Chapter 17
CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN
RISK
Shock and Arc stay home when I take Chrys back to town to get her medication changed.
The note from her doctor had been waiting when we’d finally been able to drag ourselves apart and—honestly—we need the break.
Arc declared himself unable to make the trip… one stray thought and he was done for. Shock elected to stay, too. To help when he needed it.
Legs curled up underneath her, Chrys leans against the opposite side of the car and I can feel her trying not to distract me.
“You have a question.” I glance at her, letting my gaze linger on her while the road is straight.
“It’s not a specific question… More like a bunch of ‘hows’ jumbled together and tied up with a ‘what if.’”
I imagine the mess of her thoughts would make Arc’s brow wrinkle.
“Ask me one of the ‘hows’ and we’ll see if we can’t get it sorted out.”
“How does anyone get anything done?”
I smile at the road and I know she can feel my amusement, so it’s not a surprise when she shoves my arm and says, “Don’t laugh at me!”
“We’ll get used to it,” I tell her and… for the first time that I can remember, I know something, but I don’t quite believe it.
“I don’t think I want to get used to it.”
She does, but I don’t correct her. She knows that too.
“How are we supposed to do all the things we need to get done if we’re constantly fighting this?”
That I don’t know. There’s no one way.
“Do you regret getting everything you wanted?”
“Of course not!” She scowls at me when she realizes I was just teasing. “I am trying to figure out how to adjust to all of this.”
“Me too.”
She asks me four more ‘hows’ as we cross the flat grassland between the Zone’s foothills and the white pillars of the city. And then I know exactly where she and Shock had to stop on the first return trip.
“Sorry.” She grimaces, biting her tongue and wincing.
“Don’t be. I’m sure he’d love the chance for a do over.”
“Can you read minds now, too?”
“No. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but your thoughts are pretty easy to guess right now.”
“Can’t argue with that. Bet you know I’m already ready to turn this car around and go home.”
“I do.”
“And I bet you know that all of my willpower is keeping me over here right now.”
Nodding, I reach out and take her hand. “Yes, I do.”
We make the rest of the drive in a comfortable silence.
I turn into the underground parking structure. “Soon we’ll be around other people and you won’t have to worry about how far away from me you are.”
“I won’t?”
“I’m not going to let you out of my sight. I’m not even going to let go of you unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
“Okay.” Contentment washes across the bond… “We don’t have to go home just yet.”
When we get out of the car, she holds her hand out to me and I take it, but it’s not enough. After a small twist and twirl I’ve picked her up and carry her through the rows of parked cars.
“People are going to think I can’t walk.” She kisses my cheek. “Is that what you want?”
“I want to hold you. I don’t care what they think.”
But as we pass a Sian trio heading for their cars, I hear one of them make a joke about newly bonded men.
Even if they would recoil from me without her, there are some things that are universal. Newly bonded pairs being inseparable is one of them.
When we get to the office, I set her down and let her check in, but she’s back in my arms when we sit. And she doesn’t make me put her down when she’s called back and I stand to go with her.
She does look at me sideways, and after the nurse puts us into a room, she says, “Shock didn’t come in with me.”
“They wouldn’t have let him. You weren’t bonded to us yet.”
“So the men waiting for their mates outside?”
“Chose not to come in, or she asked them to wait outside.”
“Ah.” Chuckling, she says, “Then I’m glad only one of you came. It would be very cramped in here… and I would not have been able to choose between you for who could come and who had to stay.”
“We would have figured it out.”
There’s a knock at the door and the doctor she saw last time pops her head in.
“Hello again, I’m glad to see your bruises are gone and you don’t look like you’re any worse for wear.”
Doctor Moore doesn’t know how Chrys got here. I don’t know where she thinks the bruises are from, but she’s not wary of me in the slightest, so…
“I’m glad they are too,” Chrys touches her cheek where one of them used to be. “But I actually don’t know why I’m here.”
The request was sudden and uncommon. We’d been sent the notification of the appointment, but none of us had set it.
“Oh. That’s so strange, a medication review was sent through. I thought you did that.”
I feel Chrys’ suspicion and concern a second before her polite smile vanishes.
“No.” Chrys looks at me and then back to the doctor. “What kind of review?”
“We’d like to change your meds.”
“Why?”
Doctor Moore finally looks concerned as she swipes through the chart information. “Oh. It looks like the system just got your full medical records from Earth. That makes sense. A full analysis triggered the review.”
“Why does it say she needs different medication?” The doctor flinches, almost like she forgot I was here.
“Oh, well, we’ve got better stuff here on Isia, and it looks like the system ran your Earth bloodwork against your labs from the last time I saw you. You’re building up a tolerance to your current ones.”
“Oh.” Chrys still doesn’t like it. I don’t think I do either.
“May I see the chart?”
“Sure.”
She hands it over to me, and I don’t listen to the questions Chrys asks as I read.
“There’s no record of the pharmacy error.”
“What pharmacy error?”
“Her medication was switched out for kirocilicantephen.”
The doctor blinks at me. “I don’t know what that is, but if the system prescribed it to her…”
“If the system prescribed kirocilicantephen to her, the system needs to be evaluated and possibly reset. That drug shouldn’t be dispensed.”
Mouth screwed up in a purse, she looks like she’s likely to tell me to get out of her exam room.
“He’s not trying to tell you how to do your job,” Chrys says, quickly. “He’s just worried that someone might get hurt if it happens again. I certainly don’t want to wind up taking it again.”
The doctor takes the chart back from me, swiping out of it and into the system to pull up the drug’s information. Her scowl only darkens. “Ah. That is very definitely not a medication you want to be given on accident.”
Or on purpose. I keep my mouth shut.
“Is that what the system prescribed to her again?”
“No, it’s—” her brows scrunch and she taps the thing twice. “It’s our generic replacement of the Earth meds. Eight percent of the women on the planet take this. It’s completely safe.”
“Thank you,” Chrys says. I can feel her anxiety spike. She wants to leave. She doesn’t want to inconvenience this woman more than she thinks we already have. “We pick it up downstairs?”
“Yep,” Doctor Moore smiles at Chrys, but the shape straightens out when she looks at me, despite how hard she tries to keep it on her face. “Okay, well, we will see you next time. Do not hesitate to call. And hopefully I’ll be sending you a referral to an OB before we know it!”
She leaves the door open, and Chrys frowns at me before she stands, takes my hand again, and leads us out straight into the elevator, open like it was waiting for us.
I press the button for the pharmacy level, and when the door closes us in, we both exhale.
“How much of your replacement medication do you have left?”
I know the answer before I finish asking the question, but I still wait for her to answer. “I don’t know… basically a whole bottle.”
“Good.”
“You think it’s going to be the wrong thing?” She shifts uncomfortably and moves closer to me.
“I’d rather be prepared for another error.”
“The last one wasn’t an error.”
“This one won’t be either, if it’s wrong.”
“Maybe we should have brought Shock with us.” Her foot taps, too quickly for boredom, and I squeeze her hand.
“We’ll know soon enough on our own.”
She watches me as we descend. “You move a little differently here than the others do.”
“Do I?”
She nods. “Is it because you know no one’s going to bother you, so you can relax?”
“There are more voices for Arc to hear and more futures for Shock to see. The city is like a minefield for them…”
“It’s not for you?”
“Not in that way.” What I know doesn’t bother me any more here than it does in the Zone.
When the door opens, I hold it for her and step out into the small space after her.
The woman behind the small counter-like opening turns to us with a smile that changes instantly when she sees Chrys.
“You’re back!” Kari looks from Chrys to me and her brows furrow.
“I thought—” she doesn’t finish that remark, but I’m sure she remembers that an orange Sian was with Chrys last time. “Andrea told me about the mix up, I am so sorry! I don’t know how that happened.”
She doesn’t. Whatever happened, she wasn’t a part of it.
“Yeah, it was definitely one for the books.” Chrys laughs uncomfortably.
The woman looks at her screen again and says, “They did swap you out, you know about that right?”
“Yep.”
“Cool.” Kari looks beneath her and grabs out a small bag that rattles when she hands it over. “I still can’t apologize enough.”
“You didn’t pack it,” Chrys offers, trying to ease the woman’s discomfort.
“No, but… I still feel like I’m responsible somehow.”
“You’re not.” When I say it, Kari’s head jerks toward me.
“Um. Yeah…” She watches me warily for a moment.
Sometimes knowing things makes me forget I shouldn’t sound quite so sure when I speak.
Surety makes people nervous.
“Well, is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Nope. That’s it!” Chrys smiles a little too brightly. “Thanks so much!”
“Then have a nice day and… hopefully everything works out this time around.”
Chrys looks at me and I take her hand again, squeezing. We’ll look at the pills when we get out of here.