Shake It Out (Rick Tyler Book 2)

Chapter Thirteen

"Hey." Dinah said as she walked into Pat's garage the next night and found Rick.

Rick frustratingly slammed his tool down as he let out a scream.

"I take it it's not going well trying to repair the hourglass?"

"No." Rick replied running his hands through his hair.

"I know you'll fix it Rick."

"Thanks." Rick said looking up at Dinah. The two started at each other for a minute.

"Well I better go." Dinah said awkwardly as she turned to walk out the door. "Just meet up with us when you get it fixed."

"Yeah. Okay."

"Boys, wait for the word from Pat to meet us!" Dinah called out to Mike and Jakeem.

"Yes mom!" Mike calls back, rolling his eyes, earning a snicker from Jakeem and Rick.

"You know what, I'm just going to choose to ignore that." Dinah replied as she walked out the door.

Later, Jakeem and Mike were being targeted by Eclipso. Dinah ran toward them and let out a scream towards Eclipso.

"What are you two doing here? You were supposed to wait!"

"My dad was never going to let us come. We had to do something." Mike responded.

Dinah turned back to Eclipso and let out another sonic scream.

"Go! Ru-" she started to say to the boys but was cut off as Eclipso grabbed her by the neck and held her up.

"Your screams are very annoying." Eclipse said as Dinah tried to break free.

Eclipso reached his hand up and cut her throat. Dinah let out a small scream as Eclipso threw her to the side.

"Dinah!" Mike yelled out.

Eclipso started back towards the boys but was interrupted by Rick.

"Hey creep show!" Rick called out as Eclipso turned to look at him. "Leave him alone."

"Have you come to simply die? You have no super strength against me."

"I still have super strength. And it lasts longer than an hour." Rick replied as Grundy rammed into Eclipso. Rick took the opportunity to run over to Dinah who was laying motionless on the ground.

"Dinah." He whispered as he saw the slash on her throat that was now bleeding. He reached up to his comm and pressed it to talk. "Mr. Lance, you need to get over here. It's Dinah."

Rick looked up to see Eclipso shoot a blast through Grundy and Grundy fall to the ground.

"Grundy!" Rick screamed as he began to get choked up.

"Rick what happened?" Larry said as he jumped out of his car and ran over to him and Dinah.

"Eclipso slashed her throat." Mike responded.

Larry saw that Eclipso was approaching yet again and looked back to Dinah.

"Go and get her to a hospital. I got him." Rick said as he ran toward Eclipso, only to be tossed to the side.

"Rick!" Larry called out.

"Go ahead Mr. Lance. We'll take care of Rick." Mike said.

Larry nodded his head, picked up Dinah, put her in the car, and sped off to the hospital.

Later that night, Dinah stirred awake in her hospital room. Larry rushed over to her side. As Dinah started to open her mouth, Larry stopped her.

"Don't talk sweetie. Ecpliso got you pretty good and did some damage. They had to do some surgery on your throat. You're not going to be able to talk for a while." Larry said with tears in his eyes. "I almost lost you too."

Dinah reached her hand out, taking his in hers and giving it a squeeze.

There was a knock at the door and Rick opened it.

"Hey Mr. Lance. Hey Di. I just wanted to come check up on you."

"I'll give you two a minute." Larry said as he got up and walked out of the room.

Rick sat down next to Dinah's bed. "How are you feeling?"

Dinah tried to indicate that she couldn't talk.

"I know. Your dad has been keeping us updated all night. Here, try this." Rick replied as he handed her her phone.

Dinah started to type a message to Rick and sent it.

It hurts to swallow and breathe. And it feels like I got run over by a truck. What did I miss?

"Well Eclipso has been stopped. Turns out his main plan was to possess Courtney and the staff. Sylvester showed back up. And the Crocks are out of jail."

What?

"I know. I know. I'm just glad you're okay and alive. You really scared us out there. The doctors said the cut was so deep that if your dad had been delayed getting you to the hospital by ten minutes, you would've bled out to death." Rick said, his eyes starting to well up. He shook his head lightly. "But I think you scared Mike and Jakeem out of being superheroes." Rick joked.

Dinah smiled.

Well now they know that being a superhero isn't always fun.

"Well I'm going to go. Your dad said you were being discharged tomorrow. I'll see you later."

Dinah waved bye as she watched him leave.

A few days later, the five teens and Jennie were sitting on Courtney's front porch enjoying the nice weather.

"It finally feels like summer." Courtney said as the rest nodded their heads in agreement.

"Finally feels like things are going to be okay." Yolonda said with a long sigh.

"They will. As long as we're all together." Beth replied.

"And it will be nice and quiet without Dinah being able to talk." Rick joked.

Dinah grabbed her whiteboard and started hitting Rick with it.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He said laughing.

Courtney looked to Yolonda. "You're back for good. Right?"

Yolonda looked around at everyone. "I'm back."

Everyone smiled and Dinah reached over to hug Yolonda.

Rick looked at everyone. "I've got to run soon. I have some things to take care of."

"I've got to go too." Jennie said.

"I've got to say goodbye to Chuck." Beth said sadly.

Dinah patted Beth's back reassuringly.

"What are we going to do now?" Yolonda asked.

Can we take a break? I think we all deserve it. Plus we have to figure out what's going on with Sylvester and I'm still recovering. Dinah wrote on her whiteboard.

Everyone agreed.