(BL) Taming the Field Guide-Chapter 31: A complication

When Rhys came bursting into the Medical Bay with Kellen in his arms, Taylor looked up at them and sighed.

"What did you do?" She asked, sounding tired but the look in Rhys’ gaze must have told her it was something more serious.

"He collapsed suddenly." Rhys said and that got everyone’s attention.

"He what?" Taylor asked, looking horrified. Kellen clarified.

"I got another...power surge I guess? I saw the future again." Kellen told her casually and watched as Taylor lost almost all colour. Carlos, who was also there, looked pissed.

"You never told me you could do that!" He hissed, annoyed. "I didn’t have all the variables!" He protested and Kellen chuckled.

"I forgot." Kellen admitted, and he had. There had been so many other things on his plate that forgetting he could sometimes see the future was possible. Rhys squeezed him.

"Can we check him? Please? To see if anything has gone wrong?" He was pleading with them. Taylor didn’t hesitate.

"Of course. Get him to a clean bed, and we’ll get started." And that was where the rest of Kellen’s afternoon went. He was supposed to get supplies for Charlie, he was supposed to do some studying. He was supposed to do a lot of things.

Instead, he was being poked and prodded by a medical team that he had literally seen earlier that day. Only a few hours ago.

An anxious Rhys stood in the corner of the room that had been marked out for Espers to wait in as their Guides got medical treatment. It was taped on the floor. Kellen would have laughed if he didn’t have damn headlights on him the whole time.

"Rhys, calm down, or else I’ll get pissed." Kellen croaked at one point, The headlights went away, but were followed by sighs instead. Kellen would take it, considering he nearly went blind every time he checked on how Rhys was doing.

The tests took a while, with mostly others doing them since Taylor and Carlos did have other priorities at the moment. It was clear that Rhys wasn’t happy about it. From a Captain’s perspective, he knew that they were doing the best that they could. From an S Class Esper perspective? He was pissed his Guide wasn’t getting the best treatment.

Kellen knew that he was. The team was highly competent, Rhys was just being unreasonable right now. The only reason Kellen was remaining as calm as he was was because he didn’t feel any different.

While it had been a while, he remembered what it was like to fight the poison in his system. He was not feeling that way currently. He was a little tired, his eyes ached, and he was jittery, but he didn’t feel like he was fighting the urge to go into that eternal slumber that the rest of the crew was doing at the moment.

Rhys would not be convinced of that until someone told him that. So, the tests continued until Kellen noticed that a few of the scientists and doctors were a little...different. They weren’t being obvious about it, but since Kellen was coming in every two days to get tested, he could tell when something was different. He didn’t want to alert Rhys of that fact yet, since it was clear he was going to take it to the negative side of things.

It could be a positive. Kellen’s thoughts shifted slightly when both Taylor and Carlos were called over and while Rhys couldn’t see them through the doorway, Kellen could. That had to be intentional since a normal Esper wouldn’t be able to sense that the other two Espers were there.

Rhys however, turned a dead eyed look towards where he could sense the other Espers talking just out of his line of sight.

"Rhys." Kellen called, pulling his attention towards him. Rhys turned and stared at him. He blinked once, twice, and then turned back to stare at where Taylor and Carlos were chatting. The others couldn’t tell, since they were still nervous, but Kellen could tell that there was a difference. He had calmed down slightly, enough that Kellen didn’t think he needed to get up out of the bed and stop him.

Kellen waited. And waited. And waited, until finally, the duo came into the room looking confused and serious.

"Kellen, did you hurt yourself?" Taylor asked. Kellen felt his brows furrow in confusion.

"Hurt myself? No?" Kellen said, wondering what they were asking. Rhys cleared his throat from the corner.

"He hit his head on the arm of the couch before I realised what was happening." Rhys said, looking stricken. "Is he okay?" Rhys asked and Taylor didn’t hint anything right away.

"Is that the only injury?" Carlos asked and Kellen wasn’t sure. Rhys answered for him.

"He had some bruising yesterday. Said he’d run into the counter while cooking." Rhys said and Kellen was surprised that he remembered that. Carlos narrowed his gaze.

"Kellen, you’re going to have to stay. We missed something, and now we need to do some more tests." They missed something? What had they missed?

"What was it that you missed?" Kellen asked and Carlos looked rather serious.

"It’s nothing that you need to worry about since we’re working on it, but I’m actually surprised we missed it this morning. It seems we’re going to have to add more tests." Kellen didn’t like how ominous that sounded. Rhys was a damn storm cloud in his little corner.

"What did you miss?" Rhys asked and Carlos looked over at him, made a disgusted face, and turned back to Kellen.

"Tell your little boy toy to tone it down. He is going to scare all the competent ones away." Carlos warned and Kellen glanced towards Rhys. Boy toy?

"Rhys, you know Carlos is right. You’re acting like a menace." Kellen told him. He refused to use the word monster. That was not what Rhys was. He was just lurking in the damn corner and glaring at everyone. Like a menace.

Rhys blinked a few times, before he sighed, closed his eyes and rolled his shoulders.

"Right. Yeah. Okay. I just saw my life flash before my eyes when you hit your head and collapsed in on yourself with a silent scream." Rhys said. Kellen felt sympathy swell in his chest.

"Come here." Kellen said, not caring about what kind of tests they needed to run. He needed to comfort his boyfriend before all of that. Rhys obeyed Kellen, coming forward and when Kellen gestured for him to lean down, he did. Kellen wrapped his arm around him, giving him a squeeze. "I’m alright. I’m alive. They caught whatever is going on ahead of time, alright? Everything is okay." Kellen told him and Rhys shuddered. He was squeezing him tightly as Kellen looked over his shoulder and locked eye with Taylor.

He better not be lying to this man.

Taylor, for her part, gave Kellen a small thumbs up. Carlos had already left the room. He was outside, speaking quickly to a few of the very same people who had been conducting his tests before they got involved. They were on it, and Taylor had confirmed, even if it was small, that they had caught it in time.

Rhys finally let him go and scanned Kellen, watching him desperately.

"You’re okay?" He asked, his voice shaking and all Kellen wanted to do was pull the man in and kiss him. This was damn torture.

"I’m okay." Kellen said. He swallowed. "Can I tell you what I saw now?" Rhys tensed, but he nodded.

"Yeah. You can tell me." Rhys said, his voice rough. Kellen swallowed.

"There is going to be another attempt on my parent’s life. At the funeral, uh, funerals of our people. They are going to insist on going. I know they are, but the E.A.G. is going to shoot them again." Kellen said and Rhys didn’t even looked surprised.

He looked pissed, honestly.

"They can’t give us a damn moment of rest, can they?" Rhys said and Kellen couldn’t help but agree.

"If I was evil, hitting when they are already down is a good choice." Kellen said and Rhys grumbled. He leaned in, pressing a kiss against his forehead and looking upset.

"I understand. I hate that they keep targeting you and your family, and I’m sorry it causes you so much pain." Rhys was genuinely upset about this while Kellen just laughed.

"It’s okay, Rhys. I know you’ll be there to catch me." Rhys bent, pressing his forehead into his shoulder as he let out a shaky breath.

"I’m going to go so that I can speak to your parents now so that they are prepared. We’ll start workshopping the ideas. If I don’t, I’m going to stay in that corner until you get up from this bed." Rhys told him, his voice trembling and Kellen stared at him.

"I’m going to be okay, Rhys. You know Taylor will take good care of me. So will Carlos." Kellen comforted him and Rhys nodded.

"I know. I know. I just...I don’t like seeing you like this. I hate it." Rhys said quietly and Kellen felt his heart squeeze.

"I have my phone on me. You can call me and text me and I’ll respond, okay?" Kellen told him and Rhys swallowed. He scanned Kellen’s face, watching him intently.

"Promise?" Rhys whispered and Kellen nodded.

"I promise." Kellen told him. It took a few more moments of calming and gentling Rhys before he left and Taylor could finally step in and get to work.

"Thank you for sending him away, Kellen. He was scaring everyone." Taylor said softly.

"He was scaring me, just staring like he was going to bore a hole through me. I’m going to be fine." Kellen said confidently. Taylor laughed.

"Your gut feeling?" She teased and Kellen gave her a small smile.

"No. I have faith in you." Kellen told him and Taylor’s smile faded, before she grew serious.

"Right. Right. Alright, well, let’s get to work, hmm?" She said, sounding nervous. Kellen didn’t call her out on it, but he was getting nervous from how nervous she was behaving.