Toys

Book Four
TOYS, TOYS, TOYS FOR ALL GOOD LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS
Chapter 76

Hays Baker is no Elite! He’s human… human… human…

I came awake thrashing, and very confused, as those ridiculous and awful words repeated over and over in my mind.

It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I was actually in my own bed. In my own apartment in New Lake City.

I’m safe. I’m home, aren’t I? What in hell happened to me? I can’t remember anything.

Lizbeth must have heard me-she hurried in to sit beside me, smiling indulgently, and gave me a warm kiss on the lips. The kiss was just what the doctor ordered. The head doctor? I wondered.

“Darling, I’m so glad you’re with us again!” she said. “How do you feel? The doctor said you would be more yourself today.”

“OK, I guess. Except my brain feels like it’s wrapped in a soaking wet towel. That can’t be good, can it? What happened to me, Jinx?”

“You were badly hurt, Hays. Don’t you remember crashing off the roof of that parking garage? You could have died along with the skunk on the motorcycle. They had you healing in a regeneration chamber until last night.”

“That fall with the motorcycle skunk? That’s what I’m recuperating from? How long was I unconscious? I don’t remember much of anything. Sweetheart, I’m really confused. Terribly so.”

“You were in a coma… for about a week. Since then you’ve been in and out of consciousness.” She stroked my sweat-dampened forehead, but then withdrew her hand, wrinkling her nose slightly. “You do need a shower though. Sorry, Hays.”

The queen of neat and clean-that was my Lizbeth. But in a strange way, I had missed that. At least it meant she cared.

“Now tell me everything. What do you remember?” she asked. “I’ve been on tenterhooks waiting to hear. Start at the beginning, Hays.”

I shook my head, trying to pin down my blurred recollections. The beginning? When was that? Where was that? I had no idea, really.

“The Toyz store in Baronville-those ugly murders,” I finally said. “I caught one of the killers on a motorcycle. We went off the roof of a parking garage, fell several stories, and crashed.

“Then the hospital, and the surgeons putting me under. Putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.”

“Nothing after that?” she said, seeming oddly pleased, maybe because I was joking a little about the past.

“Well”-I managed a laugh, but it was shaky-“I did have this incredible nightmare about the doctors saying I was human.”

“How awful for you, Hays. How bizarre.” She tilted her head in sympathy, and truly seemed more beautiful than ever. “You poor, poor dear. But those kinds of hallucinations can happen with anesthesia, and sometimes they reflect bizarre fears. Do you have bizarre fears, darling?”

“No, I don’t think so. But thank you, Dr. Freud. I feel better already.” I really did. “What happens now? When do I go back to work?”

“Moore wants you to come see him at headquarters as soon as you’re up to it. Meantime, since you’re feeling better…” Lizbeth’s eyes got mischievous and very seductive. I certainly remembered that look-and very fondly. “Do you remember anything from before you went to the Toyz store that night?”

“Like what?”

“Like… that you and I had plans for a little private rendezvous, a little us time, until we were so rudely interrupted by the human miscreants?”

“Oh, yes! I do remember something about that.” I placed my hand on Lizbeth’s leg. I leaned in close and nuzzled her cheek.

“It just so happens that we’re alone right now. Metallico took the girls to a birthday party for one of their friends. So why don’t you go have that shower? I’ll break out a couple of Rapture pills, and we can pick up where we left off. If you’re up to it?”

“Honey, you sure know how to welcome a guy home,” I said.

She kissed me again. Softly at first, then much harder.

“You’re not just any guy, Hays. You’re a hero. You’re my hero. Now go wash up, in all those hard-to-reach places especially. I love you, Hays Baker.”