Page 55 of Dose

He kisses me once, hard and brief.

“Missed you,” he says against my mouth. “Missed you, baby girl.”

“You’re hurt.”

“A piece of access housing objected to being removed.”

“The access housing won?”

“Temporarily.”

His hand slides into my hair, and his gaze moves over my face as though verifying every feature.

“Did you sleep in my bed?”

“Every night.”

“Good girl.”

“I would hate to interrupt,” Darius says, “but my shoulder and I are pursuing a formal separation.”

Raphael steps into the corridor. One look is enough to set him moving.

“Darius, imaging. Damon, neurological check and ice. Theon, treatment bay two.”

“The dressing is holding.”

“A fact for which you will be rewarded by keeping your blood inside your body. Move.”

Theon moves.

Raphael removes the field dressing, irrigates the wound, and examines it under direct light. The cut runs along the back of Theon’s shoulder, jagged but clear of the joint. It is deeper than I want it to be and less dangerous than my imagination made it.

“You can stay at his right side,” Raphael tells me. “Do not touch the sterile field.”

He injects local anesthetic and waits for it to take effect before he begins closing the wound. I hold Theon’s right hand and talk.

I tell him about Site Nine’s environmental controls, the two assumptions Ezra corrected, the meal Raphael taught me to cook, and Jenna’s story about Nikolai in the laundry room.

“You finished the Site Nine map,” Theon says.

“The environmental layer. Access confidence is still below threshold.”

Pride warms his tired face. “My thorough girl.”

Raphael places the final stitch and covers the wound with a clean dressing.

“No lifting with the left arm. No overhead reach or pulling for seventy-two hours. Keep this dry until tomorrow, and come back sooner if the wound bleeds, opens, reddens, or becomes hot.” He fixes Theon with a level stare. “That includes stopping whatever activity caused the problem. I am not issuing separate instructions for your sex life.”

Theon looks at me.

I look back.

Raphael closes his eyes briefly. “Use the uninjured arm. Do not be stupid.”

“Your confidence in me is touching,” Theon says.

“My confidence is in Isla.”