EDGE OF DAY

CHAPTER SIX

Her senses returned blurred and fragmented. Flimsy white curtains billowed around a large sunny window. A newborn baby cried. An old man wheezed as though taking his last dying breaths. She felt like she was in a between lives waiting room, a place for those coming into the world and those leaving.

Someone leaned over her bed, blocking the light. The silhouetted figure was backlit with a halo of sunshine. Her eyes adapted to the darkness of his form, revealing tanned skin, blue eyes, and a well-structured jaw line. His presence radiated peace. As though him being there was the most natural thing in the world.

She smiled. "Will Van de Berg?"

He smiled back. "You wouldn't think," he said, "that everything you saw and everyone you spoke to in a dream had any sort of existence outside yourself would you?"

"How did you find me? What happened?"

"This is the dream inside the dream. Now you'll wake up to the dream. Don't forget, Day."

She breathed in sharply.

"She's waking," a voice said.

Her cheek was pressed against a hard mattress that smelt of bleach and starch. Her back burned like a hundred thorns had punctured the skin.

"Day?"

Ed? She adjusted her head and squinted to see him. She felt like an idiot, stuck flat against the bed, cheek and lips squashed up to her eye. She could make out a man's shoulder.

"Babe?" Ed said. He bent over so his face was closer, but still damn awkward to look at.

"What happened?" she croaked.

"What?"

"What happened?" Her lips and mouth were crushed which distorted her words, and Ed had never been much of an interpreter. Never good at filling in the gaps.

"Bot Banned?" he said, eyes narrowing. "I don't know what that means." He turned to someone behind him. "What's she talking about?" Day didn't hear if there was an answer forthcoming.

"Listen, honey," he said, without bothering to bend down so she had to strain her neck and roll her eyes to the back of her head to see him. "There was a bomb in the shopping mall. You were injured in the explosion. You were hit by flying shrapnel. You were very lucky it wasn't worse.'

She stopped straining to focus on Ed and slumped into the bed.

"I didn't know you were going to the shopping mall today," he said. Accusation peppered his comment. Like she wasn't free to come and go as she pleased.

"I guess I picked the wrong day," she said sarcastically.

"She's awake," a voice said.

There came the sound of hard shoes on vinyl flooring. A sense of wariness flooded Day. Lying face down on a hospital bed with only a flimsy gown covering her buttocks didn't exactly mitigate the tension moving through her body.

"Officer Rink and Officer Stanhope," a man said. Day recognized his voice. Officer Rink was presenting himself and his partner to Ed. "We need a few minutes with your girlfriend." A pause. "Alone."

"Oh right," Ed said. "Okay. I'll just be outside, Hon."

Ed hurried from the ward, practically running. He was probably desperate to get in touch with everyone from the studio, tell his droid crew he'd be back soon.