Look Like You Know

“Relax, Johnny, if he loves you half as much as I do, you’ll be fine.” Jenny gave him a quick peck on the cheek as they passed through the Apothecary entrance. “We’re going to the ICU wing.” She nudged him in the right direction, idly waving past the familiar secretary.

“Easy for you to say,” John mumbled back, looking on her with adoration. He felt woefully unprepared for this. I’ve never met a girl’s parents before. I have no idea what I’m going to say, and on top of all of that, he’s dying. Despite his ever growing Charisma score, he still felt as though he would be at a loss for what to say.

She had prepared him by having him change into the only band shirt he owned (a present she had gotten him from winning a radio contest). It was a shirt from her favorite band, Queen, apparently released in celebration of their new movie or something like that. Other than that he wore his Jeans of Free Movement, which she deemed normal enough for him to wear.

“All bags and personal effects in the box.” Lucas, the ever-present security guard, pointed to a white plastic box on a security conveyor belt. Jenny surrendered her bag without question, but John doubted all his items could fit in the box.

“I have a pocket space… one which is pretty full. Will that be a problem?” he considered the over a hundred items in his inventory and felt like smacking himself for not emptying it before coming.

“It won’t, though you won’t be able to access any of those things while in the ICU wing. Please take out anything that you’re going to want later, now.” The guard looked more annoyed at his question than anything else. With a sidelong glance at his girlfriend, he figured he wouldn’t need anything other than possibly his phone, and put it in the specified bin.

They stepped through one after the other, Jenny picking up and slinging her bass case across her shoulder as she emerged on the other side. John followed close behind, taking his phone and putting it into the pocket of his jeans.

“Room fifteen.” Jenny walked across the same familiar, tired linoleum with a smile. Not the fake, painful smile she had put on when visiting her ill father the past hundreds of times. Seeing him, her big strong protector in that state killed her a little on the inside, but this time she genuinely had a reason to be happy.

She was with somebody who loved her, and who she loved. That alone gave her a profound new energy and happiness to view the entire world. The two most important, amazing people in her life were about to meet each other.

She led him into the room, where he was finishing up a hearty breakfast of sausage and eggs. The nurse who had just finished feeding him picked up the plastic tray and slid the table connected to the bed off and under it.

The Last Journey’s Curse (named as such though it is actually closer to a magical disease) ravaged Shane’s body, causing agony and terrible damage with even the simplest movements. With as bad as it was for him, even something as small as a heartbeat could kill those suffering from it in a matter of days. Luckily, with the vast fortune he and his wife had built up as musicians, he was able to pay the Apothecary to take care of him, and reverse as much of the damage as they could each day while a cure was being developed.

It worked by attacking the life energy passively produced by living beings with souls, which was heightened during intensive activity. It had been theorized that eliminating one’s connection to their soul (and thus their ability to harness magic) would **** the disease to become dormant and ineffective; however, lab results have been inconclusive.

Thank God for small favors, it wasn’t contagious, though how it was contracted in the first place was unknown. Unfortunately, the amount he could withstand seemed to be growing smaller and smaller each month.

He had been assigned a nurse who took care of him in his day-to-day activities. When Jenny walked in, she was getting his bed ready for visitation. Nodding at the redhead, she informed her, “You have about twenty minutes.”

The cloud Jenny was on evaporated as she rounded on the innocent caretaker, “Last week it was twenty-five!”

The woman, used to dealing with such outbursts and already defeated, merely shrugged as she walked out.

“It’s not her fault, baby-doll. I’ve still got plenty of fight left in me, it’s just hard to see it.” Shane slowly raised his arms in preparation to hug his daughter, who dove into his arms.

“Daddy!” She wrapped her arms around him and revelled in the feeling of his big arms holding her. Her anxieties, which had resurfaced at the new information, melted away in an instant. “I missed you.”

John was able to get a good look at the man as his girlfriend pulled away. He had clearly been toned at one point, though it looked like both age and the apparent disease had begun to take its toll. His skin was unmarred paper, a few shades lighter than Jenny’s. Age robbed him of his physique but didn’t burden his smooth face with wrinkles, kind but fierce. His sandy aura was streaked with white and downright tiny, the smallest he had ever seen aside from the occasional mundane person.

I can hardly even make his aura out. Is that because of his curse or… disease? Still, at least he’s less intimidating like this. John’s shoulders relaxed as he approached the man on the bed.

His appearance belied his strength, which felt equal to John’s own as the guitarist sat up in his bed and shook John’s hand. “It’s so good to meet you! So you’re the John I’ve heard so much about! You can call me Shane. I’ve heard you play a lot of games. You know, I’m somethin’ of a gamer myself. There’s this special laptop that lets me use the internet and I play a lot of online poker with that.”

“Daaaaaad, come on. Don’t talk about stuff like that,” Jenny groaned, swatting at his shoulder. It wasn’t hard as she, despite his complaints, couldn’t help but be gentle with him.

“I just want to get to know him a little better. You tell me so much about him it’s only natural that I’m curious.” Shane took his daughter’s hand in his own, grasping it tightly.

“That sounds like it could be fun.” John hadn’t expected the man to begin their conversation with… that. “Maybe you could teach me some day.”

At this the man’s eyes lit up. “Oh, would you want to learn? I could teach you how to play Five Card Draw, Texas Hold ‘Em…”

“The last person I’d expect to be a bad influence on my boyfriend is my dad,” Jenny joked, taking her bass case off and unzipping it. She took out a disc and placed it on the bedside table. “I brought you a recording of one of my performances. I know you were on the fence about whether or not playing for the Inferno was a good idea, but… watch it when you get a chance.”

“It’s not that I didn’t want you playin’ for them, baby. I know that you want to be a famous musician like your old man, I just wish you’d have finished school first.” Shane kissed her on the cheek before reaching over and taking the disc in his hands. “I’ll tell the nurse to put it on the TV first thing after you leave. But Jenny… can I get a few minutes alone with John?”

“Are you sure? We don’t have a lot of time today and I wanted to talk to you about my songs for tomorrow.” It was obvious that she had made up the topic on the spot, but Shane simply raised a hand.

“I promise I won’t be long, don’t worry.” He beamed at her, and with a doubtful look she crept out of the room.

Worried of a similar threat to what he had gotten from Keith a few days before, John looked between them as Jenny reached the door and said, “Don’t I get a say in this?”

“Of course you do. If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, then that’s fine, I won’t **** you.” Shane’s passive tone was reassuring, much more so than Jenny’s glare. John nodded in defeat, and she left the room. The moment the door shut behind her, Shane started.

“You’re the first person she’s ever brought to see me, and pretty much the only person she talks about, John. You make her very happy. I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I think you’re a good person, so here goes.” The retired musician searched John’s face, as if trying to find a place to start.

“I’m not going to be around forever. I’m fadin’, John, fast. You’re a good kid, and crazy strong if what Jenny says is true. I just want to make sure there are people looking after her when I… kick the bucket. She’s more important to me than anything else in the world. So… take good care of her.” John was surprised at the sudden shift in topic and then confused. Had what Jenny said about him really made such a good impression with her dad? He felt like he hadn’t really handled the first impression that great himself.

“I promise to! Keeping Jenny safe and happy is very important to me, but you know… she can take care of herself. At this point she’s probably still stronger than me. She’s an adult.” John had no trouble promising such a thing, and was glad that he was trusted so deeply, but… it felt kind of silly.

“I know,” Shane waved his hand dismissively, “but she’ll always be my baby girl. I can’t help but want to protect her.”

That he could understand. It was kind of like what his mom was telling him before she left. “Wait a second, if you think you’re going to… go soon, you should tell Jenny.”

“I’m waiting. I don’t want her to give up hope, I still haven’t. Just… trust me, like I’m trusting you. Alright?” Shane’s eyes were **** but hard as he offered his hand to John.

He couldn’t betray the man’s trust just after meeting him, and so hesitatingly shook it. “Okay, but you shouldn’t hide this for long. She can probably tell just by the decreasing time. I’ll get her.”

John opened the door again, and Jenny walked back in, snapping to her dad’s side again. “I’m glad we could see you today. I love you, Dad.”

“I love you more than anything in my life, baby-doll,.” He pulled his daughter tight to him, suppressing a harsh wince that such a movement would have elicited mere months ago. Looking from behind Jenny, John could clearly see the pain etched into the man’s face as his daughter clung to him.