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As soon as the healers left, Darcy made her escape, pulling her boots and jacket on before slipping out of the hospital wing. Getting out unnoticed was easier than she expected, what with the surviving members of her squad either still being treated for their injuries, or closeted with senior command, arguing about what had gone wrong on what was supposed to be a simple training patrol.
Pair protocol meant she shouldn’t have been alone but Jane was gone, taking the brains of the squad with her, so there was no one to keep her company. Darcy took advantage of the confusion and left.
She was curled up between Tayza’s forearms, eyes red from weeping when Commander Rumlow found her, half asleep from exhaustion. Tayza’s low rumbling growl roused her from her doze, and her eyes fluttered open just as he crouched down in front of the small dragon, just out of reach of her talons.
“You’re supposed to be in the hospital,” he said.
“I’m not hurt,” Darcy replied, “so I didn’t see any reason to stay there.”
“Well, we would have known where you were, for starters.”
“You mean you didn’t just ask your dragon to track me down like usual?” she scoffed.
“He wouldn’t tell me,” he admitted. “None of them would.”
“Well, that’s a first.”
“Look, I get you want to be alone right now but I need to ask you some questions about what happened.”
With a sigh, she uncurled, wiping a hand across her tear-streaked cheeks before climbing to her feet, patting Tayza on the leg as the dragon moved it out of her way.
“What do you want to know?”