My soup was good for soup, but it still wasn’t great. Emery had finished her sandwich at lightning speed and started working on her sketchbook. I glanced at the page a few times and saw only green. I had no idea what she was working on.

I reached across my body and got the letter that Emery brought. A Paw Patrol sticker had sealed it shut. I smiled to myself and opened the letter. Bob’s neat handwriting was spread across two pages.

“Ok, you ready Emery?” She looked up and nodded. I cleared my throat and continued. “Dear Oliver, I hope that Emery delivered this letter to you while you are recovering. We heard that you got hurt on the raid, but visitors are not allowed. Joey tried to sneak to see you, but Maribelle kicked him out. Roy was doing some clean up near the private rooms and heard Emery yelling. I talked to her, she said that it was nothing, but I’m not convinced. Keep an eye on her. She’s smart, but she’s not the brightest when it comes to expressing her emotions in a healthy manner. Anyway, when you are all better, I’m going to see if the canteen will let me make you some of Jay’s mafe. His mother’s was the best, but his wasn’t too bad either. I would have to find a substitute for the peanuts if Roy wants to try some, I’ll ask him. It also could give the people here something good to eat. I swear, if I have to eat another bowl of plain, watery oats, I am going to lose it. We miss you and we hope that you’ll be back for our coffee talks soon. I would love to hear what you’re gonna do with…” I stopped talking, and Emery looked up. Bob had started talking about what he and I discussed in private, what he and I said about Emery. Specifically, how I felt about Emery.

“What’s wrong?” Emery started to scoot closer to see why I had stopped. I held the letter close to my chest.

“Nothing! I mean, Bob just started talking about some guy stuff. He, uh, would talk to me about Jay and how he missed him. I just think that that should stay between us, unless he tells you about it, I mean.” Emery sat back down and nodded.

“You’re right, I understand. I’m glad he’s talking to someone though. He was distraught, I was afraid that we were gonna lose him.” I looked down. I didn’t like lying to Emery. Bob and I did talk about heartache a lot, but this time it wasn’t about his. I swallowed my guilt and looked back up at Emery.

“I was worried too. Now, since that’s done,” I placed the letter back in the envelope and set it on the nightstand. “what are you working on?” Emery set her green colored pencil down and shoved the book in my general direction.

“I made this, I think that you’ll like it. I’ve been working on it since we got here, I just never had enough time to sit down and work on it, you know?” I nodded, taking the book in my hand and turning it around so I could look at it properly.

The page was done completely in green, and it was incredible. Emery rarely shared her talent with me, but whenever she did, I was amazed. The scene had a boy, at least I thought it was a boy, dancing on a parking bumper. His form was in the perfect arabesque position, and it really did look like he was illuminated in the dim light of the sunset behind him. The shot was from too far away to make out all of the fine details on his face, but it was clear that his glasses were just about to fall off of the tip of his nose. It was so realistic. Emery always had an ability to draw, but this looked like a photograph, but the printer only had the color green.

“Emery, this is incredible. I have no idea how you just do this, like you didn’t even have a reference. Why did you use green though? Were there not any other colors?” Emery shook her head.

“No, the box I got it from had some other colors, but green is my favorite. olive green specifically, like your..” Emery looked at me, her eyes were searching mine. “Oh, I guess not anymore.” She sounded almost defeated. Her shoulders sagged like a deflated balloon.

“What do you mean not anymore?” Emery waved her hand.

“Never mind, just forget I said anything.” I nodded, but I was still curious about what she was talking about.

“Ok, well then how did you come up with this pose? I didn’t know that you even knew ballet positions.”

“Oh, I don’t. I just remember when it was just us, before the group joined us I mean, and you would dance on the parking bumper things.” I squinted at her.

“This is me?” She nodded her head. “And you did this off of a memory of me dancing?” She nodded again.

“Do you like it?” I let the sketchbook fall to my lap.

“Emery, I love it. You’re so talented, how do you even remember this stuff. I am also extremely flattered that you chose me as your muse. I never thought I could look so attractive.” Emery rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath. I was too afraid to ask her to repeat it.

“Well, I’m glad you like it. I was kinda worried that you were gonna think that it was weird.”

“Well, I think it’s weirdly amazing that you can just remember this stuff, I don’t think I even remember how to do these moves anymore.”

“There is no way that you just forgot those seven years of hell that your mom put you through.” I laughed.

“Oh, you’d be surprised how much you can forget if you don’t practice. I also didn’t see it as hell, I was just in the wrong class because my mom didn’t know. I actually was gonna sign up again in the spring, but a little outbreak just happened, and I never got the chance.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that you wanted to dance again. I remember going to a few of your recitals from before, you looked so cool up there, but whenever we would talk afterward, you just seemed so uncomfortable.”

“The girls weren’t the nicest, and I was in the wrong group. If I was in the other set with the guys, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more, but practicing at home was where I did some of my best stuff. Do you remember when we almost broke my dad’s grill?” Emery bounced up and down a little bit.

“Oh my god, yeah! You were just dancing and jumping and being all graceful when I threw a wonderful bouquet of your mom’s Palo Santo sticks at you!”

“Yeah! And I fell backwards into the grill in the middle of my jeté! My dad was so mad, I thought he was gonna kill me!” We both started clutching our stomachs laughing. The pain in my shoulder grew greater, but I didn’t care.

We both stopped laughing after a little while, the effects of the day were starting to hit Emery hard, and I was developing a headache. There was a bottle of water on my stand for me to take sips from throughout the day, but it was too much effort for me to bother. Emery grabbed her sketchbook and stuck it back in her bag, I asked her to put the letter inside of it and she obliged. She grabbed the empty soup bowl and sandwich plate and left. She promised to bring back some toothpaste and other things.

When Emery came back, stuff was almost spilling out of her coated arms. Rain droplets were on the hood of her jacket, and her hair was down and clinging to her face. She dumped the things on the bed and fell on top of them.

“It's so cold outside, I hate November.” Her voice was muffled by the sheets. I laughed.

“Well, now you can stay inside where it’s slightly warmer. Did you get pajamas?” Emery sat up, our toothbrushes and clothes were squished into the mattress along with a book Emery had gotten from our shelf in the closet.

“Yep, and I also got that nerdy, black hole book you’ve been reading.” She put the book in my lap along with my toothbrush and toothpaste. A Dixie cup was on the head of the toothbrush.

“It’s not just a nerdy black hole book, it's a Neil deGrasse Tyson, nerdy, black hole book. You gotta get your facts straight, Em.”

“Oh yes, my bad. Ok, well I’m gonna brush my teeth in the staff bathroom and get changed. I got a little paper cup for you to spit in, and you can use the water in your bottle, if you think that you can manage?”

“I’ll be fine, thank you, Emery.” She smiled and headed out again, water was still dripping down her coat.

I used my left hand to put some toothpaste on the brush that was resting faceup on my lap. I put it in my mouth and reached across me to get the water bottle. I squirted a little bit in my mouth and started brushing my teeth. The lamp started flickering in and out, when I was ready to spit it out, the light was completely gone. I sat in the dark with my mouth full of toothpaste while I waited for Emery to come back.

She came back and started swearing when she saw that the light was out. She ran back to the staff room to see if Maribelle had a spare lamp and received a flashlight in return.

“Dis is mucking upid!” She held the flashlight in her mouth as she helped me get undressed. The hospital gowns were nice and all, but I really just wanted to wear some normal clothes. She picked out an old green sweater with ripped pockets and some black sweatpants for me to wear. She had on grey sweatpants and a grey sweatshirt. I looked down, I didn’t want to make eye contact with Emery when my chest was exposed. I felt so uncomfortable, I wanted to rip my skin off until there was nothing left. I tried to focus on her mismatched socks. She had one pink sock and one blue sock. The blue sock had a bunny on it.

After my clothes were situated, Emery tried to make it better by promising that she would let me wear the binder tomorrow, but I was dubious. One of the straps had to go right over my bite, and moving my arm was terrible. How was she going to let me put constant, harsh pressure on the wound, and not have her nurse mode kick in? She promised nonetheless, but I didn’t have my hopes up. Emery walked away to throw the now used paper cup in the trashcan next to the cart, and she hopped into bed next to me. I set the book on the nightstand and looked over to my left to see Emery. She had the flashlight pointed towards the foot of the bed, and she was looking at me with a strange smile on her face.

“My neck doesn’t hurt as much anymore, I think that I’ll be able to convince you into letting me walk my normal schedule tomorrow.” Emery smiled and softly moved my head back so my head was square against the pillow.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Tonto. I’m gonna make you so sick of being treated that you’ll never get yourself in a situation like this again.” She turned off the flashlight and laid her arm across my stomach again. I could feel her warmth radiate into me. I closed my eyes and imagined the both of us laying down next to a campfire. I would be the one closest to the flames of course, but I could still see her smile in the dim firelight.

…