And Then They Were In Love And Lost

Chapter 10

Clay was released from the hospital the following day, but unfortunately, Liz was held captive in their room for a few more days. The doctors were still concerned about her neck swelling and lungs as she did have a few hiccups along her healing process as her breathing was not as strong as they wanted before releasing her.

Liz woke up in an aggressive mood that the team regularly would know to avoid her like the plague unless they wanted their heads chewed off and stomped all over. She would tell them it was because she would be alone and still stuck here, but in reality, it was due to hearing Clay's phone going off all night, and all she could think of was Rebecca. As miserable as she was, she could not wait for Clay to leave so she could be alone and have her pity party and dwell in her own created misery, as she had no claim to him. It was doubtful he returned any of her feelings, so why was her head stuck up in the clouds at the thought of him wanting to be with her?

She heard the rustling of Clay slowly packing his belongings, trying to be quiet as she tried to give off the impression she was still sleeping. She refused to open her eyes and turned over to acknowledge his presence. But that peace of him thinking she was asleep was shattered as the whole team and Blackburn came barreling in, carrying coffee and breakfast for everyone. Ignoring the shushes from Clay to lower the noise, the group gathered around with their chairs still littered around the room. They are not known for doing anything delicate as they all can resemble bulls in a China shop and little children in a candy store, and today was no different.

"Hey Tinkerbell, you can't sleep all day now; you're going to make Peter Pan jealous with all your beauty sleep." Sonny joked as he sat beside Liz's bed. And she grunted and pulled the blankets over her head and pretended to sleep.

"Cerb, get Liz," Brock ordered as he went around to all his friends seeking pets and any breakfast dropping on the floor, knowing someone would break and slip him a bite.

Cerb padded over to Liz and nudged her arm under the blankets. Liz peeked out under the covers while still hiding her face from the team, put her finger to her lips to shush him and shoo him away, and closed the blankets back up again. Cerb then cocked his head with excitement that he had his pup, and she was awake; he then jumped up on the bed towards her head and started to dig his head into her and under the blankets finding her face and covering it in slobber kisses as Liz groaned.

"He can't miss out on his good morning Liz kisses and hugs." Brock laughed.

"Traitor," Liz mumbled towards Cerb as she shifted into a sitting position. He settled between her legs looking up at her and resting his head along her stomach with his tongue flopping out to the side with a grin and turning his head.

Sonny started to laugh as he knew she was not a morning person and never was pleased to be woken up with the team loud and cheery around her. Liz shot him a glare that would intimidate someone who did not know her.

"Woah there, Lil missy, who peed in your cornflakes this morning, I thought you would be pleased to finally have the room to yourself and not have to deal with Ken doll over there fretting." Sonny shot up his hands in surrender and laughed.

Jason and Trent snorted a laugh as they glanced over at Clay's face; he looked like someone just stole his candy and was eating it right in front of him. As the team chatted and finished their coffee, the moods lightened and relaxed, and the nurses came in with Clay's discharge papers and did another exam on Liz's breathing status; she was improving, and her strength was up.

"I hate to ruin all the fun, but we need to get this AAR complete as the brass is pressuring to know what happened that sent two Tier One operators to the hospital in critical condition when all intel mentioned a low-level mission," Blackburn said as he noticed everyone's posture stiffen. "And we need to get all you lazy asses back to work, and you can only skip out for so long."