We waited three hours in the emergency room to be seen, which was apparently what prioritizing potential brain injuries looked like. Otherwise, we might have been there until the next morning.

  Nathan had a concussion and needed five stitches where the back of his head hit the floor.

  My nose was broken. The doctors set and packed it but advised me to see a specialist as soon as I could. My septum wasn’t likely to heal properly, so if I liked breathing out of my nose, I had best get it fixed before the nose healed and made the problem permanent.

  I also had a concussion, two cracked ribs, and my left knee and ankle were sprained.

  Beth waited with us the entire time. When Nathan and I had both been seen, we limped back to my car, and Beth drove us home.

  “We need to talk about Beth being ride or die,” Nathan groaned from the backseat.

  “Yeah, thanks for driving us,” I said.

  Nathan laughed and then needed a minute to collect himself. “Bro… No. You didn’t see?”

  “See what?” I asked from the passenger seat.

  “She smashed that dude with a chair.”

  “Huh?”

  “Okay, follow along closely,” Nathan grumbled. “She picked up a chair. She then proceeded to use said chair as a weapon to strike that little bitch of a biker in the back of the head.”

  I looked over at Beth.

  She shrugged.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I said.

  “Yeah, I did. You want me to just sit by and watch someone kill you?”

  “I’m supposed to be protecting you, and you could have gotten really hurt. He was level 7.”

  Beth rolled her eyes. “What can I do for you two when we get home? Ice packs? Tea? Soup?”

  “Hold my phone to my ear while I call off, and then I’m good,” Nathan answered.

  “I just need to sleep for a few hours,” I said. “If you could drive me to work after that, that would be great.”

  “You’re going into work?”

  “It’s a bad look for an intern to have attendance issues.”

  “I think they would understand,” she argued.

  “Can’t risk it. I need the job too much. I’ll manage.”

  “You’re ridiculous.”

  I tried to adjust how I sat and waited ten seconds for the blinding pain in my ribs to subside. “I’m surprised mom and dad let you get your driver’s license.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” Beth replied.

  “I had to get my own after I moved out.”

  “Yeah…”

  “What?”

  “I don’t technically have a driver’s license,” she said.

  “Jesus Christ, Beth.”

  In the backseat, Nathan laughed and then wheezed a little bit.

  By the time I left for work in the morning–using a rideshare app, by the way–I had two black eyes. I walked slowly and with a limp. My ribs hurt if I let my left arm move, so I held it stiff to my body and tried to breathe shallowly enough to avoid aggravating it. Some of the swelling in my face had gone down a little bit, so I had that going for me at least.

  “What happened to you?” Megan asked when she got to her desk. “Did you do a cull last night?”

  “Nah.”

  “You don’t seem like the bar-fighting type.”

  I shrugged and regretted it.

  “Oh my god. It was a bar fight?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  I got a text from Enforcer Grensmith, asking me to see him as soon as I could.

  Standing slowly, I forced my stiff body to cross the office floor. I knocked.

  “It’s open!” I heard from inside.

  Grensmith’s office was small to begin with, but piles and piles of overstuffed manila folders and blue binders made it seem even smaller.

  He looked up at me when I opened the door. “Maybe I should have come to you instead.”

  “It’s fine.”

  “You haven’t been here long, but I was surprised to see your name on a police report this morning.”

  “Sir,” I began. “Please don’t fire me. I promise it won’t happen again.”

  “Relax. You’re not getting fired, and you won’t be charged with anything either. Same goes for your sister, though you might want to caution her about jumping in like that. Anyway, as soon as I told the police you cited that crawler earlier that day, they knew what this was.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re not the first to get cold-cocked by an irate crawler. With the way things are going, definitely won’t be the last either.”

  I listened and sat as still as I could. As long as I held this exact position without the slightest bit of movement, my ribs felt mostly okay.

  “This isn’t a punishment, but when this happens, you get put on desk duty indefinitely,” Grensmith explained. “Once you’re healed up, a physician and a psychologist have to clear you before you go back into the field.”

  “Is there a chance they don’t clear me?”

  “That’s the wrong way to think about it. The point is that we want you to get healthy, so don’t rush this. In these cases, it’s not uncommon to talk to someone about what you went through. The agency offers in-house resources for that. It’s not out of your pocket.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m required to advise you that retribution of any kind is a felony. You are not to contact or seek out the crawler or any of their family or associates. This is one of those no-tolerance rules. A few months before you, I had to fire a guy for going on Instagram after an incident and trash-talking the crawler he cited. Let the authorities handle it.”

  “Understood.”

  Grensmith looked me over for a few seconds. “Barbarians are a son of a bitch, huh?”

  I chuckled.

  “Did you drive here this morning?”

  “Got a ride.”

  “Alright,” Grensmith said, standing. “At a minimum, you get three days off after a crawler incident. Before you freak out, those are paid. Come on. I’ll give you a ride home.”

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  Instead of making me walk all the way to the parking garage, Grensmith had me wait out front so he could pick me up. While I waited, I sent Beth a text to let her know I was coming home early.

  “I don’t know what they expected to happen,” he said as we waited for a stoplight to change. “After a few years, you see that it’s the same cycle of bullshit problems. It’s inevitable that at least a few enforcers take it in the teeth when this over-the-top citation nonsense comes up. No E-gate crawler is massacring a dozen civilians in one go. Why make new problems by going after them?”

  I got the impression Grensmith was venting, so I didn’t reply.

  “A level 16 brawler ripped my arm off outside a gate once. That’s not an exaggeration. His party had a white mage who wasn’t a jerk, and he put it back on before it was too late. But that’s the most scared I’ve ever been.”

  “Wow.”

  “I just want you to know that I get how much this sucks,” Grensmith said. “No one would blame you if this turned you off to enforcing, but that would be a shame. You’ve shown promise, and I think you could become a solid enforcer if you stuck with it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “If you do decide to quit, come see me first. If you email your notice or stop coming to work, I can’t help you. Give me the heads-up, and we’ll make sure you have health insurance until you’re fully healed.”

  “That’s a big relief. Appreciate that.”

  And it really was. I hadn’t thought far enough ahead to decide what I was going to do, but knowing I wouldn’t lose my health insurance in the middle of this mess was a comfort.

  “Happy to do it. If you do decide to stay with the agency, there’s a combat program you qualify for now. Yes, it’s stupid that they offer that training after you get your ass kicked, but it exists and is there if you want it. The CDM won’t tell you about it or offer it, but if you’re interested, I can show you how to apply.”

  “Combat, like self-defense?”

  “Yep.”

  I laughed. “Yeah. That would have been nice to have before this.”

  “That’s government for you.”

  “This is me,” I said as we pulled up in front of my apartment building.

  “You good to get up the stairs?”

  “Yeah, thank you, though.”

  Beth appeared at the passenger door to help me out.

  “Were you waiting out here for me?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Check in Thursday with an update on how you feel,” Grensmith said, leaning across the console to speak. “Do what the doctors say to do.”

  I didn’t need to be carried up the stairs or anything, but Beth being nearby saved me from a few stumbles. My legs tired more quickly than I expected. I had made this climb hundreds of times over the years, but that day it felt like summiting a mountain.

  “I’m glad they sent you home,” Beth said as she held the door open for me.

  “Me too.”

  “Can I get you anything?”

  “I’m alright for now.”

  “Nathan was up for a little bit, but he went back to bed.”

  The process of lying down on the couch was full of sharp, blinding pains, but once I was properly horizontal, I could relax my muscles and exist with relatively little agony.

  “Are you still working tonight?” I asked.

  Beth shook her head. “I got fired.”

  “Beth, I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be,” she insisted. “You didn’t start the fight.”

  “Still.”

  “It’s fine. I’ll get another one. I’m going to make you some tea. Are you hungry? Can I get you something to eat?”

  “Just tea. Thank you.”

  I fell asleep before she was back from the kitchen.

  “Hey,” Beth whispered. “Sorry to wake you. One of your coworkers is here to see you.”

  “Huh?”

  “She said her name is Megan. She seems worried. Should I tell her to come back another time?”

  “Would it be weird if I didn’t sit up?”

  Beth shook her head. I looked over her shoulder and saw that it was dark out.

  “Okay. Let her in.”

  I heard the rustle of plastic bags and the gentle thud of items being set on the kitchen table.

  “Gray, I’m so sorry,” Megan said as she entered the room. “I wish you would have told me it was the crawler from before. This is my fault.”

  “No, it’s not. We both wrote him up.”

  “But I pushed it at the end just to stick it to him.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I repeated.

  Megan looked down on me, frowning.

  “I’m Beth, by the way,” my sister said, offering to shake Megan’s hand. “I’m his sister.”

  “Oh, you’re the sister. I thought you might be the girlfriend.”

  “Ew. No. Gross.”

  “I’m Megan. It’s nice to meet you.” Returning her attention to me, Megan added, “I brought you a bunch of snacks. I didn’t know what you liked, so there’s a variety.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Can I do anything else? I want to help.”

  My phone vibrated. Bending only my wrist and moving nothing else except for my eyes, I read a text from Nathan:

  “ask her to get me some snacks please”

  “Actually,” I began as I put my phone down. “My roommate was with me and tried to stop it. He might like some snacks or something if you didn’t mind.”

  Beth stood and went to Nathan’s door on Megan’s behalf, knocking gently. “Hey. If you’re up, someone Dor works with is here. She brought snacks.”

  “I don’t want to impose,” he replied, cracking the door.

  “It’s not imposing at all!” Megan said, speaking loudly enough for Nathan to hear.

  Nathan gingerly entered the living room. I had no doubt that he was bruised and sore from last night, but we had been friends long enough for me to know when he was playing something up.

  “I assume they’re in the kitchen?” he asked. “Do you mind if I help myself?”

  Megan was across the room in a blink. “Absolutely not. Sit down, and I’ll bring everything to you. I’m Megan, by the way.”

  “Nathan. And that’s really alright.”

  “I insist.”

  “Okay.”

  With his eyes closed, Nathan slowly lowered himself into one of our chairs. He opened one eye, caught mine, and closed it again.

  Was he really asking me to wingman right now? That was a dumb question. I knew that he was. My initial enthusiasm for the effort was admittedly low, but Nathan stuck up for me with that crawler and got a concussion and three stitches for the trouble. I was duty-bound to aid him.

  “Nathan’s been pretty busy climbing the ladder,” I said. “This’ll be the first string of days off he’s had in a while.”

  Megan came into the living room with her plastic bag full of snack foods. “Climbing the ladder where?”

  Nathan shook his head. “It’s nothing exciting. I’m pretty close to being a full-fledged union member, is all. Two more months. HVAC.”

  She held the bag open for him to look inside. “Take anything you want.”

  “Is that beef jerky?”

  Smiling, she fished it out and offered it to Nathan.

  “I love you, and that’s not just the concussion talking,” he said.

  Megan laughed. “Can I have a piece?”

  “You were hoping none of us wanted it so you could have it,” Nathan accused with a grin.

  “Who sees beef jerky and doesn’t want a piece?”

  Nathan answered, “I love you, and that’s not just the concussion talking.”

  And Megan laughed even harder.

  My phone vibrated, and I was thankful. Reading a screen helped me to tune out the increasingly gag-inducing flirting happening just inches away from my clammy feet. I really wanted to take my socks off and let them breathe, but I couldn’t take that gamble with company over.

  “Should we leave them alone?” Beth asked.

  She did an astoundingly bad job of hiding her smile when I looked at her over my shoulder. Her head went back down as she typed.

  “You don’t have a crush on that girl or something, right?”

  “No, I’m good.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I promise. They might actually be kind of good for each other.”

  “You doing okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll start looking for a new job first thing in the morning.”

  “You’ll find something. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.”

  “Same goes for you.”

  “Alright, alright.”

  “Would it be rude to turn something on?”

  “Please do.”

  Beth put down her phone and picked up the remote to begin aimlessly browsing. Out of habit, I clicked to Reddit on my phone. My head hurt too much to read, so I closed it right away.

  I caught a post title as it minimized and immediately went back to check.

  “LootLootLouis is running an S-ranked dungeon in the Netherlands,” I said aloud. “They’re only thirty minutes in.”

  “You can stay and watch with us if you want,” Nathan offered Megan.

  “I don’t want to be in the way while you guys are trying to rest.”

  “You won’t be. This is a normal night for us. Do you mind, Dor?”

  “Anyone who brings snacks can stay and watch television,” I said.

  Nathan smiled. “See?”

  “What kind of dungeon is it?” Megan asked as she sat on the floor. I noticed she chose a spot very near to Nathan.

  “I didn’t see. Let me pull it up.”

  Megan gasped when the stream loaded.

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