Tommy wasn't sure he was awake when he saw Wolf walk into his hospital room. He heard a beeping mixed with other electronic sounds and had no idea why he was hearing it.
Looking around his body he saw a sheet, and, on top of the sheet, his right arm was encased in something with a whole bunch of velcro straps. His left arm, he saw, was loose but looked thoroughly bruised. He could feel it better than see it.
Aside from body aches-- through which he could inventory almost all of his body parts, all the way out to his toes and finger-tips, so he knew he was more-or-less in one piece-- he felt something on his neck. At the same time he had something on his face pumping what felt like freezing cold air into his nostrils.
"Wuuhhh" he tried speaking and had to stop.
Wolf smiled at him. "For a red man who got stomped on by four big fucking anglos, you are in amazingly good shape. I just let Lisa go ahead to look in on your cousin's... whatever he is... and I figured to look in on you, first, while Lisa tries to keep an eye on her little brother... or, as she call him, little sister. I've heard stories, already, about what you did."
Tommy sighed. "How... owww..."
Wolf smiled "I got the word from your cousin, believe it or not, though I don't know what they're gonna do about how she tried to rearrange an orderly's arms and legs. You... did good, real good. She's proud of you, man, and... I got the word, Simon has good things to say about you."
Tommy closed his eyes.
"And your loco cousin said something about not worrying over you so much any more, whatever that is supposed to mean."
Tommy tried to get better control of his mouth. At least it didn't feel like any teeth were missing. But it still hurt to talk. What he had to say hurt worse. "Wolf... I was bad that morning."
"Oh?" Wolf was finally understanding Tommy clearly despite the slurred words.
Tommy sighed, again, it being the only emotional expression that didn't hurt as much as others. He had to say this, but it came out haltingly, "I helped a bully threaten Griz's girl this morning. It's hard to get it out of my head, even if, later on, I did stand up and tried to protect her. I am ... ashamed... of what I did."
Wolf looked at Tommy, knowingly, and nodded. "Hurts even more than the damn bruises, don't it?"
It was hard to nod when everything hurt but he did it any way, not trusting his voice.
Wolf looked at Tommy's hands and selected the slightly less bruised right to squeeze, saying "You did good. Real good."
"So... where do we go from here?"
"You," Wolf said, "are going to rest and recuperate, because, when you get out of here, you're going to need all the rest you can get. Word is out... you are a hot red property and there are going to be girls salivating all over you."
It was all Tommy could do to frown in utter incomprehension.
Wolf laughed seeing the expression. "Tommy, boy, mark my words, when you get out of here, there are going to be girls who will jump your bones trying to make you theirs ... and I'm just talking about anglo girls looking for a husband."
Tommy laughed... and his whole chest hurt, which caused him to cough... which made his chest hurt even more. "Yeah, right, though Perssss... whatever his name is... is trying to set me up with someone he knows named Harmony."
Wolf stared at him. "Harmony? The only girl I know of by that name is an anglo girl, six foot two, blue eyes, dirty blonde hair... and about as straight as a ruler."
"Oh? What's she like?"
A new voice, a seductive contralto, came from the door, getting both males' attention, saying "Anyone who thinks that Percy is worth protecting", issuing from a tall, thin, kind of blond haired girl with startlingly blue eyes, in a candy-striper uniform. "is someone I'll like. I know I'm not supposed to work in the ICU, but I had to sneak in to see you."
Wolf had not been impressed by this thin stick-figure of a girl, he liked them to be a whole lot softer with big breasts, but he watched as Tommy's eyes looked the girl over, before asking "So... you know Percy?"
The stick figure of a girl smiled and Wolf watched his friend smile back, making Wolf wonder what she did to Tommy to have him instantly under her spell. The girl answered with "Yes, I'm a friend of his. My name is Harmony."
Wolf watched Tommy suddenly melt-- whatever this anglo girl had, it was powerful-- and it seemed to him that Tommy's pain faded instantly. Even Tommy's voice seemed different, when he spoke up. He watched Tommy swallow painfully before continuig. "Hi, Harmony, Percy told me about you. He didn't say you were so pretty."
It was weird watching these two, he wasn't sure which one was casting a spell on which as he saw her melt when Tommy used her name, standing there, looking at Tommy, their eyes locked on each other.
Wolf edged towards the door before he could be drawn into... whatever was happening here.
As he backed out the door he could tell from the tone of their voices that they didn't know anyone else existed.
All he could think of as he looked for Percy's room was that he needed to see Lisa.
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Author: Jack C Lipton Title: Visiting Hours - Tommy Part: 1/ Universe: Hybrid Vigor 04A Summary: Keywords: Revision: $Revision: 1.1 $ Archive: http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/CupaSoup/www/ Mailing List: FAQ: RCS: $Id: synergy04a.x,v 1.1 2008/02/24 05:54:54 jcl Exp $