Anger Issues

Ch. 6

"Foster." I said slowly, she wasn't breathing.

Her skin was cold and lifeless.

"Foster please." I said, I was crying now and Bronte looked like he was going to be sick.

Sandor got here first and then Grady and Elwin joined us. Grady fell to the ground next to her, sitting in a puddle of blood.

"No," He whispered and put his hand on her cheek.

"Elwin, do something!" Grady yelled.

"We need to bring her to the leapmaster, I have to bring her to foxfire." Elwin said and Grady nodded. I picked Foster up in my arms, knowing that Grady didn't have the strength to do anything right now.

I had never seen Grady cry, but right now he was breaking apart. Sandor led us out of the cave, I ran as fast as I could. Foster was light, but still it's hard to run when carrying weight. I got to Havenfield, and Grady flung the door open.

I saw Edaline look quickly to me, she put her hand to her mouth and began to sob as she ran over to me.

I walked Sophie upstairs. Everyone in the council looked horrified. So did Della, Alden and Fitz.

All of Foster's body guards, Edaline, Grady, Elwin, and the Councilors leaped to Fox Fire with us. When we got to Elwin's clinic, he instructed me to set her down on the cot and I did so. After that I left the room, only Edaline and Grady were in there. Everybody else was in the hallway. Councilor Oralie looked and he and rubbed my shoulder.

"Elwin's a good doctor. She'll be okay." Oralie told me and I nodded, then moved past her and the rest of the Councilors.

Oralie is Foster's biological mother, but only our close circle knows that. If it got out, Oralie would lose her job and we would be weak, one Councilor down. That's the time the Neverseen would strike.

I started running down the school's hallway, to the boys bathroom. I threw up all of the food I ate last night.

Oralie said it was going to be alright, but how would it be alright? She was dead, she wasn't breathing.

How could Elwin help her if she was dead? Elves are powerful but they can't bring people back from the dead.

The dagger looked like it was positioned right in her lung, so she would've suffocated.

Or bled out, the body carries a lot of blood, and it was all in puddles in the cave.

She's dead, and she has top many ways that she died.

Even is Elwin replenished her blood supply, repaired her lung, and took the dagger out of her chest, she's brain dead by now. Her oxygen was cut off from her brain for too long.

It was over, she was gone.

I walked out of the bathroom after swishing water around in my mouth and wiping my eyes.

The councilor's eyes followed me as I went back into the room. Foster shirtless, all she had wrapped around her chest was bandages, and they were already getting bloody.

Grady was holding a sobbing Edaline, and he looked to me.

"I have to repair her lung, and then activate her brain." Elwin said and my head snapped towards him.

"Activate her brain?" I asked and Elwin nodded. Foster's a living being, you can't just activate an Elves brain, we're not robots.

"Elves have specific neurons that differ from those of any other species. Not many Elves know about this, or know how to, but if you cast a certain series of light into a brain dead Elf, then it activated their brain. The process takes only a couple minutes, so that's not what I'm worried about." Elwin explained, Grady and Edaline most have already heard this, so they were paying no attention to Elwin.

So Foster can be fixed? That's good, she has a chance.

"What are you worried about?" I wondered and Elwin took a deep breath.

"If I don't activate her brain soon, then I will never be able to." Elwin told me and I scrunched my eyebrows.

"Then do it. Do it now!" I exclaimed and Elwin shook his head, looking to Foster.

"If I activate her brain right now, she'll be awake and alert, and she'll try to breath. We don't have machines that will breath for her. If her body tries to breath with a ripped lung, her lungs will fill with fluid, and the process will have to start all over again. I can't activate her brain more than once in a day, it drains my powers. I can't do repair her brain and her lung at the same time." Elwin said and my breath hitched.

I needed Sophie to be alive, there had to be something we could do, it's not like there weren't other Doctor's in the Lost Cities.

Doctors.... other Doctors? That's right!

"Physic!" I exclaimed. "Physic can repair her lung while you activate her brain. She's an amazing Doctor and we can trust her." I told Elwin, he took a deep breath and looked to Grady.

"We didn't want to tell Forkle about this, he would never trust any of us again. But if that's what saves her, then we do it." Grady told Elwin and he nodded, he took out his Imparter and walked out of the room with Edaline and Grady.

As soon as he left, five crying teenagers ran into the room. Fitz, Biana, Dex, Tam, and Lihn.

"Sophie!" Dex cried and ran to her side, followed by Lihn and Tam, Fitz stayed by the door, covering his mouth with his hand while he tried to stop crying.

Biana went up to me and gasped, I made a face.

"You're covered in blood." She said and I looked down, my pajama pants (that I was still wearing) and my shirt was soaked in blood.

My mind had been so pre-occupied that I hadn't even noticed. It makes sense though, I was carrying Foster who was actively bleeding, and I had knelt down into her blood. I thought I was going to be sick again.

"Come on, you need to go home and get cleaned up." Biana said and gave me a small smile.

"No, i'm not leaving her." I told Biana, she sighed and grabbed my hand.

"Keefe, she's not alive right now. She will be when you get back. Sitting here in her blood isn't doing any good for you or the rest of us. You smell disgusting." Biana said. I nodded and she squeezed my hand before letting go.

I looked at Sophie one more time before leaving the room and walking outside. The sun was rising, there was just enough light for me to leap home.

**************

When I got back to Fox Fire, I was properly dressed and washed. Everyone was waiting outside of the room, the Council was gone but Forkle was here now, and he looked almost as distraught as Edaline.

"They started the repairs, she'll be out in a couple hours." Fitz told me as I sat down to all of my friends. Tam was trying to comfort Lihn and Dex was holding Biana. Fitz wiped his eyes and I gave him a small smile.

"She's going to be okay. She's Foster, she always pulls through." I chuckled and Fitz smiled.

"You're right." He said and sniffled.

Forkle walked over to us and took a deep breath.

"So, what happened?" He asked.

"I honestly don't know." I said "the last thing I remember is that Foster and I were walking up the beach to the house and then I woke up in my bed." I said and he shook his head and muttered something.

"Same with me." Biana said. "I was eating in the kitchen and then out of nowhere I woke up in my room." She said and then Forkle looked to Dex, who nodded in agreement.

Lihn shook her head.

"How could this have happened?" She asked and Forkle took a long, deep breath.

"The neverseen."