Echo Book 2

15. Doctor

Malax and I wake up early and make love for an hour. Then we go over to an obstacle course. I haven't seen anyone doing this thing. It looks fun though. I climb a rope wall then repel down an actual wall. Then I climb a rock wall. Halfway up, Malax goes to the meeting and tells me to be careful. It reminds me a lot of a playground. I can see why he wouldn't want to be here. But the stuff is challenging. Maybe he doesn't want to work out this early.

I climb a ladder and go over monkey bars. A damn snake bird lands in front of me and I freak out for a second. I drop. Pain shoots through my leg immediately. I try to get up and fall in the sand. I cry and try to crawl. Then I give up. I lay there and peek at my leg. The bone is poking out of my ankle. It doesn't feel good at all. I don't know what to do other than cry. It hurts like hell.

Tim picks me up and I wrap around him. "Get Tye. Is Omar here?"

"No, sir."

"It'll be ok, baby." He carries me towards the workplace.

I shake my head and cry harder.

Tye looks at my leg. "Get Malax to our ship. We're taking her up."

Tim bounces me. "Why?"

"This is a bad break."

Tim rubs my back as I cry harder. "Relax. We'll get it." He carries me in a shuttle and we go up.

He lays me on a table so gently.

Malax and Dipak come in. "What happened, babygirl?" He rubs my hair.

"I fell off the monkey bars."

"That happens sometimes. It's going to be ok."

"We have to align the bones. We suggest she gets put under first."

I cry so hard and shake my head.

Tim kisses my head. "You can't stay awake for this, baby. I won't leave you."

"It won't take very long, Echo. But the pain will be excruciating if you stay awake." The doctor looks at Malax and Tim. "Once we get the bone aligned, Tye should be able to heal it."

They nod and I feel very heavy. It's so sudden. I try to move my arm and it falls over. Blackness takes over my vision.

I open my eyes and I feel better. Nothing hurts. Tim is sitting on a chair watching me. He winks. I like him.

The doctor comes in. "Welcome back, Echo. How are you feeling?"

"Nothing hurts."

"I like to hear that." He shines a light in my eyes. "I believe Tye was able to heal all the minor injuries. I was able to reset the leg. Then Tye healed around that. I want you to sit up and eat some lunch. Then I'll come back and make sure there's still no pain. Can you do that for me?"

"Ok."

"Great. I'll be back in a half hour."

I try to sit up and the room spins. I lay right back down.

"Baby, it's been another hour. Try to sit with me." Tim picks me up and sits with me on his lap. "He really knocked you on your ass."

I cuddle with him. "You're so warm."

"You're so soft. Can you stretch your toes for me?" I stretch my legs 1 at a time and wiggle my toes. "Does that hurt?" I shake my head. He goes through nearly every body part before I wake up. Then he puts me in my own chair and we eat lunch.

Then the doctor comes back. "Good you're awake. Did you eat?"

Tim shakes his head. "Not much."

"How come?"

"My stomach hurts."

"Sometimes medicine does that. Did you eat some?"

"Yea."

"As long as you can keep food down. That's what I'm watching for. Don't make her eat a lot today. Let her pick at it as she wants. She'll probably take a couple naps. The medicine is hard on humans. She'll be good by tomorrow. I need to see you walk before I let you go. Can you make it to the hallway and back to your seat?"

I spin around too fast in the hallway and nearly fall, but I save it.

"She's waking up fast now. I saw no problems with her walking. You're not in any pain?"

"No, doctor."

"Good. I'm going to let you go. Will you bring her up tomorrow morning? I want to do a follow-up on her."

"Yes that's fine."

"Remember, don't push food too much. Make sure she drinks enough though. Take it easy tonight. Naps are good."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." He holds the door for us.

I make it halfway to the shuttle station, then Tim carries me.

"Where is Malax?"

"Probably halfway through the destruction of a playground."

"But no. It was fun. I fell. It was my own fault. I let go."

"When the doctor aligned your bone it made a hell of a crack sound. Malax then blamed Dipak for everything. He started yelling and demanding it come down. I kicked him out. He didn't need to be yelling that much in the medical area anyway."

"You stayed with me?"

"The whole time, baby. I wasn't going to leave you alone."

I hug him. "Thank you."

Then we're on the planet. I don't even remember getting on the shuttle.

"There's my girl. Are you better?"

"My leg is fixed." I go to Malax and hold out my leg.

"That is better, baby. Good job."

"The doctor said not to push food today. She needs to take naps and relax. Drink lots of water. The medicine messed with her. But she's alright. I told him I would take her up tomorrow morning for a follow-up."

"That'll work. I'm working on making this safer."

I yawn. I can't stay awake.

Next time I wake up, I'm in bed. I stretch and wiggle around. I'm so warm. I go to the kitchen to find a snack. Alden and Tim are at the table. I ignore them and find some crackers. "What day is it?"

"Same day, baby." Tim gets me some water.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to talk Tim into coming back to work."

"What's Malax doing?"

"Driving everyone f*****g nuts about that stupid obstacle course."

"Malax won't let Tim go back to work right now."

"What?"

"Try and find out." I smirk.

Tim shakes his head. "Do I need to take you back to the doctor? You seem confused."

"You can go back to work. I'll try to make Malax stop."

"Thank you." Alden damn near tries to hug me.

"YOU'RE MY SISTERS MATE AND I'M NOT A WHORE." I run out the door and around the corner. I have no idea where the hell I am. There's a wall here. I go the other way and find a door. I was in a first floor room in another building. Interesting.

I ponder around and find Malax beside the obstacle course. He's yelling at brains now. They are adding safety stuff.

"What are you doing?"

"Making sure this is safe for kids. People are going to bring their kids. They're all going to be injured if we don't fix it."

I hug him. "It does seem like a big playground."

"I know, baby. I'm sorry I didn't pay attention earlier. I figured it would be safe for you to climb around. You did the first few steps perfectly. I didn't see any issues."

"It's not your fault. A bird showed up and scared me. I let go of the bar. It was fun until then. But I agree with you, kids will be drawn to this, and they'll get hurt. You could add safety nets under the tall things."

"I'm making them shorter. Safety nets are a good idea too."

"Will you please leave the zip line? I really want to do that?" I snuggle him and yawn.

"I'll see what I can do. We need to make it safe for little kids." He picks me up and holds me.

"Tell me before they take it down. I want to try it."

"I will. Where did Tim go?"

"Alden made him go back to work. I was eating crackers. I'm hungry, I think."

We get to the work building at the same time Alden and Tim do. Malax hands me to Tim. "She's hungry. I have to fix the thing."

"Malax, he has to..." Alden gets punched in the face.

"f**k you. Asshole. He doesn't have to do shit." Malax walks back towards the obstacle course.

Alden rubs his face. "He is on a serious power trip."

Tim shakes his head. "He's in shock. This is a lot, Alden. He was a normal human on a planet a month ago."

I smile. "He's only 30. He built Phade Enterprise from nothing. He's one of the richest men on my planet. He's built everything he has from nothing in about 10 years. He's highly focused and goal-driven. He's a very smart man. But yea, this is a lot for us. Shock is playing into it. But right now, he has a goal, and he will let nothing get in his way. Call it a power trip if you want. Or just stay out of his way. Let's go in the side door so we don't disturb people."

"I'm not going to leave you on the balcony alone. Are you hungry, baby?"

"I can get a snack there. You can use my desk on the balcony. I sit on the chairs, so I can see better anyway."

I sit by the rail and put a wheel table in front of me. I get some paper. Then I order Victor's nuts. Tim uses my desk. He's fine back there.

I listen to Tre talk about law changes for half an hour. Then Kehlani takes the floor. She talks about unifying her planets. She wants more travel between them. Then a man stands up from the planet leaders and talks about his ideas. But his ideas are only for his people. I lay over 2 seats, and he talks me to sleep.

Tim sits beside me after a while. "You want to go back to bed, baby?"

"No. I have an idea too. But he won't stop talking."

"What's your idea?"

"This place. This place and these buildings are for my people. I bought them." He nods. "But we could put another resort right by this one. Then another planet can visit here for vacations. It's a different planet, and they can meet people from another planet. Have a dance party for everyone, or something."

"That is a good idea."

"We could even make the planets pay for their own resort and ship. We could lay down rules. They must be 1-week vacations. Sunday to Saturday or something like that."

"Keep them the same." I nod and he stands up. "We hear you Frank. We may have an idea."

Frank finally shuts up.

"If a planet can pay to have a resort, like this one, on this planet. And can buy a ship. Your people will be allowed week-long vacations here at your resort. The resort and ship will be owned by your planet. This planet is owned by Echo, but she would allow it. This idea would be open to 1 or 2 planets to see if it would work. If you're interested in something like this, we will sit for a meeting later."

"Yes, I would like that very much, sir."

"Great. Kehlani, go ahead."

Dipak sits beside me. "I didn't think he was ever going to shut up."

Tim laughs. "That's Frank. We have to hang up on him sometimes. And I don't know if Alden will sell the ships. I had to try something to shut him up though."

I smile. "I appreciate it. He made me sleep."

Dipak rubs his face. "He about made everyone sleep. You can always make your own ships too."

Tim nods. "That's a good idea. Build them to transport vacationers. And deal with the vacation food. They don't need weapons areas, warships, and all that shit."

"You do need a medical area though. This little 1 proved that. Keep a doctor from the main planet on it. Also, maybe rent them. If you sell them, those assholes can fly anywhere they want."

"True. And thank you for letting us use your doctor. Nobody else even had one here." Tim writes something down, and I lean onto his arm. He's warm. My eyes go shut on their own.