Chapter 2
So much for keeping Ollie hidden until his bruises healed.
Noble grimaced at the looks now being turned his way, before he glanced down at Ollie’s face.
Behind his glasses, his eyes seemed partly unfocused, and the man was breathing heavily and trembling like crazy.
The bandage over the cut beside the right corner of the man’s mouth remained, and it appeared that while asleep the witch had developed a black eye, on top of the dark, violent purple bruising that almost completely covered the swollen right side of his face.
Ollie’s neck didn’t look any better, with the prints of Mikael’s hands clearly visible.
His poor Baby honestly looked worse than before, his voice sounding rough, but he supposed things did tend to get worse before they got better in most cases.
Aside from the dark coloring of the bruises, the little witch looked deathly pale, and not even his freckles helped to cover it up. Then again, based on Ollie now being collapsed on the floor, and everything else, he’d guess the man likely hadn’t eaten a damn thing before running down there.
“Jahla, could you grab some of the donuts we left up in Ollie’s kitchen, along with his morning meds, or maybe just his meds in general?”
It may have been around 1pm, but he figured it didn’t matter what time it was since Ollie hadn’t taken any of them today, or the ones he usually took the evening before, as he’d been sleeping.
He should have woken him up to eat, but he hadn’t had the heart to do it when the man had finally seemed to be resting without nightmares.
Jahla nodded and took off running down the same path Ollie had just come from.
At the same time, a librarian named Percy Argent said, “Eat this before you pass out, you dork.” Pulling a small candy bar from his pocket, the man almost forcefully fed it to Ollie after unwrapping it.
Percy was the only male librarian Ollie had, and was rather tall and thin, with short blond hair and red-framed glasses.
Noble only vaguely remembered seeing the man around the second floor of the library before this.
Ollie made a discontented noise as he choked down the candy bar, while he kept trying to peer around everyone, as if it was even possible to look into the room that was damaged from where they were.
The entrance may have been in that hallway, but it was at least five doors down.
Though, he may have been trying to look at the many piles of books that were now stacked and spread out on tarps around the circular center of the third floor.
As the witch finished swallowing, Noble scooped Ollie up while saying, “Let’s get you settled somewhere with your meds and something to eat.”
“No, no, no, I need to see—”
“What you need to do is eat before you pass out,” he stated flatly.
Hanna Cindric, the third floor librarian, a petite, curly-haired brunette who was shorter than Ollie, mused, “And maybe an ice pack for his face?”
“A more detailed explanation for what the fuck happened would be nice as well. That vague text and email, and the shit explanation from your man, just isn’t adding up, even more so now that we can see your face,” Percy said stiffly.
“He can explain when he doesn’t look like he is about to pass out,” Fleur LaGarde, a blonde-haired woman with androgynous features, and a light, bright voice, who stood a little under six foot, snapped.
Eashaa Ansari, a shorter woman with dark golden-brown skin, who was currently clinging to one of Fleur’s arms, scoffed. “Yeah, as much as an explanation would be nice, Ollie not passing out pretty much takes precedence.”
Aurora Calwell, a woman with dark-brown skin and hair pulled up into two afro puffs, snorted. “I don’t know, him almost passing out is practically a common occurrence compared to whatever the fuck the rest of this shit is.”
Noble cleared his throat and altered the lie they had come up with, as what else could he do. “So, we weren’t entirely truthful. But the only reason we lied was because Ollie didn’t want to worry you. He was hoping his bruises would be gone, or at least faded, before you saw them.
“It wasn’t a pack of wild dogs or coyotes.
What happened was…he opened the door, thinking it was me, when a man in a mask attacked with his dogs, and so he tried to run.
I got there soon after, and fought with the assailant, which caused most of the damage to the tables, but the asshole fled when the fire started.
As I mentioned before, the security system glitched and nothing was caught on camera. ”
Percy grumbled, “How the hell did you think his bruises would heal fast enough to be gone in a few days? Also, a man with dogs?! That doesn’t—”
“Just drop it, Percy!” Winnie snapped.
“I need to—” Ollie sputtered, his words choking off when Percy shoved another candy bar into his mouth.
Noble hesitated for a moment, before sighing heavily. “Someone fetch a chair. He can sit in the hall and watch while he eats.”
Ollie sat in a chair in the hall eating the breakfast sandwich that Jahla had taken the time to make, which consisted of toast, bacon, and cheesy scrambled eggs. He also had a donut that he wasn’t sure he would eat or not, because swallowing kind of hurt.
His chair had been placed against the wall across from the doorway into the damaged room.
Ollie was as close as they would allow him to be without a respirator.
From his seat, he could clearly see into the damaged room, and only just barely see parts of what was going on at the center of the third floor to his left, where books were being piled up for cleaning.
And it really was just barely, as the entrance was like six doors down, situated on the left side of the hall.
While the broken tables and chairs remained, he could only assume that Red, Noble, and possibly Jahla, had cleaned up the broken glass and the blood before the others arrived.
Tarps had thankfully been put down to set books on, and they also covered the path from the room to the center, so if they tracked soot, it would at least be easier to clean up.
The goal right now was to remove as many books from the room as possible before starting to clean.
Mainly as the less books they had to leave overnight in the fume-filled room, the better.
But they also couldn’t take out more than they could clean that day, because they didn’t want soot being circulated in the air.
After finishing off his sandwich, he took a bite of his donut, despite the pain, because it was an apple cider donut—his weakness that time of year.
When he was done chewing, he asked hoarsely, “Has someone set the air filtration system to hourly cleaning, and did you make sure to set the circulation in the damaged room to contained and self-cleaning?”
Whatever setting the system was on, either way, the filters would need to be changed at some point soonish.
“Yes, yes,” Jahla said, not even looking over as she pulled books from the shelf. “By the way, I’ve already talked to Elias. He should hold off on his questioning for a few more days, but you may want to talk to him sooner than later.”
Ollie wrinkled his nose. Elias...was not going to be easy to handle. So, he was going to do the most mature thing he could…ignore the man until he couldn’t any longer.
“Noted. Are all the doors on this floor closed to stop the possible spread of soot?” The ones he could see were, but he just wanted to make sure.
“Yes,” Winnie chimed, before adding, “Why don’t you go lie down? You look tired.”
“Sounds tired too,” Percy unhelpfully added.
“If you’re tired, we can handle things here without you for now,” Jahla stated.
Ollie couldn’t help but glare at basically being dismissed, before pouting and turning the look on Noble, who was currently standing guard to his right.
The man had removed his respirator and was just standing there with Ollie’s drink in hand, willing and ready as can be to stop him from getting up, while looking stupidly handsome with his bare square jaw, dumb high cheekbones, and narrow-pointed nose that bulged slightly in the center.
Handsome and annoying, yet Noble also looked a bit tired himself.
Despite how exhausted and achy Ollie was, it was hard to sit there doing nothing while people walked back and forth in front of him.
Stopping himself from getting up to help was basically a constant struggle.
Like, he was feeling very twitchy with the need to actually do something…
but also, as weak as a kitten. It took a stupid amount of effort just to lift his dumb donut to his mouth.
Ollie started to sigh, but cut the sound off at the pain that resulted from the action, and instead remained quiet as he continued to eat while they worked.
On finishing his donut, after leaning over to take a sip of his honey tea, to confirm he’d heard right earlier, he asked Noble, “A text and email was sent closing the library for three days? Today included?”
“Yes,” Noble murmured.
Ollie pursed his lips, eyeing the large room and all the books still inside.
While the room was an open space, and there were no rows in the middle, the walls were lined with bookcases.
Even if they worked from opening to closing, with the help of all seven of his librarians and Noble, he didn’t think it would be possible to finish by Wednesday night.
And that was just the books. The room itself would need to be professionally cleaned and restored, and they’d still need to attempt to wipe down the surfaces to try to contain the spread of soot, especially depending on how long it took to get the job scheduled with Kings Historical Restoration.
The books themselves, even after they wiped them down, would need to be sent out for professional deodorization. While Ollie knew plenty of methods to deal with odors, with this many books involved, it was just better to leave it to the professionals.
After a moment of thinking over what needed to be done, and what they could do themselves, Ollie carefully cleared his throat and hoarsely announced, “I need someone to send out notices across the text and email lines, announcing that the library will remain closed for the rest of the week, re-opening Monday the 28th, while the Fine Arts room on the third floor will be closed to the public and staff until further notice. That should give us plenty of time to remove and wipe down all the books, as well as wiping down the wooden surfaces as much as we can before the professionals come in.” After realizing he was assuming a lot, he quickly added, “That is, if you all are up for doing that. If you’re not, that’s fine too, as this isn’t technically your job… ”
“Ollie, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t planning to continue to help,” Fleur pointed out.
“Yeah, we came in expecting to be cleaning a lot of books after reading the word fire,” Percy drawled.
Winnie giggled. “I came expecting to witness Ollie having a meltdown, to be honest.”
Ollie winced. Winnie wasn’t wrong, he had definitely had a meltdown, it was just that the meltdown was the cause of the fire rather than because of it. Though, he may be close to another one after realizing all the shit he now had to deal with on top of almost burning someone to death.
“Yes, well…thank you. I really appreciate you all showing up.” And he really did. It made his heart feel a bit warm and fuzzy that they had all showed up for him...even if he was slightly irritated as it also meant they all had ignored the order to stay away. He was…mostly grateful.
“Specifically, for the rest of the staff, make it clear they are off with pay until Monday. Except for the janitorial staff, who I want to return to work Friday night, for a few days of deep cleaning.”
“Should we possibly call in the library assistants? It would make things go faster,” Hannah suggested.
Ollie gave the idea a brief thought before nixing it, mainly as the less people who saw the odd damage in the room, along with his face, the better.
“I think it would be too hectic if we add more people, best to just stick with those already here.
Our first goal is to get as many books as possible out of this room before closing it up, and starting to first vacuum the outside of the books before wiping them down.
I can explain the process and demonstrate how to do that if anyone needs me to.
But before that, I need someone, or a few people, to go on a supply run.
“We only have four handheld HEPA vacuums available, which is not enough for everyone to use. So, whoever goes needs to grab enough to make up for what we don’t have.
“On top of that, while I know I have a box of chemical sponges in storage, we may need more.
Aside from the things we need for cleaning, we also need boxes and packaging supplies.
I plan to have the books shipped off, mainly for professional deodorizing, but it likely will result in a second professional cleaning.
Either way, it will ensure the soot and odor is completely gone before we bring them back into the library.
Again, there is some of what we need in storage, but not even close to enough.
“Room-wise, I’ll contact Kings Historical Restoration today, as they’re the company I’ve been most impressed with from past jobs.
I'll see when they can get out here to assess the damage.” He eyed the tables and chairs, wrinkling his nose on recognizing them as original library furniture, as he added, “We will attempt to restore the broken furniture, but we do, thankfully, have enough in storage to replace them. And now that I’ve said all that, and I’ve finished eating, I can—”
Ollie’s words cut off as he went to stand and was promptly pushed back down into his seat by Noble, as the man sternly said, “Sit.”
“B-But—” he started to stutter.
“Ollie, you look and sound like death warmed over. Stay seated, or I’ll have Noble carry your ass back to your room,” Jahla snapped.
“I am not a child!” Ollie huffed, before wincing as it hurt his throat.
“Not a child, but obviously not okay. So, rest, we’ve got this,” Aurora said as she walked past carrying a stack of books.
He just barely held back the heavy sigh he wanted to let out, but he did to avoid the pain. This…was going to be a long week, even without trying to keep his mind off of what had happened and what he had almost done.