Forty-three: Flowers

"Good morning, Jean."

I opened my blurry eyes to find Eleanor sitting on a chair beside my white bed. Blinking a few times, I cleared the blurry vision away, wondering where I was and what I was doing here. I was lying on my side.

Movement triggered pain and I sobbed a bit, tears leaping up in my eyes. Memory returned slowly and I closed my eyes, unable to stop the flow of water from beneath my eyelids.

"Are you in pain?" Eleanor's hand stroked my hair, trembling just a little.

Nodding hurt too and I choked on my saliva when my breath caught in my throat.

"I'll get the nurse."

I was helped up into sitting and given a few pills.

"There's not much wrong with you," the overly young looking nurse said cheerfully on her way out. "You were probably just shocked by the trauma. You got checked out yesterday morning by an emergency doctor. There's some inflammation to your neck joints but it's nothing lasting or significant - consider it a sprain of sorts. Just a few puncture wounds and bruises to the rest of your body. Those should heal quickly. You'll be fine."

"Fine," Eleanor choked out after the nurse had left, angry disbelief on her face. I just closed my eyes and tried to deal with the pain. It was nice to know that at least Eleanor still cared enough to be angry on my behalf. I was too sore to do anything but try and bear with the pain and everything else. "Fine?"

"At least I'm alive," I croaked. "It's all relative for them, maybe."

"At least you're alive," she conceded, taking my hand in hers.

She helped me to lie back down on my back. It was a bit sore but it wasn't too bad.

"Knock, knock," Mr Cooper stood at the door looking uncertain and holding a small bouquet of flowers. Mr Raring hunched behind him. A moving vulture statue. "May we come in?"

"If you want."

The two agents fidgeted a bit.

"We're terribly sorry about what happened last night in the Compound," Mr Cooper said. "We got there as fast as we could, but it wasn't fast enough to rescue you."

"How did you know?"

"One of the security detail we put on you gave us the heads up. They saw the guards go in and listened in at the door. The moment they heard what was going on, they called us. We hadn't anticipated that there would be any over zealous, stupid security guards in the Compound. They'd left a terrible mess in your room. The way they treated you was atrocious. We won't let that happen again."

"Thank you."

"I think your work has given you a few days off to recover," Mr Cooper held out the flowers. "I know flowers don't really make up for anything, but I hope you'll accept them anyway. The doctor said you don't have any serious injuries and so we sincerely hope you get better soon."

"Thank you," I said, without receiving the bouquet.

Mr Raring put the flowers on my bedside table with a small smile, almost as if he understood. He gave my hand a tiny, dry squeeze.

"Also," Mr Cooper said with an unhappy expression, "although we don't really think you're a spy or a traitor for the Boskies now, you're going to have to continue stay in your room at the Compound for now. Not everyone agrees with us, you see. Someone is obviously still out to get you and we don't understand what their game is, trying to make us so suspicious of you at the same time. If you ever figure it out, please let us know," both agents gave me their cards. "In the meantime, you're safest where you are. If we move you, it could open a whole new can of worms. At the moment, we know at least one of the Boskies seems to be attracted to you. We're hoping that using him, we'll be able to catch the rest of them as well."

"Okay," I looked away. They were going to use me as bait. Again.

I sighed. Stuff happens and life goes on.

"We're sorry," Mr Raring said. "We don't have a choice in this."

"Okay," I repeated, still keeping my eyes on the wall. Hopefully they would realise they were unwelcome and leave soon.

"We have to get going now," Mr Cooper said in an awkward voice.

"But rest assured," Mr Raring added. "We won't let anything else happen to you."

"Okay," I said. "Thank you. 'Bye."

I listened to them leave and then Eleanor touched my arm. Her eyes were moist and sad.

"I have to go back to work now," she told me. "Will you be all right by yourself?"

"Yes," I said, not believing myself, but knowing she had to leave anyway.

"I'll let them know not to worry," she said, giving me a careful hug. "I brought in some of your spare clothes for when they discharge you later. Let me know if you need anything and take as much time off as you need. You have plenty of sick leave already, anyway."

"Yes," I said, trying to avoid nodding or moving, although, I think the painkillers were finally starting to kick in. "Thank you."