Chapter 17: Curtains Opening at the Worst Possible Moment

Dante asked Rhea to call Anika back, but she explained that the search team already knew Jett was missing. He lowered his feet from the bed, caught the rail when the room tilted, and stayed there while Professor Artemis rescued his water.

"I could recognize the room," he said, so Rhea recorded his description of the pipes, fan and beds instead of letting him leave. She sent it to Anika, asking her to return his phone when she could.

The nurse checked his pulse and blood pressure while Rhea unlocked her phone and offered it to him. "Your mum came looking for you last time, so tell her before somebody sends her a picture of the blood."

Dante accepted her phone and called Mom, describing the afternoon as another assessment until Rhea supplied the words nosebleed and unconscious beside him. His mother asked who was staying, promised clean clothes and made him agree to remain in bed.

He returned the phone after saying goodbye, just as Posey appeared with a tennis bag and a water bottle tucked into its side. Her blue ribbon had loosened, and she pushed a blonde curl behind her ear before sitting beside him.

She took his good hand, looking at the dried blood near his collar. Over the last few days, he had enjoyed the attention that followed his silent casting, but being watched like this made him want to apologise.

"Does it hurt when you move? Please don’t try to sit up just for me," she asked, touching the stained fabric without pulling it. He admitted that lifting his arm made his head swim, which ruined his chances of removing the shirt with any dignity.

"The nurse can help you change, unless you’d rather have me," she offered, then glanced at their joined hands. "I mean with the sleeve, so you don’t catch your bandage."

Dante pictured her easing the shirt over his shoulders, then realised he had spent several seconds staring at her mouth. "I’m trying to think of a respectable answer, but you’ve made that unnecessarily difficult."

Her cheeks coloured, although she didn’t move away when he brushed his thumb across her fingers. She looked pleased enough that he almost asked her to stay close after the shirt came off.

"You could just say thank you," she suggested, smoothing his collar with her free hand. Her knuckles grazed his neck, and his imagination immediately applied for a longer hospital stay with private nursing included.

"Thank you, but Mom’s bringing a clean one," he managed, and Posey settled back without letting go. He wanted her close enough to touch him again, which seemed a terrible reason to delay washing blood off himself.

She released him to fetch a notebook from beside her racket, opening it across her knees. "I wasn’t sure what to do while I waited, so I made you a copy of my notes. We can go through them together when you feel better."

Between the pages lay folded sheets covered in her handwriting, including explanations beside the difficult words. His copy had been underlined carefully, and he couldn’t remember the last time somebody had made homework feel like an invitation. She offered to go through it with him when he felt better, making him hope recovery involved sitting shoulder to shoulder somewhere without a nurse checking whether he could remain comfortably upright.

Artemis asked about the anxiety potions listed on the open page. Posey explained that she was comparing how quickly they worked and how long they lasted, then asked whether a smaller dose could avoid leaving someone sleepy.

"Not reliably with that combination, although you’ve spotted the right problem," Artemis said, pointing to the second ingredient. Posey wrote down her correction before explaining that she wouldn’t give Dante anything without checking its effects on his injuries.

"Could you make one for dignity?" he asked, and Artemis reminded him that medicine needed something left to work with. Posey hid her laugh behind the notebook, which gave him an excellent view of her pink ears.

"We can discuss your research once your friend has recovered," Artemis added, giving the word friend enough attention to make Posey lower the notebook. Dante considered asking whether the consultation included whatever was happening to his pulse.

Rhea apologised for missing their tennis game before leaving to follow up with Miss Vale. Artemis arranged to send her findings to medical, then returned to her laboratory while the nurse checked another bed.

Posey put the notebook away and took his hand again. He admitted lying to Anika about knowing how to help Jett, and she asked whether he would have tried if Anika hadn’t been watching.

He couldn’t separate wanting to save Jett from wanting her to see him do it. Before he found an answer, Anika arrived, placed his cracked phone beside the water and showed him Miss Vale’s message.

"One of the rescued patients saw staff wheel his bed out when the alarm started," she said. They were checking adjoining rooms and exits, but nobody knew who had ordered it or where Jett had gone.

Dante apologised without defending himself, admitting that he hadn’t known how to remove the connection. Anika sat in the spare chair and made him repeat it while Posey held his hand.

"Then next time you tell me before I hand you the part of my life I’m most frightened of losing," she said. Her family was checking the trust’s contacts, but the Kane name couldn’t bring Jett through the door.

He asked whether his bloody shirt should be preserved, and Anika messaged Miss Vale. Mom arrived with clean clothes, studied Posey’s hand around his and advised him to use a condom when he recovered.

"Mom, we’re in a hospital," he protested while Posey went red, and his mother suggested asking the nurse for some. Everyone waited outside the curtain while the nurse helped him change and bagged the stained shirt as evidence.

They returned, and Anika stepped out to answer a call before coming back with Rhea. Mom left her shopping bag beneath the chair while Posey sat beside him and took his hand again.

Jett had sent Anika a voice message warning her not to bring Dante to the service wing. He stopped when someone asked whether he had finished, and a breakfast photograph followed, naming Posey as the next volunteer.

Anika forwarded both to Miss Vale while Rhea called the nurse back. Another photograph arrived, showing Posey holding Dante’s hand beside this hospital bed, with Mom’s shopping bag beneath the chair.

The message underneath asked whether he wanted to choose who took her place, and the curtain rings scraped behind them as someone began pulling it open.