Chapter 4

Episode 9 - Sick Day

“Car, hold up. Marcus, can you call in—” Brady paused and blinked hard, trying to clear the odd blur from his vision. “Okay, I can’t tell what it is yet. Car theft or theft from a car, depending on what happens when he gets it open. So much for a slow morning.”

“That’s it? We’re just going to call it in and leave it?” The note of disbelief in Harper’s tone had him turning to look at her before his eyes and brain simultaneously slapped him upside the head with the futility of the action. “What if he takes the car? You tracking it wouldn’t stop him from wrecking it. And we’ve got no idea how much they need it.”

“What’s our other choice?” Brady shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he turned his gaze back to the teen working with the car door on the next block over. “Call it in and track it—I usually get in serious trouble for trying to do more than that.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t. Car, can you get us a little closer?”

“Whoa, hold up! What are you planning to do?” Brady turned so fast that his head swam, and the sharp words scraped his dry throat. “And it better not involve any version of getting in that car.”

“Obviously.” If she’d had bubble gum in her mouth, she probably would have popped it to punctuate the point.

“This is your corner. Close as I can get.” Car pulled up to the curb, and Harper had the door open before Brady could protest. “Watch yourself, Shadow.”

“Yep. Drive around; I’ll meet you on the other end.”

“Harper, what are you doing?” Brady lowered his voice to a hiss, and his heartbeat throbbed fast in his ears. “He might have a gun—I can’t see well enough—”

“Relax, worrywart. And hush. I got this.” Harper’s confident tone should have been comforting, but somehow it only worried Brady more as he tried to gauge her progress along the littered sidewalk. “Hey! What are you doing?”

The shout made Brady jump, and he gripped the car door hard to keep himself seated and grounded. If trying to actively help got him in trouble on ordinary days, jumping out of a car that he’d almost forgotten was moving might get him grounded for life.

The teen whirled around, his hand going to his waistband, and Brady sucked in a sharp breath that caught on the rough patches in his throat. It came out again on a coughing fit instead of a warning as the car-breaker spun his head around, trying to find the source of the voice.

“You better get out of here! Cops are on their way!”

“Harper…” Brady gritted the word out low through his teeth and his raw throat, unable to tell how close she was to the teen and not wanting his voice to throw off any plan she might be trying to work. The boy’s hand was shaking now, even as he continued to fumble with his shirt, and Brady prayed that he wouldn’t resort to whatever weapon he had. Obviously, he couldn’t see her to aim at her, but invisibility was no protection from catching a stray shot, or even a swipe from a knife if she let herself get close enough.

Car’s stereo clicked and whirred, and suddenly Brady’s window slid down, smacking him in the face with a blast of cold air.

“Hold your ears, Gamma Ray. Backup incoming.”

Brady barely had time to process the words before the sound of a siren blasted the air, and he clapped his hands to his head with an involuntary cry of pain as the extra-loud waves battered his overly sensitive ears.

Harper’s voice murmured something beneath the noise, but Brady’s overwhelmed senses couldn’t even attempt to process it. Car must have interpreted it, though, because she immediately cut the sound, and Brady collapsed against the seat, gasping and coughing as he tried to regain his breath.

“Brady? Are you okay?” Marcus’s voice wavered in his throbbing ears, and Brady tried to swallow down the coughs well enough to answer.

“Yeah. Be fine.” Despite his best attempts, the words came out too rough—if he’d been Marcus, he’d have ordered himself to bed with no talking in a heartbeat.

“Mmm, sorry.” He didn’t have to open his eyes to feel Car’s wince. “I knew it’d be rough, but I figured you’d rather get her out of a jam.”

Brady offered her a weak thumbs-up and just concentrated on pulling his senses back together and freeing his tight lungs. He hadn’t quite accomplished it yet when Harper opened the door and slipped back into her seat, but just from the atmosphere that blew in with her, she was obviously much too happy about the situation.

“That was epic! The sirens was you? We so need to make that a thing! What did you do?”

“My brother grabbed an old set of sound effect CDs at a garage sale years ago. Found them while helping clean out his closet—for which I want either a medal or hazard pay, but I digress. I thought one or two of them might have…possibilities.”

“Awesome call. I love it.” The seat creaked as Harper probably bounced on it. “And if it’s breaking a law somehow—just nobody tell Midge, okay?”

“You know what?” Brady cracked his eyes open and fought not to immediately close them again as the light intensified the residual throbbing in his skull. “I’m not mad she’s got it. But you’d better not get reckless. You start taking more risks because there’s a siren behind you, you’re going to get yourself in a world of hurt. Just—don’t, okay?”

“Spoilsport.” Harper pouted, and Car gave a short laugh.

“You know he’s not wrong, Cellophane. You’ve got more guts than are good for you some days. Just remember, the more I have to use it, the bigger chance we get caught, and then—”

“Okay, I get it, I get it!” Harper huffed. “And for the record, I was plenty far enough to get away. Not right on top of him.”

“Good to know. Doesn’t stop a bullet.” Brady sighed, and Car gave a soft snort.

“You got a point, X-Ray, but don’t stab it too hard. Especially not when you were the one I thought of when I nabbed that siren. She’s at least got camouflage, and you’ve been known to jump into situations that weren’t exactly safe yourself. Although I’m not planning to hit it unless I have to, if it knocks you out this bad.”

“Yeah. Or at least make yourself a mobile pharmacy. You got any aspirin?”

“That safe with your super-shots?” Car’s tone held a thread of concern, and Brady groaned.

“I don’t know. I just need—something to take the edge off.”

“Take the edge off what?” Marcus’s voice was fully flooded with worry. “A migraine? Is the shot not working?”

“I don’t—think?” Brady pressed his eyes shut and tried to isolate the sensation from the gnawing aches in the rest of his body. “Feels more like a regular headache at this point. Just—settling in, not going away.”

“Isn’t that weird?” From her curious tone, Brady could imagine the exact way that Harper must be cocking her head. “I mean, you pulled me out of a collapsing building and didn’t end up with a headache—at least not day-of.”

Brady gave a halfhearted shrug and reached for the heat control as another shiver snaked up his back, and Car suddenly slammed the steering wheel with a force that made him jump.

“Yeah, no. Enough is enough. This car is a sauna, and your hot Georgia blood can’t be that thin. You are beyond off today, and ‘just tired’ doesn’t cut it either.”

Before Brady could fully take in her words, she had pulled into a deserted parking lot, and his sluggish senses didn’t react in time to prevent a freezing hand being pressed against his forehead. But before the protest left his lips, Car had pulled her hand back with a sharp hiss.

“Right. You’re done for today, Icy Hot. Marcus, might want to grab the doctor and figure out what she can give him that won’t blow up in his bloodstream.”

“What—” Brady forced his heavy eyes open, and Car stuck a hand on her hip.

“You’re completely burning up is what. What’d you say Baby Bird has? ’Cause I’ve got a sneaking suspicion she’s not the only one.”

“Oh, no.” Harper’s tone dropped with horror, and Brady could hear her frantic scramble as she probably worked to get as far from his corner of the car as possible. “Oh, no. Oh, no! Brady!”

Brady’s eyes fell closed again as the entire constellation of unusual sensations that he’d pushed aside or dismissed as one-offs crashed over him in a wave. The sore throat, the coughing, the chills—not to mention the chorus of background aches that he’d chalked up to a rough night without a second thought. But it had been a long time since he’d been sick with something more than his usual migraines, and he’d completely missed every single sign.

“Harper, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. I would’ve stayed home…” Brady groaned, and a string of coughs ripped through his throat. Harper made an inarticulate sound somewhere between a moan and a whimper, but he had no better apology to offer.

“Not sure it’s totally his fault.” Car’s tone was serious, but it held a hint of sympathy. “If it’s the flu that’s going around, I’ve heard it hits fast. And he probably was legitimately tired to start with.”

Harper’s answering groan held skepticism, panic, and enough misery that Brady could almost have believed she was the one who was sick.

“I really didn’t mean…” The words scratched like glass in his throat, and he let them trail off with the vague feeling that he wasn’t reaching her anyway.

“Take it easy, Brady.” Marcus’s voice was gentle on the other end of his earpiece. “Don’t worry about anything. Just relax and let Car get you home. We’ll take care of you.”