96I think you all have waited long enough.
Beep…beep…beep…beep…
"– broken arm, most likely from landing on it after the accident –"
Beep…beep…beep…
"– back's pretty scratched up, needed some stitches –"
Beep…beep…
"– small concussion, make sure to wake him up every three hours or so –"
Beep
"Alex, can you hear me?"
Alex Rider frowned as his world slowly came back into perspective, one slow inkling at a time. His eyelids felt as if they had weights attached to them, dragging the light lower and lower from his sight until all that he could reach for was the darkness. In the end, after endless coaxing and pleading, he finally managed to open one, and then the other, only to see Jack's worried face hovering above him.
"Alex?"
His immediate frown at her worried expression was quickly replaced as his face morphed into a grin, mostly due to Jack's unruly appearance. He took a deep breath.
"I never knew pajamas were in style." he teased tiredly as he struggled to adjust himself into a more comfortable position. His body was as stiff as a plank of wood, and his head felt as though a timpani that had just performed an award winning symphony in his frontal lobe. Other than that, however, even he had to admit that it wasn't too bad. "Although, hair as messy as that would probably attract most of the attention."
Jack blinked and immediately turned her expression down to her clothes, blushing when she realized that she hadn't changed the moment she heard the screeching of tires, and instantly knew it couldn't mean anything good. In fact, it was Jack herself that found Alex on the street, motionless as a rag doll and about as lifelike as one as well. She still shuddered at the memory.
"Alex…" she tried again, choosing to ignore the whole sleepwear comment. But Alex cut her off.
"I'm fine, Jack." he reassured her.
But that only covered a portion of what she was about to ask. She nodded, unconvinced, but continued on to her next issue anyways.
"Sure you are." She said tersely, her voice suddenly switching into more of a clipped tone. "But it doesn't cover the fact that someone ran you over. And left you on the streets." To die.
Alex blinked, and then internally winced at the memory of the crash. He could still feel the blinding pain in his leg as the car rammed into it; still remember the bite of glass on his back and the sudden burst of agony in his head before it was all sucked down into the void of oblivion.
Even so, he reminded himself, it could have been worse. He'd been shot before, hadn't he?
Jack seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as her expression turned grave again. "This isn't St. Dominic's, if you were wondering." she said matter-a-factly. Alex didn't reply. There was nothing to say. Jack took this as a sign to keep talking.
"You have extensive bruising along your legs, but it's a miracle that they weren't broken. Your back, I don't know if you noticed, is a little cut up. Nothing major. One or two stitches along the deeper cuts, try not to tear those." She took a breath as Alex simply listened to her rambling, no reaction whatsoever.
"Your arm was broken; the doctors think you landed on it the wrong way after you collided into the car." Alex finally raised an eyebrow in surprise, staring down at his right arm swaddled in its thick cast. He hadn't felt that during the crash. Jack hesitated, unsure about his reaction, but continued her informant-esque report as her eyes met his again.
"The only thing major is the concussion to your head. It's not bad, but it's not good either. You're probably gonna have a headache for a while –" Alex chuckled humorlessly. He could attest for that.
"– and they're gonna have to keep you here for one day under observation."
Alex let that information sink in. "Wait," he began indignantly as he realized what she meant. "You mean I'm gonna have to miss school?"
A man in a white coat and aging hair suddenly appeared behind Jack, walking in from the hallway and through the door. "Miss school, miss sports, miss life." He replied airily for her. Then, without pausing to let Alex react, he went on smoothly, "Think about it as a nice break."
Alex hesitated for a moment, reading the name tag on the man's shirt. "Doctor…Rallen?" The doctor nodded, now immersed in the thick chart hanging on the side of Alex's bed.
"The one and only."
Both Alex and Jack didn't know what to say. The room fell into an awkward silence as they settled on watching Dr. Rallen go over Alex's chart. And the both of them remained quiet as Dr. Rallen's eyebrows rose higher and higher.
"Gunshot wound to the chest." he whispered incredulously, oblivious to the eyes staring at him. "Minor burning across most of the body. Jesus Christ, kid, what have you been up to?"
Alex hesitated, surprised that they had his medical file, always figuring that MI6 would try to keep it a secret. Then again, they did have an annoying habit of throwing him into the streets whenever he had no use to them. He swallowed the minor shock, and answered as truthfully as he could.
"Something I hope I never have to do again."
Dr. Rallen looked up from the chart, giving Alex a long stare before briskly setting the chart back down and crossing his arms. "Well," he finally continued, cheerfully, as if Alex's cryptic comment didn't give him too much thought. "I should hope not. It's no less than a miracle that you're doing this well."
Alex winced as his head began its drum solo again, his un-broken hand instinctively reaching up to his temple. "Define lucky."
Dr. Rallen chuckled, and glanced over Alex's chart one more time before answering, "A broken arm, some bruising, and a bad concussion after your type of accident." He shook his head in bemusement, "I'd call that more than lucky. You've got to have guardian angels or something."
Jack grinned weakly. "More like the luck of the devil."
Dr. Rallen shrugged. "Or that."
Alex didn't skip a beat before the next most pressing issue on his mind spilled out. "How long will I be here?"
Dr. Rallen's expression didn't change. "No more than a day or two. I want to keep you here under observation, and the police want to ask you a few questions about the accident."
Alex nodded, and settled down back in his bed slowly. A day he could live with. Two was pushing it, but nevertheless, it was better than a week. Or longer.
"But I still wouldn't try to get to active if I were you." Dr. Rallen continued. He gestured vaguely to Alex's broken arm as he explained, "We ran all the possible test on you to see if there was anything wrong on the inside. So far so good, but I don't really want to risk it all falling to mush the next time something happens."
Both Alex's and Jack's eyebrows rose at the words 'next time'. Dr. Rallen caught it, and then immediately tried to redeem himself by hastily adding, "Not that I think there will be one."
Jack rolled her eyes as she watched him slowly exit the room. Typical doctors. Always going straight to assumptions the moment their next patient rolled up on their desk. On a gurney. After being run over by a car. Whatever worked for them.
"Jack?" Alex's voice broke through her mind, settling into her though process as she turned around to face him again. He was staring expectantly at her.
"Yes?"
His face changed back into that playful grin again, his eyes silently gesturing to her clothes as he said, "You should go home and change. I'll be fine."
Jack shrugged, but didn't contest the suggestion. "You sure?" she checked.
Alex nodded. He was silent as Jack gave him one last pat on the head, listening patiently as she apologized when it caused him to wince again, and remained silent as she walked out of the door, out of the hospital, and out of his reach.
He leaned back, resting gently on his pillows and staring at the dull scenery in front of him. Seconds later, he was sound asleep.
Alex started as a ringtone sounded on the table right beside his head. He stared at the object, now onto its second ring, before realizing that it was his phone. He reached for it, but just as his fingers brushed the display screen, it fell silent. Alex cursed, but decided to pick it up anyways. After all, he could always call them back.
He didn't have to. A second later, it rang again, except this time all he got was a low vibrating and one, two, three flashes of light. The sign of an incoming text. Alex flipped open the screen.
The ID read: Tom. Alex shook his head, already beginning to regret it, but pressed the OK button to open the message. No doubt his best friend was asking if he was okay. Alex glanced at the clock as the text loaded and smiled to himself. Scratch that. It was Tom asking if he was okay in the middle of class. He could only hope that Tom was at least hiding the phone under a desk.
The screen changed, alerting Alex to the open message. He glanced at the screen, bracing himself for the onslaught of questions and demands that would no doubt fill the screen. But instead, much to his surprise, there was only a single word. Alex squinted at the four letters lighting up the screen, his vision suddenly going blurry for a second. That moment passed immediately, and it was then could the word register in his mind. Audibly, he felt his heart rate speed up as the meaning of the text slowly settled. He reread the word over and over, testing if he'd somehow seen it wrong.
He hadn't. Clear as day, Alex could read the word on the screen.
'Help'
His finger automatically skipped to the green call key and he pressed and brought the phone to his ear in one fluid motion, wincing slightly as the sudden dial tone reverberated in his mind and scratched at his headache. It rang once, and immediately cut off, leaving a chipper answering machine on the other line telling him to call back and leave his name, the time, and his phone number in the message. His heart pounding, Alex pressed the red End button.
The corner of his mind quietly suggested that this could be just some bad prank his friend cooked up, but he dismissed it instantly. Tom knew where Alex was, and there was no way he'd purposely make his friend freak out when he was in the hospital recovering. Alex smiled humorlessly as he remembered the text he'd sent his friend minutes after he'd woken up after Jack left. 'In the hospital…again.' he'd written. 'Run over by a car.' It's wasn't so funny now.
He tried again, this time having the sense to keep the phone further from his ear, as his head was already beginning to feel like it was unpeeling from the inside. To his relief, the call was immediately answered. But it wasn't Tom's voice that greeted him. In fact, nobody was talking to him at all.
'Let me say this one more time, folks.' The voice was in the background, not addressing him, but whoever was in front of the phone. Instantly, Alex knew from the tone that it wasn't a teacher. 'You keep quiet, we take what we want, and nobody gets hurt.'
Tom's voice responded, much closer than the other person's, and in a lighthearted tone commented, 'I've heard of banks being robbed, but this is the first time I've seen a school being held up. Much less be in one.'
A growl. 'Shut it, kid.'
The next moment, the call ended with a crunch, leaving Alex holding a silent phone in his hand, his mind whirling with questions as his mouth hung open in shock.
A second later, Alex made up his mind. He glanced up at the door, searching for any incoming nurses or doctors before immediately slipping out of bed, wincing as his legs erupted in an explosion of pins and needles. Screw what Dr. Rallen said about his insides falling to mush. He wasn't going to wait another minute. His friend was in trouble, and the least Alex could try was to go and help him out.
The rational part of his mind tried to reason with him, telling him that he may as well try and call the police first before it got out of hand. Alex hesitated for a moment before glancing at his phone. His fingers hovered over the keys, preparing to type 999 before it suddenly vibrated, a large sign immediately filling the middle of the screen.
No Signal
Alex swore. Jack had said that he had the luck of the devil, but even the luck didn't come without its downsides. It usually turned into more of an all-or-nothing kind of deal. One minute he was dodging arrows and escaping traps. Next minute he gets run over by a car. It gave new meaning to the phrase 'Of all the rotten luck.'
On the way to the bathroom to find a change of clothes, another thought stopped him. Here he was, going off to find trouble again, when any other normal person would simply stay in bed, and hope for the best. Alex frowned, already halfway to the door. Didn't he want a normal life? To finally escape MI6 and bullets and running and running and running…? He had already caught up to his schoolwork; why not just keep it that way? He turned back around to stare at the hospital phone. Perhaps he could try calling the police through the front desk. Then Tom and his classmate would be fine and he would be safe and sound, back to being a normal kid.
Alex sighed, and then immediately started back toward his bed. The world could wait.
Except the world was an impatient being. It didn't like to be kept waiting. It even managed to define that fact seconds later, because, sure enough, the gunshots in the hallway changed everything.
I'm NOT trying to gain everyone's attention by inserting some randomly insane cliffhanger in the end that only a couple of people will even catch in their first read. I actually had a plan for what happens…I just don't have to ability to type it out. Yet.
Just…hold on tight. I've already made you all wait long enough, and it makes me feel even worse to say you're gonna have to wait some more for a decent explanation to why there are gunshots in the hospital! I'm sorry!
Anyways, review! Please!