Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
DARBY
“If you’re going for inconspicuous, I don’t think this is going to work.”
Darby finished fastening the button on Fitz’s long, woolen overcoat and took a step back.
Henry had been kind enough to lend it to them, and she was thankful that he and Fitz both had a similar shoulder size.
The captain was a few inches taller, but the knit gloves stretched over his hands helped hide the few inches of wrist that showed.
The metal leg was harder to cover, as Darby had needed to remove the left pant leg in order to fit them over the artificial limb.
The coat hung down to the top of his knees, and she had wrapped strips of cloth around the metal plates and rods down the length of his shin and around his foot.
“I’m not trying to hide it, I’m trying to keep you warm.” Darby moved to his right side and looped her arm around his. “We had another freeze last night and the metal is going to send all that cold right into your torso. I’ll have to start working on some better methods of insulation.”
They moved slowly through the alleyway behind Clerval’s and towards the street.
Fitz’s gait, though still irregular, had improved greatly over the last week of daily practice.
Darby’s presence at his arm was now less for support and simply due to the fact that she liked being there.
Once his initial—and completely understandable—sour mood had passed, she and Fitz had fallen into an easy friendship.
He still had moments of darkness, but they shared a similar sense of humor, and Darby’s drive and passion to see him completely healed was matched by his own desire to conquer and master the challenges before him.
The long hours they spent together when she wasn’t at the hospital felt like no time at all, and she found herself counting down the hours when they were apart.
Other than Henry, she hadn’t met a friend who fit together so perfectly, almost as if they were made for each other.
But unlike Henry, Fitz wasn’t her father’s age. And Henry certainly never made her heart feel like it was full of butterflies when she caught a smile of admiration directed her way.
“Where are we going?”
Darby grinned up at him. “To visit someone who has been quite anxious about you.”
“My mother lives three hours away by train. I don’t think we’ll make it in time for dinner.”
The words were spoken in jest, but she caught the muscles tensing in his jaw and felt his arm flex as he curled his hand into a fist. She knew he was worried about how his family would react to his new body.
“Well, as delightful as it would be to meet the woman who raised a hero,” she emphasized the word with an affectionate squeeze of the arm she held, “I actually told Merry that I would bring you by. He didn’t believe me when I told him that you were alive and well.”
Fitz’s brows drew together in thought. The long, jagged cut on the side of his face had healed, thanks to her magic, leaving behind a thick white line that made him appear much more serious and intimidating than he was.
“By Merry, I assume you mean Merlin Wyss? He was in my company less than two days before the ambush. Why would he be concerned?”
“Probably because he’s a kid who’s accustomed to being overlooked or abandoned by all the people who should love him, and he was so desperate for a father figure that he immediately latched onto you.
And then you were willing to sacrifice yourself for all of them, giving him the one thing he’s been searching for his entire life—a feeling of being valued and protected.
I’m fairly certain that you could ask him to help you hide a body and he would still follow you with hero worship in his eyes.
” She laughed at Fitz’s bewildered expression.
“Merry is a talker. I’ve learned a lot in the last week. ”
“I see.” He sounded unsure. “And he’s aware that I…that you…” He gestured self-consciously with his metal hand.
I wish he could see that it’s nothing to be ashamed of.
She leaned closer, lowering her voice to a confidential whisper. “I think it’s one of the things he’s most excited about seeing. Fair warning—he will ask a lot of questions.”
A look of relief passed over Fitz’s face, and the corner of his mouth quirked up in a small smile. “Oh, I know. We may have only known him for a day and a half, but it was enough to learn that.”
Darby laughed as they approached the doors of the hospital. Fitz awkwardly shuffled to her other side to open the door before she could reach for it. He motioned her inside. “After you.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “I can open my own door, Fitz.”
“I would never doubt it. But my mother raised me to have good manners, and that means holding the door open for a lady.”
A poorly-concealed snort drew Darby’s attention inside.
Lacey, with her arms full of a bundle of papers, stood on the other side of the door, just inside and to the side as if waiting to exit.
Her eyes widened in mock concern. “He thinks you’re a lady, Darby.
He might need to come with me to get his eyes checked.
” She looked up and down Fitz’s tall form with appreciation in her gaze.
Darby bit her lip as she stepped past. Hot embarrassment flooded her cheeks.
After years of being on the receiving end of Lacey’s barbs, she was usually successful at not letting them stick.
This time, however, the sharp ends found their mark, and the hopeful butterflies in her stomach were too new and fragile to survive that kind of attack.
What if she’s right? I’m not soft and beautiful like she is, and that’s okay. But…don’t most men want someone like her? What if Fitz is the same way?
“My eyes are fully functional.” Fitz’s voice was kind, but firm. “As is my ability to understand that being strong and being a lady are not mutually exclusive.”
Darby turned. Fitz, like the gentleman he was, was still standing at the door, holding it open for Lacey.
She looked back and forth between them with a curious expression, then shrugged.
“Whatever. I suppose if you like broad shoulders and manly arms, that’s your business.
” She moved to the door, then stopped and looked over her shoulder.
“Oh, and if you’re looking for Dr. Fransten, he’s out making a house call right now.
I know this because, unlike some people, I’m actually working today. ”
“It’s my scheduled off day!” Darby protested.
But Lacey was already out the door and gave no sign of acknowledgement.
“It was written into our internship agreements, per the Academy’s policy,” she hastened to explain as Fitz stepped inside, shutting the door behind him.
“It’s not that I don’t care about this job or am trying to get out of work or be lazy. I—”
Fitz held up his hands to stop her. “Darby. Anyone who actually knows you would never dare question that. In fact, it’s probably best for your health that the Academy has the policy, or you would work yourself into an early grave.”
“That might be a stretch.” Darby indicated a hallway to their right that would lead them to the general patient rooms, and they started moving again.
“Not if you ask Henry.”
She eyed him from the side. “I don’t know if I like the two of you together.”
“Because we’re right, and you know it.”
“Merry is this way,” Darby changed the subject as she turned down another long hall.
“He’ll be here for at least another week or so until his stitches are removed.
What happens to him after he’s released?
He said you were taking them all to training camp, but he’ll need at least a month of rehabilitation on his shoulder. ”
Fitz sighed, shoving his right hand through his hair. “I don’t know. With the war dragging on like this, the higher-ups are getting desperate for more soldiers. It wouldn’t surprise me if they send him on as soon as his medical leave is up.” He paused. “I assume he’s been given leave?”
“I filled out the paperwork myself.” It had added another grueling two hours to the already tedious task of filing.
“Even mine?”
She stilled, guilt worming its way through her stomach. “I did.”
He stopped, angling his body to face her. His jaw worked back and forth. “What did you say?”
She was silent, searching for the right words to say.
“What. Did. You. Say?”
The sour, grumpy expression on Fitz’s face was one she hadn’t seen often the last few days, and the fact that it was directed at her made bile rise in Darby’s throat.
“I…I told them that you had experienced several traumatic injuries, including complete amputation of your left limbs, as well as severe damage to your left upper quadrant. Damage to the internal organs was suspected, but not yet confirmed. Fatality was expected.”
His eyes bulged. “What?”
“I didn’t have a choice, Fitz!” She hissed, throwing up her hands. “I had to report the state of your injuries, which were confirmed by multiple witnesses, including Dr. Fransten. If I lied on those reports, I could lose my internship.”
He matched her tone, crossing his arms and taking a step closer. “Funny. You didn’t seem to care much about that a few hours later when you decided to take things into your own hands and play Deus.”
Her jaw dropped. “You were going to die! I knew I could save you.”
“For what? So that I could live the rest of my life as some strange, mechanical monster with no livelihood and no career?”
“No, I saved you so that you could be alive.” Darby stubbornly lifted her chin, determined not to let the tears gathering in her eyes to fall. “You’re more than your job, you know.”
“Oh, really? So why don’t you go back to your desk and fill out another report that states that, due to your ‘interventions,’ I am fit again for active service?”
“But—”
He scoffed, cutting her off. “But you won’t, because admitting what you did means that you’ll likely be stripped of everything that you love and that gives your life purpose.”