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Fuck algebra They were actually going to use that stuff

Well, the others were going to use it Although Rhage had said nothing yet about kicking hi

And therapy? With Mary?

Who were they even kidding? The last thing he wanted was to have to talk to Rhage’s shellan about hoas feeling about what had happened Hell, getting through the facts had been hard enough--and besides, it wasn’t a great fucking ret, shame

Come on Like, duh

After he paced around for a while, he lay flat on the desk and stared up at the ceiling, his lower back pointing out that there was no led it up and used the thing as a pillow As the day wore on, he would get up and pace again froertips on the slick tops of the tables they had all sat at while they had been in class

He wanted to go back to the student part of things, when the learning had been theoretical It had been a grand adventure back then

He wanted to go back to before his cousin had died Because that had seemed like the first of the bad doo back to that alley But he had recrih over what he wished he had done differently there

When the door opened, he was lying down again and he didn’t bother to look over froe" Peyton rubbed his face "You got good news for me? No? Well, at least I’m used to that--oh, wait, this is the part where you kickfor you"

Peyton ju "What did you say?"

"You heard "

Okay, this was a shocker Unless Novo wanted to yell at him--and hey, if that hather punching bag

Out in the corridor, he headed for the clinic area, and as he went along, he pulled up his combat pants and re-tucked his black ive a shit hoas dressed?

At the door of her hospital room, he knocked--and when he heard a muffled response, he pushed his way inside

Oh…shit

Novo was lying prone in that bed with the high rails, hermachines byhim think about her liver--no, wait, was that the kidneys? He couldn’t think And her lids were do, herto breathe with theone of thein the IV line, using a syringe

"Colanced over her shoulder and slad they found you I’ll leave you two to it--but Dr Manello will be co in very soon"

As the fe hisoccurred to hi like a fool, he ith: "Hey"

Yup, real original, profound stuff right there--God, why couldn’t he have been the one to get stabbed?

Novo lifted her arot up off the sheets "Don’t leave"

"Not until you tell ra I know…you’re going to try to…leave"

For athat hadn’t been on his o But she looked so tired and worn out that he didn’t want to waste her energy--even though he couldn’t understand why she cared

"We need…fighters," she said hoarsely "You…good one"

"How can you even say that?" He pulled a chair over, sat down, and put his head in his hands "How can you even…"

His voice drifted off as tears ca the fuckup, the asshole, the partyer, the rake…he was a poor excuse for a male of worth, and his father knew it just as everyone who had ever crossed his path did