Page 40 of Sanctuary
Patton nodded. “They wrecked them, though. Cut the bottom half of the leg off so they could see how far the infection had gone." His grip tightened and he blew a harsh breath out through his nose. "Don't tell me you didn't know how bad it was getting. Why didn't you say something?"
"What would you have done?" Ori asked, stung. "We were in the middle of nowhere."
"I could have got us down to the road and started hitchhiking earlier." Patton's voice grew louder with each word, and he bit them off after the last one and looked away, though he never let go of Ori's hand. "You have more than just yourself to think about now," he said, his voice quieter. "You could have died."
It was Ori's turn to look away then, though it was guilt on his part, not anger. He hadn't quite forgotten the baby, but he had to admit, even if only to himself, that he'd been more concerned with putting miles behind them each day than with the potential consequences for both himself and the baby. "I'm sorry," he said finally. "I wasn't thinking straight." He waited, his lower lip caught between his teeth, and hoped that Patton could forgive him.
Their tiny fabric-walled room was quiet for a long moment. "You were sick," came Patton's reply, his voice soft and heavy with emotion. "Next time, tell me, though."
"Yeah," Ori said and turned back to see his mate's worried expression. "I promise."
"Good." It wasn't Patton's usual broad grin, but his lips had curved upward. Ori breathed a sigh of relief, and opened his mouth to tell Patton how much he loved him, but his confession was interrupted by the rattle of the curtain being pushed back so a human woman in a dull green top and pants.
"Good, you're awake." She bustled forward, not exactly friendly, but not threatening either. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired." Ori rolled his head in her direction when she stopped beside his bed. "But better, I think. A little."
"You're lying flat, that helps. Don't try to get up. If you need to pee, call me or one of the other nurses and we'll bring you a container to use. We want to make sure nothing’s happened with your kidney function." She checked the clear bag hanging beside his bed and rand her hand down the slim tubing that hung from it until she came to the place where the needle pierced Ori's arm. "Your boyfriend says you don't have any identification."
Ori shook his head and shot Patton a look, praying for a hint.
Patton squinted slightly at him and squeezed his hand again. "I was telling her how your Maw threw you out and wouldn't let you take anything with you, and how we got attacked in Texas and lost all our identification and about going to Memphis to stay with your Grandmaw."
The nurse hmphed, like she saw through Patton's little show, but she patted Ori's arm. "If you boys want, I'll have the social worker come by. She might be able to help you get in touch with your grandma, or access some programs to help if you can’t. You sure she's going to be okay when you get there?"
No, they weren't. For all they knew, Mercy Hills was only looking out for Mercy Hills. After all, Ori wasn't any True Omega, like the one that Mercy Hills had stolen from the Montana Border enclave.
The nurse must have read his expression. "You want to call her and tell her you're coming? Does she know about you two?"
Know about us? What... Ori turned to Patton for help or explanation, but it did him no good. Patton looked as lost as Ori felt.
The nurse placed her fingers lightly on Ori's wrist, shook a finger at him when he instinctively twitched his arm away, then repeated the gesture. He realize she was checking his pulse and he relaxed and let her do her job. He remembered the medic in Perseguir doing the same thing when someone was sick, so he rubbed his thumb over Patton's fingers and let the nurse look into his eyes and shine something in his ears, making notes after each of her actions.
"Well, you're looking better, and your stats have come up. You'll be here overnight while we get more antibiotics into you, and we'll give you a prescription to take when you're discharged." She frowned. "You don't remember your social security numbers at all?"
Patton shook his head. "Don't even know if we have any," he said in a tone of pure honesty, but his fingers twitched in Ori's.
Ori squeezed back and hoped his confusion didn't show on his face, though he suspected sadly it probably did. But he didn't have a clue what they were talking about and he hoped that Patton actually did, and wasn't just an amazing actor. Though an amazing actor would be useful on their trip across the country, he admitted, if only to himself.
The human sighed. “Damned cults," she muttered, half to herself, Ori thought. She plucked a clipboard out of a holder on the wall and wrote briefly in it. "You rest," she told Ori. "Are you hungry?"
Ori shook his head. "Just sleepy."
She nodded. "Not surprising. Rest, and I'll see about getting a meal down here for you in a while." She turned to Patton. "Do you have money to get something at the cafeteria?"
He touched his pocket. "A little."
"You might as well get something, this is going to take a while. Follow the orange line on the floor, it'll take you to the front doors. The cafeteria's just next to it. Your friend will be fine here, I'll be by to check on him every half hour or so." She picked up the bowl with Ori's disgusting spit in it and walked away, twitching the curtain back into place behind her with practiced ease.
Ori took a deep breath and let the tension drain from his muscles. "You must be hungry. Go get something to eat. I'll still be here." He tried to inject some lightness into his words, but once the nurse left, she took all the energy in his body with her. Sleep sounded as delicious to him at the moment as fresh meat taken straight from the fire.
"You sure you'll be okay?" Patton whispered. He glanced over his shoulder, then got up to peer around the edge of the curtain.
"I'll be fine." He didn't know that, but it seemed likely they'd be too busy to bother with him if all he was supposed to be doing was lying still and absorbing whatever was in the liquid slowly dripping into his veins. "I'll tuck the blankets in around me to make sure they don't try to take the rest of my clothes off," Ori whispered, then winced at Patton's wild and frightened look.
"Do you think they'll do that? Maybe I should stay." He rushed over to sit in the chair again, reaching for Ori's hand. "I can wait."
But I'm so tired. "No, you go. You're no good to me starved." Patton's very presence made it hard for Ori to close his eyes, instinct driving him to soothe his mate's turbulent emotions. Funny, he'd never felt that need before their escape, not like this, in this gut-level way. Then again, they hadn't had sex before they'd run away either. Maybe that was the difference; maybe the old tales were true, that some magic happened between an omega and their mate that tied the omega to their mate's life and emotions the way Ori tied fresh twigs to an old branch to make a broom. And just like the act of tying the twig onto the branch made both of them something different, maybe the mating of an omega made something different of him too. "Go eat, Patton," he said with as much sternness as he could muster. Suddenly, he wanted to be alone, because there was something about that idea of change that felt... huge to him. Important in a way that was going to change their future, but Patton was too much of a distraction here for Ori to really think about it.
