Peace and Grace

15. What Happened?

The next thing I know is that I'm lying on the cold gym floor, staring up at the ceiling. The buzzer's been turned off, and there's distant talking. My head swims.

As the fuzziness fades a little and everything gradually comes back into focus, I see Warren's face hovering above mine. Is that concern I see creasing his handsome features?

"Grace?" When he speaks, his voice sounds distant too, like he's speaking to me through water, even though he's right there in front of me. "Grace?"

"Out of the way!" Coach Boomer kneels at my side. "You alright, Grace? What happened, did you hit your head?" He helps guide me into a seating position. My head feels heavy and still swims.

"Nadia!" I see my friends push through the crowd that had accumulated around me. Zach instantly rushes to my side.

"Hothead, Glow Kid, take her to the nurse," Coach Boomer orders.

 Next thing I know, Zach and Warren are slowly and gently helping me to my feet. My legs feel like jelly, and I stumble.

"Whoa-" Warren catches me, gently guiding me back to my feet.

"Come on." Zach presses me close to him protectively, away from Warren, his arm around my waist. I feel Warren's warm touch on my back and they guide me out of the gym and down the hall to the nurse's office. He's surprisingly gentle. I wonder if his hands are always this warm... Would make sense, I guess, he being a pyrokinetic and all.

I groan.

"You okay Naddie? You gonna puke?" Zach asks.

"No Zach, eww," I groan. It's not my stomach that's turning, it's my head.

It's after I stumble again and nearly face-plant that Zach concludes that I'm in no condition to walk. Why does the nurse's office have to be on the other side of the school from the gym? Whose brilliant planning was that?

"Here." Zach crouches in front of me, meaning for me to climb on his back and he'll piggy-back me the rest of the way. He did that once in late elementary school when I scraped my knee bad at recess.

Warren scoffs. "Here." My legs leave the ground and for a moment I think I'm falling again but then I realize that Warren has picked me up into his arms and is now carrying me down the hall. Bridal-style.  Well, wasn't expecting that, for Warren Peace to suddenly just sweep me off my feet.  

Literally.

I can't really focus on this though, because my head is still spinning, everything around me a blur.

Zach sounds just as surprised. "Uh, okay..." He follows close behind us. 

I hear the distant-sounding voice of the nurse as she ushers us into the office.

"Ugh, what happened?" I ask as Warren sets me down on the bed in the nurse's office.

"Don't know, you were just doing your thing and suddenly you stumbled and collapsed," Zach explained dramatically. "But you won! You totally kicked Speed and Lash's sorry asses!" He holds up his hand for a high-five which I weakly return.

The nurse checks me over.  "You don't seem harmed in any way, Miss Grace. But it appears that you have over-exerted yourself. You'll need to rest and recover. I think it's best if you head home."

"I'll call Jen," offers Zach.  "Tell her what happened and that you're going home."

"Thanks, Zach."

Once gym class is over, the rest of our friends join us in the nurse's office. Warren is now nowhere to be seen.  Neither is Will. 

"Please tell me you were conscious when Warren was carrying you bridal-style," says Maj.

"You saw that?"

"Yeah, Coach sent us to get your stuff from your locker and bring it to you." She holds up my bag and clothes.

"Thanks."  Who else saw that, I wonder? But I'm too exhausted to ponder this any further. 

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The nurse writes out some notes for me to pass out to my teachers, baring her signature and ordering me to head home for the rest of the day. Nurse's orders. 

I'll give one to Coach Boomer before I leave, and the rest I'll hand out tomorrow. 

"Was that really allowed, what Speed was doing?" I ask when I give the coach my note. "Cutting off Warren's air I mean. He could have seriously hurt him." Or worse, but I don't say this.

"You helped him out of it, didn't you?"

That didn't answer my question. "We were a team, of course I'm going to help him."

"Your mission was to protect the citizen. Never lose sight of your mission."

"But he could have died, especially if this were the real thing," I continue to protest.

"And in the real thing, you don't stray from your mission," Coach informs me. "It's a life-threatening job we have. We face dangers every day."

Though I'm still not happy about what happened, I have to admit that he does have a point. 

No one ever said being a hero was easy.

(Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))