She hugged him back, despite the slight wince of pain. "That's
awesome, Colt! Glad to see my meddeling helped out." After a minute
of silence, she spoke. "So, uh, what happened after I blacked out?"
Pulling back, he grimaced a bit at the memory. "So that crazy lady
planted a bomb in Honest Abe's doppelgänger, then thought it would
be amusing if she hinted at where she'd hidden it. Salene's
brothers took you to the nurse while she and I went to go get rid
of it. We lobbed it into the water, Luswire and Dan are
who-knows-where, Salene got the rest of the firewall down,
emergency services found us, I assume through tracking the source
of my call."
Nadia rolled her eyes. "I never liked that statue anyways. Allways
felt so Alta y poderosa." Her eyes kept flicking to the closed
door, but she tried to disguse it by looking back at Colt. "So how
did your family react when they found out what happened?"
Gesturing over his shoulder, he said, "Not too happy.
Mom-used-my-entire-name level of not happy. I have a feeling that,
if I weren't graduating this year, she'd homeschool me 'til kingdom
come."
A laugh escaped her, quickly cut off. "I kinda want to meet your
mom, she sounds amazing. Scary, but amazing." She suddenly grew
serious. "Thank you, Colt, for saving my life. If you and Salene
hadn't done what you did, I don't I would be here today." She still
looked worried, and wouldn't stop looking at the door.
He laid his hand gently on her shoulder. "Don't even mention it,"
he said with a soft smile. Noticing her gaze, he was puzzled for a
moment before realizing he'd only seen his own family in the lobby.
"It'll be okay," he tried, not wanting to assume but fairly certain
he was aware of what was bothering her.
She sighed. "I know my mom's not coming, she ran off a long time
ago. I just thought..I thought he would be here. I left my phone on
the island, but it's all over the news, and the hospital must have
called him by now." She leaned back on the pillow. "No pensé que
realmente me odiara, pero supongo que sí."
"I'm so sorry, Nadia. They might not have known to if you don't
have an ID or driver's license. If you'd like, you could try using
mine," Colt tried to comfort her. He reached for his phone and
offered it to her.
"I had my school ID in my front pocket, so no, they did know." She
halfheartedly took the phone. "I guess I could try.." She dialed a
number into the phone, and held it up to her ear. After a minute,
she lowered it, looking like she was going to cry. "No answer. I'll
just call my grandma, she'll let me stay for awhile. He's probablly
thrown me out of the house," she mumbled under her breath.
Not quite sure what to say, he just hugged her again, more softly
this time. After a moment, he said, "If you ever need a place, I'm
always here for you, and I'm sure Salene would say the same."
She hugged him back, with a slight smile. "Thanks Colt. And I would
thank Salene, if she were here." She paused. "You're serious?
Because I'm kind of tired of sleeping at my grandma's, I mean, I
love Abulea, but her couch smells like wet cat and mothballs." She
made a face just thinking about that. "I wake up evrey morning I'm
there wondering if her cat decided to take a snooze with me."
"What's wrong with cats? I'd love one if Cam weren't allergic," he
grinned. "And of course I'm serious. We even have an extra room
that never gets used but we keep a mattress in just in case my
dad's sister ever comes over from Hawaii, which she never does.
Although, you might want to hope you like potatoes; we're half
Irish."
"Better than eating enchilladas for the fourth week in a row," she
joked. "But seriously, that would be amazing. Thank you so much."
She glanced at the door again, but this time with less concern.
"I'm suprised nobody's come in by now, at first there were nurses
going back and forth. And uhh, isn't your family concerned that
you've been up here for so long?"
Right on queue, a knock sounded on the door and Cameron appeared.
Walking over, he held out a hand to Nadia, saying, "Hey, I'm Cam.
Glad to see you're alright," then turned to his younger brother.
"Colt, Mom and Dad ran into a nurse that they know, so chances are
they'll still be talking by the time your friend's completely
healed."
Nadia shook his hand. "Glad to meet you. Is Colt as much of a pain
to you as he is to me?" she laughed, recalling the time that she
had tried to verbally murder him in Spanish, and almost out of
habit, muttered, "Godzilla," under her breath, still smiling.
"Oh, you betcha he is. Trust me, you have no idea" Cam grinned.
Colt slapped at his brother jokingly, pretending to pout. "Alright,
I see how it is, Tinkerbell. You can't be taller than me, so you'll
gang up on me with my giant of a brother."
She mock-gasped. "You're using that nickname? How dare you! If I
wasn't recovering, I'd give you another.." she grinned evily,
"lecture like last time. Would you prefer it in Spanish or English?
Or maybe I can chew you out in both."
"Oh, shoot! Heaven help us all! Cam, I'm outta here, I'll take my
chances with Mom and her chatty friends," he feigned panic,
standing and pretending to head for the door. Cam watched with a
vexed grin and a raised eyebrow.
Nadia burst out laughing. "Honestly, now that I'm not under the
threat of death, you're a lot funnier Colt." She yawned. "But I am
kind of tired, mostly of being in this stupid hospital. Thankfully
the doctor said that if I'm mostly healed by tommorow, they can
release me as long as there's an adult present."
"That might just be the nicest thing you've ever said to me," he
joked. "Alright, if you wanna get some rest, Cam and I can go
attempt to abscond with our mom's car. And technically, I
qualify as an adult, somehow." He beckoned for his brother to
follow as he made his was towards the door.