Chapter 43

February 10, 2002

The next day, Frank met his mother and sister at a restaurant they like going to for brunch on Sundays.

"How is Coralis? Heard she'd been seriously injured last night," said Stephanie.

"I don't know, didn't talk to her today. I saw her last night. She was okay, didn't have any injuries, but then had to leave in the middle of our date. I think she tried to call later on, I know she tried this morning, but I didn't pick up. I am still a little bit upset that she left when it was supposed to be our time."

"What time was it when she left?"

"What did you hear? Did she get injured? How bad?" asked Molly to Stephanie.

"Hmm middle evening I'd say, was before 10," said Frank.

"You moron, shit happened after that. I was also called in to work last night, for an emergency. I heard her name mentioned a lot by patients. One of my bosses witnessed the whole ordeal. If your girl wouldn't have shown up when she did, trust me, we would have had to treat a lot more patients than we did, and probably would have had some at the morgue."

"Seriously?"

"Is she okay?" said Molly.

"Yeah, I'm dead serious. My boss said that her left leg and rib cage were bleeding bad, but she didn't want to follow them to the clinic and said she had to get going. You know what, she probably just wanted to get back to you as soon as possible."

Frank pulled his phone out and called her apartment's landline.

"Hey Vic, is Coralis there?"

"No, she had to leave this morning for London. You know she is supposed to be in Europe this week, until Friday I think."

"Was she okay? I mean, my sister said she'd been injured last night."

"No offence, but you would have known if you had picked up the phone. She tried to call you twice last night and again this morning."

"You're right, but how is she?"

"She'll be fine. I mean, she does get injured a lot at work, she had worst."

"So she did get badly injured? And she went to work anyway?"

"Does she have a choice? I told you many times that, unlike us, she doesn't have the luxury to call in sick. Injured or not, she just pushes through and goes to work as if nothing happened."

"Can you please tell her to call me when she has a minute? I'll try her London number, but she's probably not at her apartment."

Frank slid his phone back into his pocket and looked at his sister.

"Victoria didn't give me any details, but said she'll be fine. I know I shouldn't have gotten upset over it, but I did have to call sick at work just so I could spend time with her. Do you know if Sebastian is with her?"

"No, he is in Winnipeg at the moment, but he will see her tomorrow in France. Look, I can't tell you more, but I promise you, it literally was a life-or-death type of situation."

At the end of the week, on Friday evening, she flew back home from Europe. Stephanie and Sebastian wanted her to meet them for drinks at Stephanie's. Her roommate, Clarissa, wasn't going to be home for the evening. Coralis wanted to join them, but wanted to go see Frank first to see if he'd want to come. She spoke to him only once during the week.

"I'm sorry luv, I really can't see you right now. Why does every time you are available, I need to be for you, but when I am, you can't be available for me? Let me guess, if I don't see you now, I won't see you again for at least another week? I can't be available just because you want me to."

"Well okay, I got the memo. I'll be at your sister's. You know I don't get to decide my schedule. If you rather not see me anymore, I get it, I am clearly not what you want."

She left his building and took a taxi to go to Stephanie's. As soon as the elevator door closed behind her, Frank knew he messed up and regretted what he said. He sent her a ping on her pager and tried to keep working on his school project.

Coralis arrived at Stephanie's. She saw Frank's ping when she walked out of his building but didn't want to talk to him. Even if she knew it would eventually come to this point, she felt hurt. She understood he was busy with schoolwork, and why he was upset that she couldn't be there as often as he'd want to, but it didn't make it less painful to think about the potential end of their relationship.

"Hey girl! Glad you decided to come, drink?" said Stephanie.

"Yes please, I just got into a fight with your brother, I need something strong. Got liquor?"

"Again? I love my brother, but damn he never learns. I keep trying to explain to him that it's not against him. I got vodka?"

"That works, thanks."

"I meant to ask you earlier before we took off to come home, but there were just too many ears, can you tell me what's actually going on in Chicago? I might have to go there tomorrow after the game. CMMA wants to send me and Emery to a pixie village to set up wards in the area and make sure the conflict doesn't spill over to human towns nearby. Is the EBEE still sending you on the frontlines there?" said Sebastian while Stephanie prepared Coralis' drink.

"Yes. At first, they just wanted me to inquire about that Vase of Crimson Sky. I thought they were going to send me somewhere random in the UK after I told them about the whereabouts of that vase, or try to use my relationship with the royal family to retrieve the vase for them. They said they were monitoring the situation there, and that if tensions between Lucas and King Matthew escalate into a war, I need to go there to intervene. That means the battlefield. I think things are about to blow near the pixie village nearby. We know Lucas is working with goblins."

Coralis grabbed her drink and chugged it.

"Are you serious? Holy gods from above, this is stinky as hell! I'm starting to think some people in there want you out. The EBEE shouldn't even be involved in American vampire wars in the first place, what about Eva and Andrew?"

"Andrew is working on a different case in Ireland. If I get called to go to Chicago, she will come with me, because we've been working together on that case, even if we never had the same instructions from our respective elders. The CMMA also wants her to make sure that things wouldn't flood into human towns."

"Wait, so while you are being sent on a mission that could get you killed, my brother is being an idiot and is giving you a hard time over your timetable?"

"I think it's time you tell him about what we are, especially about what you do. I think it's not so much your overly busy schedule that pisses him off, but all the secrecy surrounding it. Give him something, maybe that'll help," said Sebastian while Stephanie prepared Coralis another drink.

Coralis' pager went off and she looked at it. She cursed. She chugged her drink and put her cloak back on.

"I need to go to Chicago. I think it'll be better to break things off with him if he hasn't done it already."