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The doctor in front of Mia cupped his face and shook his head. “You’re not fine. Your body is under a great deal of stress. You need to stay overnight at least.”
Mia turned her attention to the new arrival. “Dark, tell this guy I’m fine. This is just wear and tear. A part of the job.”
“Doctor, arguing with Miss Ripley is like pulling teeth. Is her condition really that bad?”
“Yes it is. Burst stitches, which could lead to infection and excessive blood loss. An increased heart rate. A swollen trachea which could hinder oxygen intake.”
Mia huffed. “That’s normal.”
“I assure you it’s not,” said the doctor.
“Alright, how about this?” asked Mia. “I go home and I promise to keep myself rested for the next few weeks. If I start to feel faint or whatever, I’ll come straight back.”
“Ripley, you should probably stay in if the doctor thinks it’s necessary.”
A moment of silence. The doctor spoke first.
“Miss Ripley, I can’t keep you against your will, but you should really consider staying here. If something else happens to you while you’re so rundown, it could be fatal.”
“Thanks for the concern, but I’m too busy to stay in a hospital any longer. I feel fine. What more do you need?”
Ella looked the doctor up and down. A picture of exhaustion. Bloodshot eyes, slumped shoulders, bloated skin. The last thing the poor guy needed was an altercation with a stubborn hothead.
“Doctor, could I have five minutes with Miss Ripley? You look like you could use a break.”
The doctor sighed. “Tell me about it.” He exited and left the agents alone.
Once he was out of earshot, Ella moved closer to Ripley. She lowered her voice. “Tell me how you really feel,” she said to her partner.
Mia collapsed back into her seat and began panting like she was about to give birth. “Like shit on fire.”
It was obvious. Mia looked like she was about to break in two. Her usual energy was replaced with pure lethargy, a product of the past week’s stress and Mia’s own battle with Tobias that saw her near-fatally wounded. Her days in the hospital. A second attack from some old foes. And finally last night’s ordeal. It was enough to kill the average person, but Mia had a lifetime of injuries to back her up.
Ella had it different. She hadn’t been living a life of recklessness for thirty years. She was barely a year into the job, not to mention she was 25 years younger than her partner. She still had the advantages of youth.
“So stay here. Recover,” Ella said.
“Not a chance. I’ve already been in the hospital a week and we’ve got things we need to do.”
Ella prayed that Mia had some ideas where they could go from here, because Ella was all but stumped.
“Thank you for saving our asses last night,” Ella said. In all the commotion, Ella hadn’t taken the time to give her heartfelt thanks, or even ask how Ripley knew about the attack.
“My pleasure. It felt pretty good to blast those guys’ heads off, not going to lie, and I really thought we finally had Tobias last night.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I should have strangled him. Suffocated him. Gouged his eyes out. Whatever. I shouldn’t have thrown him overboard.”
Mia began collecting her things. Looked like the doctor’s efforts were in vain.
“No, it was totally normal. You were weak, battered. You probably wouldn’t have had the strength to strangle him anyway. Nor did me and Ben. You saw an opportunity to kill him and you took it. I’d have done the same thing.”
Ella had replayed the events in her head over and over, from the early hours until sunrise. She ran through every possible timeline, the numerous ways she could have killed Tobias, how he might have evaded death. The scene played on a constant loop and probably would for the foreseeable future.
“So where do we go from here?” asked Ella.
“We figure him out. We know Tobias’s hotspots. We know a few of his hiding places. We could try the Deadlands again.”
“Would Tobias be that obvious? Wouldn’t he go somewhere different?”
