Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday

Chapter 6: Never Forget

"Ow!" I yelled, jerking backwards against the chair, trying to get away from the pain.

"Stay still!" Katrina yelled back, setting the antiseptic down and putting her hands on her hips. "If you keep jerking like that, you'll make your concussion worse."

"It's not my fault that stuff burns." I snapped. Across the room from me, Megan grabbed a flashlight and aimed it at my face. I covered my face with my hands as my head throbbed.

"Megan!" I screamed, grabbing a pillow and chucking it in her general direction. I heard her burst into hysterical laughter, followed by Katrina trying not to laugh.

"That's enough, both of you." Kat said, doing a bad job of holding in her giggles.

"Megan, how are you not doubled over and dizzy?" I protested. "You hit your head way harder than I did, it knocked you unconscious for crying out loud."

"Can't say it's the first time Warren." Megan said. "Honestly, compared to ones I've had before, this is actually a pretty mild concussion. My arms hurt more than my head does."

I opened my eyes, looking over at Megan sitting in the chair opposite me. When we'd gotten into the tunnels, Megan had collapsed. My head was still swimming at that point so I'd sat down with her. But as where my concussion seemed to get worse in these past few days, Megan was nearly fine now.

"You'll feel like yourself soon Warren." Katrina said softly, gently turning my face to get a better look. "Although that black eye will stick around for a while." I sighed. I'd hit the ice wall just perfectly to thankfully not break my nose, but it had given me a black eye and a huge bruise and gash up the left side of my forehead. Apparently the wall hadn't been perfectly smooth, so it scrapped up my face pretty decently. And in the stress of trying to get everyone back in one piece, I didn't even notice it was bleeding.

"Hm." Katrina said, thinking. "I don't think I'll bother taping up your scrapes again. They've stopped bleeding and this way they can heal on their own." She grabbed her little tray of medical items and marched over to Megan.

"However, I am going to change your bandages Megan."

"Ugh, do you have to?" Megan said, frowning. "If I keep them still so they don't rub, they don't hurt that bad."

"If I leave them on, you'll get an infection and then where will we be?" Katrina retorted. Megan let out an exaggerated sigh, setting her elbows on the arms of the chair. This left her forearms up in the air so Katrina could unwrap the cloth more easily.

"Honestly Megan, you're pretty lucky." Kat said as Megan gasped in pain while she gently lifted the bandages off. "As much as the hot metal from your armor hurt, it probably saved you. Had Element grabbed you like that somewhere were just cloth was between her and you..." We all left her sentence hanging. I hoped I never had to make the decision one day between taking someone to the hospital and saving their life, or protecting the rest of us. One look at us and the hospital would turn us all in. It's why we hadn't taken many risks yet. A life-threatening injury would be the end of R.I.O.T.

Megan took in a sharp breath through her teeth as Kat took the last wrapping off her arms. I hadn't had a chance to get a good look at the burns until now, so I stood up and walked across the room, ignoring the vertigo. The shapes weren't perfect due to the damage the burning metal had inflicted, but you could pretty easily make out the handprint shapes around Megan's arms. Katrina gently grabbed Megan's hand and bent her elbow around so she could see.

"They're healing pretty quickly Megan, I'm surprised." Kat said. "For as bad as they were, this is quite remarkable."

"They'll leave a heck of a scar pattern though." Megan said, wiggling her fingers.