Chapter 62: Seo’s Plan, Cullen’s Rage, And Officer Crowe!

The doctor looked at Seo and pointed at the door.

Seo looked at Ruaan on the bed. The drip was already in his hand. His face was flushed and his breathing was even but too shallow. He looked smaller than usual somehow, which Seo had not thought was possible.

"Outside," the doctor said again. "I need to focus."

Seo left.

He stood in the corridor outside the infirmary with his back against the wall and his arms folded and listened to the sounds of the facility moving around him. The distant noise of skill day still running. Someone laughing two blocks away.

He had not noticed when Ruaan left the electrical room.

He had been too busy arguing with Cullen and by the time he looked over, the seat was empty. Cullen was still talking on and on. He hadn’t noticed that Ruaan was simply gone.

He exhaled slowly.

’I shouldn’t have taken my eyes off him.’

He was suddenly interrupted by footsteps.

He lifted his head to see who it was.

Cullen came around the corner and stopped when he saw Seo standing there. He looked at the infirmary door. Back at Seo.

"Have you taken care of it?" Seo asked.

"Taken care of what?" Cullen asked, raising a brow. He suddenly realised that Seo knew what the situation was earlier.

"You bastard. It was just a reaction... Anyone in my situation could have reacted like that too,"

"Ha, right." Seo smirked.

"How is he," Cullen said, ignoring Seo.

"We’re waiting," Seo said. "The doctor asked us to stay out."

Cullen leaned against the opposite wall. He looked at the door for a moment. "How did he suddenly get a fever. He looked fine this morning." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Probably because he missed breakfast," Seo said.

"That wouldn’t cause this."

"He’s been stressed," Seo said. "Probably more than he’s showing. Three days until Thursday. New inmates arriving. Things he hasn’t processed." He shrugged. "His body gave up before his head did."

Cullen was quiet for a moment.

"His body is too weak for a place like this," Cullen said softly. Just factual. "He shouldn’t be here."

"Nobody should be here," Seo said. "That’s the point of it."

Cullen looked at him.

Seo looked back pleasantly.

"The first time I saw him," Cullen said, and then stopped.

Seo waited for Cullen to continue but... Cullen didn’t finish the sentence.

He pushed off the wall and moved to stand closer to the infirmary door, as if being physically nearer to it did something useful.

Seo watched him.

He was thinking. He was always thinking about something. The angle with Cullen was useful if managed carefully. Cullen was developing something for Ruaan that was going to become a problem unless it was redirected or used. Cullen’s anger was dangerous. Cullen focusing on a specific target was also dangerous.

He was considering which version was more useful when he heard footsteps again.

He looked up.

Harolin was walking toward them.

Seo stood up straighter automatically. He pushed himself off the wall and stepped forward and felt his heart doing the thing it did when Harolin was close, which was inconvenient and also completely outside his control.

Harolin reached them and looked at Seo directly.

Not past him or through him. At him. With full attention in the way Harolin usually reserved for problems he was actively solving or people he had his attention on.

It was because Ruaan wasn’t here to look at instead.

Seo knew that.

He still liked it.

"Where is Ruaan?" Harolin said.

"Inside. He has a fever." Seo kept his voice steady. "The doctor is with him."

"Why didn’t you tell me?" Harolin’s voice was even but the evenness was doing work. "When did it start?"

"You told me to stay away from you," Seo said simply. "How was I supposed to approach you?"

Something moved across Harolin’s jaw. He stepped past Seo and pushed the infirmary door open and went inside without waiting for a response.

Seo watched the door close.

He thought about the two seconds of direct eye contact.

He dragged his lower lip between his teeth and stared at the door.

"Hey."

Cullen stepped into his line of sight and waved a hand in front of his face.

Seo blinked.

"What is going on," Cullen said. "Why is that officer acting like that about Ruaan? How close are they?"

Seo looked at him.

He thought about what he wanted to happen in the next few days. About the four-person arrangement, he had explained to Oren in the gym. About the fact that Harolin’s attention was always on Ruaan and rarely anywhere else and the only reliable way to redirect that attention was to give Harolin a different problem.

Cullen was standing right in front of him looking like a very useful problem.

"You asked me before," Seo said, "if Ruaan and I were together. I said no."

Cullen nodded.

"If I think about it harder." Seo leaned back against the wall. "Those two are the ones who are together."

Cullen’s eyes went wide.

He stared at Seo.

"Officer and prisoner relationships are forbidden," Cullen said. His voice had gone quiet in a specific way. The quiet that came before something loud.

"Yes," Seo agreed.

"How dare he?" Cullen’s jaw was tight. "I don’t care what his rank is. There are rules. There are procedures. If he’s been touching Ruaan while pretending to be just an officer then I’ll have him fired. Reported. Removed."

"That sounds like a plan," Seo said pleasantly.

"Don’t encourage me," Cullen said.

"I’m not encouraging you," Seo said. "I’m agreeing with you. If you feel strongly about the rules being followed, you have every right to report it." He pushed his glasses up. "Of course, getting Ruaan away from him would be a bonus."

Cullen looked at him.

"I know what you’re doing," Cullen said.

"I’m just supporting the correct application of facility rules," Seo said.

Cullen stared at him for another second. Then he turned back toward the infirmary door and said nothing and stood there with his hands at his sides thinking about something that Seo could not see but could very easily guess at.

Seo folded his hands behind his back and waited.

’This should be fun.’

.

.

Inside the infirmary, the doctor finished adjusting the drip and stepped back and nearly walked into Harolin.

He flinched.

Harolin looked at the drip. At the colour in Ruaan’s face. At the steadiness of his breathing.

"How serious is it?" Harolin said.

The doctor pushed his glasses up and composed himself. "A fever. His body is weak. He’ll recover with rest and fluids." He looked at Ruaan and then back at Harolin. "For someone who has only been here two weeks, his body is under considerable strain. The food here is not what he’s used to. His system is adjusting."

"I’ll deal with the food situation," Harolin said.

"His immune system needs support. Rest is the most important thing right now." The doctor moved toward the door. "I’ll check back in thirty minutes."

He left.

Harolin pulled the metal stool close to the bed and sat down.

He looked at Ruaan’s face. The flush across his cheeks. The slightly parted lips. The long lashes against his skin.

He took his hand, turned it over once and pressed his mouth to the back of it briefly and quietly.

"Open your eyes, Ru," he said in a low voice with just the two of them in the room.

Ruaan didn’t move.

But Harolin stayed.

He put his head down on the edge of the bed after a while. He had not slept well. The meeting had run long and he had gone directly to Ruaan’s room after and found the wet towel and then found Seo and now he was here.

He did not mean to sleep but he did.

He was pulled out of it by something on his head. A hand.

He raised his head.

Ruaan was awake.

His eyes were open and looking at Harolin and the hand that had been in his hair pulled back slowly.

Harolin’s face was immediately filled with relief that lasted for about two seconds before the composure came back.

"Ruaan," he said.

Ruaan looked at him with a colder expression.

"Why are you here?" Ruaan asked.

Harolin looked at him. "You’re sick. I came to—"

"Where is Seo?" Ruaan said. "You don’t need to stay." He moved his hand away from the space near Harolin’s. "We don’t have that kind of relationship, Officer Crowe."

The name landed in the room.

Not Harolin. Not Lily. Not even a shortened nothing.

Officer Crowe?

Harolin sat very still on the metal stool and looked at Ruaan’s face and felt something in his chest do something he did not have an easy word for. A small crack.

He said nothing as he continued looking at Ruaan.

Outside in the corridor, the facility continued around them without caring what was happening in here.

Harolin looked at the hand he had been holding a minute ago, it wasn’t close to him anymore.

’What happened?’ he thought. ’What did I miss?’