Brandon stared at Cassidy for a full five minutes before her eyelids began to flicker. It seemed to take a couple of more minutes after that before she was awake. Even though he trusted Jamie and was sure she was fine, it was a relief to have her conscious again. “Hey, there,” he said quietly, once she was looking up at him.
“Hey,” Cassidy said, looking a little confused. “Where’s Jamie?”
“Oh, he said I could do the procedure,” Brandon teased. “I took out your kidneys. Hope that’s okay.”
Her pretty face looked only slightly amused as she began to sit up. He helped her by putting his arm around her shoulder, but she waved him off. Whatever it was that had been bothering her during the hunt last night, it seemed to still be a problem, and despite his best attempts to get her to talk to him about it, or anything for that matter, nothing seemed to be working.
“You feel okay?” he asked as she sat on the edge of the operating table, looking at her arm. She was wearing a surgical gown, but it was the kind that wrapped all the way around and tied in the front so she was completely covered.
“I’m fine,” Cassidy assured him, rubbing her arm with her other hand. “It doesn’t feel any different at all.”
“Good,” Brandon said with a smile. He was considering asking her if she wanted to come over for pizza after training when the door opened, and Jamie came in. Immediately, Cassidy’s face lit up. A tinge of jealousy pinged him in the gut, though he knew it was unfounded. Cassidy wasn’t interested in Jamie. Maybe it was just the fact that he hadn’t gotten her to smile all day.
“How are you?” Jamie asked. “Feeling okay?”
“Just fine,” Cassidy assured him. “Doesn’t hurt at all.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear.” The doctor stepped between them, and Brandon moved aside. He carefully felt Cassidy’s arm. “Yeah, it feels pretty good. The operation went well. I was able to collect eight viable tissue samples. I closed, did a little bit of healing, and then packaged the samples all up, and Christian moved them to storage. We’ll be looking at them in the next few days. He and I will each run some tests and see what we can figure out.”
“Great,” Cassidy said with a nod. She seemed to be staring rather hard at Jamie’s hands.
“Oh, don’t worry. I had gloves on when I did everything but heal you.”
“Right,” Cassidy said, turning a little pink. Brandon stifled a laugh. Leave it to Cass to think her own insides were gross. “Well, is there anything else?”
“Nope. As long as you’re feeling okay, I’ll let Brandon escort you back to my office. You can use my restroom to get dressed, and we’ll let you know what we find out.”
Cassidy looked hesitant to take the hand that Brandon extended to her, but she did. Once she was down off of the table, she shrugged away from him, and he inhaled deeply, still trying to figure out what in the world he’d done. “Thank you, Jamie,” she said as she headed toward the door.
“You bet,” the doctor replied, waving at her before turning back to the operating table. Even though the bedding wasn’t bloody, Brandon assumed this was one of those times it would’ve been nice to have an orderly.
As soon as he opened the door for Cassidy, she was greeted with questions from both his dad and her sister. “How are you?” Cadence asked.
“Doesn’t hurt does it?” Elliott had a look of concern on his face, even though Cass seemed pretty normal.
“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt,” she said, offering them both a meek smile. “I’m just gonna go get dressed and then go rest for a little while before I have to go train.”
“Okay, well, if you wanna skip today, I’m sure Aurora will understand.” Cadence’s forehead was crinkled, like she wasn’t sure her sister was telling the truth and she might really be in some sort of horrible pain.
“I’m fine,” Cass said again, still gently, and she headed off toward Jamie’s office. Brandon stayed with her but gave her some space. Whatever was going on, now was probably not the time to discuss it.
Once they were inside of Jamie’s office, Cassidy grabbed a duffle bag off of the chair in front of his desk and disappeared into the bathroom without so much as a word. Brandon dropped into the same chair and ran his hands through his hair. He’d been wracking his brain for at least twelve hours now, trying to figure out what was up with her, but he couldn’t figure it out. He knew she’d gone through a lot the night before, but normally in this type of situation, he was the one she leaned on. Now, she was pushing him away.
Cassidy was in the bathroom for about five, maybe ten, minutes before she came out dressed in jeans and a gray sweater. She had the empty bag over her arm and she dropped the folded gown in a bin at the end of the examination table across the room which had similar clothing in it.
“You feel like yourself again?” Brandon asked, standing, his hands in his jean pockets.
Cassidy just shrugged. “I’m all right.”
He nodded. “Cass, uh, is everything okay?”
Her hazel eyes enlarged and she stared at him for a moment, like she wasn’t sure how to respond. When she did, he regretted ever having asked the question. “No,” was all she said before she began to walk to the door.
Like a stray dog or a fool, he wasn’t sure which, he followed along, nipping at her heels. “What is it? Is it something we need to talk about?”
“I don’t know,” Cassidy admitted, not even glancing over her shoulder at him or her sister as she exited the building.
“Well, when might you know?” he asked, catching up enough to walk beside her.
“I don’t know,” she repeated, walking even faster now. Her hair billowed out behind her, the sun glinting off of it, turning it to a bright golden brown, and he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was, even when she was obviously mad about something.
Frustrated, Brandon said, “Do you just want some space, then?”
“Yeah, that would be great,” Cassidy replied, looking up at him sharply before she increased her speed to almost a jog.
He got the hint, and as much as it stung, he stopped walking, letting her go. He hoped the old adage that if you love something, you should set it free, and if it’s meant to be it will come back, was true, because watching Cassidy walk away from him physically caused his chest to hurt, especially since he had no idea what he’d even done.
Something told him he’d find out soon enough….
