| Subject: Priority Mail 401 |
Author:
Nikita507
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Date Posted: Saturday, March 03, 06:20:57pm
In reply to:
Nikita507
's message, "Priority Mail 399+" on Thursday, March 01, 08:02:50pm
The jerk of waking up shot pain throughout his body. Adam hissed as he opened his eyes and then closed them again, finding each movement to be painful. “Gads…”
He could sense the light being turned off and turned his head to the side to open his eyes and see Nikita there, the chair almost pulled right against the bed. She had the bedside light on and turned it off as soon as Adam moved. “The light is a hard thing to deal with when you are recovering from a concussion…”
Adam looked at Nikita and tried to move again. Nikita sat up and touched the bed railing. “Do you want me to get a nurse to get something more for the pain?”
“No,” Adam stoically declared and Nikita snorted. “You are too much like your father. It does you not good to be in pain when you don’t need to be in pain. They can’t give you anything too strong because of the concussion. It won’t make you sleep, Adam.”
“Where is my dad?” Adam inquired as he just didn’t respond to Nikita’s statement. If he took something for the pain, he may have to stay in the hospital longer. He just wanted to be home.
“He went to get us coffee,” Nikita replied and Adam frowned again. “I told you both to go home. I didn’t need you two staying here.”
“It was our decision to make,” Nikita responded as she leaned back in the chair and continued to study Adam. “They will probably give you a muscle relaxer, Adam. Most of your pain is muscular… they were bruised pretty badly.”
“I told them that my leg wasn’t broken,” Adam stubbornly declared as the door opened and his father walked in. He smiled at Nikita and handed the cup. “Dad…”
“You should listen to Nikita.”
“You don’t even know what we were---“
“Take the medicine, Adam,” Michael interrupted his son’s protest while Nikita tried a sip of her coffee and then placed it in her lap. “Maybe Adam doesn’t need it, Michael.”
“What?” Adam inquired as he was confused with the about-face that Nikita just took. He tried to sit up and Nikita arched an eyebrow as Adam was hit with the pain. “You won’t be able to go home if you can’t move, Adam.”
Thinking about it while the pain rippled through his body, Adam sighed. “Ok… but I don’t want to go back to sleep.”
“They don’t want you to sleep either,” Nikita spoke as she stood up. “I’ll get the nurse… and find Ellie.”
“She stayed too?” Adam inquired and Nikita nodded her head. “She thought you may be too much like your father. At least you aren’t old enough to sign yourself out of the hospital.”
“Kita…” Michael gently chided Nikita jab at him. Nikita kissed his cheek and slipped out of the room, giving Michael time with his son in a way that they hadn’t had since this happened.
Adam studied his father as he sat down. He was waiting for Adam to talk and Adam wasn’t sure if he liked that idea. He didn’t want to talk about what had happened. Adam wouldn’t have done anything different. He protected Gretchen and he didn’t want anyone to think it odd that he could beat up five older classmates. Adam had to try to do something to avoid thinking back to what had happened. “Why did you let Nikita stay the night? She hates the hospital…. Did she have a flash?”
“No,” Michael shook his head from side to side. “The only thing that bothered Nikita was sharing the chair with me.”
Michael wasn’t going to let Adam drive this conversation, although he was going to let Adam think he was leading the conversation for a while. He also wasn’t going to allow Adam to focus on Nikita. It was the easy way out for Adam. Nikita didn’t have a flash during the night but mostly that was because neither of them really slept. Nikita was on edge and in the past when she was like this, she would have started to plot another mission for the Angel, but she worried about the Devil that was likely to do something bad afterwards. To make it worse, Michael knew that what Gretchen had said still stung Nikita deeply.
“When do you think I can go back to school?” Adam inquired and Michael shrugged his shoulders. “That will be up to Ellie and the principal.”
“The principal?” Adam inquired and Michael nodded his head up and down. “You did break Robbie’s nose.”
“What?” Adam questioned as he was stunned to even think that he would be in trouble for that. He was the one with a concussion and had to spend the night in the hospital. “I’m in trouble for that.”
“No,” Michael shook his head from side to side. “But the principal isn’t sure that you would want to go back… since Robbie won’t be suspended.”
“That’s my school,” Adam answered and Michael nodded his head up and down. “We’ll see, Adam.”
Adam wrinkled his nose. “Dad… look…”
“No,” Michael cut his son off as he got closer to the bed railing, his eyes a vivid green. “You should have told us about what Robbie was saying about you. He was seriously bullying you and if something was done prior to this, it may not have gotten to this.”
“What he was doing to me isn’t that bad,” Adam rasped as he suddenly was faced with what he didn’t want to talk about. “And what he calls me… it isn’t completely wrong… I am a nerd.”
“And that is wrong.”
“But it isn’t as bad as some of the other kids… I don’t have my lunch money stolen… my books have never been thrown into the toilet… it’s not that bad,” Adam protested what his father was trying to say.
“You rode in an ambulance to the hospital, Adam,” Michael pointed out as he didn’t pull back with the intensity. “This is bad.”
Adam was flustered and he pushed his body away from his father. “I… I egged them on… I could have not joined the soccer team… and I just did that because… of Robbie… and because Lisa…”
Michael studied his son’s diverted eyes and grunted as he shook his head and leaned back in the chair. “Damn… Kita was right.”
Adam was quiet for a while but he was confused. What did Nikita get right? “Ah… Dad…”
“This wasn’t about a bully… this wasn’t about you not scoring… this was about girls,” Michael rolled his eyes. “Damn… I miss when you were young.”
“This isn’t about girls,” Adam shot back with a shake of his head. “I need to start doing things… I’m in high school and I really never did things with others until last year… and I need to learn what I like to do and not like to do. This isn’t about girls.”
Michael shook his head back and forth. “You wouldn’t have joined the soccer team if it had been just Robbie picking on you. Isn’t Lisa dating Robbie?”
“Ah… yeah,” Adam rasped and Michael tilted his head to the side. “And that is why you joined the soccer team… and that is why you let them beat you up.”
“I was protecting Gretchen.”
“But Lisa was there,” Michael shook his head some more. “Damn… you being a teenager is going to be the death of me.”
“I thought that Sabina was a challenge,” Adam dryly commented. Michael sighed as he dropped his shoulders and looked at his son. “Adam… nothing changed with how much I love you since we were able to bring Sabina home. If anything, it makes me love you more.”
Adam swallowed hard as he felt emotions coming to the top that he often didn’t try to allow himself to have. “It used to be… just us…”
Michael felt a stabbing feeling of guilt hit him. He should have found more time to spend alone with Adam.
“I’m not complaining, Dad,” Adam interjected quickly as he moved back towards the railing that Michael was closer to. “It’s just… sometimes different… often it’s a lot better.”
“But?” Michael inquired and Adam shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to change anything. I love everyone.”
“But there are times that you wish it was just us.”
“For guy talk,” Adam admitted with a nod of his head. Michael moved closer and touched his son’s shoulder. “Adam… I always have time for guy talk.”
“You always have time?” Adam inquired and then he snorted while rolling his eyes. “You have more time now than before… it’s nice that you aren’t always in the lab… I feel like I got more of you… the true you… since Nikita moved in.”
Michael nodded his head and he sighed. “Adam, you matter so much to me. It scared me to hear that you were hurt… I was so scared… I almost didn’t know what to do.”
“Who told you?” Adam asked and Michael pushed away from the bed. “It was Kita who called. And she was so scared also.”
“I knew that,” Adam admitted as he shifted and looked at his dad. “Can I tell you, something, guy-to-guy?”
“Are you going to admit that this was all started because of girls?” Michael quipped and Adam shook his head as he sat up slightly. “I need help getting to the bathroom.”
Michael chuckled and then laughed. “That really wasn’t guy-to-guy.”
“I wouldn’t have told Nikita,” Adam deadpanned as Michael stood up and took the bed railing down, still chuckling. Adam didn’t feel that great as he moved, but he stood up on the floor with pain rattling his body. Michael assessed him and tilted his head to the side. “Going to admit that you should stay one more night?”
“I go home, today,” Adam declared and Michael pressed his lips together. Nikita was right.
Adam was just like him.
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