"Okay then," she yawned. "Also, you say oh dear too much, you sound
like my aubelita." She leaned back against the pillow, closing her
eyes. Before Colt could leave the room, she said, "But the police
might want to talk to you, since the nurse probablly called them.
You did explain what happened, right?"
"First of all, hey!" he laughed, though the boy honestly couldn't
deny it. Over the years, he'd picked up quite a few bad habits. "I
gave them the basic rundown, but no, I didn't tell them exactly. In
fact, if I hear correctly, there are sirens outside now, so they
probably want to talk now." His hand rested on the door handle for
a moment, but then he turned back around and walked back over,
kneeling again and hugging her, careful not to aggravate the wound.
"G'night, Tink," he said quietly.
"Don't call me that," she grumbled, opening her eyes. But she
smiled, sitting up enough to hug him back. "I'm glad you're okay,"
she said under her breath, before dropping back to the pillow and
saying dramatically, "Now please, won't you let me sleep?" In the
lobby, there were two police officers waiting for Colt, as well as
Dan, holding an ice pack to the side of his head.
"Alright, alright, my apologies," he grinned, taking his leave.
Striding towards the elevator, he made his way to the lobby, not
surprised at all to see the policemen. He nodded to Dan with a
smile, glad to see the younger boy way safe. "Officers," he said in
greeting to the police.
Dan nodded back, adjusting his grip on the ice pack. The officers
nodded as well, acknowloding his greeting. "I'm Officer Maddon,"
said one, with a thick handlebar mustache, "And I'm Officer
Dunivan," said the female with long, blonde hair. "We'd like to
take this somewhere more private, there's an office where we'd like
to speak to you." Dan stood up. "Of course, that makes sense."
Shifting his weight uneasily and crossing his arms but nodding,
Colt made to follow them. He was still running on adrenaline from
earlier, and that was making him feel highly suspicious of everyone
and everything, though he knew the officers were only here to help.
Leading them into a private office, one of the officers shut the
door behind them, gesturing for Dan and Colt to take a seat. Once
they did, they began what seemed like a few hours of questions,
wanting them to recount evreything that happened, giving specifics.
Dan did his best to help, but he seemed to be slowly slipping off.
At 2:30, he yawned, "Officers, is that all you need to know? I want
to go check on my sister." One of the officers nodded, getting up
and opening the door. Once Dan had left, waving goodbye to Colt,
they closed the door. Officer Maddon asked Colt, "Do you have
anyone you can call to get you home? It's late, and we have all the
information we need to storm their facility and start aressts."
"Yes, sir, if need be. I'm probably going to be staying here until
morning, and I can also drive," he nodded. A little flicker of hope
had risen into his chest throughout their talk; maybe, just maybe,
this would all finally be over. He'd thought that before, though,
and look where that had gotten them. While Colt was completely
exhausted, he couldn't imagine sleeping just then. He hoped Nadia
was, though.
"Then I think we're good to go," Officer Dunivan said. The two
packed up and began leaving the room, Maddon patting Colt's
shoulder and saying, "You and your friends have saved a lot of
lives and done something that hundreds of investigators could never
do. You're true heroes." He left, closing the door behind him.
Colt just nodded again. Now his adrenaline was finally wearing off,
and further interaction just seemed like a chore. Walking to the
door, he planned to stay in the lobby for the rest of the night;
well, morning now. Nadia and Dan would probably be able to come
back to the house with him in the morning while Amaya healed from
her surgery; they'd likely be back to pick her up the next day, he
assumed.
The next morning, Nadia was escorted into the lobby, leaning on one
of the nurses for support. Dan, who had been sleeping in the lobby
as well since all that was left now were a few cuts and bruises,
sat up, smiling. "Look who it is, back from the dead!" Nadia rolled
her eyes. "Please, I could hear your snoring from my room." Dan
glanced at the nurse. "Is my sister going to be okay?" He asked
anxiously. The nurse smiled. "Don't worry, your sister is fine, and
the procedure went well. She needs some time to recover, but by
tommorow she'll be out of here." Nadia grinned. "Hey, that's
amazing!" She looked at Colt and said sarcastically, "No big
dramatic hug this time, huh? We're just going to stand there?"
Nadia was still smiling though, happy to see him.
Grinning and shaking his head in amusement, he walked forwards and
wrapped his arms around her. Relief washed over him, even though
he'd seen her only some hours prior. Colt had dark circles under
his eyes; he hadn't been able to sleep, and therefore had just
messed around on his phone until 4 a.m. His plan was to get the
three of them home and then pass out for the foreseeable future.
"How are you feeling?" he asked Nadia.
Nadia hugged him back, holding him at arms length. "Oh chico, you
need sleep. I'm fine, but you are not driving anywhere. You've got
serious lack of sleep. Were you up all night?!" She punched him
lightly in the shoulder, then doubled over. "I'm mad but that hurt
so you're off the hook for now." The nurse went to help her, and
after a minute, she was okay.
Colt started forwards, concern overtaking his expression, but drew
back upon seeing she was alright. "Hey, don't worry 'bout me, I got
a whole four hours. Plus, they've got coffee here; I feel wide
awake, but that'll probably only last for about two hours, so no
Chick-Fil-A this time," he said gently, touching her shoulder.
Turning to the boy behind them, he added, "Dan, if you want to run
and hop in the car, we'll be right out behind you."
"I don't want Chick-Fil-A, I want you to be safe," Nadia retorted
as she straightened up, a slight frown on her face. "And I also
happen to like it when you don't have a lack of sleep, yet insist
on driving yourself." She crossed her arms, though it looked a bit
akward as she couldn't move her arms together that much. "Four
hours isn't that much," she mumbled. Dan, feeling just as akward as
always, decided to move a long as soon as possible. "Okay," he said
quickly, heading for the revolving doors of the hospital.
"You act like you've been driving longer than me; Nadia, I've
driven in the aftermath of two all-nighters before, it's fine."
Having filled out the necessary paperwork prior to her arrival, he
stepped towards her, offering his arm to help support her. Clicking
the automatic unlock button on the key in the direction of the car
Nadia had taken, he asked carefully, "You ready?"
Taking his arm, she shot back, "I may not have been driving as long
as you have, but I only need to see the bags under your eyes to
know that I have just as much a right to be nervous." At this
point, she was half-joking, but did mean what she said earlier.
Nadia cared about Colt's safety, and while she may not be a driving
instructor, she didn't think that one should be driving when
running on a few cups of coffee and only four hours of sleep.
Carefully making his way down the sidewalk to where the car was
parked near the entrance, Colt was hyper aware of Nadia's injury,
fearful that every step would put her in more pain. Finally
arriving at the car, he opened the passenger side door for her,
figuring she would be more comfortable than in the back.
"Gracias," she muttered, sliding in carefully. With a bit of a
wince, she moved the seatbelt across, buckiling it in. Dan had
already sat down in the back, patiently waiting for them. He leaned
forward a little. "You okay, Nadia?" He asked. Nadia sighed. "Thank
you for the concern, both of you, but as long as I barely move my
upper body, I am perfectly fine." "That doesn't-" "Ah Ah Ah!" Nadia
intterupted him. "You protest and I can and will still verbally
murder you. Ask Colt if you don't belive me."
Sliding in on the driver's side, Colt turned to stare meaningfully
at Dan, his eyes widened in mock fear. "Trust me, if you value your
life, you will not make her mad. At least, not if you don't have a
large supply of duct tape."