“Ah, I understand that.” The dean lightly patted her on the back. “However, I feel it is best if you are not left alone at the moment. We don’t want anything rash to happen.”
Eva made it out of the room before the rest of the conversation went on.
After it took ten minutes just to reach the end of the hallway, Eva had half a mind to ask to just walk. Her legs were fine. Floating let her keep her hands pinned between her legs, so she elected not to object.
If the professor dropped her, then she’d complain. Loudly. Possibly with some blood.
Professor Calvin did a good job keeping the hallways clear. Or there simply were no students on the way to the infirmary on a Saturday afternoon. Taking the back staircase rather than the main one couldn’t have hurt matters.
Thanks to the back staircase, they didn’t have to pass through the main entryway on their way to the nurse’s office.
A woman sitting behind the desk popped up as Eva floated into the office. She directed Alari to set Eva down on one of the beds in a side room. As soon as Eva hit the bed, the nurse shooed Alari out of the room.
The history teacher didn’t protest in the slightest. Her heart rate slowed slightly once she ended the spell. She’d probably run off and rest for a while.
“I heard there was a fight,” the nurse said. “Let’s see what the damage is, shall we?” She reached out towards Eva.
Eva pulled back, hands still pinched between her legs. “I’d rather not, if it is all the same.”
“It most certainly isn’t ‘all the same.’ I can see from here that your arm is bent in a way arms most certainly shouldn’t bend.”
Eva winced. She thought she was doing a good job at suppressing the pain. The reminder cracked open her mental wall. “That might be true. There are circumstances. I can’t–Can I talk to Zoe Baxter before we do anything?”
Where was the woman. Eva hadn’t thought about it, but she could teleport the same way Wayne Lurcher could. Why hadn’t she shown up instead of him?
The nurse stared at Eva for a long moment. She pulled out her cellphone and tapped away at it for a short moment before holding it up to her ear.
“No answer,” Nurse Naranga said. She slipped her phone back into her pocket.
“What? What would cause that?”
The nurse shrugged. “She’s busy. Or otherwise indisposed. I don’t keep up to the minute tabs on her.”
“Now, we need to reset that bone and get a bone mending tonic in you.” She reached towards Eva once again.
“I don’t think that is a good idea,” Eva said as she pulled away again.
The nurse put her hands on her hips. “Oh, and I suppose you have more healing certifications than I do?”
“No, but I have a… preexisting condition.”
That seemed to give her pause. For a moment. “That may be, but I need to take a look, at the very least. You can tell me about your condition while I examine you.”
Eva sighed as the nurse moved in. She pulled out her good hand.
A small squeak came from the nurse as she actually stumbled back. She quickly recovered her composure and marched forward. “Forgive me,” she said. “I just got startled for a moment.”
“Sure.”
She pulled Eva’s hand over and looked it over. She knocked against it and pulled all the fingers. “This is extraordinary. It is part of you.” The nurse’s fingers traced up the exoskeleton to the little curls that helped anchor it to her arm.
“Yep. If you took an x-ray, you wouldn’t find any bone in my hands. If you could see inside at all.” Eva tapped about halfway up her forearm. “My normal arm bones funnel out about here to connect to the exoskeleton. They grew holes to allow meat through. Or so I’ve been told, I haven’t actually seen it myself.”
“This happened in November?”
Eva nodded.
“I see.” She softened her voice as she let Eva’s arm drop. “Zoe told me some of the story, she wondered if anything could be done about your eyes. Even after I discussed it with the other medical officers, we couldn’t think of anything. We can regrow bones and some organs. Not eyes. If you still had them, we might be able to reattach them–if they weren’t rotten by now.”
“That’s fine,” Eva said. She never even met the nurse before. It was nice that they thought about that, but ultimately, Eva had her own plans. Partially. She still hadn’t even looked for a donor demon.
The nurse wrapped her knuckles on Eva’s forearm. “This, Zoe neglected to mention.”
“In any case,” Eva said, “I don’t know what will happen if I take anything that tries to regrow bones. I’d rather not have my hands destroy themselves trying to grow bones where they shouldn’t.”
“Understandable.”
It was surprising to Eva just how understanding the nurse was being. Maybe she should just wander around school without gloves on.
“We still need to fix that fracture on your arm. We’ll do it the old-fashioned way.” She smiled. “A cast.”
