is a bit strained - but at least not a painful one. 

It's bright outside, Alyss notices idly, the sun finally having come out after days hidden in gray clouds and intermittent flurries. The light is reflected and refracted off and magnified by the clean, sparkling snow covering the ground. Seeing the sunlight after so long somehow lifts Alyss's spirits a bit.

"You're smiling," Mrs. DuLacy says suddenly, startling Alyss. She turns toward her teacher, surprised, a question forming on her lips.

Her words die away as soon as she sees her teacher's tear-filled eyes. "I haven't seen you smile in what feels like forever, Alyss," Mrs. DuLacy says. "I don't know what's going on with you, Alyss, and I'm not going to ask. I just want you to know that if you ever want to talk, I'm here to listen, okay?" 

Alyss can only gape as her teacher gives her a sad smile, before getting to her feet and leaving the room quietly. It's several long minutes before she returns, her eyes suspiciously red-rimmed. And that silence again returns to the room, the unease somehow banished, just for now.

Alyss dozes off a little while later, her exhaustion from the events of the past day and a half returning. As she drifts away, she feels a hand stroking her hair softly, a comforting sensation that brings back memories blurred by time of another hand, now long gone and lost, and of a whole and happy home. Of a mother.

A/N: Okay. I'm officially the worst author ever. 

I'm so sorry about the wait! I intended to keep up my updating schedule but my summer completely exploded with work. My parents let me go up to forty hours a week at work once I finished school, and when I was home I was practicing music (or sleeping), so I had no time to write, and no time to read either (which usually gives me my motivation to write).

I actually gave my senior recital this afternoon, and I move into school (college!!!) in less than two weeks. I'm hoping stuff will start to calm down, and I'm going to try my best (but watch me probably fail) to finish this book before school starts. 

And I'm sorry, but there's no way I'm going to be able to work on Sparks Flying at all. I have the rest of the story mapped out in my head, so maybe I'll be able to finish it over Christmas break. 

Sorry again, you guys. Hope I still have readers. Have a great rest of your summer, and good luck to you all as school starts up!!! (Hope this bit of Alyss/Lady Pauline fluff makes you guys happy. I know it made me happy!) And sorry for the short chapter.