Page 93 of The Fighter
“Yes, in your bedside table.”
“Then you know why I took it, don’t you?”
“To jerk off with?”
“Nooo!” Leo wrinkled his nose up. “Well, maybe once or twice, but mostly, I liked to smell the scent of your perfume before sleeping. It helped me visualize that one day I would have a woman in my bed.”
“Anywoman?”
“No, a specific delicious caramel-colored, badass woman.”
We were quiet for a moment, listening to the voices coming from outside the hospital room and looking out the window as drones came and left in the distance.
“Raven, can I ask you something?”
“Uh-huh.”
“If nothing physical had happened between us yet, would you have let me compete for Mila or would you have told me about your attraction?”
“Who knows? It might have come out the closer we got to Mila’s tournament. It was pretty evident that I had a strong reaction every time your name was mentioned.”
Leo placed his forehead against mine. “I wish you hadn’t hidden your crush so well. There were times when I thought you despised me.”
A knock on the door was followed by Mila, who came in and stopped abruptly when she saw me and Leo cuddled up together. “Mother Nature, Leo. You’re lucky that you’re in a hospital bed already. When Boulder hears about this, he’ll be furious.”
I sat up in the bed. “I’ll tell him when I want him to know, so you’ll keep it a secret. You know I would do it for you.”
“I don’t want to be your secret.” Leo reached for me as I got out of the bed. “Even Magni admitted that I’m a good man, so why can’t you just tell your family?”
“Because right now they have other things to worry about than you and me.”
Leo’s eyebrows drew close. “Of course. I wasn’t thinking. Mila, is there any news about your father?”
Mila nodded. “That’s why I came to fetch Raven. They said the doctor is coming out to talk to us any minute now.”
I promised Leo that I’d be right back to update him and hurried after Mila. When we got to the waiting room that the hospital had provided for Magni’s friends and family, everyone had their full attention on a middle-aged doctor who was talking.
“So, basically, we’ll need another hour or so to finish the operation. My part was successful and right now, Doctor Neiman, our plastic surgeon is working on the large tear on the Commander’s face, neck, and shoulder.”
“And after the surgery?” Khan asked. “How long before he wakes up?”
The doctor looked down and rocked back on his heels. “Days, possibly weeks. I really can’t say. It’s a good thing that the Commander was physically strong before the accident and that he has a warrior’s mindset because this will no doubt be the greatest battle he’s ever had to fight.”
Mila stood next to me and was holding on to my arm. “But can you say for certain that he’ll make it?”
“No. We can’t give you any guarantees. And you should be prepared that even if he does, he won’t be the same. There’s the physical damage that’s obvious, but it’s too soon to say if his brain has been damaged as well. We need to wait for the swelling to go down before we’ll attempt to wake him up and only then can we run tests.”
“Mom, what does that mean?” Aubrey, Magni’s young daughter, asked while pressing herself against Laura.
The doctor answered. “It means that there’s a significant risk that your father has suffered permanent damage to his vision, hearing, or his cognitive functions.”
Pearl translated to the younger children. “It means we don’t know if your dad will be able to see, hear, or talk as he used to. We don’t know how much he’ll remember either.”
“He’ll remember me, won’t he?” Aubrey’s eyes were full of tears.
The doctor gave her a look of pity. He looked tired as he nodded to all of us before turning to Finn, who had arrived with his wife, Athena. “Walk with me, will you?”
Finn had worked in this hospital before he moved to the Motherlands; he followed his former colleague down the hallway.
