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"Are you awake, or justyour head?" Nathan’s voice was barely louder than the beeping
I rolledhim into view, and s upon waking up It re, and of how , the Nathan in"I think I’m awake," I said My throat was dry, and the words felt scratchy leaving my lips "Are we still at the hospital?"
He nodded, faint srimmer expression He looked like his mother in that moment, and it worried me Nathan and Dr Cale had a similar bone structure, but they really only looked alike when they were upset about so?"
"The dru, isn’t it?" I waited for Nathan to nod before I continued, saying, "Nothing hurts Aht think," he said "We’ve already sealed the surgical incisions, and nuh that it shouldn’t hurt for an hour oreffect You’ll be completely healed inside of the week"
"So the operation…?"
"Was successful" Nathan raked his hands back through his hair, and for the first time I realized hoorried he looked, and how exhausted As hard as this day had been onwith y to look outward Nathan had been handling everything I couldn’t--including his mother--and he’d done it all without a word of coical tools, and she and Fang sealed the daed blood vessels so that they won’t be at risk of rupture anymore You still shouldn’t take any blows to the head if you can help it, but you’re not at any more risk of an aneurism than anyone else"
"Good" I offered hi you’ve done today I would never have made it this far without you I mean that They’ve probably shut down the trains by now, and you’re not supposed to take dogs on the BART anyway, so I’d be stuck in San Francisco, waiting for so I shuddered exaggeratedly
Nathan smiled a little "You’d have found a way You’re a survivor, Sal You survive things"
"Is there any chance that’s going to include surviving pants soestured at the blanket that covered et back to yourto send an extraction tea to try to walk the dogs all by hi to end well"
Nathan’s set you some clothes, but we can’t leave"
Somehow, that hat I’d been afraid of since I’d woken up to find myself still in the hospital, and not safely back in the bowling alley "Why not?" Horror washed over ht? Are we under arrest forhis head "Actually, we sort of got the opposite No one’s asked any questions about whether or not we’re allowed to be here, but Daisy and Fang have both been drafted into patient triage The ado too I was able to put the you still needed to be monitored, but I expected them back at any moment with a nurse’s aide that they plan to plunk down in a chair and make sure you don’t die They need the hands, and they’re not being particularly picky about where those hands come from"
"What happened?"
"There’s been another outbreak in Lafayette This one was larger than the one we got caught in before, and the authorities have closed down the hospital in an effort to contain it They still think quarantine zones help They could, if ere able to filter out people whose iered by pheros, but we don’t have that capacity yet, whichpanic Of course, try getting the people in charge to adrimmer than he had before "They’ve also closed down most of the roads The official cover story is that there’s been a gas leak--that’s e’re supposed to tell patients who ask, or reporters who e to sneak past the cordons It’s a et out of this building"
"You’ll think of soht, I a This is just et out of this"
"The areed "But do we need an aurney last time, because you needed s more believable, but couldn’t we take a taxi or… or steal a car or so slowly as he absorbedlot at this point," he said, after a long pause for thought "All the available security has been pulled inside, to stop people who shouldn’t be here fro They haven’t cracked down on the staff yet, and the security reinforcements are still an hour or so out"