ASUNDER (I) : tmr newt

57: I'm Blackmailing

57 Leo

"She's sedated," Jeff drops the syringe onto the ground, his hands shaking so quickly they begin to blur. "With a dose powerful enough to knock out Fry."

Somehow, I don't think it was enough.

"You good Lee?" Jeff places a hand on my shoulder, bringing me back to reality.

She looks pale, but at least she didn't have a seizure. Some sort of wild and rapid nervous breakdown, stemming from something in her head. Something I can't seem to stop. "What was she talking about?"

"The hallucinations are back, as it would seem," Clint sighs, wiping the sweat that is beginning to pool on his forehead. It is no hotter than normally in the room, although it feels like we are baking in an oven. At least it isn't just me who feels unbearably warm.

"She was having a conversation." Jeff notices, clinging on to me with all his strength.

Clint picks up the empty syringe, moving it back into the cupboard. He places it next to the yellow bottle of sedative, before closing the doors. "Yeah, with a hallucination."

"Should we update Alby?" Jeff asks slowly.

"No," Clint speaks with a certainty I've never heard him use before. "Nobody tells Alby what is happening. Not until I'm done running the tests."

"But if she is going to have another seizure-"

"Then we cross that bridge when we get there." Clint cuts me off, nodding towards me.

On a technical level he is my Keeper, so I know I should listen to him. He has more experience than I do, and he is more likely to find the best course of action and follow it. Despite this, I can't help but feel like I am disobeying Alby, and thereby the rules of the Glade. Wasn't I supposed to be in charge of the girls anyway? Or at least represent them?

"But-"

"Leo, that's final." Clint doesn't often come out on top of Jeff and I. Normally the two of them work as a unit, and I've been trying to figure out the way I fit between the pair. Now, however, it is clear that Clint is running the show. He decides who talks to who and what treatment we do and when we do it. "Until then, she's going to be in the Changing room. No one in or out except me. Got that Jeff?"

Jeff nods quietly, letting go of me and moving over to help Clint. This dynamic shift between them feels not only odd, but uncomfortable. Clint has a way of commanding people that doesn't sit well with me. Only a few weeks ago were they sitting around and doing inventory, yelling up and down the Homestead at each other. The two bicker like an old married couple. For the longest time, I thought of them as a unit.

Clint funny and charming, but quick to action. Jeff chatty and amused, always teasing anything insight. When it comes down to it though, Jeff is quiet and obedient while Clint is decisive and orderly.

When it comes down to it, I don't know what I am. For a long time, I thought I was useless and stressed. Looking at Ella's unconscious body only solidifies this fact. This is who I am.

"I should tell Alby," I begin, looking up at Clint. "Why are you giving her medical treatment behind his back?"

Jeff looks up at me, biting his lip. "Honestly Leo, just do what he says. He knows more about medicine than everyone in the Glade combined. If Clint says to do it, you do it."