//------------------------------//
// C35 - Awkward Again 
// Story: Trapped In Canterlot 
// by TartarusFire 
//------------------------------//

There’s something about being given food when hungry.  There’s another when given the reassurance of safety. They were being nice, decent ponies. "Thank you." Caedes had said between nuzzling Cross’s hoof and hugging her – huggling.

It wasn’t that Cross didn’t enjoy the sentiment, but it was very awkward to be stared down by two guards while a smaller pony was being outright affectionate. She patted her patient’s head, but kept a watch on the dewy eyed guards, trying to remain stoic when they wanted to emote at the sight.

"S’alright dear. Doing my job and all that.. helps that you’re so nice." Pat, pat when Cross’s hoof. The awkwardness intensified.

"Buh. But you’re the nice one..."

She inwardly cringed. Caedes didn’t sound too cheery after that. "Sure, but you’re nice too."

"No I’m not.. This happened." She went slack around Cross’s hoof.

Another cringe and by this point, Red Cross wondered if she was an awkwardness detector. She sighed and decided that she could handle the embarrassment and unprofessionalism. She removed her hoof and sat down onto the bed to scoop Caedes up and give her a hug. The guards silently daw’ed at the affection as Runic came in with Laceration trailing to keep an eye on the Princess’s alibi.

"I had to silently challenge the universe. It did get more awkward afterall." She nuzzled Caedes. "Feel Better?"

Caedes coughed, her illness becoming more pronounced after eating and drinking, "Mhm." Cross was nice and warm.

"Glad to hear it. I have to go and do other stuff, so I’m going to put you down and put those cold rags that fell off back onto you for your fever." Caedes sunk in her grasp, sad to be let go. "Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. I’ll have to leave anyway in a couple of hours at nine though." Cross placed her on the bed, replacing the rags as promised.

"Now then," she turned, to address Relic, "what the heck are you here for?"

"I’m curious as well."

"As am I."

"I followed him, and I’m pretty lazy around here, so I have to be suspicious by default."

"Urg. You all think so poorly of me." Relic shifted on his hooves. "Understandable and common in my line of work. Ahem. Apparently I have all of your attentions, but I mainly just wanted to apologize to miss.."

"Red Cross."

"Miss Red Cross, as for my prior behavior, I do not intend to cause harm no matter how distressed I may have seemed." They all nodded as they knew this and did not change any of their opinions of him. "Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to sleep. I can tell you all are still on edge but it was mainly for my conscience’s sake, not yours’."


Laceration left directly after Relic which cured Cross to start working again: checking fluids, temperatures, and taking care of the general welfare of every pony there. She was checking on the guards while Caedes was in a state of a blurred mind with morphine. "So, you can gawk if you want, Laceration is probably half asleep by now." She whispered to the two of them.

"It was just so sweet!" Evershade wiped a tear from his eye. "I just love hugs."

Deepsky just shuffled around a little. "Caedes is nice. The whole exchange was rather adorable." He seemed to stare at a wall.

"It was awkward to say the least with you two already watching and instantly tripled once the others came in." She finished checking Evershade for deterioration in his good legs since in the hospital. "You’re clean, Evershade." She moved over to Deepsky. "I hope you’re not fantasizing over there with the wall." He kept staring. "Sir?" She waved her hoof in front of his muzzle.

Evershade made note of the ponies beside him. "Wow, I haven’t seen him thinking like this for a long while.  He must be thinking of something important."

"He’s not going to try to subdue me or something if I snap him out is he? I’d hate to deal with another one of the violent types, again."

"Nope, leme do it though." He licked his hoof, and the hoof made contact with the inside of Deepsky’s fluffy, fuzzy, tufted ear.

"Eeek! The bu- heck was that for?" He swiped at the offending limb.

Evershade just coughed and pointed to Cross. "I need to check your bandages to make sure your joint is healing properly." He nodded, allowing his gauzes to be slowly, agonizingly peeled off.

"It looks good so far. The muscle loss is deep, but it will heal rapidly if you keep off of it and come back for checkup every so often." She tossed out the cloth into the biohazard bin and firmly wrapped new gauze around his wing joint and then again around his wing, pinning it to his side. "That’s how it was supposed to be. Whoever did it the first time was only toing a temp job." She growled slightly at the butchery of first aid.

While Cross was momentarily lost, Deepsky motioned to Evershade a plan. "So is that all then, my wing’s good now?"

"Yep." She turned to leave.

"Can you wait for a moment, ma’am?" She did stop. "I was just wondering if you could change out Caedes’s cloths now instead of later. It’s been a few hours, so..."

"I was going to later, but I could do that now."


After refreshing the cold cloths, Cross stroked Caedes’s mane a few times before saying something reassuring and leaving.

After Cross had left earshot, Evershade asked, "Why’d you want to rid of her, ‘Sky?"

"Remember when I was thinking?" His partner nodded. "Yeah, I kind of want to give Caedes a hug now. Just look –" His hoof swayed dangerously "–how sad she is." Caedes laid back into her pillow with sunken eyes, unfocused with tubes out of her limp arm.

"Sheesh, that’s bad. Yeah, alright. I don’t know why you had to wait though."

"I have no idea if I’m confined to my bed or not. I’d rather not ask in case of being denied."

"Denied for what reason? For your own or hers?"

"Probably my own, since Cross has already hugged her, it’s safe to assume that any pony can."