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When the hospital staff finally saw fit to give the boy his cellphone back, his first instinct was to contact Gale and let her know. He was unconscious for at least a few hours and had no idea who all had been informed of the attack. Did the news know? Did his father know?

Zach’s text was an attempt to keep Gale informed, but noticeably devoid of specifics. He thought perhaps she would be upset with him for winding up in the hospital. Hey babe! Sorry this is kinda sudden but I'm in the hospital. No big deal tho, just a lil busted up. I owe you a dinner to make it up to you. I'll get my room number if you wanna drop by. Please don't be mad!

When Gale arrived at record speed, his actual condition was much worse than what his text might have implied - he had a bandage about his head covering stitches required to hold the wound closed, a black eye, extensive bruising on his upper body (the lower portion being covered by blankets) and a broken right arm held in a sling. He seemed sheepish at her arrival, embarrassed that he'd ended up in this mess.

Zach blushed furiously at Gale and the bear. “Aww, babe, I should be the one gettin’ you a bear…” He tried reaching up to give her a hug, but found his movement was too restricted with the bruising and his broken limb. “Look, I… I'm sorry about this, Gale. Did it end up on the news…?”

Zach looked down at his lap, ashamed. Briefly, before the battle really heated up, he considered calling her for help, but was thankful in the end that he didn't. “Well… basically, remembered that rhino you saved my a** from? Well, he had like, a bajillion friends and one of them was a giant, skeletal chicken-bird-thing. Some whorebag from the Negaverse brought Chickenzilla in outta nowhere and some of us got a distress call from Denebola…”

He quieted suddenly when a nurse passed by the open door. When she disappeared, Zach continued. “Denebola taught me a lot, so when she said she was in danger and needed help, I kinda just… ran for it. Honestly, I’d rather be in this spot than you. It'd kill me if you were in this sling n’ s**t. I couldn't even fight, Gale. I got knocked around like a piece of paper in the wind…”

He wasn't a super Senshi, not like Gale. She was much more powerful than he was. “My sister was there too. When Chickenzilla hit the scene, she said we couldn't leave it cuz it would ******** up the whole city… and I thought, I couldn't live with myself if we let it go and it went by your neighborhood, you know?”

Zach looked away from her, ashamed that he still couldn't do a damned thing against the Negaverse. He wanted to make Gale proud…

“You shoulda seen the Nega. I think... he probably got it way worse than I did, hehe. Besides, now I have a pretty lady fawning over me. What more could a guy ask for?”

He winked with his good eye.

“Nah, I mean…” He took in a breath, winced when he realized that hurt, and let the breath go in a long and drawn-out sigh. “...I mean, I wanna make you proud someday, Gale. You… you saved my life. I did something dumb and nearly got… you know.” Zach couldn't bring himself to say it. The silence was thick and uncomfortable. He shook his head after a few moments. “...I thought, maybe this is my chance. Maybe I can show Gale that I'm not totally useless with stupid shoes… heh, I even tried throwin’ one but ended up whiffing pretty bad.”

“Lesson learned, I guess. Stick by Gale, she knows what she's doin’. I mean, you are pretty super, in more ways than one.”

He chuckled at her joke too, imagining what a bucket of fried Themisto-pieces might look like. “Hopefully we’ll never know if I taste better with ranch or with barbecue sauce! But yeah, as far as I know, my sister’s okay. She got reeeaaal mad at me but she can bite my a**.”

YEAH. Determined face.

Zach couldn’t help but laugh. “Aww, babe, don’t say that. Your jokes are great, okay?” Even though chuckling hurt, and his face was swollen from the black eye (thus making smiling uncomfortable), the boy found more relief than pain. He reached over his body with his functioning left arm to touch her cheek. “Truthfully though… You were the first person I contacted, Gale. I… really care about you, okay?”

He figured his sister would have notified their father of both sibling’s injuries, especially since Zach was unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time. Zach thought it might be time to answer Gale’s other question. “Yeah, she knows about us. She said,” he straightened up and tried to put on his snootiest face possible. ”My my, someone looks bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. and I was like, yeah, I’m twitter-pated, jealous much? And then she gave me the whole you’re really dumb but I wanna know all the details so I can be your weird mouth-breathing older sister cuz that’s my job.”

With a sigh, Zach rolled his eyes. Well, the one good eye.

“Anyway, I think I heard the nurse say she’s around here someplace. Probably bein’ a creep and talkin’ funny at people, like usual. If I get the sudden urge to hock a spitwad, I’ll know she’s nearby. Like, Little Brother Radar, hehe.”

He wasn’t sure if that cheered Gale up or not. Honestly, he really enjoyed her presence and her smile especially. “They said the swelling will go down in a day or two and then they’re gonna stick my arm in one of those nifty 3D printed cast things. I asked ‘em to make it green, just like your hair. We’ll see if they come through, yeah?”

“Whatever, babe. I like your jokes, so there. I ain’t a liar.”

Truthfully, since he was so used to his sister, Zach understood why she might sound scary based on his description. Zach thought about it for a few moments and gently shrugged his shoulders. “Nah, she's not scary. She's just kinda… always been kinda awkward. I mean, you know, real book-y.” What a way with words, Zach.

“‘Course I think she'd like you. I dunno why she wouldn't. I mean… you're strong and funny and beautiful and kind…” Zach made a point to start listing off all of Gale’s positive qualities in quick succession, immediately running out of fingers on which to count. “...and brave and a great sense of humor.”

He stuck his tongue out playfully at Gale. “Babe, why you so hard on yourself? If I didn't like you, I wouldn't a spent all that time makin’ googly eyes at you.”

Now that she mentioned it, Zach did feel pretty exhausted. Maybe he’d pushed himself too hard, trying to stay away just to see Gale. In truth, he really did love to see her, and see her face and listen to her voice, though it broke his heart to see her so upset. That wasn’t his intention at all. The promise to go patrolling together had Zach beaming like a spotlight. “Yeah… yeah, I’d like that. That sounds… real nice…”

He struggled to stay away just a little bit longer, if only to have Gale make a promise. “Babe… you gotta promise me… you gotta be careful, okay? Ain’t… ain’t nobody touchin’ mah gurl or… you know… get all… badass on ‘em…”

Apparently, the boy’s grammar became more and more atrocious the sleepier he became. His sentence trailed off into soft snoring when he laid his head back down on the pillow.