Cory

Markus lost his left eye. He didn't act like he minded so much, just shrugged it off and said that we all got hurt. "Even Miles has a bump on his head," he said. "I'd feel pretty left out if I didn't get a part of it all, too."

"But you lost your eye!" He had this white bandage over it, so it's not like I could see that it was gone, but the doctor explained to us all how he had to remove what was left of the eyeball to keep it from festering. Just the idea grossed me out. I mean, his face looked pretty bad anyway. The doctor said he should have had stitches to close up the wounds, but by the time we got him to the hospital, the gashes in his face had already started to heal, so it was too late for stitches. Instead, the doctor promised that he'd have some pretty nasty-looking scars.

Anyway, I didn't want to make him feel bad about all that, I just wanted him to know that it's okay to be sad about losing an eye. He didn't have to just shrug it off. Miles elbowed me after that comment and gave me a look like I needed to just let it go, so I did.

A bunch of Townies from the Midtown Station offered to drive us all home in the limo that Mikkel sold them--or gave them, I should say. We met them at the curb in front of the hospital--half of us in wheelchairs, including me and Piper. Piper didn't look so banged up on the outside, but apparently, he had some minor internal bruises that kept him from moving too much.

Miles had to help me into the car. It wasn't just my stitched up side that hurt. My shoulder, which had been healing before I had to climb all over the Docks to find a way in, was swollen real bad. The doctor took and x-ray and said that my collar bone was busted, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do for it at that point. He gave me a pack of ice and would have given me a sling, but he said the hospital was low on supplies. One of the last slings went to Mikkel, whose whole arm was a riddled mess of broken.

The Townies kept quiet all the way to the house. They tried to smile at us and all, but I don't think any of them knew what to say.

There were a bunch of people at the house, and even Steven offered to come by later and see how we were holding up. He just had to go home and check on his wife, first. When we walked in the door, Anna came running up to greet us, but stopped short had to cover her shock from seeing Markus like that. She didn't do a good job about it, though. Really she just toned down her shock.

"Markus! What in the world happened to you? Are you okay?" She cupped his face gently with her hands and stood on tiptoe to look at him.

"I'm fine," Markus said. His smile bent the bandages over his nose. "We all got a little banged up, but we're all fine."

"This isn't 'fine,'" Ingrid said like she was mad at him for getting hurt. "You look like someone tried to butcher you. Come. Let's get you something to eat and maybe you'll heal faster. It works with Cory, anyway."

I put my hand on Ingrid's shoulder and leaned in close to her ear. "I don't think that trick will work with him."

Miles pulled me off of her. "Come on, Cory. Let's get you to bed. I think these painkillers are starting to affect your head."

I shrugged him off. "I'm fine," I said. "I just came back from the dead. I can handle painkillers just as well as Mikkel can."

I turned around to find Mikkel, but he wasn't standing where I thought he was. He lay in a deep sleep on the couch next to the entry way. Piper sat uncomfortably at the far end near his feet, holding his stomach with his arms and looking like he was going to fall to the floor.

"Listen, I understand that this young man needs a place to sleep just as much as that woman you brought in last time," Ingrid said, going over to put her hand on Piper's back. "But I am not going to have a man sleeping in the maid's quarters with my daughter and me. And if we're going to keep taking in injured people, I suggest you buy more beds."

"He can sleep in Mikkel's room," Miles said.

And with that, we all scattered to different parts of the house. It wasn't until days later, when any of us managed to pull ourselves out of a fog of painkillers and mourning that we realized what the Townies had done for our house. We also found Don hanging around on one of the old couches in the great room. Apparently he never left.