Alisaura
Blue Crack Supplier
Disclaimer: All made-up fictional rubbish, don't mean any harm.
Mistakes are my own, lyrics are not - we can thank Placebo for today's quote.
end of chapter 41:
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Cool white walls, ceilings. Bustling, jostling; voices, professional and personal. Words like "haemorrhage" and "mushrooms" and "transfusion" and "private room".
"What's her blood type?" came through clearly for a moment.
"Earth," I tried to say, but my voice wasn't working, and it came out as an indistinct mumble.
"O negative," Glen was saying. A frustrated sigh.
Oblivion finally descended.
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Chapter 42:
-----------
And now I'm trying to wake you up
To pull you from the liquid sky
'Cos if I don't we'll both end up
With just your song to say goodbye
Ever so gradually, I began to regain awareness. Out of a long-standing habit, I automatically tried to remember if I'd had a dream that night.
Wow, that was a doozy all right, I mused.
Weird that it was set now, though, rather than back then. And that Glen had shown up...
Hearing returned first. That wasn't Glen's voice...
"... 'Exsanguination'... I used to think that was rather a sexy-sounding word, until I found out what it meant."
Wait. What?!
I struggled to part the murky waters of semi-consciousness. That hadn't really happened, had it? It had felt real, sure, but then so had all the other dreams...
Something was wrapped around both of my forearms. They ached dully. The bed felt wrong. Various things were sticking into me, in various places.
Oh god, it had, hadn't it... We'd done it. The circle was whole again.
And I was aware now of an awkward silence. Finally, I cracked my eyes open, then shut them against the glare of a sunlit hospital room. Blinking, I tried again.
"Lisa! You're awake! Thank god..." Glen was all over me, one hand on my face, another on my own hand, squeezing gently. Tears were in his beautiful brown eyes, deep shadows were under them; his hair was a mess, and he looked as if he'd aged ten years since the night before.
Well, I thought it had been the night before.
I'd never loved him more than I did at that moment. My own eyes welled up, and I tried to reach out to embrace him, but I was prevented by the IV drip in my arm. I tried to squeeze his hand back, but that made the ache in that arm sharpen into pain.
"C'mere," I croaked. We kissed, but Glen pulled back rather more quickly than I might have expected. Then I remembered that other voice; we weren't alone.
With some effort, I turned my head, and was greeted by the sight of Ed and Adam on the other side of the bed. I blushed. It must have been Adam who'd spoken, trying to ease the considerable tension that stretched in the air between Ed and Glen.
Ed looked absurdly relieved to see me conscious. He and Adam had been able to change their clothes since the ritual, although Ed, at least, didn't look as if he'd slept since then. There was something odd about him too, but my brain was still too fuzzy to figure out what.
"It's good to see some colour in your face," Ed said, grinning with relief, and possibly nervousness.
"How long?" I managed to ask, then looked around for some water. My throat felt bone-dry.
Bones. All the memories flooded back, but Glen was answering.
"It's been a day and a half, it's Sunday now. I was so worried..."
"'M thirsty."
Glen looked around, but Adam got there first, handing me a water bottle with a straw sticking out of it. I slurped gratefully, smiling when I was done. "Water boy," I said. He smiled back, upside-down.
I felt better able to speak more than two words after that, but then a nurse bustled in and began checking things, jotting in my chart, and generally poking and prodding.
"Back with, us, I see! You're lucky we had some O negative in stock," she was saying. "We've had a run on that recently. Now, those dressings are fine, the cuts are healing cleanly. Your friends here tell me it wasn't a suicide attempt, so we'll forgo the counsellor."
"What?" Not another counsellor.
"Would you mind telling me what DID happen?" the nurse went on, hands on hips. "The details are rather garbled. You weren't attacked?"
"No..." I glanced at Glen, then at Ed and Adam. What had they told the staff? Ed was trying to communicate something with a series of exaggerated facial expressions, since he was standing behind the nurse. I nearly laughed aloud. I tried Glen, who gave an infinitesimal shrug.
And I suddenly realised what had seemed odd about Ed – no beanie. I snuck another look at him. It turned out what he'd been hiding was an elegantly-shaped, but balding head. What hair was left on the top and back had been cut very short, but it was nothing to be ashamed of, I thought.
I tore my eyes off Ed's scalp, and glanced at Glen again before returning my attention back to the nurse.
"I..." I screwed up my forehead. "I can't remember most of it," I said, trying to sound lost and confused. The state my voice and brain were in, I didn't have to try very hard. My wandering attention probably helped, too. The nurse scowled, out of either frustration or scepticism. "We were out, in the storm... on a hill... performing a rite. And... I don't know, I'm sorry."
The nurse's scowl turned into a resigned sort of disgust. I could almost hear her thinking disparaging things about crazy hippie druids. They must have done blood tests and found that I'd taken the mushrooms. Or someone would have told them. I was almost sure I remembered someone mentioning it before I lost consciousness.
Better to be thought a crazy druid, taking drugs and dancing around in storms, than find myself on suicide watch for no reason. And it was close enough to the truth, anyway.
The nurse bustled off after another minute, leaving the tension still in the room. I could almost hear Glen's glare sizzle through the air at Ed.
"Maybe now you can tell ME what happened," he grated, still glaring at Ed.
"I thought she had told you where she was," Ed replied tightly.
"You would!"
"Now, gentlemen..."
"Don't 'gentleman' me, you pommy bastard. I've been sitting here, scared half to death for nearly two days, and I want to know what the hell was going on! The doctor told me she was full of bloody magic mushrooms?!"
Adam was unflappable. "I hold an Irish passport, actually."
"I don't care if you're the bloody ambassador to Equatorial Guinea!"
"The mushrooms were her idea," Ed said firmly. "I knew nothing about them until she pulled them out and ate them. None of us did, and I can assure you, I would have discouraged her if I'd known."
A prickly, distrustful silence.
"He's right, about it being my idea," I said. "And maybe he would have discouraged me, but I'd have taken them anyway. They helped, and it worked, Glen."
"Helped with what? What worked? What were you doing out there?"
"I told you about those dreams," I said, catching Glen's eyes. He looked desperately uncomfortable under his anger, and I think he knew what I was going to say, but still didn't like it. "There was an imbalance," I continued. "The deaths that happened there, the way Mag died, it threw everything out. And the dreams wouldn't stop, Glen. For either of us. You saw what happened when I dreamed about Mag's death – Ed got it worse when Ewain died. And he kept dreaming that, every night."
Glen shot a glance at Ed, who returned it calmly. The memories of those horrible dreams still seemed etched on his face, and I could see Glen reconsidering his initial unsympathetic reaction.
"But, you don't really believe...?" Glen still didn't like it.
"Maybe it was just something to put our own minds at rest," I said wearily. "I went though all that whole thing; do I believe it, or don't I? You know what, people believe worse things, crazier things. I couldn't deny what I was feeling and dreaming, and doing that felt right. But I couldn't believe it the way Mag had, which is why I needed... help."
"The mushrooms," Glen said, disapproval on his face.
"Oh, grow up," I said. "They didn't do any harm..."
Glen looked pointedly at the dressings on my arms.
I sighed, and drank some more water – Glen had taken the bottle from Adam, and held it for me. Ed seemed content to let me do the talking – I think he'd figured out that Glen wouldn't react well to anything he said.
"Everything that happened up there was my responsibility," I said, looking Glen in the face. "There's no point blaming Ed..."
Ed had started to protest, but Adam murmured "Not now," and laid a hand on his arm.
"He started this whole thing, following you around in the field, convincing you these dreams were real..." Glen's voice was rising.
"Just stop!" I said. "What do you think they were, imaginary dreams? Pretend dreams? You two can go outside later and beat each other up like proper manly men, if that's what you want, but don't do it here."
"But it's ridiculous..."
"Is it? Something did happen up there, Glen. You were there. Even though I was practically unconscious, fallen on my face, I saw you, I saw what happened..."
"You did?" Ed seemed uncomfortable about that, and his face coloured. "I..."
"I know," I said, forestalling him. Glen didn't need to know that Ed had tried to attack me with a knife, regardless of whether he'd been in control of himself or not.
Glen was sceptical. "You can't have, love," he was saying, ignoring Ed. Better that than looking daggers at him, I reflected. "It must have been a hallucination, from the mushrooms."
"You were there," I repeated. "Tell me how the air felt up there. Tell me why you stopped short of entering the circle. Tell me why you broke that stone."
Glen pressed his lips together, scowling, uncertain.
"You can't tell me someone's been drugging your food," I said gently. "Unless you think I have." I met his eyes, suddenly afraid...
"No! No, of course not."
I was relieved to see that the thought hadn't occurred to him. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.
"Not everything can be explained away," I went on. "Why should the world fit into our understanding, all the time?"
Glen was shaking his head. "I don't know..."
"Neither do I," I said, emphasising the words and reaching for his hand. "I don't have to know. It happened, that's all. And we fixed it, the mistake was washed away. That's what's important. I'll be fine."
Glen sighed, wrapping my hand in both of his. He looked at the two other men.
"I think that's our cue," Adam said quietly. He gave me a smile, and led Ed from the room. I made a mental note to ask him where his beanie had gone, if I saw him again.
"Thank you, both," I said as they reached the door.
"No, thank you," Ed replied, turning around. We exchanged weary smiles, before he and Adam left.
Glen was frowning again.
"Please, Glen, there's no need to be jealous," I said.
"I'm not jealous," Glen said, shaking his head. He rubbed his face, and sighed. "I was so scared for you, love. And I can't escape the fact that it all started with him. Yes, I do know it was the dreams. But none of this would have happened if it wasn't for him."
"None if it would have happened if it wasn't for me, either," I replied. "They all probably had similar conversations to the ones we had, painting me as some crazy temptress. Lawrence rang me up and accused me of leading Ed astray, months ago. But it's over now. There's no point dwelling on who started it, or pointing fingers."
Glen stared at me for a moment, digesting the news about Lawrence's accusations. Then he shook his head again.
"How much more haven't you told me?"
"You didn't want to hear it," I said, a touch defensive. A huge yawn cracked my face open. "Aagh. And there's a fair bit to tell, if you decide you do want to know."
"Why didn't you tell me where you were going?" There was hurt in Glen's face and voice, and my heart ached again.
"I'm sorry, love," I said, trying to squeeze his hand again, and wincing at the pain. I looked away. "I was so sure it was the right thing to do, going back there. And I knew you would think I was crazy, and I didn't want you to worry, or talk me out of it..."
"You didn't want me to worry?" Glen's laugh was a trifle unsteady.
"I didn't know this was going to happen," I said stiffly. "I wasn't planning on losing THAT much blood...." I yawned again, unable to even raise a hand to cover my mouth. "It was right, though. I just wish we'd realised sooner that we had to break that stone..."
"I do wish I'd got there sooner," Glen said, his voice roughening. "I could only guess that was where you'd gone. I even called Ed's number, looking for you, but there was no one there. The GPS in that car is a pile of rubbish," he added, glaring directionlessly.
"Is my car still out there?" I asked. I'd forgotten all about it.
Glen nodded, but at that moment the doctor came in. He was a rotund, businesslike man, and Glen left the room while he gave me an embarrassingly thorough examination.
"You're recovering nicely," the doctor told me as Glen came back in. "We'd like to keep you here for another two days, just to get your strength back. You did lose a lot of blood." That look, half question, half judgement.
I glanced away. "Thank you, doctor," I said. "My thanks to everyone here. You saved my life." It hadn't really hit me, until then, that my life really had been in danger. The blood left my face, and the doctor frowned in concern. Glen took my hand again.
"Thank you so much," he said to the doctor as well.
"Yes, well," the doctor said when he saw I wasn't going to pass out. "Mr. Thatcher here got you here in time, and the other gentleman administered first aid very ably, so you would do well to thank them, too."
"I have. I will," I said, looking at Glen again.
After the doctor left, I said nothing for some time, thinking. Glen was sitting beside the bed, stroking my hand with his thumbs, and staring into space.
"Thank you, love, for saving my life," I said at last, my eyes meeting his, hazel on brown. He swallowed.
"I couldn't have done any differently," he said hoarsely. "I need you." There was such intense love in his eyes that I had to look away.
"It's strange to think of someone else's blood running through my veins," I said after a minute of silence.
"You're a donor, it could be yours," Glen speculated.
I thought about that. "No, I don't think so. And they would have had to put more than one donation's worth in, anyway." Glen's fingers tightened around mine again.
"I suppose it'll go back to being mine in a few weeks anyway, as the blood cells are replaced," I continued musing.
"Yes, it will."
"Don't you have to work tomorrow?" I asked Glen.
"I'm taking leave, I can't leave you here," he replied.
I started to laugh.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I chuckled weakly, already out of breath. "If I'd known it would take all this to make you take a break..."
Glen gave a half-hearted grin.
"I'm glad you're staying," I whispered.
Glen held my hand until I fell asleep again.
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Mistakes are my own, lyrics are not - we can thank Placebo for today's quote.
end of chapter 41:
--------
Cool white walls, ceilings. Bustling, jostling; voices, professional and personal. Words like "haemorrhage" and "mushrooms" and "transfusion" and "private room".
"What's her blood type?" came through clearly for a moment.
"Earth," I tried to say, but my voice wasn't working, and it came out as an indistinct mumble.
"O negative," Glen was saying. A frustrated sigh.
Oblivion finally descended.
-----------
Chapter 42:
-----------
And now I'm trying to wake you up
To pull you from the liquid sky
'Cos if I don't we'll both end up
With just your song to say goodbye
Ever so gradually, I began to regain awareness. Out of a long-standing habit, I automatically tried to remember if I'd had a dream that night.
Wow, that was a doozy all right, I mused.
Weird that it was set now, though, rather than back then. And that Glen had shown up...
Hearing returned first. That wasn't Glen's voice...
"... 'Exsanguination'... I used to think that was rather a sexy-sounding word, until I found out what it meant."
Wait. What?!
I struggled to part the murky waters of semi-consciousness. That hadn't really happened, had it? It had felt real, sure, but then so had all the other dreams...
Something was wrapped around both of my forearms. They ached dully. The bed felt wrong. Various things were sticking into me, in various places.
Oh god, it had, hadn't it... We'd done it. The circle was whole again.
And I was aware now of an awkward silence. Finally, I cracked my eyes open, then shut them against the glare of a sunlit hospital room. Blinking, I tried again.
"Lisa! You're awake! Thank god..." Glen was all over me, one hand on my face, another on my own hand, squeezing gently. Tears were in his beautiful brown eyes, deep shadows were under them; his hair was a mess, and he looked as if he'd aged ten years since the night before.
Well, I thought it had been the night before.
I'd never loved him more than I did at that moment. My own eyes welled up, and I tried to reach out to embrace him, but I was prevented by the IV drip in my arm. I tried to squeeze his hand back, but that made the ache in that arm sharpen into pain.
"C'mere," I croaked. We kissed, but Glen pulled back rather more quickly than I might have expected. Then I remembered that other voice; we weren't alone.
With some effort, I turned my head, and was greeted by the sight of Ed and Adam on the other side of the bed. I blushed. It must have been Adam who'd spoken, trying to ease the considerable tension that stretched in the air between Ed and Glen.
Ed looked absurdly relieved to see me conscious. He and Adam had been able to change their clothes since the ritual, although Ed, at least, didn't look as if he'd slept since then. There was something odd about him too, but my brain was still too fuzzy to figure out what.
"It's good to see some colour in your face," Ed said, grinning with relief, and possibly nervousness.
"How long?" I managed to ask, then looked around for some water. My throat felt bone-dry.
Bones. All the memories flooded back, but Glen was answering.
"It's been a day and a half, it's Sunday now. I was so worried..."
"'M thirsty."
Glen looked around, but Adam got there first, handing me a water bottle with a straw sticking out of it. I slurped gratefully, smiling when I was done. "Water boy," I said. He smiled back, upside-down.
I felt better able to speak more than two words after that, but then a nurse bustled in and began checking things, jotting in my chart, and generally poking and prodding.
"Back with, us, I see! You're lucky we had some O negative in stock," she was saying. "We've had a run on that recently. Now, those dressings are fine, the cuts are healing cleanly. Your friends here tell me it wasn't a suicide attempt, so we'll forgo the counsellor."
"What?" Not another counsellor.
"Would you mind telling me what DID happen?" the nurse went on, hands on hips. "The details are rather garbled. You weren't attacked?"
"No..." I glanced at Glen, then at Ed and Adam. What had they told the staff? Ed was trying to communicate something with a series of exaggerated facial expressions, since he was standing behind the nurse. I nearly laughed aloud. I tried Glen, who gave an infinitesimal shrug.
And I suddenly realised what had seemed odd about Ed – no beanie. I snuck another look at him. It turned out what he'd been hiding was an elegantly-shaped, but balding head. What hair was left on the top and back had been cut very short, but it was nothing to be ashamed of, I thought.
I tore my eyes off Ed's scalp, and glanced at Glen again before returning my attention back to the nurse.
"I..." I screwed up my forehead. "I can't remember most of it," I said, trying to sound lost and confused. The state my voice and brain were in, I didn't have to try very hard. My wandering attention probably helped, too. The nurse scowled, out of either frustration or scepticism. "We were out, in the storm... on a hill... performing a rite. And... I don't know, I'm sorry."
The nurse's scowl turned into a resigned sort of disgust. I could almost hear her thinking disparaging things about crazy hippie druids. They must have done blood tests and found that I'd taken the mushrooms. Or someone would have told them. I was almost sure I remembered someone mentioning it before I lost consciousness.
Better to be thought a crazy druid, taking drugs and dancing around in storms, than find myself on suicide watch for no reason. And it was close enough to the truth, anyway.
The nurse bustled off after another minute, leaving the tension still in the room. I could almost hear Glen's glare sizzle through the air at Ed.
"Maybe now you can tell ME what happened," he grated, still glaring at Ed.
"I thought she had told you where she was," Ed replied tightly.
"You would!"
"Now, gentlemen..."
"Don't 'gentleman' me, you pommy bastard. I've been sitting here, scared half to death for nearly two days, and I want to know what the hell was going on! The doctor told me she was full of bloody magic mushrooms?!"
Adam was unflappable. "I hold an Irish passport, actually."
"I don't care if you're the bloody ambassador to Equatorial Guinea!"
"The mushrooms were her idea," Ed said firmly. "I knew nothing about them until she pulled them out and ate them. None of us did, and I can assure you, I would have discouraged her if I'd known."
A prickly, distrustful silence.
"He's right, about it being my idea," I said. "And maybe he would have discouraged me, but I'd have taken them anyway. They helped, and it worked, Glen."
"Helped with what? What worked? What were you doing out there?"
"I told you about those dreams," I said, catching Glen's eyes. He looked desperately uncomfortable under his anger, and I think he knew what I was going to say, but still didn't like it. "There was an imbalance," I continued. "The deaths that happened there, the way Mag died, it threw everything out. And the dreams wouldn't stop, Glen. For either of us. You saw what happened when I dreamed about Mag's death – Ed got it worse when Ewain died. And he kept dreaming that, every night."
Glen shot a glance at Ed, who returned it calmly. The memories of those horrible dreams still seemed etched on his face, and I could see Glen reconsidering his initial unsympathetic reaction.
"But, you don't really believe...?" Glen still didn't like it.
"Maybe it was just something to put our own minds at rest," I said wearily. "I went though all that whole thing; do I believe it, or don't I? You know what, people believe worse things, crazier things. I couldn't deny what I was feeling and dreaming, and doing that felt right. But I couldn't believe it the way Mag had, which is why I needed... help."
"The mushrooms," Glen said, disapproval on his face.
"Oh, grow up," I said. "They didn't do any harm..."
Glen looked pointedly at the dressings on my arms.
I sighed, and drank some more water – Glen had taken the bottle from Adam, and held it for me. Ed seemed content to let me do the talking – I think he'd figured out that Glen wouldn't react well to anything he said.
"Everything that happened up there was my responsibility," I said, looking Glen in the face. "There's no point blaming Ed..."
Ed had started to protest, but Adam murmured "Not now," and laid a hand on his arm.
"He started this whole thing, following you around in the field, convincing you these dreams were real..." Glen's voice was rising.
"Just stop!" I said. "What do you think they were, imaginary dreams? Pretend dreams? You two can go outside later and beat each other up like proper manly men, if that's what you want, but don't do it here."
"But it's ridiculous..."
"Is it? Something did happen up there, Glen. You were there. Even though I was practically unconscious, fallen on my face, I saw you, I saw what happened..."
"You did?" Ed seemed uncomfortable about that, and his face coloured. "I..."
"I know," I said, forestalling him. Glen didn't need to know that Ed had tried to attack me with a knife, regardless of whether he'd been in control of himself or not.
Glen was sceptical. "You can't have, love," he was saying, ignoring Ed. Better that than looking daggers at him, I reflected. "It must have been a hallucination, from the mushrooms."
"You were there," I repeated. "Tell me how the air felt up there. Tell me why you stopped short of entering the circle. Tell me why you broke that stone."
Glen pressed his lips together, scowling, uncertain.
"You can't tell me someone's been drugging your food," I said gently. "Unless you think I have." I met his eyes, suddenly afraid...
"No! No, of course not."
I was relieved to see that the thought hadn't occurred to him. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.
"Not everything can be explained away," I went on. "Why should the world fit into our understanding, all the time?"
Glen was shaking his head. "I don't know..."
"Neither do I," I said, emphasising the words and reaching for his hand. "I don't have to know. It happened, that's all. And we fixed it, the mistake was washed away. That's what's important. I'll be fine."
Glen sighed, wrapping my hand in both of his. He looked at the two other men.
"I think that's our cue," Adam said quietly. He gave me a smile, and led Ed from the room. I made a mental note to ask him where his beanie had gone, if I saw him again.
"Thank you, both," I said as they reached the door.
"No, thank you," Ed replied, turning around. We exchanged weary smiles, before he and Adam left.
Glen was frowning again.
"Please, Glen, there's no need to be jealous," I said.
"I'm not jealous," Glen said, shaking his head. He rubbed his face, and sighed. "I was so scared for you, love. And I can't escape the fact that it all started with him. Yes, I do know it was the dreams. But none of this would have happened if it wasn't for him."
"None if it would have happened if it wasn't for me, either," I replied. "They all probably had similar conversations to the ones we had, painting me as some crazy temptress. Lawrence rang me up and accused me of leading Ed astray, months ago. But it's over now. There's no point dwelling on who started it, or pointing fingers."
Glen stared at me for a moment, digesting the news about Lawrence's accusations. Then he shook his head again.
"How much more haven't you told me?"
"You didn't want to hear it," I said, a touch defensive. A huge yawn cracked my face open. "Aagh. And there's a fair bit to tell, if you decide you do want to know."
"Why didn't you tell me where you were going?" There was hurt in Glen's face and voice, and my heart ached again.
"I'm sorry, love," I said, trying to squeeze his hand again, and wincing at the pain. I looked away. "I was so sure it was the right thing to do, going back there. And I knew you would think I was crazy, and I didn't want you to worry, or talk me out of it..."
"You didn't want me to worry?" Glen's laugh was a trifle unsteady.
"I didn't know this was going to happen," I said stiffly. "I wasn't planning on losing THAT much blood...." I yawned again, unable to even raise a hand to cover my mouth. "It was right, though. I just wish we'd realised sooner that we had to break that stone..."
"I do wish I'd got there sooner," Glen said, his voice roughening. "I could only guess that was where you'd gone. I even called Ed's number, looking for you, but there was no one there. The GPS in that car is a pile of rubbish," he added, glaring directionlessly.
"Is my car still out there?" I asked. I'd forgotten all about it.
Glen nodded, but at that moment the doctor came in. He was a rotund, businesslike man, and Glen left the room while he gave me an embarrassingly thorough examination.
"You're recovering nicely," the doctor told me as Glen came back in. "We'd like to keep you here for another two days, just to get your strength back. You did lose a lot of blood." That look, half question, half judgement.
I glanced away. "Thank you, doctor," I said. "My thanks to everyone here. You saved my life." It hadn't really hit me, until then, that my life really had been in danger. The blood left my face, and the doctor frowned in concern. Glen took my hand again.
"Thank you so much," he said to the doctor as well.
"Yes, well," the doctor said when he saw I wasn't going to pass out. "Mr. Thatcher here got you here in time, and the other gentleman administered first aid very ably, so you would do well to thank them, too."
"I have. I will," I said, looking at Glen again.
After the doctor left, I said nothing for some time, thinking. Glen was sitting beside the bed, stroking my hand with his thumbs, and staring into space.
"Thank you, love, for saving my life," I said at last, my eyes meeting his, hazel on brown. He swallowed.
"I couldn't have done any differently," he said hoarsely. "I need you." There was such intense love in his eyes that I had to look away.
"It's strange to think of someone else's blood running through my veins," I said after a minute of silence.
"You're a donor, it could be yours," Glen speculated.
I thought about that. "No, I don't think so. And they would have had to put more than one donation's worth in, anyway." Glen's fingers tightened around mine again.
"I suppose it'll go back to being mine in a few weeks anyway, as the blood cells are replaced," I continued musing.
"Yes, it will."
"Don't you have to work tomorrow?" I asked Glen.
"I'm taking leave, I can't leave you here," he replied.
I started to laugh.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I chuckled weakly, already out of breath. "If I'd known it would take all this to make you take a break..."
Glen gave a half-hearted grin.
"I'm glad you're staying," I whispered.
Glen held my hand until I fell asleep again.
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aw!
Adam's frownysmile!
