Isolation Play (Dev and Lee) (66 page)

I gesture to Vogt as he sits down. “Probably,” he says. “That chief looks like he’d keep you as long as he could. Speaking of which, we should walk over to the hospital now.”

“
I’ll take care of this,” my father says, getting his wallet out. Vogt doesn’t argue.

We walk over to the hospital together, Vogt still going on about some small-town case he took on and won. It feels comfortable walking beside my father, a morning walk over cold, snowy streets. The sun is trying hard to break through the clouds, but has not yet managed to succeed. We don’t really talk, but we don’t have to. I already know my father’s storing up some of the things he’s thinking, just like I am, to talk about later. And to be honest, I’m not exactly itching to get to the hospital. I’m pretty happy to be out of jail, but the hospital doesn’t feel much more open, as we come up to the large white complex.

It is the same one Dev took me to, I see now. I recognize the emergency room entrance, though it looks brighter during the day, even with the cloud cover. I slow down, and my father keeps pace with me. I point to my splint. “Second time I’ve been to this hospital in two months.”

He looks at my paw, then up at the hospital. “Maybe they have a frequent patient program you can join.”

“
Only if there’s a family plan.”

I’m happy to see a slight smile on his muzzle. Only as we hurry to catch up to Vogt does it occur to me that I just referred to Mikhail as family.

It’s not really close to ten when we get there, but we’re told that Mikhail is awake, and we can see him at ten. We set up in the waiting area while Vogt coaches me on things to say and not to say. “Don’t admit guilt. Get him to say he started it, if you can. At least make sure he doesn’t get away with saying you did. And don’t apologize. Also, don’t tell him you were in jail already. He might see that as an admission of guilt.”

“
What
can
I say to him?” My father catches the sarcasm, I see from the quirk of his lips and quick flick back and forth of his ears, but Vogt doesn’t.

“
Ask how he’s doing. If he says he’s not hurt, that’s good.”

“
I’ll try to lead him on.”

That, he catches. “Look, one word can make a huge difference,” he says. “I’ve seen people with the best of intentions lose everything because they said the wrong thing in front of the wrong people.”

I feel rather defiant, having won a fight, or at least survived, and having spent a night in jail. Knowing that Mikhail isn’t dead or in a coma or something helps, even if I’m here in the hospital and can feel how tenuous my situation is. “I can take care of myself.”

“
Not in a courtroom, you can’t.” His eyes fix mine until I look away. “Okay? Okay.”

He coaches me until five to ten, when the chief arrives, with a different officer accompanying him, a tiger. They talk to the nurse at registration, and then sit on the opposite side of the waiting room from where we are. Vogt doesn’t say any more to me after that.

When visiting hours do open, the chief muscles past us and tries to keep us out, until Vogt’s insistence that I have a right to be present to hear any charges made against me wins out. Father has to wait outside, because they’ll only technically allow two visitors at a time. The doctor, a short grey wolf, makes an exception for me to have a lawyer there, but she won’t allow anyone else.

I’m surprised to see Duscha sitting on a chair beside Mikhail’s bed. I guess she doesn’t count as a visitor. She’s wearing a plain dress, and her fur looks matted in spots. There’s a second bed, empty but disheveled, so I’m guessing she spent the night here. The television in the corner of the room is playing a game show. Duscha clicks it off as we enter.

Mikhail looks worse, but not as bad as I’d feared. His hospital robes barely conceal his large frame, and the bandage on his head is just a square of gauze. I can see around the edges that the fur’s been shaved there. The gauze isn’t bloody, which is a relief.

They both look up as we enter. Duscha’s eyes widen when she sees me; Mikhail’s narrow.

“
Mickey!” The chief rushes up before anyone else has a chance to say anything. “How ya feelin’?”

“
Good enough.” Mikhail keeps looking at me. “Sore.”

“
Course, course. Don’t worry, you’ll be up and fixin’ transmissions before we know it.”

“
Ivan fixes the transmissions,” Mikhail says.

“
The doctor says he can go home this afternoon, probably.” Duscha speaks up gently. “Tomorrow at the latest. They did an EEG as a precaution.”

The chief shadow-punches Mikhail. “Tough guy like you.”

“
Thank you, Ken.” Mikhail clears his throat and points at me. “Why is he here?”

“
Well, look. We need to get a statement from ya about what happened yesterday. Need to know if you wanna press charges.”

“
Charges?” He looks faintly confused. “I fell.”

The wolverine jerks a thumb back toward me. “He says you threw a punch at him and he dodged, and pulled you down. Says you hit your head on the toolbox by accident.” He tries to make the last two words sarcastic, but he’s no fox.

Vogt, beside me, sighs. I speak low enough that the small-eared wolverine and tigers don’t catch it. “I had to tell the truth,” I say.

He whispers similarly back. “There are a lot of honorable people in jail.”

“
One less, as of this morning.”

He snorts. Mikhail, meanwhile, has returned his attention to the chief. “It does not matter.” Mikhail sighs. “I do not remember.”

“
The fight?”

The large tiger reaches up to his whiskers, grooming them. “I remember this fox, coming to the garage. I have...argued with him in the past. We exchanged words, he touched my shirt. I pushed him away.” His eyebrows crease. “That is all I remember.”

“
You could press charges,” the chief says. “Battery, probably assault.”

“
Assault?” Mikhail says the word as though it’s a foreign word he’s hearing for the first time.

Vogt steps forward. “I’d better not hear any leading,” he says.

“
Let the guy make up his own mind,” the wolverine snarls.

“
Exactly what I’m trying to do.” Vogt folds his arms. “If he wishes, he can certainly bring charges and have a very public trial in which everyone will hear about how this...” He pauses. “...fox put him in the hospital.”

Mikhail glares up at Vogt. “None of this is necessary. It is just a fight.”

Duscha, to my surprise, speaks. “Mikhail will not press charges,” she says. She looks at me. “But not because he does not remember, and not because he is ashamed, and not because you stayed and tended to his injury.” Now her husband turns his head, staring at her with the rest of us. “He will not press charges because you did not.”

Mikhail turns back to me. His ears are flat, his eyes still hard, but he nods, once. “I...lost my temper.”

“
So did I,” I say, quickly.

“
You don’t have to listen to them,” the chief says.

Vogt coughs. He steps between Mikhail and the wolverine, and faces the chief. “I believe I heard a decision. Do you need anything else from him?”

“
We need ta get his story. For the record.”

“
I see.” He makes a show of checking the time on his phone. “You need that this minute?”

The chief cranes his neck to look around the large wolf. “Mickey, you let the doc know if you need me for anything, okay? Anything. I’ll send someone right over.”

Vogt tries to usher all of us out. I turn, and the television in the corner catches my eye. My insight surfaces again in my mind, stubborn. I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I have to take the chance. I have to believe in myself. I look back at Dev’s parents. “Mind if I stay?”

“
I don’t think it’s advisable.” The wolf gives me a push between the shoulderblades. He hasn’t touched the chief, who’s waiting to see what happens.

Mikhail sounds tired. “I do not want to talk to him.”

“
There,” the chief says. “You heard him.”

But again, Duscha speaks up. “I would like him to stay.”

Again, we all stare. “Duscha,” Mikhail starts, but she cuts him off.

“
He stayed to tend your wound. You—we—should do him the courtesy of hearing what he has to say.” She sits firmly upright.

“
I’ll be quick,” I promise. “Five minutes. Ten if you say something back.”

“
No.” Mikhail growls it, but Duscha lays a paw on his arm.

“
Yes,” she says.

He looks at her and then exhales, a long, exaggerated sigh. “Fine. Five minutes.”

“
You heard him.” Vogt ushers the chief out of the room. He turns at the doorway and points at me. “I don’t need to tell you to stay five feet back from the bed at all times, right?”

I hold up a paw. “Promise.”

They close the door, leaving me with Dev’s parents. Mikhail affects boredom, but I see the twitching of his tail under the covers. Duscha’s expression is mildly encouraging.

I arch my tail and walk toward them, until the scent of tiger overwhelms the sterile hospital smell. I stop there, standing awkwardly, tail swishing slowly behind me. A beam of sunlight brightens between me and Mikhail. He squints, looking like he’s about to be given a dose of foul-tasting medicine.

That doesn’t make it easier to talk to him. I kinda want to start yelling at him, to say that if he’d just listened to me, he wouldn’t be in the hospital. It’s hard to know where to begin. So I start with the easy thing, the one I know I have to say and want to get out of the way. “I’m sorry,” I say. “About the fight.”

He nods, curtly. “I mean,” I go on, “I’m not sorry I came here. There’s stuff you needed to hear. Still do.”

“
I am not interested in what you think I need,” he says.

I hook my thumbs into my pockets, resisting the temptation to get closer. “I think you are,” I say. “I really didn’t come up here to start a fight.”

“
I know that.” He looks scornful.

“
But you came down to start one.”

At that, he looks uncomfortable. Duscha gives him a sharp look. “I...came down to listen to you.”

I laugh shortly. “It’s okay,” I say. “I expected you to want to fight. I thought I could convince you not to.”

Duscha speaks up. “He was going to tell you that he doesn’t have to come back with Devlin. And...”

“
He told me that.” Mikhail tries not to be curious about the rest. I see the tail twitching, though.

This is the part I’d thought would be tough. Doing it for Dev helps a lot. Also it helps to know it’ll annoy Mikhail when he thinks about our fight. “I was going to say that you don’t have to think your son is...well, whatever you think gay people are. But I didn’t realize that...” I curl my tail around my leg and glance at Duscha. “That’s not what you were worried about.”

“
You have no idea what I am worried about,” Mikhail says, but it’s slow, not as combative as his attitude in the garage.

“
You were right about a lot of things,” I say. “Sort of. I never tried to pull Dev away from you. But.” I bite my lip. They’re both staring at me. “I wasn’t exactly pushing him toward you, either.”

“
Devlin makes his own choices,” Duscha says. “We know he loves us.”

“
Yeah,” I say. “But he’s afraid of losing that. And I’m not exactly doing great with my own family. My mother...” I pause. Mikhail yawns; Duscha sits politely, but it’s clear that my family history isn’t of great interest. I hurry it up. “She won’t talk to me. Because I’m gay. So naturally, I thought that’s what you were doing to Dev. I didn’t realize until last night that you’re not.”

“
Do not believe that I approve of...this.” Mikhail’s paw waves lazily in my direction, encompassing me, my relationship with Dev, and anything else in the vicinity.

“
I don’t,” I say. “But I also know that’s not why you’re angry. Not the main reason.”

The affected boredom vanishes. Mikhail’s tail stops dead. “Go on,” Duscha says.

“
See, all I heard from Dev was the problems with the family,” I say. “All that stuff I said in the garage, about you needing to be more supportive, it’s true. I heard that from Dev. But I never heard the good part, the part that mattered.” I take a breath. “For that, too, I’m sorry.”