The Conductor {Black Lightning}{Wattys2018}

Ch. 18: Answering the Hard Questions

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in almost 3 weeks! Here's an extra long chapter to make up for that. Bit of a trigger warning for hospitalization...'cause you know, she got stabbed with a harpoon last chapter. So if you get triggered by ambulances and stuff like that, this isn't for you. Enjoy!

***

"What did I say about getting your ass off my floor?!"

Tears still rolling down her cheeks, Eugene pushed down the several novel-worthy retorts running through her mind. She didn't need Tobias shooting her other shoulder. She had enough problems already.

"I will," she told him. "I just need to, um, deal with..." She glanced down at her bleeding shoulder. "...this."

Tobias scowled. "Sy, bandage her up. I'll call Lupe's people."

As he scrolled through his phone, his eyes bore into Eugene, making her stomach tie into knots. "You realize, Eugene, that if you need help, you just need to open your damn mouth and ask for it--?"

Suddenly the phone picked up. "Oh, hi, Catherine. We need an emergency team over here. Eugene got stabbed...with a harpoon...Yes, I did it. What about it?"

Tobias' voice stayed infuriatingly casual as he answered the dispatcher's questions. Of course he was calm. He wasn't the one with a bloody harpoon lodged in his shoulder.

"Is she breathing?" His mouth curled upwards slightly as he glanced at Eugene. "Are you breathing, Eugene?"

Eugene grunted, baring her teeth. Oh, what she would give to punch him at that moment. He was really tryna get punched.

Tobias chuckled. "She's breathing."

He knew she wanted to make him hurt and he knew she couldn't do it. Even if she could, it wouldn't make a difference. He would never be scared of her or take her seriously. Not when he laughed at her pain.

Moments later, Sy came in with bandages. Eugene's hands trembled as she struggled to hold the harpoon and stop it from wrecking her insides; it had to weigh fifty pounds at least.

"Sir, the harpoon is making this difficult," said Sy. "I can't hold it and bandage her up at the same the time. Can you help me?"

Eugene shuddered as Tobias came over to help. His breath tickled her neck and she almost wished she wasn't breathing so she didn't have to be suffocated by his presence.

"See how much easier everything is when you ask for help? If you had asked someone to help you up and been proactive about getting off my floor, I wouldn't be mad. But instead, you just sat there like a ragdoll. And that's unacceptable."

An animalistic noise came from Eugene's throat. He was so close now that she could possibly bite him. She wouldn't, but she could.

As Tobias finished his lecture, the sound of sirens approached from outside.

"They're here," he said.

A team of paramedics materialized out of the darkness. As the familiar head of curly blonde hair came into view, a weight lifted off Eugene's chest.

"Lupe."

Lupe's eyebrows furrowed in concentration as they kneeled beside Eugene.

"I got you, little Martin."

***

Eugene hated the ambulance. She couldn't hear shit because too many people were talking at once in medical jargon that she couldn't understand. She couldn't see shit because everything was too bright. It was like a classroom of rambunctious students, except with more blood and more pain. And at least she could say she signed up for dealing with the students. She definitely hadn't signed up for this.