Miles Norton: Story Archives
The Family is Worried
Miles lay in his hospital bed recovering from the minor surgery he had just undergone to remove pieces of the bullet that struck his arm. A Denver police officer sat across from his bed watching the TV in the room. It was approaching midnight and Conan O'Brien was on the TV. Miles wasn't watching, he was too busy thinking about the situation he had gotten himself into. He hadn't been formally charged with anything, yet. He wondered if Seth Castle would be able to get him out of this mess.
His thoughts were interrupted by his phone vibrating on the table next to his bed. He reached over and picked it up. The screen indicated an incoming call from "Cecil". Cecil was the younger of his two sons, 16 years old. He picked up. "Hey son."
"Hey dad," came the voice of Cecil, "Mom and I want to know if you're OK. We saw the news."
Miles looked at his arm wrapped up in bandages. "Given the circumstances, I'm doing alright."
"What happened?" Cecil inquired.
Miles sighed, "It's complicated. I was aiding an investigation at the wrong place and the wrong time." A vast oversimplification, but Miles did not want to alarm Cecil or Cassidy, his ex-wife. He heard Cassidy say something in the background.
"Well, alright, Mom wants to talk to you. Hey, we won our soccer game tonight 3 nothing."
"Great, have you made varsity yet?"
Cecil laughed, "Almost. Here's Mom."
Cassidy took the phone from Cecil. "Miles, what's going on? I'm worried about Chance. Things have been weird ever since you left the University."
"Cass, don't worry about Chance. If I thought he was in any danger he wouldn't be working for Redshift in the first place." Miles was lying just a little bit with that statement. With all the people now interested in Miles's work, there was a small amount of danger involved for his son Chance and other employee Zela. However, he thought they were both strong enough to handle it, and besides, he needed them to help him save the world from the apocalypse. But none of these variables would make sense to Cass.
Cassidy was still uneasy. "Alright, so how's your recovery?"
"It's going alright, just got out of surgery. I should be out of here in a day or two."
Cassidy and Miles spoke a few minutes longer, catching up on news in the family. Despite being divorced for ten years, the two stayed in touch. They would occasionally see each other at the kids' events. When the phone conversation ended, Miles rested his head on the pillow and closed his eyes, listening to the voice of Conan O'Brien as he tried to get some rest and to temporarily forget about the legal predicament that awaited him.