Daniel stood frozen for a moment. And in that moment, he was not standing in front of a young boy who was half his age, and easily half his size. He was facing a brother who cared enough for his sister that nothing else mattered. Daniel knew this was another reason he should run from Annika: Nilay would just be another person he hurt when he hurt her. “That won’t be necessary. I’d never do anything to hurt her.”

But that meant he couldn’t see her again—ever.

Nilay nodded and broke into a smile, a regular teenager again. “I knew you were a good guy.”

They entered the building, and Nilay presented his ID while Daniel chatted with the administrator and signed him in.

Nilay was a hit with the night shift as he placed doughnuts and bagels on the food table. He was enjoying a doughnut and getting his questions answered when Crista and the pilot, Andrea, came on duty. Daniel made introductions and waited for Andrea to start briefing.

Crista’s smirk said more than Daniel wanted to deal with at the moment, so he did everything he could to avoid eye contact with her.

“So, you want to be a flight medic?” she asked Nilay.

“Well, actually, I don’t know. I kind of want to go to med school, but this seems really interesting, and Daniel said I could tag along. And I brought food my mom cooked.” He smiled. “Indian food.”

Crista’s eyes lit up at that. “You brought Indian food? Kid, you can observe here anytime.”

Andrea cleared her throat. “You guys okay if we start working here?”

Crista high-fived Nilay and turned to Andrea. “Let’s hear the brief, already.”

Andrea sighed and went through the pilot’s brief, going over the weather, maintenance and what the role of the observer should be. She finished up and fixed a hard stare on Nilay. “Stick with Daniel, don’t get in the way.”

Wide-eyed and stiff, Nilay nodded. Daniel clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t mind her. She’s just giving you a hard time. Come on, I’ll show you where to put your stuff.” He led Nilay back to the room he’d had Annika in for her stitches. A small closet had a couple of shelves in it, one of which belonged to Daniel. He squeezed Nilay’s backpack onto it and put on his flight suit.

“Now what?” Nilay bounced, unable to sit still.

“Now we wait.”

Crista came over and stood in the doorway. “Hey, Nilay, how’s your sister’s hand doing?”

“Oh, she’s doing great. Daniel’s awesome at stitches.”

Daniel closed his eyes and shook his head. Nilay needed to understand what a secret was.