CHAPTER 12
Theo
“What was Dean freaking out about?” I asked the next morning, reminded by his absence at the breakfast table.
Stryker, with his pale complexion and stark dark circles under his eyes, evidently hadn’t slept a wink.
He squinted at me, then groaned quietly “he was put on a case not long ago and keeps having nightmares about it.” He mumbled “something to do with a chopped off head in a cupboard.”
I flinched, trying not to imagine something so gross, turning my attention back to my syrup-filled pancake, “he was having a panic attack.”
“Accurate assessment.”
“Hm. So…is he okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Stryker muttered “he’s okay. Asleep.” He added.
I nodded slowly.
Jack sat beside me with a long, drawn out sigh “guess what?”
I didn’t need to turn to look at him to know that he was talking to Stryker.
I had noticed that habit of his- he didn’t see me as his equal, so he didn’t speak to me as his equal, meaning that anything he retained important would be seen to with Stryker or one of the more experienced soldiers.
It was a bit of a dick move, in my personal opinion, though I may be biased.
“What?” Stryker asked, sipping from his mug of coffee.
“There’s a case. Matt was reading through it last night.”
Speaking if, he wasn’t at the table either.
“Kidnapping.”
I heard Stryker snort into his coffee.
“What’s so funny?”
“We, kids, have to deal with a kidnapping case?” Stryker snickered “ironic much?”
“We’re not kids, you ass.” Jack protested “anyway, it’s presumed to be. In particular there’s a missing boy, twelve, uh…Oliver Jackson, I believe? He was the last one to go missing. Last night.”
“Hm.”
I watched Stryker from the corner of my eye. He didn’t seem particularly concerned.
“John hasn’t said anything.”
Ah. That was why.
“It’s new.” Nick piped up from the other side of the table, slathering a scone with jam “I heard about it too. Johnathan won’t have read it yet. Matthew was separating urgent cases from non urgent all night.”
“And where did he put this one?” I asked curiously.
Nick shrugged, glancing towards Jack who rolled his eyes “urgent, obviously. Or I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“We can’t just take on a case without consulting him.” Stryker pointed out flatly “I’ll speak to him this afternoon. If he agrees, I can schedule an appointment with his mother.”
“Good idea.” Jack bopped his head in agreement.
I felt an elbow in my side and turned to glare at my partner.
Stryker seemed unbothered, as always, “you down for that?”
“For what?” I asked through a mouthful of pancake.
The prince sighed in exasperation “talking to the mother?” He said in a ‘duh’ voice.
“Oh.” A nod “sure. Cool.”
“Great.” Stryker stood “listen, there’s an attack I have to look into. I’ll get back to you later, yeah?”
I offered a thumbs up. I wondered when all these things were announced, because I never seemed to find anything out. Attack on what? Who?
“He always that vague?” I asked Nick dryly. The other snickered “yep.” He replied brightly “that’s Stryker for you.”
“Awesome.”
I finished off my pancake and stood up, hovering uncertainly “anything for me to do today?”
Nick shrugged nonchalantly “probably not, to be honest. Regular training after lunch.”
“‘Kay. Great.” I smiled and began making my way to the staircase, bumping into none other than a sleepy looking Matthew on my way.
“Morning.” He greeted through a yawn.
“Somebody sleep in?” I snorted.
He ignored me and continued down the stairs.
Matthew
It was hard to get up that morning. My body felt drained, like it physically didn’t have the energy to get me out of bed. The infection it was still fighting off wasn’t doing me any favours. My eyes were open but stayed fixed on the wall, my frame shivering under the covers.
Jack was whistling happily as he got ready, as per usual, always more joyful than there was any need to be.
“You up, Matt?” He asked loudly. His voice made me wince. It was so booming for no reason.
I grunted at him.
“Don’t be moody.” He groaned at me “we got a full nights sleep last night. Should be celebrating.”
I grunted again.
I could practically feel him rolling his eyes at the back of my head.
“Well, I’m heading down. John’s given you papers to deal with today, cases to go through, so try and be up in the next…” he trailed off, falling silent for about as long as it must have taken him to give me a good, analysing look and he sighed, kneeling by my head and catching my eye.
“I don’t know what’s up with you sometimes.” He muttered, his tone lowering to almost a whisper “but can you please just…do something? You can’t lie in bed all day. I know last time you could, but today you can’t.”
I felt empty. I felt hollow. My left hand wondered to my right wrist, scratching at the scabbed over scars there and my whole body shuddered as I did. Jack’s words seemed to go in through one ear and out through other.
“We’re the last ones up.” I heard him say, but it felt like I was underwater as he spoke “the others are…”
He droned on. I didn’t absorb a word of it.
Then he said something. He said his name. I didn’t hear the context, the rest of the sentence, but he said Theo and my brain suddenly responded to it, my head jerking upwards. Theo. I wanted to see Theo. I didn’t really know why I wanted to see Theo, I just did.
Mostly, he made me feel something. Sometimes I wasn’t sure exactly what that something was, but it was something and that was more than I got on most days.
In the time it took me to finish forming those thoughts, Jack was gone. I hadn’t even noticed. He’d probably given up on me. He’d be back later to try again, he always was.
But he’d left the name echoing around my skull. Theo. I wanted to see Theo. Maybe he’d make the emptiness better?
It was that thought that managed to drag me out of bed.
When I crossed him on the stairs, the happiness I felt at his mocking ‘somebody sleep in?’ Was irrational, and what was even sillier was that it really did finally make me feel something. Something, whatever that something was.
Theo
By the time early afternoon rolled round, Stryker still hadn’t returned and I was beginning to wonder if I had training at all. That was until Jack knocked on my bedroom door, entering with a solemn air to him. I frowned, picking up on his expression immediately “what’s up?”
“Nothing.” He muttered “Stryker’s not doing well. You’re with me today.”
I swallowed hard “he was fine, like, at breakfast.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat “injury. Come on.”
“What?” I scrambled to follow him “he wasn’t- what-?”
“I don’t know.” He huffed “your commander just…he’s with him. He’ll be fine.”
“No.” I snapped “you were there, you know what happ-“
“I don’t.” Jack whirled round to glare “watch your tone, rookie-“
Just as the anger started bubbling up, someone intervened.
“Jack.” Matthew, who had been waiting by the door sharpening his blade, stepped in, eyes darkening “why don’t you mind yours?”
I blinked, surprised. He was defending me?
“You have no kind of superiority to him, you do realise that, don’t you?”
Jack’s face twisted into a sneer “it seems to me-“
“For fucks sake.” His eyes narrowed “I get it, you're worried. Now back off and stop being such an ass.” His warm hazel eyes locked with mine and he added “he got gutted by an elk. It charged at him, apparently.”
“What?” My jaw dropped in disbelief.
“I know.” Matthew chortled “wasn’t expecting that one.”
“It’s serious.” Jack muttered tersely “he was bleeding a shitload.”
“Yeah, I believe it.” Matt remarked, patting me on the back and nodding towards the door “we can go and check on him later. Come on.”
I reluctantly followed the pair out of the door, remaining a few steps behind them and dragging my feet. I didn’t enjoy the idea of training with Jack, especially Jack in a pissy mood. I was still on the fence about him, really, but for now he was definitely in my bad books.
The field was packed, Jack was an ass, Matthew- who was watching due to his infection- was distracting, wearing a long sleeved shirt that hugged his arms, practically outlining his biceps that my eyes kept flying back to, and my mind was preoccupied anyway.
Training sucked.
Matthew stepped up beside me towards the end of it, eyes glued to Jack, who was talking to Nikolas, an older soldier who always seemed to be aiding Johnathan in decision making.
“You need to work on your stance.”
“I don’t need to work on anything.” I muttered defensively, bristling for no particular reason “your friend is an asshole.”
“He’s not.” Matthew retorted gently “he’s worried.”
“He’s known Stryker for less than a month.”
“Aren’t you worried?” He raised both eyebrows, folding his arms over his broad chest.
“Yes, but-“
“Cut him some slack, then.”
“He has to cut me some slack.”
Hazel eyes were suddenly on me, sharper, narrowed “you’re here to improve. To get better. Nobody is going to go easy on you.”
I muttered under my breath and turned my gaze away. I could feel the heat of Matthew’s on the side of my face.
“I get it.” I said through clenched teeth “stop glaring at me.”
“I’m not glaring.” Matthew scoffed. He glanced back towards Jack, then nodded towards the end of the field “go on, then, check on him. Might put your mind at ease.”
Half the reason for my mind not being at ease was Matthew’s presence in the first place, but checking if Stryker was still alive would probably help.
It was the second time in a very brief period that I’d visited the healers’ room.
Stryker was easy to spot, seeing as there were only two people in there in the first place.
He had dark bruises under his eyes and a white blanket covered his torso, where the real damage had been done. He seemed tired- bored more than anything- and blinked up at me when I arrived at his bedside “hey.” He croaked, bringing a hand up to wave.
I smirked at him “hey. Your asshole friend tried to coach me today. He sucks.”
Stryker tilted his head “Jack?” He clarified slowly.