Page 70 of Quiver

For some reason, the simple consideration caused tears to shimmer over her vision, but she blinked them away quickly as Bex went on.

“She’s got stitches internally and sutures externally, but the arrow didn’t hit any major organs or arteries. She’s got impressive muscle mass in her obliques, and you got her here quickly. Even though it sounds awful to say, given the circumstances of the accident, she’s very lucky.”

Kylie wasn’t sure if she should laugh or cry at such a statement. She stared down at the blood on all their clothes and steadfastly refused to consider what unlucky would look like.

“The big concern now is infection. Puncture wounds are particularly worrisome in that area, and there was a lot of dirt and sweat around the wound. She’s already started intravenous antibiotics, and we’ll keep her at least overnight to watch for any trouble. If all goes well, she’ll be able to go home tomorrow, and I have no doubt she’ll be defying doctor’s orders and be back to work sooner rather than later.”

“She’ll be a bear to keep down,” Ava agreed, “but we’ll deal with that when the time comes. You said we could see her?”

“I’ll take you back, but before you go in there, you should probably know one more thing.”

“Oh God.” Kylie wasn’t sure she could stand anything else.

“No, it’s not bad.” Bex bit her lip as if working hard to hold in a grin. “She’s on a considerable amount of painkillers.”

Ava and Kylie exchanged a confused look.

“Okay, she’s super drugged.” Bex let her professional façade fall for a second. “I expected things to be pretty bad as they pulled out the arrow, and I didn’t want her to feel it any more than she already had, so I gave her something for pain, but also a sedative for the trauma and the sutures.”

“Oh honey,” Ava laughed.

“I swear I didn’t go overboard or give her the friends and family treatment. I stayed within the normal limits for her height and weight and the gravity of the injury, but I didn’t factor in that Fletcher isn’t exactly a normal human, and apparently she may not have the same threshold for such things as a person with a reasonable pain tolerance or physical fitness level.”

“She doesn’t even drink caffeine,” both Ava and Kylie said at the same time.

“I clearly don’t know her as well as the two of you,” Bex said awkwardly. “I only meant to warn you the heavy dosage has made her … chatty.”

“Chatty?” Kylie couldn’t make the word compute. “Fletcher?”

Bex nodded. “Come on.”

They followed her through the emergency room and then into a quieter area past a nurses’ station to a small room with two chairs and a single bed. Fletcher lay under a sheet and blanket with her head propped up on a couple of pillows, her complexion still pale and her curls a mess, but she smiled when she saw them. “Everyone came back.”

“Are you surprised?” Ava asked.

“Little bit. That was some scary shit.”

Kylie snorted, and Fletcher looked her up and down with the same crooked grin. “Your shirt’s ruined.”

“I have more shirts. How are you feeling?”

“Kind of messed up. I can’t feel anything anymore, except thirsty. I’m very thirsty. Hey Bex, if I take a drink, will water come out of the arrow hole?”

Bex shook her head. “If it does, someone made a pretty serious mistake, but I was there the whole time, so I’m relatively confident you can have water.”

Fletcher turned back to Ava. “She did stay with me the whole time. That’s nice. Where did you go?”

“We went to get cleaned up as best we could, and then we had a little chat.”

Fletcher seemed suspicious. “Was she nice?”

“She was.”

Fletcher looked past Ava to Kylie. “Kye, my Kye. Do you remember when only I used to call you that?”

She stepped forward to the bedside. “I do. I wasn’t sure you did.”

“They didn’t give me enough medicine to make me forget something like that. I always called you Kye until you let everyone else do it.”