Fanon:The Good Ones-Chapter 26

Old and New
I woke up to the feeling I had grown to love: Brigit's arm around me.

I remained with my eyes closed for a few seconds until I tried to shift my position. And it hurt. I sat up in a jolt of pain, realizing that I was not at home. The hot sun was seeping in from the window, though it wasn't close enough to me to hurt. I was still in the hospital, in the hospital gown, in the hospital bed.

Brigit was still in her regular clothes. She had ditched the blue mini-skirt a while ago and now stuck to a pair of black jeans, and had changed the t-shirt she kept under her black jacket to a faint purple instead of black. She snored a little, and reached for a pillow to hold close to her. She had told me before that when I hadn't been her cuddle-bunny, a stuffed Pokémon doll. Ironically, that was the only game I ever played on my GameBoy.

Garth had fallen asleep on the floor where I had left him. When the nurses came to help him up he pushed them away, saying he deserved it. He hadn't taken a pillow or a blanket. Instead he took his leather jacket, rolled it up beneath him, and slept. Dunstan was asleep, and his sister was lying on his shoulder. The siblings' mother, Morgana, was awake.

"Pierce," she said, regarding me bluntly. I attempted to get out of the bed, but when the sudden pain hit me again I was forced to lay back down. Brigit's arm wrapped itself around my chest, restricting me from movement even further.

"Oh, Pierce, don't move around for a while," she said, a vacant look in her eye. "You might pop your stitches, and we don't want that."

"Stitches?" I inquired.

"Yes," she said, her eyes now meeting mine for the first time. She had blue eyes like me, and they were the same as Leila's. Dunstan's were a bit odd because his were green, but it didn't make much of a difference to me. "While you were passed out, they put in a defibrillator. It isn't going to be permanent unless you want it to be; they just want to make sure that you're okay and that you're heart won't give out on you. They said wait a year at least." It looked like Morgana had more to say, but she stopped herself, putting her fingers to her lips.

"Is there more?" I asked.

My step-mother sighed. "Pierce, they said that they don't want you doing any work during the time that it takes for you to heal. That means you can't do any work for the Good Ones for a while."

Old and new feelings flooded back into me. Anger was matched by understanding. Hate was matched by love. They all seemed to cancel each other out.

I was twitching so much that I didn't realize that Brigit was twitching beside me. She was groaning and sweating. Morgana and I screamed for the doctor in harmony.

The baby was coming.