Waiting

Tech prided himself on being patient. He was patient with his machines, taking the time to properly build and test the prototypes and then make the real thing. He was patient with Rev, forgiving the roadrunner for minor mistakes. He was patient with his teammates, willing to remove the large words that came naturally to him in order to explain a scientific principal to them. But he felt he could barely wait even a second right now.

The lightning seemed to slow down as it cut a path of bright energy in the cloudy sky and hit Holly Fox ("What?" she said, spinning around, only a moment before) screamed and it seemed to hit him like a physical blow and then she crumpled to the pavement.

The coyote ran as fast as he could to her, WeatherVane's ugly cackle filling his ears and blood pounded in his head. He scooped the orange-furred fox anthro into his arms. He brushed back her vibrant messy hair away from her neck, placing two fingers, searching desperately for her pulse. "Holly. . . come on Holly stay with me. . ."

Thump. Thump. Thump.

He felt relief surge through him at the feeling of her pulse. It was faint and slow, but it was there and that was all that mattered to him. "Rev, take Holly to the nearest hospital!" The roadrunner zoomed over with a determined and grim expression on his face, carefully holding the fox in his arms.

"Take-WeatherVane-down," he requested, shooting the villain a look of loathing that seemed almost unnatural for his usually happy-looking face.

"We will," Tech assured him. "But go!" Rev took off, leaving a trail of dust behind him. Tech allowed himself to breathe; the doctors could start on Holly right away. Right now, he and the others had to deal with WeatherVane.

"This just got personal," he grunted, picking up his hydro-power ray two thousand once again. The ray sucked in the rain that was pouring down all around them, and he combat-rolled out of the way of a falling cloud creature that Lexi was taking down. He pulled the trigger, firing a ball of energy into the cloud creature. It exploded into fog.

"Thanks," said Lexi briskly. She ran up to move alongside him. He fired another successful shot in the monster Slam was grappling with. The Devil gave him a thumbs up and a smile. "How's Holly?" The female bunny had felt her throat constrict when she had seen her friend fall.

"Rev's taking her to the hospital," Tech explained, firing a shot at WeatherVane but missing. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his cousin, a gray wolf named Natalya, distracting a cloud creature while Duck threw his auqua-dense 'eggs' at it.

The power ray's energy balls grew larger and larger, using WeatherVane's own powers of controlling the weather against her. The ray made taking out the cloud creatures a lot easier, thankfully, to get rid of the weather monsters.

WeatherVane kept conjuring more, but Natalya called, "Tech! Throw me the ray! Take care of WeatherVane!" The coyote tossed it over to his cousin, who caught it and fired a blast of energy into a cloud creature. It toppled into two of its brethren as the six Loonatics, and a little gray mouse named Mary Wishbone, who was Holly's best friend, advanced on the villain.

Her cackles faded, her glowing eyes squinting down at them through the rain and fog. She barely had time to move before Ace and Lexi combined his laser and her brainblast into one ball of energy that knocked her off her floating cloud pedestal. She hit the pavement with a thud, groaning in pain. Duck quickly shot 'eggs' of sticky goo at her limbs, trapping her in place.

Tech snarled at her as Slam picked the villain up and carried her over. The angry coyote snapped the handcuffs on, tightening them so they squeezed her wrists.

"Duck," Ace said. "Teleport WeatherVane to police station beta, and then get to the Mid-City hospital."

The mallard seized WeatherVane's arm roughly and then with a crack! sound he was gone.

Tech pressed a button on his armor, signaling their position to their bikes, and after a moment or two their motor-bikes pulled up. He hopped on. Mary rode with Lexi, and Natalya climbed on his, wrapping her arms loosely around his waist. He pressed hard on the pedal of the bike, and they soon reached the Mid-City Hospital.

Tech was the first one to the door, and he flung it open, not even bothering to wait for the others. It felt like his brain was on overdrive, with alarms wailing and red lights flashing everywhere.

"Here for Holly Fox," he panted. "She should have just got here."

"Room 212 on the second floor, off to the right," said the clerk behind the desk. Tech took off sprinting. "Hey, don't run!" None of the others listened, as the coyote could hear their footsteps of his teammates pounding on the tile floors as he waited for the elevator to come down.

"Can it come any slower?" he muttered, frustrated. He tapped his fingers along his thigh, making a soft clicking sound of armor against armor. Duck, who had quacked into the hospital, said nothing. Lexi reached up to fiddle with a locket her parents had given her, but because she was in her armor it wasn't there, so she settled for rubbing her arms. Mary looked like the most anxious, while Ace, Slam and Natalya just looked concerned.

Finally the elevator came and the group loaded themselves into it. Soft music floated through the speakers, Tech supposed, but he couldn't seem to hear it. All he could hear was his pounding heart and his ears seemed to ring with the sound of Holly's screams of pain. The elevator opened with a ding. Tech hastily told them the room number, and they set off towards it. The door with a lopsided sign that read ROOM: 202 was at the end of the hallway. Tech opened it and led the way into the hospital room.

Holly was lying in a hospital bed. Her orange fur stood out brightly against the white sheets and pillow, as did her flaming red hair that fanned out behind her head. She was breathing. Slowly, a little unsteadily, but she was breathing. A heart rate monitor was set up next to the bed, and Tech found nothing more comforting than the steady beep noise it produced. Clear tubes were stuck up the nostrils of her black nose.

Rev was already inside next to the bed, looking extremely worried. It didn't exactly calm Tech's nerves. Their eyes met, and Rev nodded. Tech let out a small sigh of relief - things weren't nearly as bad as he was imagining them to be.

A bald, dark-skinned man in a lab coat met them. "Miss Fox's vitals, are for the moment, fine. We're doing tests to see exactly how much the lightning affected her, seeing as it wasn't natural and generated from a mutated being. It may have unusual repercussions, so her body may react differently than if real, non-artificial lightning had hit her, but we'll have to wait and see."

It felt as though Tech's heart was a thousand times lighter. He throat wasn't so dry anymore, and breathing was easier than before.

"Thank you, Doctor Wilson," said Ace, giving the doctor a small smile. Dr Wilson nodded.

"When will she wake up?" asked Mary anxiously. Lexi put a comforting arm around the gray mouse's shaking shoulders.

"She'll wake up a few times while recovering, but never for very long. If you wish, you could sit here around the bed and wait?" Dr Wilson suggested.

The group glanced at one another, and the team nodded. So did Mary. Tech looked at his cousin, who frowned. "I can stay, but only for a few hours. Work is very demanding."

He knew that was the most he would get. He and the others brought some plastic chairs up from the cafeteria and scattered them around the bed. Mary and Tech were on either side of the bed, closest to her. Mary eyes were full of tears. Slam took up the whole space at the end of the bed. Rev didn't sit in his chair and paced out of nerves. Lexi sat on her chair and Ace sat next to her; he wrapped an arm around her waist and she rested her head on his shoulder. Her eyes glittered with tears. Natalya sat on one side of the bed, trying to convince Rev to sit down ("Honestly, it's not going to do anything to help, and it's rather loud.") Eventually the roadrunner settled for just tapping his foot against the floor and sitting in his chair.

Tech didn't know how many hours had past. Everything had blurred together, even how many cups of coffee he had had. Tech was one of the only people still sitting. Natalya had left to go do work. Slam was a nervous eater, and had retreated to the cafeteria at least an hour back. Rev had crashed like a kid on a sugar high and was snoring in his chair. Lexi and Mary were asleep too, the long day finally getting to them.

"How is she Tech?"

Tech jumped slightly at the sound of his leader's voice. He didn't know the bunny had come back from a coffee trip yet.

"I - I don't know," admitted Tech. His voice wavered. The doctors were still trying to see if WeatherVane's lightning had had any bad affect on her, and it was tricky, dangerous work.

Ace put a hand on his shoulder. "She's goin' to be okay Tech." The coyote didn't even look up at him, so he continued. "She's a strong one. She took out Sypher wit a fryin' pan remember? She'll get through this. We all will."

Tech nodded, feeling numb inside, but Ace knew it was as far as the conversation would go. The male bunny sat down next to Lexi and took her hand and gave it a squeeze. The sleeping bunny didn't respond, but Ace almost smiled.

Hours passed, in which time Ace fell asleep as well. Tech found he couldn't. He wanted to, knew he needed to, but his mind was battling his body's exhuastion and kept winning.

It was two in the morning before he finally dozed off, but woke up almost three hours later. His nightmare had been about Holly's heart monitor stopping, and he needed to reassure himself that she was alive.

He had never been one for praying - he wasn't sure he even believed in God, not since he realized his father had abandoned him when he was young - but that was what he found himself doing. He held Holly's warm hand, rubbing a thumb in soothing circles over it.

"Please be okay," he whispered in the dark. Please, please be okay..." Her fingers twitched in his hand, just grazing his palm for the slightest second. Tech grinned, and let out a yawn. His exhaustion was finally getting to him. He got up, deciding to go get a pillow from the hallway closet. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead. "You were always strong," he said fondly. Ace had been right. "I always loved that about you."

He looked at her a second longer, and Holly's lips seemed to twitch upwards for a second. He wondered if she had heard him talking, and it only increased his lifted spirits.

Her bright smile had been one of the first things he loved about her.

(0)

The next day passed slowly with little to do. The doctors said Holly's body was reacting positively to the medicine, and that the lightning shouldn't have affected her system too much. Only time would tell, but for now everything was fine. Tech spent the day with the others, talking. Everyone was relieved and a lot less worried than the previous day.

For half of the day, when the doctors had shooed them away, Tech retreated to the old library Holly had showed him, the one her grandmother used to live in. He read at least ten books when he was there, each of the words comforting him with their familiarity.

Early in the morning of the third day, Holly started to cough violently. The breathing mask and tube were hurting her. Rev rushed over and took the thing off carefully as to not hurt her, but also fast enough. She took a few minutes to just breath deeply.

"Holly, are you okay?" asked Tech, his brow furrowed and his green eyes met hers, concerned. Holly blinked in order to clear her vision.

"Yeah," she chocked out hoarsely. Lexi brought her a glass of water and she gulped it down greedily. "How long was I out?"

"Three days," answered Mary. Tears were welled up in her eyes, and she was blinking rapidly to hold them back. "I'll go tell your family you're okay." She left the room quickly, partially to deliver the news, partially to hide her face.

"W-what happened exactly?" said Holly, sounding slightly confused. Tech wondered how much she remembered.

"WeatherVane" - he said the villain's name bitterly - "hit you with lightning. Rev rushed you to the hospital while the rest of us defeated WeatherVane."

"You're being too modest Tech," said Lexi, smiling a little. He could hear the admiration in her tone. "He pretty much took her down all by himself." Tech felt himself turning red at the large compliment. "Remind me to never get on your bad side," she added jokingly. Holly gave her a small smile, obviously still a little bit tired. That had been a big injury after all.

Mary re-entered the room. "Your family'll come in later," she said gently. Holly took a deep, shaky breath of evident relief.

"Three days," she said. "I guess that means the contests over isn't it?" Tech's heart sank - oh yeah. He nodded with a grim expression, but he grabbed her hand. "Crud. I never did that homework."

They all laughed for a long time, but through all of it, Tech never let go.

Tech prided himself on being patient, and as long as Holly was around and was what he was waiting for - could the months before she came back to live at the Tower move any slower?! - he knew he could wait as long as necessary.

A/N: Hey guys! I know I haven't really put out a LU piece in a while, so here you go. I hope you enjoyed this insight about how Tech felt while Holly was out of it. Also writing this gave me a great idea you readers of "Against the Odds" will definitely love, so stay tuned - now I'm full to bursting with inspiration. But alas, I have homework to finish before I can start it. Chapter five is on the way though!

Please review.