Elliott was nervous. I could tell by all of the awful jokes he was making on our way over to Jamie’s operating room. Of course, he always makes a ton of jokes, but these were more “dad jokey” than usual. I couldn’t blame him for being nervous; I would’ve been, too, I think. But since Elliott had been told nothing could kill him, there was a pretty good chance he’d come through this unscathed. Perhaps it was the intense pain he was likely to experience that had him a little sillier than usual. If this process felt anything like going through the Transformation process felt like for me when I initially went through it, he was in for a pretty crappy morning.
I hadn’t seen Cadence, and she still hadn’t answered my message from the night before. I figured she was busy and would likely be a little late because she has a tendency to come in a few minutes after she’s supposed to be some place when she has a lot going on, but when the three of us walked into the operating room just before 8:00, she was already there, sitting on one of two hospital beds Jamie had set up, talking to the doctor about who knows what. They clammed up as soon as we walked in.
“Mornin’, Doc,” Elliott said with a loud exhale. “You ready to make me even more spectacular?”
“Not sure I have that kind of talent, but I’ll give it a go,” Jamie snarked back. “Make yourself comfortable.”
Elliott took off his shoes and sat down on the bed next to Cadence who had already tucked her sneakers underneath the bed she was sitting on. She didn’t lie back the way Elliott did. Clearly, my sister wasn’t trying to mask her anxiety the way Elliott was.
“Sorry I didn’t get back to you last night,” Cadence said, only turning her head to look at me. “There was a lot going on.”
“That’s okay,” I said with a shrug. Now wasn’t the time to be a pain in the butt. My sister was in for some pretty intense pain of another kind shortly if this went as expected, and Jamie wouldn’t be able to do anything to help them. Normally, whenever Transformation serum is administered, he waits two minutes and then gives the person a heavy sedative with a pain killer in it. For this, however, he’d already explained that he wasn’t going to do that. He said he didn’t know what it would do, and he didn’t want anything to interfere with the serum. I remembered when I’d finally lost consciousness when I’d undergone the procedure. I’d never been so thankful to fall asleep in my whole life.
Jamie was checking a few things on the table between the two patients, and I continued to stand near the foot of Elliott’s bed next to Brandon, not sure what to say or do. I wanted to be there to support both of them because they were so important to me, but there wasn’t a lot I could say, and I was sure they were both trying to keep their emotions together. I wondered, if things got really bad for either of them, would Jamie step in and use his healing powers? But I figured they’d have to be on the brink of death for him to do that. He might end up keeping the procedure from working since he had little control over what he healed.
I was just about to ask Cadence where Aaron was when he walked in. I couldn’t remember a time I’d ever seen him look so tired. He never sleeps, rarely eats, and almost always looks like a supermodel without even trying. But he had heavy bags under his eyes, like a human who’s been up all night for several nights in a row, and it was obvious to me something was going on.
Elliott likely noticed, too. He’d been best friends with Aaron for decades. He didn’t comment on the Leader’s appearance, though, only said, “Hey, bossman. You here for the show?”
“Something like that. You guys ready for this?” Aaron paused at the foot of Cadence’s bed, his hands on his hips, and I caught a tinge of tension in his voice. I knew he’d approved this, but maybe he was second guessing himself now.
“Heck, yeah.” Elliott had a smile on his face that seemed more than a little forced. “We’re ready to be superheroes, too.”
“Uh, I never claimed to be that,” Aaron said, and at the moment, I couldn’t have agreed more. “Just....” I wondered if he had planned to say something about what he had claimed to be, but when he completed the sentence, it was unrelated. “Just try to relax.”
“Spoken by the master of recreation,” Elliott chided, but Aaron let it go, and I drew in a deep breath as I realized Jamie was ready to get started.
“All right,” the doctor said, looking from Elliott to my sister and back again. “As you guys know, this is gonna hurt, and there’s nothing I can do about it. But this is what you’ve signed up for, so don’t blame me.” I couldn’t imagine anyone lashing out at Jamie over a procedure they’d asked him to perform, but stranger things have happened. He looked concerned, an expression he didn’t wear well or often, and I felt my stomach roll over a few times. Brandon squeezed my hand, and I imagined my boyfriend was feeling the same way.
“We’re ready, Doc.” Cadence’s voice didn’t sound quite as certain as I would’ve liked. She lay back against the pillows, and Aaron went over to the other side of her bed. He stooped down and kissed her forehead, and for a moment, I thought the real Aaron was back, the one that loved my sister more than anything in the world. I saw him flinch when he touched her and remembered he channels other people’s emotions. He must have known my sister was terrified. I swallowed hard and returned my attention to Elliott. At least he had a smile on his face, even if it was obviously fake.