Page 75 of Constantly Cotton
More specifically, he’d changed into the cargo shorts and camo T-shirt Cotton had packed for him before they’d even known each other. Turned out, Cotton had figured out exactly who he was before he was even conscious.
Jason had been there to visit Jessica before, but he checked in with the admin building to see where she’d be. He arrived as her lecture was ending and had a moment to appreciate her delivery from the top of the stairs.
Before the accident, she’d never been able to sit still, and not much had changed as she lectured from her specially designed wheelchair. She worked out copiously to be able to maneuver, and she darted back and forth in front of the podium, a small microphone clipped to her collar, as she called on students to answer questions and gestured to the diagram on the board.
She was so animated. He felt the usual glow of pride in her watching her work.
“Mm… no,” she told a student. “No, we can’t really say the limbic system operates independently of anything else in the body. I mean, it’s thebrain,right? And the brain runs the show! You overrun your limbic system with pain, and the whole works shorts out and shuts down. And if you think I’m kidding, try taking this class with a hangover!”
There was general laughter and she went on, finishing the anatomy lecture on a high note before dismissing the class. Jason stepped aside as the students filed out, thinking for a moment that they all—even those in their thirties—looked impossibly young.
Then his eyes fell on a couple of students Cotton’s age specifically, and he almost turned around and called the whole thing off, but by then, Jessica had already seen him.
“Jay Jay?” she cried happily. “Oh my God, is that you!”
He gave a sheepish smile and clambered down the steps, feeling the weight he’d yet to put back on acutely.
“Heya, Jess,” he said, taking her hand and bending down to kiss her cheek. “Long time no see.”
Jessica frowned up at him, her rich brown hair only streaked a little with gray and pulled back in a messy bun to stay out of eyes the same dark brown as his own.
“For a month it was no hear,” she reminded him, and he grimaced. As soon as he’d been back at the base, he’d answered his family’s increasingly frantic texts. They’d even called Brigadier General Talbot, but Talbot—still under the assumption that Jason had gone rogue for no good reason—had refused to answer, saying only that his whereabouts were a matter of proprietary information. Apparently Jessica had given the man a good earful about how Jason always texted before he went under so nobody worried, but Talbot hadn’t budged.
Well, to be fair, he reallyhadn’tknown where Jason was.
“Sorry about that,” he said again. “That was… unexpected.”
“Unexpected, my ass,” she snapped. “Look at you! What happened?”
He laughed shortly. “It’s a long, long story that you really don’t want to hear. I… uhm, can we talk in your office? I have a favor to ask.”
“A favor,” she said blankly.
“Yeah. You know. Like, you do something for me for no other good goddamned reason than you love me and I need help.”
She nodded. “I’m familiar with the concept, Jay Jay. I’ve just never heard it coming fromyou.”
He sighed. “Well, it’s not really for me,” he apologized. “It’s sort of for a friend.”
She grunted and stowed her laptop and cables in the quilted, flowered briefcase on the table, then tucked the case in a saddlebag at her side. “Figures,” she said. “Follow me and we’ll catch up. I’ve got an hour before my next lecture. I can’twaitto hear this.”
A few minutes later, Jason sat in the horribly uncomfortable chrome and lime-colored vinyl chair in her office, fidgeting as she digested his proposal.
“A full ride?” she asked again.
“I can, uhm, fund it,” he said, his face burning. “I have money saved. It can go to tuition—”
She waved her hand to cut him off. “I’ve got access to scholarship funds,” she said, her two dark eyebrows coming down in a stern V over her nose. “I don’t want yourmoney, Jay Jay, I want an explanation. I know this is a small college, but we’ve got some prestige. You just want me to admit this random kid and give him a full ride because….”
“Because he needs a break,” Jason said, swallowing. “Because he’d be good at it.” He tried his best little-boy smile to see if it held the weight it had when they’d been teenagers.
Her frown deepened. “We’re not the only nursing school that gives out scholarships,” she said.
“He… he’ll be giving up the only security he’s known for the last four years,” Jason said, squirming. “I… he’ll recognize your name. It might help.”
“Jason, is he even qualified?”
“He’s got a GED,” he said honestly. “But I think he was an honors kid before he got kicked out of the house. He, uh, reads a lot for pleasure. He’s smart, Jess. He’s smart and he thinks on his feet and he’s compassionate and organized—” He saw her start to shake her head “no” and a sudden desperation took over him. “—and he kept me alive for two weeks when I was just some stranger dumped in his bed.”
