Offensive Behavior

the plane, be the surgeons, stand in the ER and make sure his people were cared for the best way possible. Instead he was annoyed, twitchy, restless and giving himself a headache. It wasn’t much better when they landed, or when he got to the hospital. Kuch’s wife, and daughter, Owen’s parents, his older brother, Frank and younger sister, Brooke all looked to Reid for reassurance he didn’t have to give. Cara met them with an offer to help and Reid let Sarina hug him for a long time. Dev, who looked gray, simply said, “I’m glad you’re here.”

Kuch had broken ribs, both legs, a punctured lung, and had a range of internal injuries and severe concussion. He was conscious, but too heavily sedated to visit.

Owen was immobilized and scheduled for urgent surgery. He’d broken his lumbar spine and had disc and suspected nerve damage, which could lead to loss of function, difficulty walking or outright paralysis.

First thing Owen said to Reid when he walked into Owen’s room with a subdued Zarley and an anxious Cara was, “My horse’s tail is shot.”

The drugs had to be good.

Cara, hovered behind Zarley, said, “Cauda equina, oh goodness,” under her breath and Reid raised his brow at her.

“There’s a bundle of nerves at the base of your spine, they fan out like a horse’s tail, down the back of each leg.”

“Giddy up,” said Owen. “And who is this starburst who knows her Latin?”

“Owen, this is Cara. Zarley asked her to come see you.” He could’ve said more about Cara being his roommate and a Plus employee, but Owen didn’t appear to recognize her from Plus, and this wasn’t a social call.

“Cruel and unusual punishment, Reid, bringing a starburst to visit when I can’t shake her hand.”

“Drugs are good, right.”

“Awesome.”

“Cara broke her back too. Thought you might like to talk.”

“Where?” Owen said sharply, no trace of fuzzy in his voice now.

“L4 like you,” Cara answered. She moved further into the room, coming to stand closer to Owen so he could see her.

“And you’re okay?” Owen had to be terrified under the chemical-inspired easy. Reid was cultivating organ rupture on his behalf. The guy cycled, hiked, climbed. That’s when he did his best thinking. The earth was his treadmill and solid rock his weight bench, outdoors was his soul and he needed it to deal with what he wanted to do indoors.

Cara’s eyes shot to Reid’s. “I have some nerve damage.” She frowned, hesitated, locked down whatever she was about to say, about how she limped, how she carried pain, refocused on Owen and went with, “But I recovered.” She stepped right up to his bedside. “You will too. You have the best of care. This is an amazing hospital. I looked your surgeon up. She’s a superstar. You’re going to be fine, okay.”

Owen’s eyes were all over Cara, assessing. “Stars on your face,” he said, making Cara touch her cheek. “You had surgery?”

“Yes, to repair a herniated disk.”

Owen smiled. “Got one of them too.” He said it as though they were discussing possessions, things they collected, anything else but the threat of paralysis.

Cara smiled back, her hand twitching as though she wanted to touch Owen. “If they can save it, they will, and if they can’t, you might be able to have treatment that wasn’t available to me.”

“You came to tell me this.” Zarley had called Cara as soon as they landed, grasping at a way to support Owen. Cara nodded. “A shooting star,” said Owen. “How long ago for you?”

“Nearly ten years.”

Owen closed his eyes as if that time span had an actual weight in it. Eye contact pinged around the room like a pinball. Cara to Zarley. Zarley to Reid. He looked at Cara but she’d dropped her head forward, hair swinging across her face, shielding her expression. She stepped away from the bed, rejoining Zarley who said, “We’ll be outside,” as they backed out of the room.

Reid waited. Owen’s jaw was tight, he wasn’t sleeping, but he might’ve had enough of the grim tiptoe parade visitors. And Reid had nothing but chalk made from mushed up empty pep talk phrases in his mouth. Looking at Owen, lying so artificially still was hard to take so his own eyes were down when Owen spoke.

“Ziggy’s in trouble.”

“Jesus, you don’t need to think about Ziggy or Plus. Lay there and think about what Cara said, focus your superpowers on having a fully functional spine.”

Owen waggled his eyebrows and grinned. “Giddy up.”

“Drugs are good, huh.”

“A galaxy on her skin.”