Ari’s expression stayed stormy as he guided them into an unoccupied examination room, showing no sign of thawing at the joke Ben cracked - although the fact that he was evidently clear-headed enough to be wisecracking amidst the injuries gave Ari a small sting of relief in his chest. (Not that Benedict Sterling had ever learned his limits.)
“Getting to lunch with all your limbs intact and unbroken is usually implied,” he retorted crisply, gritting his teeth against the temptation to break down into saying something petulant and childish like I hate you that would betray all his fears at once. Ari had learnt a lesson himself, in having faced this scenario before: anger was a safer space to find himself than worry. Thank Merlin he’d gotten here, he had nearly thought, but worry was far harder to control, and seeped into all the cracks of his concentration, eroded all discipline. He could fuel anger better into action as a healer, he felt, as he pulled them to a halt and turned to inspecting Ben’s current physical state more closely. “Are you going to tell me what happened?” he said impatiently.
“Getting to lunch with all your limbs intact and unbroken is usually implied,” he retorted crisply, gritting his teeth against the temptation to break down into saying something petulant and childish like I hate you that would betray all his fears at once. Ari had learnt a lesson himself, in having faced this scenario before: anger was a safer space to find himself than worry. Thank Merlin he’d gotten here, he had nearly thought, but worry was far harder to control, and seeped into all the cracks of his concentration, eroded all discipline. He could fuel anger better into action as a healer, he felt, as he pulled them to a halt and turned to inspecting Ben’s current physical state more closely. “Are you going to tell me what happened?” he said impatiently.
