Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
MORGAN
Several days later when Benji walked back into her classroom, she opened her mouth to welcome him back in front of the class, but the way he was studiously looking down at the ground told her that this wasn't the time.
He looked... grey.
It was something about his complexion that had her worrying about his health.
She knew that when she was younger her parents took a dim view of missing school unless she was near death, or if her dad was home and she had period cramps, he'd excuse it.
She was fairly sure that Jacob understood less than their dad did about women's reproductive mechanics, but she'd always told herself that when she had kids, she would never force her kids to go to school if they were sick.
It wasn't healthy for others, first of all, but there had been times when she felt if she'd stayed home for a day or two when she'd just become sick, she wouldn't have gotten as sick as she did.
And looking at Benji, she had to wonder if he had parents like she did, or if he'd gotten worse after he'd been dropped off.
Thank goodness they had a reading assignment at the beginning of class.
"Okay, everyone. We have a reading assignment to begin class. The pages and comprehension questions are on the board. You'll have twenty minutes to read and consider your answers before we start discussion. I-"
She saw Maribel's hand shoot up, so Morgan stopped speaking and nodded at her student. "Yes, Maribel?"
"Could we ask questions of each other if we do it quietly?"
Morgan saw the sidelong glance Maribel made in Benji's direction and the way that Benji turned his head toward the wall.
She didn't want to say it, but she felt she had to. "Sorry," she shook her head, "we'll have ample time to talk about the text when the twenty minutes is done, and I really want to hear your individual answers to the study guide."
Maribel wasn't happy with the answer, but she was still very polite. "Thank you, Miss Rafferty."
She offered the young girl a smile. "Please begin your reading."
Benji's reaction was slow, but she knew that he saw her walking toward his desk and that's why he flung the cover of his text open, slapping it against the top of the desk.
That turned a few heads, but she was now standing between his desk and most of the class.
She tapped her fingers on the desk. A silent gesture, but it made him lift his gaze to her face. "Hey, Benji. Welcome back. I hope you're feeling better.'
If it was possible, his complexion turned even more grey. "You have a question for me, Miss?"
She replayed her words to him in her head and his in reply to hers.
It was hard to see that she might have hurt his feelings or offended him, but it seemed as if he didn't want to talk to her at all.
Morgan wanted to fight him on this, but she had a feeling that she would do better in the long run by giving him some space.
Maybe he was having second thoughts about talking with her. If that was the case, then pushing him within earshot of other students might just obliterate her chance to reach him.
She just couldn't let that happen.
"No. No question." She was sure that the look on his face was relief, telling her that she might have made the right decision. "I just wanted to tell you that I was happy you were back in class."
His eyes moved over the top of his desk and then settled on the textbook in front of him.
He folded his good arm on the desk and hunched over the textbook. His arm was still confined in a sling, but it looked like he was holding it closer to his body than he had before.
There was something... something inside her head that was telling her that he was worse instead of better. It might not be an illness, but it could be pain that was causing his strange behavior.
On a whim, or perhaps it was divine inspiration, or somewhere in between, but she moved to her desk and used an app on her computer to send a message to Palmer. He might not get it until later, but she just had to send him a message.
MORGAN: Hey... sorry to bother, but I'm wondering if you could stop by the school after your shift. I have a student who might be hurting. He's had his arm in a sling. I think he might have hurt himself more, but he's not saying.
She was about to step away from her computer when a soft BLIP turned her head.
PALMER: Was just on my way out. I can stop by. Is he in class?
MORGAN: Yes. He's here. Do you think I can have you field some questions on Civics while you're here?
She had a feeling that he was chuckling or at least smiling.
PALMER: Of course. See you soon.
Morgan looked over at Benji and saw that he was still bent over his textbook. He actually looked like he was into the reading.
She'd only been a teacher for a short time, but she knew what it looked like when students were just trying to look like they were paying attention.
Morgan looked at the clock, watching for the end of the twenty-minute period.
She took a minute at her desk to send a message to the front office that they should expect Palmer to arrive as a guest and send him on through.
She didn't have to worry about someone trying to stop him. The whole front office staff had heard about the hot firefighter and would only be too happy to sign him in and show him to her classroom.
RHETT
He arrived ten minutes before her class ended and stopped at the door beside the front office worker who'd insisted on walking him in.
"I've heard that her students are really making progress," she told him in a whisper. "When the other teacher was shot on campus, some of her students struggled with the substitutes we brought in."
He nodded. Listening in to the discussion that they were having on Classical Republicanism. He barely had a memory of the topic being taught when he was in school, but he could tell that the students were interested in the discussion.
"Would you look at that," the office worker sighed, "not a single one of them with their phones out."
Someone must have heard her because a few heads turned in his direction and then the others did as well.
He lifted his hand. "Hey."
A few of the girls in the class giggled and Morgan's cheeks pinked up. "Class, I'd like to introduce you to one of the best first responders in San Antonio. Firefighter and EMT, Palmer Butler."
The class applauded. Most of them anyway.
A student with his arm in a sling barely lifted his gaze toward the front of the room.
Rhett walked to Morgan's side and stopped. He had a feeling that he'd just figured out why Morgan had called him in to her class.
"Hey, class." He waved with his free hand and a bunch of the students waved back.
"Can someone tell the class what a first responder is or does?"
There were a few answers. Some funny, some not-so-much and then a student knew what she was saying.
Morgan thanked her for answering. "Good job, Maribel. Great answer."
"But is it the right answer."
Rhett had a feeling he knew who that boy was. "Are you Tomas?"
The boy sat up in his chair and pointed his thumbs at his chest. "Did you hear that? I'm famous."
They spent the last few minutes of Morgan's class answering questions about his job and how they help people.
Morgan shared a few looks with him and looked over at the boy sitting alongside the wall.
Rhett had also looked at the teen and noticed that he was taking more of an interest during the question and answer period than he had before it had started.
As soon as the bell sounded, the students jumped, surprised.
Most of them started for the door as Morgan called out their homework to them so they'd remember it.
Rhett had already started moving when the teen boy finally stood up from his chair.
And Rhett caught him when he stumbled over his own feet.
"Benji?" Morgan was suddenly at his side. "Oh my god, is he okay?"
"Help me," he met her gaze with his, "let's lower him down."
Morgan reached out and pillowed his head with her hands and helped him lower her student to the floor.
Rhett looked at the kid's pallor and internally shook his head. He was sweating profusely and just touching his skin he could tell that he was burning up. "Hey, Benji."
The boy's face reacted as if his own name was distasteful to him. Rhett filed that away.
"How did you hurt your arm?"
At first it looked like he wasn't going to answer him.
Morgan leaned in, her face showed her open concern for him. "Please, talk to him, he's here to help."
Rhett didn't know if it was her tone, her expression, or her words, but something got to the young man.
"B-burn."
"A burn?"
He looked at Morgan and then back down at Benji.
"May I... take a look at your arm?"
As much pain as Benji had to be in, he lifted his arm away from his chest.
Rhett looked at Morgan. "Help me."
But she was already moving to release the clasp of the sling.
Rhett smiled at her and caught Benji watching him.
He couldn't tell what Benji felt, but he was watching them both intently.
Rhett helped Morgan remove the sling and that's when he saw the bandages around his arm.
He looked at Morgan as his brain figured out what he was seeing.
His eyes narrowed at her, but she didn't react as if he was looking at her with displeasure, her eyes widened as if she was trying to take in more and more information from him.
Rhett looked back down at the bandage and knew his first glance was right. The bandage wasn't applied by a professional. The sling wasn’t one you'd get from a doctor.
"How'd you burn yourself?"
A fleeting expression on the teen's face told Rhett that he was too close to the truth.
"I need to look under the bandage. It might hurt. Okay?"
Benji looked at him in a momentary panic, and then he nodded, a short, curt movement.
Rhett looked Benji in the eye and used his peripheral vision to grasp the edge of the bandage. He wanted to keep Benji's attention on him instead of the pain he was likely to feel if Rhett was right.
He lifted the edge of the bandage and immediately felt it tug.
A soft gasp of pain made something move inside of Rhett. He was normally rock steady, but there was something about this kid. And maybe there was something about having Morgan there, radiating concern for the young man.
"Hold his hand, Morgan."
She moved around to Rhett's other side and took Benji's hand.
A thought turned Rhett's head toward her. "When does the next class show up?"
She shook her head as she smiled at Benji. "No class. This is their mid-morning break."
Rhett let out a breath.
He didn't think that it would make things easier on Benji to have a bunch of people staring at him.
He also wasn't going to make them wait any longer.
Rhett dropped his gaze and peeled back the bandage, momentarily ignoring the whimper of pain from Benji.
He didn't have to look at more than an inch of skin to see that the boy's arm wasn't just burned, he was infected. His normally tan skin was tinged with purple and there was a thick sludge of pale pus that welled up at the edge of the bandage.
Rhett felt like hell. He'd opened the skin by pulling off the bandage. "Sorry, man."
"I- It's... okay." He sucked in a breath. "I b-barely fee-feel it otherwi-ise."
Rhett nodded. "Okay, we need to get you to a hospital." He paused for a moment, looking at Morgan and then beyond to the open doorway. "We could call an ambulance, but-"
Benji reacted to that suggestion, tensing up, trying to pull his arm away.
"Hey... hey... hold on." Rhett smiled at him. "I should have started with the other option."
"Front office?"
Rhett's smile deepened as he heard Morgan asking for someone to come and take over her class. She was a smart woman.
"The second option is that we take you. We can help you walk and make this look as normal as we can."
He saw the relief in Benji's eyes and his quick nod.
"Okay. We'll get you there so that they can look at your arm and help you heal."
Benji looked over at Morgan and when she hung up her cell phone Benji spoke to her. "Don't... don't you want m-me to tell you how I got hu-hurt?"
Morgan leaned in and rubbed his good arm. "First, we want to get you to the hospital and get the doctors to help you start healing. When you're ready to tell us what happened, I'm ready to hear it."
Rhett watched Benji absorb her words like a sponge, then he saw Benji look over at him.
"Help m-me up?"
Rhett nodded and together, with Morgan's help, they got Benji up on his feet.
Morgan picked up the sling. "Do you want to put this back on?"
Benji's whole face blanched. "N-no."
Morgan nodded, understanding. "I'm guessing you don't want anything touching your arm."
Benji's face relaxed.
They started to walk, passing the office worker who would be taking over Morgan's class after the break.
"Lesson plan?"
"On my desk."
The other woman nodded and looked at Benji with concern.
They were almost to the parking lot when Benji looked at Morgan. "Are we taking the camo car?"
She shook her head. "It's too small for both of you in there. You'd probably bump your arm."
He looked at Rhett. "What do you drive?"
Rhett felt one side of his mouth tip up. "Silverado."
Benji nodded with respect. "Cool."
Morgan grinned and they made it into the truck and on the road without any difficulty, that would come later.