Trial X6

Unexpected Help

  Gasping for air as I sat up, my eyes wildly looked around. I wasn't at home. It didn't smell like home either; like dust, chickens, paint, dog, and grime. No, for one, it smelled too clean and like....food?

  Why could I smell cooking food?

  Looking down, I saw a blanket draped over my legs and there were bandages going around the majority of my abdomen. Sliding my legs out from under the blanket and touching the cold ground, I saw even more bandages on my legs and even a few on my arms. I was wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts- clothes I didn't remember putting on or even owning- and I quickly stood up.

  Hissing as I curled towards my side, I heard a voice rushing towards me.

  "Whoa, there, Xena. Don't move too much or you'll break the stitches." I felt a hand apply pressure to my shoulder to make me sit back down on the couch.

  "Alec? What the hell am I doing in your apartment?" I took my hands off the bandage and saw some fresh blood seeping through.

  "Great. Now look at what you did." He sighed and picked up some medical supplies from the table behind him. "Move it, or I'll make this painful." He swatted my hands out of the way while uncovering the bleeding wound.

  "Answer me, dumbass." I growled.

  "Geez, don't bite my head off. Doggy-boy brought you over, said you wouldn't go to a hospital. Smart choice by the way." He checked the stitches, making sure none of them had snapped. I kept staring at him, and he glanced up when he felt my eyes on him. "Don't worry, Joshua wouldn't let me touch you, so I had to call Asha and she tended to you." Alec sighed and pat the bandage over my bullet wound. I growled while cringing.

  "Whatever. Now, move. I gotta get to work." I tried standing up again, but Alec held me down by my shoulders.

  "Nope, not until you're healed. I don't know what you did, but you managed to crack and break most of the left side of your ribs and even some of your right." He bent over and picked a plate up off the floor. "Here." He handed me the plate full of food, and I gave him a look. "Go on, it's not poisoned."

  "I wouldn't put it past you." He feigned hurt.

  "Why, Shadow. I thought we were best friends."

  "Yeah, when my face turns yellow."

  "Oh, it did. Last night while putting some of your ribs back into place." He smirked. "So, bestie, how ya feelin'?"

  "Shut up, dick." I said with a mouthful of food.

  "I'll take that as you're fine." He stood up and went back to the kitchen. "You know, dog-boy wouldn't leave until Asha swore to have you back in 'tip-top' shape. Her words."

  "Yeah, he's what you'd actually call a good guy." I added while shoveling food into my mouth.

  "Seriously? Do you not know how to use a fork?" Alec sighed when he came back with his own food.

  "Buzz off. I'm only concerned about it getting into my stomach." I growled and kept eating.

  "Not like that, you're not. I'd like to keep my appetite while in my own home, so how about holding the fork like this?" Alec grabbed my hand and repositioned my fingers around the fork. "Now, you do this." He took a bite of his own food to show me.

  "Or I could just do it my way. It worked."

  "Look, I'm trying to help you. Eat like that in public, and you'll scare people away more so than your attitude already does."

  "I don't have an attitude."

  "Yes, you do."

  "No, you just think I do because you irritate the Hell out of me."

  "Whatever. But seriously, you ever go on a date, the guy's gonna run when he sees you eat like that. It's kind of....intimidating."

  "How?"

  "Well, your teeth are flashing everywhere, and if I saw properly, they're fucking sharp." I glanced up to look at him and saw that he was staring.

  "Maybe I want to be intimidating...."

  "Yeah, like you want to be forever alone. Only crazy cat ladies do that, and you're not a crazy cat lady, are you?"

  "Shut up, dick. I don't need dating advice from you."

  "Maybe because you don't even date." There was a moment of silence with the only sound being the fork scraping across my plate. "You don't, do you?"

  "Like I could date. Meet a guy and be like: 'Hey! I'm one of those transgenic mutants you read about in the papers! Wanna see my tail? How about how I can change the color of my face?'" I glared at him while laying the sarcasm thickly in my voice.

  "Hey, just wear that hat like you always do and you'll be fine. And if he asks about the tail, say it's a biomechanical implant."

  "You're forgetting my barcode and my markings."

  "Markings?"

  "Yeah, the black, hard-to-miss stripes and spots on my back." I pointed behind me with a thumb.

  "I wanna see." He stood up while putting his plate on the little table in front of us.

  "Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow at him as he stood up.

  "Yeah, seriously! Come on, the only markings I've seen on a transgenic were scales different shades of the same color."

  "Whatever." I put my now empty plate onto the coffee table as well and put my chest on the armrest of the couch. Pulling up the back of the tank top, I felt his eyes on me.

  "Man, that is so cool." One of his knees dug into the edge of the couch as he leaned over me to get a better look. "What is it, a zebra and a spotted owl?"

  "Golden tiger and cheetah." I answered.

  "It's kind of hard to see because of the bandages, but it looks like it can pass for a really good tattoo." He went and sat back down.

  "It doesn't matter. I'm not going to date." I said while pulling the tank top back down.

  "Why? Going to wait for that special someone?" He made his voice high-pitched as he batted his eyelashes.

  "No. I'm just not going to." Alec looked at me.

  "Don't tell me.... You don't know how to?"

  "Shut up, dick. I said I'm not taking dating advice from you." My ear twitched, and I looked at the door. There was a knock, and Alec got up to answer it.

  "Hey, Asha. What brings you here?"

  "I'm checking up on Shadow. Is she awake?"

  "See for yourself." Alec moved out of the way of the door, and the short-haired blonde walked in. When she saw me, she gasped.

  "Sorry, still need to get used to the ears." She nervously laughed.

  "It's okay." I said while grabbing the blanket. Pulling it over my head, I curled up in it and felt the heat rise underneath the blanket. She shook her head once more and began to check all of my wounds. By the time she was done, she was satisfied with her work and gave me a verbal check-up by asking about my pain levels and where it hurt.