Other Side

Chapter 10: Next step

"What happened?" Sparrow questioned urgently as he appeared next to Thorn. The white and blue walls flicker through his faded form as Thorn looked at his father. Thorn wasn't startled as his nearly transparent father spoke, it wasn't the first time he'd seen it so blurred from such a large distance.

He swallowed against the lump in his throat, "I don't exactly know, the tool wasn't anything I've seen before. Daylan mentioned it was from the other side."

"Can I see it, or can you draw a picture?" The father requested, "Maybe someone over there will know what to do with it."

"All right." Thorn grimaced.

Sparrow paused, "How are you, have you been checked out?"

Thorn's eyes burned as his pen scraped over the enriched paper, "It's my fault, I didn't call for orange. I thought- I thought we could do it alone."

"Your brother isn't dead Thorn, and his injury isn't your fault either. You won't always make the right decisions, but you can always learn from them." Sparrow sat next to his son, wishing he was there, "You learn from everything. Now you'll know to bring protection, but you also have to realize your way wasn't bad. Trusting your workers and citizens is a part of the job and you showed you trusted them by not immediately calling the guards. It's not your fault Thorn, it was just a bad first experience."

"I'm sorry." Thorn handed over the sketch, a torn piece of paper from the notebook.

"It's okay. I'll be back soon. Stay with your brother." Sparrow vanished into the air, returning to his body on the other side of the world.

"I'm sorry," Thorn repeated even though his father was already gone. He sat there for hours after his father left. Staring at the empty page of his little notebook. It was a gift from his brother, a set of ten notebooks with different colors and designs. It's taken him years to get down to this last one.

"...orn. Thorn," A young blue shook his shoulder, "Your brother is stable for now. It was a smooth operation, we'll have him rest for a few days, especially because we don't know much about what caused the injury. From what the operation team said, it seems a small piece of metal entered and broke apart inside of him." She pulled a vile out, tiny, mangled metal bits jingling around inside.

"I'll take that," Thorn stood from his seat and slid the notebook back into his pocket.

"Procedure dictates that I give it to Orange for-" She looked unsure, but Thorn cut her off.

"I know the procedure, but this is also an issue for a royal's life. I'll hold on to it for now." Thorn snapped. He'd feel bad later due to the help she'd provided but right now procedure was going to be loose until they go the answers they needed. Some contraption was used to rip a hole through his brother, and it wasn't held off by Cove's shields.

She seemed to shrink a little, "Of course." She handled the small vile over, "You can sit with your brother if you wish."

"Of course." Thorn left her, entering the room as the rest of the doctors filed out. He sat on the side of the bed, staring at his unconscious brother, "Stupid teaching moments, why couldn't you just tell me?" The bit of metal rattled against the vile as he set it down.

****

Cove and Thorn sat in the medical room; files piled up on each of their laps. Thorn held most of them, reading calmly in the chair next to him, though Cove could feel the heat from him. Cove rose further in the bed, sitting up against the pillows, his stitches tugged gently against his skin. He closed the file in his hands and flung it across the space between him and Thorn to knock the pile into disarray.