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Lev shakes his head, “No.” I answer.
“Do you know if it was ingested or injected?”
I look at Lev, thinking about the scene I walked in on. I don’t remember seeing a syringe or needle anywhere. Lev runs his fingers over Evie’s neck and arms, looking for any signs of an injection. When he doesn’t see anything, he shakes his head and responds, “We didn’t see a syringe of any kind, and I can’t see any marks on her from an injection. Is there any other way you can tell?”
“You don’t always need a syringe. Drugs can be spiked into someone's system. Look for a small bruise with a needlepoint in the center. If you don’t see anything obvious, it was likely ingested but I can help either way. How is her breathing?” he asks as Lev lays her down and carefully looks over her body while trying to keep her partially covered.
I watch her closely before answering. “It seems okay, she’s taking deep breaths and doesn’t seem to be struggling.”
“No retracting,” Lev says. “Slight bradypnea, she’s only breathing about nine times a minute.”
I forgot Lev is basically a paramedic.
“That’s fairly normal with most date/rape drugs. Can you bring her to me?”
“It will probably take us two hours to get back to the island. We have medical supplies here on the boat. She might need some stitches in her hand. I’ll place a monitor on her to watch her oxygen and heart rate. Anything we need to be worried about there?” Lev asks as I sit by our girl on the bed, feeling useless because I have no idea what to do.
“If you know about heart rhythms, watch out for afib. Make sure her heart rate stays above forty. I’ll get a room set up here if things start to decline. Call me and I'll walk you through each step until you arrive. How long has it been since she was drugged?”
“Maybe twenty minutes,” I tell him.
“That’s good. The worst of the effects will show up within the first hour of her showing symptoms but can last for up to twelve hours. I would say if she stays stable for the next hour, then let her sleep in a safe place. I can check in on her tomorrow. If anything changes or you’re worried, call me.”
“Will do, Doc,” I say. “Text me a time you can come by tomorrow. For now, I’d like to keep her with us so long as it’s safe.”
“Sounds good,” he replies. “I’ll be here if you need me. Keep an eye out for her. I’ve been observing the students and hearing some unpleasant comments about her position on Elysium. Are you aware of how many enemies she’s made by refusing to bow to the three of you and climbing the leaderboards so quickly?”
Lev and I look at each other, we haven’t wanted to bring it up with Evie’s heart, but now I feel like we put her at a disadvantage. She wasn’t able to prepare herself. Every scenario we ran with her was to try to keep her alert, but we didn’t tell her she needed to stay that way outside of our games.
“We’ll talk to her,” I promise him before ending the call.
“Do you think we fucked up?” Lev asks, walking over to his wardrobe.
“By not telling her that ninety percent of the student body hates her and that we’ve had to personally fire two professors because they thought they could try to get in her pants after seeing that video?” I say sarcastically. While Evie has been excelling in classes, climbing the leaderboard for every skill and running exercises for combat training, Lev and I have been fending off predators.
I can’t complain though. It’s given me some much-needed release to be able to lock up and torture professors or students who have tried to make a move on her. We just got used to taking care of it all while her heart healed that we forgot to warn her once she was better.
Lev comes back with a shirt and some sweatpants. Carefully we lift Evie, dressing her as tenderly as we can. We don’t talk as we both see the scars covering her back. After Doc told us about the injuries, we talked about it later and agreed to let her tell us when she was ready. I imagined her scars to look more like cuts, but her back looks like she was lashed for years. The amount of dense scar tissue must be painful, I would know.
Lev still looks pale, and I notice his hands are shaking as he adjusts the shirt around her neck. Once we have her dressed in his dry clothes, we tuck her into his bed. Lev connects her to the monitors to watch her oxygen and heart rate while I sit on the couch behind the fireplace dividing the room where I can just see Lev through the flames, taking care of our girl. He cleans the scratches on her hands and wraps some gauze around them after applying some cream. He’s so delicate and attentive to her.
We all have our own rooms on the boat and Lev’s is one of the largest. It has an open floor plan with a full kitchen and dining room. The bathroom is also large, complete with a jacuzzi tub as well as a walk-in shower that could easily fit the three of us.
Once the monitors are beeping to a steady rhythm, Lev watches them closely for any irregularities. After a few minutes, whatever he sees must bring him some relief because the color begins to return to his face.
“Come here,” I tell him.
His eyes don’t leave the monitor until he’s on the other side of the divider. He attempts to settle down next to me on the couch, but his body is stiff as a board.
“Lev,” I whisper in his ear as I wrap my arms around him. “She’s safe. We got to her in time. She’s going to be okay.”
I hope the words assure him even though I’m not sure I believe them myself. We sit there quietly until he eventually relaxes in my arms, leaning back into my chest once the time window Doc described as the most dangerous passes.
“We fucked up, D,” Lev says quietly.
“We didn’t know it would come to this.” While we knew there was some risk, we had no idea Bryce would take it this far. I was shocked he had the guts to try and take her on. I don’t know what kind of death wish that kid has, but the only reason I’m glad Alexi stopped us from letting him die is because I want to see Evie take care of him herself. “I’ll talk to her when she wakes up. She’s safe.”
Lev sighs heavily, relaxing into me. It’s strange how perfectly he fits in my arms. I never thought there would be a day when I could hold and comfort him, much less nights that he would spend in my bed with me.
