The evening passed quickly after everyone had had their fill of laughing at Kellen. Kellen was flustered, but when he noticed that his Mom wasn’t staring at the room his Dad was lying still in, he quickly shut up and dealt with it.
Gwen was as awkward as ever, and quiet as well. It was odd for her, and even Brent, who was not that familiar with her, noticed. He didn’t point it out, but he looked at Kellen before glancing at Gwen. Kellen shrugged.
There was nothing he could do if she kept avoiding him.
Eventually, while still in the Captain’s lap, Kellen felt drowsiness overtake him. When he yawned, it was like everyone panicked.
"Are you tired? Are you okay? Anything we can do?" Brent asked, and Kellen’s eyes widened at the sudden switch. Kellen’s Mom wasn’t any better.
"Do I need to call Taylor? Is this normal?" His Mom’s eyes were vibrating, she was so anxious. The Captain wasn’t helping the situation.
"I’ll call her right now. Did your wound open up?" He pulled out his phone and Kellen was the one who slammed his hand down on his phone screen, covering it completely. The Captain stared at the man in his arms, almost offended that he’d covered his phone. Kellen, however, was upset that the three of them had gone off the deep end.
"I’m just naturally tired, everyone. I lost a lot of blood, I’m recovering from a gunshot. It’s normal behaviour. No one needs to panic. Maybe we should call Taylor, but just because I want to make sure that I’m okay to go back to my apartment." Kellen said calmly, soothingly, trying to bring the energy down in the room.
Gwen was the only one who hadn’t overreacted. At least, he had thought so.
"I messaged Taylor. She’s on her way." She said, and Kellen turned to stare at her. She had been avoiding him all night, but now she was going to step in? Gwen avoided his gaze, as if she knew how upset he was that she’d messaged Taylor. Their Mom sighed, her hand resting over her heart.
"Thank goodness. I just won’t feel better about this until Taylor comes and checks on him." She said, and Brent nodded. He sat with his arms crossed a chair down from Kellen and the Captain, closer to Kellen’s Mom. Gwen sat closer to the door, a chair away from Kellen and the Captain on the other side. Brent glanced towards Gwen again, before shaking his head with a sigh.
"It’s been hours since she’s checked on you. I know she’s busy given everything that’s been going on since you were shot, but she should have checked on you sooner." All of the others in the room agreed with Brent’s words, and Kellen groaned.
"If she’s so busy, she probably trusted that you lot would call her if something happened. She’s not an idiot, and one of you is a Field Guide with field medic training, one of you is a ’retired’ Esper, the other is a new recruit into the Guild, and the last one is the freaking Captain of said Guild that she works for. If you couldn’t figure something out before calling her, I think she’d be more upset." Kellen chastised them, clearly angry at them for trying to gang up on Taylor when she wasn’t even here. And when she was busy.
There was a soft chuckle from the doorway as the door was pushed open and Taylor entered. She looked exhausted, and her hair which was normally in a ponytail was actually in a bun. She had deep circles under her eyes, and Kellen immediately gasped.
"Taylor, my god, are you alright?" Kellen went to push himself out of the Captain’s arms, but the Captain wouldn’t let him.
"You are in no state to be guiding anyone. Neither are you, Guide Jameson." The Captain’s voice was firm, harsh, and had both of the Field Guides backing down. Taylor chuckled even more. She shook her head, her blue eyes tried, but she made her way towards Kellen. She must have picked up the clipboard from his room on the way since she had it in her hand.
"Thank you for stopping them, Captain Thatcher. I was afraid I was going to have a Casper situation on my hands." Kellen winced. He’d just lectured Casper about treating his body carefully, and here he was.
My, how the tables had turned.
"Casper wasn’t taking care of himself. I was shot. Those are different things." Kellen muttered, slightly annoyed and Taylor snorted.
"Hmm, I’m not sure? Are they? Casper nearly rushed over here when he heard you’d been injured, but I had to use my Esper voice on him to keep him at his apartment. You should send him a text before you head to bed just to make him feel better. He’d like to hear from it you." Kellen nodded, feeling bad for him. He’d sentenced Casper to his apartment without knowing this was going to happen.
Hell, he wasn’t sure who could have predicted this happening.
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