Page 89 of The Fighter
“Because it was my idea to go and investigate. Magni and Leo weren’t supposed to be in that place at that time. They came to rescue Laura and me. If only we had stayed home the men wouldn’t have had to come. If Magni dies, I’ll be the one who killed him.”
Willow took my hand and wove our fingers together. “That’s just survivor’s guilt. You can’t blame yourself. You didn’t even ask them to come, did you?”
“No. But that doesn’t matter.”
Willow spoke in a low tone. “It’s natural to feel that way, Raven. I’ll bet your dad is blaming himself that his drone broke down and Laura blames herself for going. But those thoughts will drive you insane. None of you are to blame. Do you hear me?”
My dad looked over. “Finn and Athena will be here any minute.”
A doctor’s assistant came into the waiting room and everyone looked up as he spoke. “Leo da Vinci is awake now. You can go and see him but only one or two at a time.”
I got up from my chair, but Zasquash, who had been waiting in a corner, jumped up to follow the doctor’s assistant with Solo. It made sense since the two of them were close friends of Leo, but I was disappointed because I needed to see him and apologize for causing all of this misery.
Twenty minutes later, Zasquash and Solo returned.
“Any news?” Solo asked.
“No.” Khan sighed. “How is Leo?”
“He’ll survive. He worries about Magni like the rest of us.” Solo walked toward Willow and when he reached for her, I gave him my seat.
“I’ll go say hi to Leo.”
“All right.” Solo gave me a nod. “He’ll like that.”
Leo was in a hospital room by himself. His dark hair wasn’t in a bun for once but lay against the white pillow.
“Hey.” His eyes followed me as I walked from the door to sit at the side of his bed.
“Hey. How are you feeling?”
“Like shit.” Leo moved and groaned from the pain.
“What happened to you? Did you have internal bleeding?”
“No, I don’t know.” He raised a hand to his head in a slow movement. “The doctor was here, but I’m a bit groggy.”
“You passed out.”
“When?”
“After you landed.”
“Could be. My leg is wrapped up and I think the doctor mentioned something about broken vessels, internal bleeding, and blood loss.” Leo lifted a finger and pointed to a screen next to his bed.
I leaned forward and read aloud, “‘Patient was ejected from military drone without helmet or safety suit on. He suffered a concussion and fractured his thigh bone, which resulted in internal bleeding. Symptoms were ecchymosis, swelling, tightness, and pain in leg. Operation was successful and estimated recovery with bone accelerator is two to four weeks.’
“Wow, so you broke the bone when you were ejected from the drone?”
“Yes. But the doctor did say that I’ll walk again. I remember that much.”
“Did they give you something to ease the pain?”
“Yeah.” Leo’s hand fell down to lie on top of the mattress and he gave me a tired smile.
“I’m sorry for not waiting for you. If Laura and I hadn’t gone by ourselves none of this would have happened, and it’s not like we found any new clues anyway. We went to see Mr. Zobel’s daughter because she said she had a few boxes with his old stuff, but there was nothing of interest. It was all a waste of time and now this happened.” I teared up.
Leo reached for my hand as I continued my rant: “I’m sorry that we ignored your calls. Laura was sure Magni would yell at her, but of course now…” I trailed off and lowered my head in shame. “Now his yelling would be the sweetest sound in the world.”
