Added about 1000 words today, in fact. All I could stand before I got bleary-eyed.
“All right.” I walked over to Syah. “Hey! Get up, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and walk it off!”
For a moment, I didn’t think that it worked; Syah almost jumped up, while still sitting. The way shame and guilt were fighting each other in his expression made me wonder whether a full therapy session might not be in order. Then his face cleared, and he even laughed. “That’s some bedside manner you have there, Pam.”
“Blame her,” I replied, pointing one thumb over my shoulder. “I’m just saying what she’s too nice and polite to. I’m just the shuttle jockey with a checklist.”
“You’re not ‘just’ anything, Pam.”
“Hey, you can’t distract me here, Syah,” I blatantly lied. “Look. There was a situation, you tried something, it didn’t work, and somebody got hurt. Welcome to the Tomb Worlds. If you really need more time to proc— to get over it, say so. There’s no shame in it! But if you don’t? We’ve got a mess, Syah. The faster you’re on top of it, the faster the mess goes away.”
“That’s true,” Syah murmured. He set his shoulders. “Right. Just keep going, huh?”
“Just keep going. Gina, can he get out of here?” At her nod, Syah levered himself out of bed one and a half handed, waving off my attempt to help him.
As he dressed, Gina murmured to me, “Well, that was quick. He’s got it bad for you, you know.”
I didn’t, entirely, but I liked hearing that from an outside observer. “Great. It’d be nice if he could figure it out.”