Beneath the Courage

Align

Callem- 

It took a lot of arguing from Parker, and one snarl from Hice, to keep Oliver from taking Fri to the hospital. I didn't like the too-clean white place either, but Fri didn't look well, at all. His face had gone white and his breathing had gotten very slow. 

Oliver hovered around him like a fly would a dead fish floating on the surf, but there was little more he seemed to be able to do for him. When he finally appeared to realize that, he turned toward Hice and I, as we were the only two left in the room. His expression hurt my heart, but I didn't know how to help. I'd asked, but staying out of the way was always the answer I received, so I did just that. 

I'm thankfully very good at it, or I would have been tripping Oliver as much as Hice has. 

"I just don't know what else to do. I called one of my researchers to go over the samples I took, but I can't think of what could be causing something like this." 

The stress on his face was something I'd hoped wouldn't return after he'd met with Ocar earlier, yet it was clearly back. He ran his fingers through his hair, then stifled a yawn before trying to shake the exhaustion from his mind. 

"Oliver, you should get some rest." I said when he just heaved a tired sigh and leaned against the nearby wall. 

His eyes rose to meet mine, but even with the exhaustion building in his gaze, there was still clear determination.

"There's got to be something that's causing these strange symptoms." He mumbled after covering his mouth to try and hide another yawn. 

My eyes wandered to Hice as Oliver returned to pacing. The mer was stoic, as usual, but something else was there. I wasn't the best at reading emotions, or spelling most of them, but something was off about him. Right as I was thinking about asking him about it, he glanced toward me, our eyes meeting. His narrowed, as they always did when not looking at Fri, but then he looked away and sighed.

"Hice, can we talk?" I asked, taking my chance.

His eyes cut back to me and I could feel his normal aggressive tension slowly beginning to return. "No." 

I expected his response, but curiosity and the need to want to try and help made me step closer to him. He tensed and lifted his lip just enough to show me a few of his teeth in warning, but I just ignored the gesture and offered him a careful smile. 

"Is your arm feeling any better?" I tried, wanting to keep away from the topics he was less likely to talk about. 

He remained silent for a moment, sparing Oliver a look before returning his attention to me. 

"It's fine." 

Oliver had treated the injury, put in a few stitches, then wrapped it with a bandage. There were several old scars in the same area, almost overlapping, that were visible, too, but no one had dared to point them out. 

Licking my lips, I nervously glanced over at Oliver, then back to Hice. "Can we talk?" I asked again, taking a step toward the hallway and nodding in the direction of the pool. I had noticed he'd been scratching his skin off and on randomly, and hoped he'd take the chance to soak and I'd be able to speak to him a little more openly without anyone else around. 

After a few more minutes of silence Hice rolled his shoulders and silently walked out of the room. I waited a moment before following him out to the pool. He was already in the water by the time I got the door shut, his dorsal fin calmly cutting through the surface as he swam lazily beneath it. 

Since he'd removed his shorts to shift, I decided to do the same. I also couldn't completely trust him and preferred my tail when swimming. The water was warm as I slid in, my lower body changing as it got wet. I swam in place for a few moments as Hice circled around me. His actions made me grin. Parker had showed me a movie called Jaws, and it was quite funny to see Hice copying the fake shark in the film.