KOTLC Sokeefe One-Shots, Alternate Endings, etc

Ro: part 3 (Keefe POV)

Just as Grady had promised, there was an ogre escort waiting for them in Ravagog the next morning.

Keefe would never understand why they insisted on wearing those stupid metal diapers. Ogres were fierce, but seriously...that was not a good look.

"Okay," the ogre said with no preamble, not even a simple introduction. "This way."

Foster squeezed Keefe's hand as they started walking. He could feel her emotions shifting to discomfort, along with flickers of anger, fear and sadness, and he knew what she was remembering.

"Calm down, Foster," he said quietly. "This isn't like last time. No arrogant plan changes this time, I promise. Unless of course, you're dying to see my abs again," he said playfully, lightening the mood.

"Good, because I don't see how getting into another bloody fight would help the ogre princess," she told him.

But he saw the blush on her cheeks and the uplift in her emotions, and knew he'd successfully pulled her out of her unpleasant memories.

As their escort brought them up to a closed door, he stopped them. "I will leave you here. Our people will be coming in and out to check on her and administer medicine, but you have been given permission to stay all day as long as you don't get in their way."

With that, he left them. They entered the room and immediately found Ro lying in bed. She was covered in multiple bandages and the rest of her was bruised and swollen. But still, she looked like Ro. Pigtails, bright pink (rather sharp) fingernails and all. They sat down in the empty chairs by her bedside. A female ogre was there, changing the dressing on one of her nastier looking wounds.

"How is she?" Keefe asked.

"Much better than I would have expected, to be honest. Her breaks have been set and her wounds have stopped bleeding. If she continues on this path, I think her wounds will fully heal. The question now is whether or not she will wake."

"Who knows," Foster said quietly as the ogre left the room. "Maybe hearing our voices will help wake her."

"Yeah, maybe. Even an unconscious Ro would want to know I'm here. You know, so she could try to use what strength she has to smack me." He almost wished she would. At least then she would be awake.

Foster laughed, then turned serious. "Ro? Thank you for our last conversation. You don't know what you did for me, giving me Hope...and giving me hope. I didn't understand what I was feeling until after we talked. Please wake up so I can tell you again."

Keefe definitely owed Ro a debt of gratitude for that one.

He leaned over and looked at Ro. "Hey!" he said as loudly as was comfortable in such a serious setting. "I need you to wake up! I took your advice and it totally worked! My amazing kissing skills totally won Foster's heart! She's madly in love with me now." He smirked at Foster.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to him. After we found Keefe, I was dropping hints over and over, trying to see if he still liked me. I had actually decided he had to have gotten over me and was trying to figure out how to not be heartbroken about it until I worked up the courage to tell him. Only then did he kiss me."

Keefe looked at her with raised eyebrows. "So you agree I have great kissing skills?"

"I'm just saying if Ro's advice was to just grab me and kiss me, then I'm not sure you really took it. At least not without a lot of encouragement. But also...yes." Foster winked at him. Then she turned to look at Ro. "She doesn't seem like she's waking up yet."

"Nope. But we are here all day, by her side, whether she does or not." Keefe reached over to take her hand and they sat in silence for a while, watching Ro's steady breathing and quietly begging those eyes to open.