this severity. It’s third degree. I need to clean it and bandage it. Even then, she’s going to be in a lot of pain.”
“So give her more pain killers,” I say, letting go of his hand so he can do his job.
His thumb presses against the syringe and the clear liquid enters the tube slowly. “It isn’t that simple, Tongue. Remember Moretti? I kept him in a coma for a long time, because even when burn patients are asleep, they are still in pain. Medicine can only do so much. Imagine your nerves being split open and exposed to the world, hot and on fire, and over sensitive. Luckily, the burn is contained to one part of her body, so the process of recovery will be quick, but it doesn’t mean it’s less painful.”
“She’s in pain because of me?” I never want her to hurt. All I’ve ever wanted from the moment I laid eyes on her was to protect her and hold her. I didn’t want the world to put a hand on her, including my world, and look at what I’ve done.
“I guess you can look at it like that,” Doc says, tossing the syringe in the trash. “It’s definitely half-empty glass.”
“How else would I look at it?”
“Well, she’s in pain for you. She decided this, not you. This is what she wanted. Who else have you known to want to do that for you? Besides us, of course.”
I keep my mouth shut and decide not to breach that topic. The only people I know I can trust are Daphne and Slingshot.
“You’re not going to want to watch this. I have to peel away the dead skin,” Doc informs me as he snaps on gloves. He sits down on the stool that’s on the other side of the bed and gathers his medical equipment. I don’t know what they all are, but they look sharp, silver, and deadly.
“I’m not going anywhere.” The only way I get up and walk out of here is if someone forcibly removes me. The heartrate monitor beeps the tune of her life and I hang my head, relieved. I know she is nowhere near dying, but still. Her heartbeat is soothing to hear.
The machines sound from behind me too, which reminds me of Sarah. I feel awful for not asking about her sooner, but my mind has been focused on Daphne. “How is Sarah?”
“She’s fine. Tired. She admitted she hadn’t been sleeping well because of the pain. Apparently it started in the middle of night, but she ignored it because she didn’t want it to be a miscarriage.”
“Is it?”
“No,” Doc says, cleaning the burned heart on Daphne’s chest. “It’s the muscle, and it isn’t your fault. I know a hundred people can tell you that right now, but only you can believe it.”
“I don’t believe in belief. Everything is black and white. It’s either yes or no, you did or didn’t. There’s nothing in between.”
“Oh, you can’t really believe that? There are so many things in between. That’s why the color gray matters. It’s in the gray, Tongue. Look for belief there.”
That makes no sense, and it sounds like a fucking palm reader, which reminds me of Seer. Why hasn’t he called? Why didn’t he see this coming? He always says he has to take a step away, but he never does. Maybe he listened to his own advice?
Damn it, Seer.
A pair of long tweezers in hand, he starts peeling the black flesh off her chest. My grip tightens around her hand as he tugs. “Is this necessary? It looks so painful.”
“Unfortunately,” he answers, dropping the dead skin in the silver basin. “I need fresh, uninjured skin to make sure this heals correctly, but I can’t avoid scarring. That’s impossible.”
The sound of the basement door slamming open stops me from getting up and doing something I’d regret later.
“Man, you can’t mean that! I’m not going to let you go. You can’t leave me.” Slingshot jumps midway on the steps and crashes against the floor, loses his footing, then hits the wall face first. “We just became friends, and you’re just going to go? What about everything we shared? Happy’s swamp? Was it just me, or did we share something out there, huh? I thought we had something special, Tongue.” Slingshot’s hands fly to his waist, staring me down like some housewife who got cheated on.
“What?”
“Oh, what? Like you don’t understand. We are friends. Best buds, bro-lios, bro-manos, brosephs, brochachos—no, we are better than