Killer One ✓

Chapter 23

Lacey.

I pointed to the phone Hannah was currently bedazzling with the word "BANG". It was a word that I associated with Travis the most out of everyone here but I didn't know where she would've gotten it. Travis didn't exactly have his phone on him in the jail and I didn't think he had it when we left the jail.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing at the phone.

"Oh," she exclaimed, her eyes watching the pillows I dropped on the ground. "It's one of my hobbies."

"Whose phone is it?" I clarified.

"Travis'," she said. "Or, it will be. Finn and Ben went out to the store and picked up phones for you guys while you and Annabeth were out. One of them should have yours. Ben already set up Travis' and well, the phone case is removable so if Travis doesn't like it, he doesn't have to keep it on. I'm just...It gives me something to do."

That last sentence was the only part that I clung onto. "What's wrong with him?"

"He's okay," Hannah tried to reassure me, setting down the phone and picking up the bags I had brought in.

"You can be honest with me," I told her.

He wasn't okay. Travis hadn't been okay in a long time. He wasn't now, he wasn't in the jail, and he wasn't when I first came back to Melkin. Of course, now he was sporting a lot more bruises than when I first came back but he was still troubled back then, that much had been obvious.

I didn't want to sit here and be told he was okay when he was really just stable and safe. I didn't want things sugar coated for me. I was tired of that and pretty sure I'd paid my dues. I couldn't blame Hannah though. We weren't very close so she didn't know what I didn't want to hear.

"He woke up earlier and started puking. He's been running a slight fever but he insisted he was cold when he got back into bed and wanted to cover up," she said as she opened an ankle brace that we'd bought at the store.

"He changed shirts," I pointed out.

"Yes," she said as she began putting the brace gently onto him. "His shirt wasn't clean from having the fever and covering up with more blankets so when he woke back up again, I told him to change. But I'm worried about his injuries. The second time he woke up, he ran for the bathroom. It wasn't good on his ankle and all of the sudden movements won't help the other strained or tender muscles he has to heal."

I frowned, not happy with what she did as telling me but wanting to know more. "So why are you worried?"

"What?" she asked, confused.

I pointed over to the half finished phone case she was bedazzling.

She looked guilty for a second before recovering, "It would be better for his injuries if he wasn't moving around or going through withdrawals. It's a lot for his body all at once. I'm worried he might make one of his injuries worse or his fever won't drop. It wouldn't be so bad if we were in a hospital, but we need his injuries and muscles to heal as best and fast as they can so he's not in pain once he wakes up for good. He's going to have enough to deal with withdrawal wise. I don't want to add anything to it."

She finished with his ankle and started tending to him using supplies she had and supplies Annabeth and I had gotten.

I didn't know her very well and I'm sure she was just doing something she did every day at the hospital, but Hannah's concern over giving Travis a few less things to deal with made her jump to one of my favorite people here. There wasn't anything new wrong with Travis which was good. Hannah just wanted to prevent the other half of my heart from going through too much pain. I knew in that moment, I would do anything she ever asked of me.