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I blinked hard against panicked tears and gritted my teeth. “I don’t know. Please, just come.”
After a moment of tense silence, he answered firmly, “I will.” After a moment’s hesitation, he hung up. In the dead silence, I bit my lip to keep it from shaking and hung up as well, pausing a moment before handing the phone back to Dr. Grey. He returned it to the cradle, not looking at me as he asked quietly, “Is there something else you’d like to tell me?”
I tightened my eyes shut against tears. “Two days ago, I was visiting my foster-mother. Mr. Aaron came home and…well, he threw me down a flight of stairs. I escaped, but was concussed and bleeding badly. I called Frost and he drove me to the hospital.” I heard Liz shift in her seat and wondered if it was that strange a story or if I had been right about her tolerance for horror stories. “I stayed with him and his family that night. He saved my life.”
“And he knows about your family life and your nightmares,” Grey finished. “What else?”
“My…muscles. He helped me with that too.”
“And?”
“I didn’t tell him how I got them. How could I?” I gasped. “But…he didn’t ask. He never asked about my medications either. He said…” I looked up at Grey in confusion, some part of me hoping he would have the answer to the enigma that was Frost. “He said he cared about me.”
“How does that make you feel?”
“I don’t know. No one has ever cared about me before. I don’t know how to react.”
“I didn’t ask what you think. I asked what you feel.”
Staring down at my torn-up fingernails, I thought about it. What did I feel? I’d had trouble feeling at all for years. But I could not deny that I felt something regarding Frost. What was it, though? “I trust him,” I finally said. “I don’t know why I do. I don’t trust anyone, but…he’s an exception.”
“Would you tell him what happened to you?” Grey asked seriously.
For a long time, I did not answer. Then, at long last, I whispered, “I couldn’t hurt him like that.”
A flash of light at the window made Dr. Grey turn and peek through the stone-grey blinds. “It looks like your ride is here.” He turned back to me, closing the file on his desk as he studied me in concern. “I wish you’d tell me what danger you’re in, but I’m confident in Frost’s…abilities to handle it. Please don’t hesitate to call if you change your mind about telling me so that I can help. Do you need any refills on your prescriptions?”
Darkness pervaded my mind, knowing how great a danger I was putting myself in by not telling him, but I stood and answered, “No.” Dr. Grey stood and shook my hand, bidding me farewell, and with nothing more, I exited the office.
As I began to speed-walk down the hall to the front door, eager to get to Frost, I heard my name called and paused, grimacing. I stopped reluctantly and turned back to face Liz, who was following me. She caught up to me, concern and…understanding in her eyes. Could that have really been it? Understanding? “Poe,” she began quietly as she approached. She stopped about arm’s length away, a comfortable distance. “You told Frost that he was in danger and Dr. Grey may have let that go, but I disagree with him. You can talk to me.”
I bit my lip in irritation. Now was not the time for strangers to start giving a care about me. “I don’t have time right now.”
“Please,” she entreated. I gritted my teeth and nodded. She gave me a silent ‘thank-you’ with her dark eyes and begged, “Please. Just tell me whether you are in danger.”
“I’m always in danger.”
“I can help.”
“No you can’t,” I countered abruptly. I did not have the time or patience for some random intern’s concerns. “Listen, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but people like you cannot handle people like me. There is nothing you can offer me.”
Her eyes and jaw hardened but her response still had the same softness. “My cousin owns a firearms shop and I could get you a discount. Furthermore, this may surprise you, Poe, but I did not go into this field vainly. I have my history just as you have yours. I am not a fragile person.”
I shook my head. “Fine, I’m wrong. But, really, please, I need to go now.”
Liz sighed in surrender and extended a hand with a business card clasped in it. “At least take my number and think about it. That’s my private cell. You can call or text any time.” I took the card, but before I could thank her, by then kicking myself for being so harsh, she had turned and was on her way back to Grey’s office. “Oh, and Poe,” she called over her shoulder, pausing halfway down the hall to look back at me once more, meaningfully. “We’re not so different, either. You’d be surprised how many broken people there are out there.”
Liz turned her back on me one last time and retreated. I watched her walk away in confusion and awe for a moment, then filed away her strange behavior for future study, spinning and bolting down the hall towards the door. Liz’s history could wait. Right then, I had to get to Frost.
Shirley looked up in alarm as I dashed past the front desk and an older man reading a magazine started, but I didn’t slow down. I plunged to the front door and shoved the glass pane aside, letting the clinic fall away behind me. The frigid November wind blasted my face and ripped through my sweatshirt, chilling me to the bone. The sky was dark and ominous, hanging low overhead in a malevolent shade of purple, almost like a bad omen of what December would hold. As I leapt down the steps of the clinic, a non-descript black sedan squealed to a stop at the curb, its brakes protesting angrily. Frost leapt out of the driver’s side, leaving the engine running, and met me at the front of the car. I stopped a step away from him and he gently put his hands on my shoulders. “Poe, please tell me what’s going on.”
“I don’t know how. You won’t believe me. I hardly believe myself,” I said, breathless and anxious, terrified of having to tell him my strange tale.
The wind roared down the Baltimore street and my hair flew wildly around me. I wrapped my arms around myself and shuddered against the cold, remembering yet again my need for a coat. Frost gestured to the sedan. “Let’s get in the car.” I nodded my assent and we parted, sliding into opposite sides of the car. The heater was already turned up and I shuddered again, this time at the sudden warmth, and laid my numb fingers over the vents. Frost turned down the stereo, which was blasting an Alterbridge CD. The car smelled as sterile as Dr. Grey’s office and I grimaced. “Is this a new car? Or a rental?”
“Rental. I think there’s one of those damn ‘new car smell’ air fresheners hidden in here, but I can’t find it.” He buckled his seat belt and put the car into gear, pulling away from the curb leisurely, entirely contradictory to his radical driving two days prior. “Where do you want to go?”
“Somewhere…safe.”
