Mika #4
“Oh,” Aidan said and laughed. “I was going to hand those to you whether I was beaten and left on the side of the road, fired, or given another chance.”
There was a pause. “Were you now?”
“I was,” Aidan said with a shrug. “I was being a bitch about fessing up to you guys, but I was going to hand them over. What’s the point of coming clean if I kept those in my back pocket? If you guys are going to be pissed at me, at least be pissed at me with all the facts.”
Xander grunted again, but it was an oddly satisfied sound. “Good. You realize I can’t enforce anything that restricts your access to the net, right?”
“I’m aware,” Aidan said. “You can have Mika go through my phone. Probably safer he does unless you want an eye full of, uh…me.”
“No,” Xander said, and I hit the mute button.
“Eye full of what on your phone now?” I asked him wryly.
“I was single, I have nudes for apps,” he said with a snort. “You can have them if you want.”
“When I feel like I could get you naked and vulnerable without wanting to hit you with a toaster oven, I’ll appreciate the real thing,” I said.
“Toaster oven is oddly specific,” Aidan said.
“Excuse me,” Xander’s voice cut through. “Get me off mute, I can hear the lack of noise in the background.”
“Sorry,” I said after unmuting it.
“Good. Now I’m not making any fucking promises here, like I said, you’re in the shit with all of us. But the vote, for the conscious members of the group, was in your favor.”
“How…how many weren’t?” Aidan wondered. “No names, just…wondering.”
“One so far,” Xander said. “That was me.”
“Your honesty is appreciated and expected,” Aidan said, with a shake of his head.
“Uh-huh, don’t fuck it up. And don’t expect me to pretend like I want you here,” Xander said, but I wasn’t totally buying it.
He might have put it to a vote and was willing to go with the vote, but if he wanted to be rid of Aidan, he could have overridden every one of us and not had to lose a bit of sleep over it.
“And don’t count on Jake for being a yes vote either; he takes shit seriously.
He’s outvoted even if he does, but you gotta work with him, you just have to work for me. ”
“Hmm, good point,” Aidan said, looking troubled.
“You’re all on medical leave until we find out how long you’re down and out,” Xander said.
“On top of your punishment duty, you’re getting more training.
What you pulled was fucking stupid and could have got you killed…
that said, you’re obviously ready to try being more use around here than putting up pretty pictures and typing nice things about us.
So have fun with the extra training on top of everything else. ”
Aidan met my eyes, and I shrugged. That was Xander’s way of telling him, ‘Good job, you fucking idiot,’ but it was probably too uncomfortable to say when he was already pissed off at Aidan. Or maybe it was just because it was Xander, who wasn’t exactly the soft and squishy type.
He jumped when the room phone trilled softly and snatched it up. “Hello? Oh, hey, yeah, no, he’s still…yeah, he’s on the phone with us right…seriously? Fuck, and what did they say? Shit, okay, yeah, yeah, no I will, yeah just…you, uh, be there, he’ll need it, trust me. Yeah, I know.”
“What the fuck is going on?” Xander demanded and I could hear the tension in his voice.
“That was Reno,” Aidan said, grinning. “Jake woke up, and he’s talking. Not a lot; he’s a bit out of it, but the doctors are ‘making happy noises’ as Reno put it.”
“Fucking Christ,” Xander said. “Fucking idiot can’t even…
whatever. I said my piece, and you tell Reno he better think real hard if he wants to spend more time with his butt buddy, or whether not pissing off his medic because he’s not getting any rest is worth it.
Especially because I have Colin in my ear over it and I have enough to deal with! ”
The phone beeped as the call ended, and I sighed. “And to think, that’s his version of ‘I’m glad all of you are okay.’ I can’t imagine he’s like that with Colin. He’s tough, but Colin isn’t so tough that he wouldn’t want a little tenderness.”
Aidan let out a deep breath, and I jumped when he gave a little gasp and turned his face away.
I set the phone down and sat on the edge of his bed, pulling his face around so he had to face me, tears and all.
I smiled gently, stroking his hair and letting him speak first if he wanted, or to lie there in his feelings and just… be.
It was another five minutes before he spoke. “You’re all so fucking stupid. Especially you…your brother is a close second.”
“He would be unhappy that he’s in second place on that list,” I said with a smile.
Aidan laughed and then cringed, his hand going to his side. “Ow.”
“That would be the broken ribs,” I told him, pointing down. “You’ve got an ankle so twisted it might as well be broken, and guess what? A fractured kneecap, and you were hypothermic.”
“How is my uptick in training and my ‘duty’ going to work with that?” he asked, and I couldn’t tell if he was hopeful it would put it off, or disappointed.
“Oh, you’d be amazed what you can do with a hurt leg and broken ribs,” I said. “Colin will make sure you’re only doing what you should do in your state.”
“That was probably meant to be comforting, but uh…I’m pretty sure between Colin and Xander, they’re going to team up to make the next few weeks medically safe but otherwise painful and evil,” he said with a sigh. “I deserve it.”
“You do,” I said, stroking his chest. “We’re all going to give you shit, but that’s because you’re still one of ours. You’re just in serious timeout.”
“Does my timeout mean I don’t get any cuddles?
” he asked, and it would have been pitiful, but hell, he was pitiful.
He was looking down the barrel of quite a lot of shit thrown his way, mostly from love but also just…
shit. And he had his ass handed to him by Mother Nature because he’d played hero… for my brother.
“No,” I said. “Not right now, anyway. Maybe when you’re better and the shine of you saving my brother has worn off and I’m just mad at you, but not now.”
“That’s good enough for me,” he said, then grunted when I got up to lie on the bed, my head on his arm. “I was hoping for cuddles.”
“That bed is too small for my big ass,” I snorted.
“I could move over and you could cuddle.”
“Broken ribs, much?”
“Oh…fuck, yeah, you’re right.”
“It happens occasionally.”
He turned his head, threading his fingers with mine. “So…we’ll be okay…one day?”
I wanted to remind him that was if he put in the work, if he never did anything like that again, and if…
oh, it was a lot of ifs. And it was all pointless to say; it would just make him feel bad all over again when he already felt like shit and knew all of it anyway.
Just like I knew it was pointless on my end because I was already taking the first step on a path that might be long or it might be short toward forgiving him.
That wasn’t what he needed out of me; he didn’t need a reminder; he needed his boyfriend.
“We did it once before,” I told him, laying my face on his arm and feeling sleep crawling its way into my head. “We’ll do it again.”
“Good,” he said, and there was a long enough pause that I almost fell asleep. “He was right.”
“Who was?” I asked, stirring back to full consciousness but not opening my eyes.
“Reno.”
“Ugh, about what?”
He chuckled. “I do love you.”
I opened my eyes. He was looking at me with all the warmth, sorrow, regret, and love in the world.
“He was right because I love you too,” I said with a smile.
His fingers squeezed mine. “That’ll…help more than you think, but, uh…let’s try to rest, eh?”
“Sure,” I said, closing my eyes and pushing away all thoughts of what was to come: the struggle and the tribulations, the endless conversations, and the doubts and fears.
I had him, I had my brother, I had my team.
And I could rest easy knowing that.