Chapter 11 Tyler
TYLER
I’m shocked out of sleep by someone bouncing on the bed. I pull my face away from Gavin’s neck and crack an eye open to find Sean jumping on the bed with a grin on his face.
“Chelsea said you guys only wanted a couple hours and sent me to wake you up,” Sean says, still fucking jumping.
“I’m sure she didn’t say 'wake us up like an asshole,'” I grumble and let my eyes travel down Gavin’s body. His very naked body. We fell asleep in a tangle of limbs and haven’t moved. “I don’t appreciate you seeing my man naked, fuckface.”
“Oh. Someone’s jealous,” Sean taunts.
Before I can open my mouth, Gavin slides his leg across the bed, knocking Sean clear off his feet.
He bounces on the bed once and then hits the floor hard, making me laugh like hell.
“Shut the fuck up,” Gavin rasps, sleep still evident in his voice.
Gavin gathers me back in his arms and throws a leg over mine.
“If you don’t get the fuck out, I’m going to carve your eyeballs out with a rusty spoon for seeing my man naked. ”
Sean jumps back onto the bed on his knees, completely unfazed. “I’ve seen it all before.”
“Sean!” Cole’s voice echoes up the stairs and Sean flinches. “Get your ass down here!”
“Coming!” Sean yells. He jumps off the bed, smacks me hard on the ass, and runs from the room. His cackle follows him all the way down the stairs, and all I can do is shake my head.
Gavin kisses my forehead, cheek, and chin. “We need to shower and get back to the hospital.”
“I know.” I roll over, pushing Gavin to his back. I straddle his waist and lay down on top of him. “Five more minutes.”
Gavin chuckles and smacks the same asscheek Sean just smacked. “Get up, Sweetheart.”
“Ugh. Fine.” I climb from the bed in full pout mode, and Gavin stands up beside me. He wraps his arms around me from behind and marches me to the bathroom. “What happened to you calling me Sexy?”
“While you’re still incredibly sexy,” Gavin reaches around me to turn the shower on, “I felt like you deserve something more meaningful.”
We both get into the shower, and Gavin grabs the body wash from the side of the tub. He squirts some into the palm of his hand and rubs them together to lather it up. Gavin’s hands land on my shoulders, and he starts cleaning me off. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I should have done it before we fell asleep.” Gavin shrugs and continues cleaning me up. “I just like taking care of you.”
I let him finish washing me before grabbing the body wash. I start doing the same to him, taking my time. “Sometimes I want to take care of you, too.”
We finish up our shower, rinse off, and Gavin grabs two towels. We wrap them around our waists, and I’m just stepping into the bedroom when my phone rings.
I dig it from my pants pocket on the floor, and my heart drops when I see Kira’s name on the screen.
I slide to answer, my thumb shaking. “Hello?” I can barely hear with all the noise in the background, but I can clearly hear her crying.
I look at Gavin, panicked, and switch to speakerphone. “Kira. What’s wrong?”
“It’s Ari.” Kira starts crying harder, and I collapse on the side of the bed.
Gavin sits beside me, grabbing my hand, already preparing for what she will say next.
He died, and we weren’t there. We were too worried about sleep and each other.
Tears are already forming in my eyes, and when she talks again, my stomach bottoms out. “He woke up.”
It takes a minute for my brain to catch up, and Gavin squeezes my hand. “What?” I croak.
“He’s awake. The nurses and doctors are still in there with him, but he woke up.”
“Holy shit,” I breathe, the phone shaking in my hand. “We’ll be there soon.”
“Okay. Drive careful.”
The phone disconnects, and it’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I look at Gavin, and he has tears in his eyes. “He’s alive.”
“Let’s go see him.”
Two words keep replaying in my head as I get dressed.
He’s awake.
I’ve never been happier to hear two words in my life.
The drive to the hospital was surreal. All I kept thinking was that something was going to go wrong, and they’d have to put Ari back on the ventilator.
Or worse, they took him off of it too soon, and now he's back on.
Gavin was a rock the whole way there, driving as fast as he dared with his hand on my thigh.
Now, walking into Ari’s room and seeing him propped up and without the breathing tube, I almost lose it all over again. “Go,” Gavin urges.
Ari’s eyes are closed, and his breathing is deep, telling me that he’s asleep.
He still has IV tubes running everywhere and an oxygen cannula in his nose, but he’s no longer in a coma and is breathing on his own.
I sit down in the chair by his bed, and Gavin sits on the other side.
Ari’s eyes slowly open when he hears the chair creak.
“Hey, Pretty boy.” Ari’s voice is gruff and scratchy, but I’ve never been more glad to hear it in my life. “Hey, Gav.”
“You scared the shit out of us,” I blurt out. “Can we not do that again?”
Ari chuckles and then winces. “I’ll try not to.”
“I figured your room would be full,” Gavin says.
“They’ve been in and out while the nurses were getting me situated, and Jason had a heart test.”
Ari’s eyelashes flutter closed, and his breathing becomes deeper.
I know he has to be tired, but that doesn’t stop me from making sure he’s still breathing.
The door to Ari’s room squeaks and Keon walks in with Kira and Jason.
Kira smiles and comes over to sit in my lap.
Jason stretches out on the bed beside Ari, and Keon sits on the edge.
No one says anything, and I know we're all doing the same thing - appreciating that we’re all back together.
I don’t know how long we sit in silence before Ari groans and looks around the room.
“Who died?” Ari asks, making me choke on a laugh.
“That is not funny,” Jason replies with a chuckle, and the tension slowly leaves the room. Ari groans again, and Jason sits up. “What do you need?”
“I need to sit up. My ass hurts.”
“You’re going to be a horrible patient, aren’t you?” Kira asks, but gets to her feet anyway as Jason and her work together to get Ari sitting further up in bed.
“If it means you’ll be my hot as fuck nurse, then yes,” Ari replies.
“You’re awful,” Kira laughs, sitting back in my lap.
“I have so many questions. Like, why the fuck was Professor North in my room when I woke up?”
We all exchange uneasy glances. I start telling him the story, starting from the apartment ambush and finishing with when we got to them in the prison.
Ari’s face is a blank mask the whole time, taking it all in.
I don’t leave out anything, because he needs to know it all.
Even what I don’t want to say. “We couldn’t find Abraham. ”
Ari nods. “Yeah, I figured that.” His eyebrows crease. “Wait. What did you say Professor North’s real name is?”
“Tivon Askari,” Kira answers. We all wait for his reaction, and we don’t have to wait long.
Ari’s eyes widen. “He was in my training camp in Israel.”
“I’m sure he can tell you more, but he picked up where you left off,” Kira answers. “It probably doesn’t mean much, but I trust him.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Little warrior. Your opinion matters to us.” Kira looks back at me with soft eyes and snuggles into my chest. “I agree with Kira, though. I think he can be an asset for hunting your crazy fucking uncle down, and dealing with your dad.”
Ari sighs and leans back against the pillows. “He’s probably already on his way back to tell my father that he failed.”
“What does that mean for you?” Jason asks, and I can hear the worry in his voice. Ari grabs his hand and kisses the back of it.
“It means that I need to disappear.”
Something about that sentence doesn’t sit right with me, and I frown. “If you go, we go.”
Ari’s already shaking his head before I finish speaking. “No. You guys have been through enough because of me. I need to handle this on my own.”
Keon sits up on the bed, glaring at Ari. “Have you lost your damn mind? We’re a team, and you almost fucking died because of this.”
“But I didn’t,” Ari argues, and it just pisses Keon off even more. I’ve seen these two throw down more than once, and emotions are running high right now.
“No, but you also didn’t have to stand by while they brought you back to life over and over again.
You didn’t have to sit here and listen to the doctor tell you that we needed to start saying our goodbyes, and you didn’t have to sit around wondering what the fuck was happening to you while you were missing.
So, don’t sit there and act so goddamn flippant about being on a fucking ventilator, in a fucking medically induced coma, after almost fucking dying from blood loss and shock. ”
Ari sighs. “I just want to make sure you guys are safe, Ke.”
“What about YOU?!” Keon’s voice rises with each word, and he stands from the bed. “When are you going to give a fuck about yourself? You keep your cards close to your chest. I know that. But if you would have been more honest about who you are, then Jason and Kira could have been more prepared.”
“They didn’t—”
“They needed to know,” Keon interrupts. “I told you from the beginning to tell Jason who you are. They deserved to know. You want to sit on your high horse and talk about how important it is to be a team, when all you want to do is be a lone ranger.”
“I just want to protect you.”
Keon rakes a hand down his face, trying to get his temper under control. “And we want to protect you, but fuck if I’m trying anymore. You want to run off and play hero? Be my guest. But I'm not gonna be there to see it.” Keon spins on his heel and heads toward the door.
“Keon!” Kira calls out, but he keeps walking. I give her a gentle nudge, and she gets up to follow him. If anyone can calm him down, it’s her.
“He’s right, you know,” Gavin says quietly. “You’ve beaten into my head from day one how important the team is, and at the first sign of trouble, you want to do it alone.”
“This isn’t just trouble,” Ari grits out. “These are highly trained operatives. They outnumber us by thousands. The guards that were taken out at the prison? That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
“Then we cut the head off the snake,” I reply. “They can’t follow orders to kill you if your father isn’t able to give the orders.”
“What are you going to do?” Ari sits up, wincing with the movement. Jason goes to help him, but pulls back from the look Ari gives him. “Fly into Israel and start a war? It’s not that easy.”
“Then we bring them to us,” I argue. “Going off by yourself is stupid, and you know that.”
“Getting you guys involved is stupid, and you know that.”
“We’re already involved,” Gavin responds.
“You need them,” Jason says softly. “And we need you. I’ve already come close to losing you once. I don’t want to do it again.” Jason kisses Ari on the cheek and slides from the bed, ignoring when Ari tries to reach for him. Gavin gets up and follows him, leaving me alone with Ari.
Ari lays his head back to stare at the ceiling. I move to sit on the edge of the bed and grab Ari’s hand. I hate making myself vulnerable. It’s bitten me in the ass before, but Ari needs to see reason, or he will disappear the first chance he gets.
“Look, I’m not good at this shit,” I start. Ari squeezes my hand, and I find the courage to continue. “But without you, we aren’t a team. You’re the glue that holds us together. Sitting here, thinking you were dying just proved that. There is no us without you.”
A nurse walks in before Ari can answer, and I lean down, kissing his lips softly, ignoring her eyes boring into the side of my head.
I stand up quickly and disappear from the room before Ari can see the tears in my eyes.
I go straight to a nearby bathroom and shut the door, then lean against it and slide down until I’m sitting on the floor.
That’s when I finally let the tears fall.
I’ve been holding it together for everyone else, trying to help them stay strong, but I can’t do it anymore.
I pull my legs up to my chest and bury my face against them, hugging my knees. Big sobs tear from my chest, and I can’t remember when I last cried this hard. Someone knocks at the door, so I try to get my shit together.
“Sweetheart, open the door.”
I clear my throat. “Give me a minute.”
“No. Open the door.”
I slide to the side and unlock it. Gavin gently pushes the door open and without a word, sits on the floor beside me, pulling me into his arms. I fight like hell to keep the tears at bay, but when he kisses the side of my head, I give up.
Gavin doesn’t say a word, just rubs my back and gives me the chance to fall apart.
When the sobs turn into hiccups and I realize what just happened, I can’t even look him in the eye.
I try to pull away when he tries to tip my chin up, but he’s not having it.
He grips my chin with two fingers and jerks my eyes to his.
“Don’t you ever hide from me. This has been hard and emotional. There’s nothing wrong with letting those feelings out.” Gavin stares at me until I nod in understanding. “Now. Do you feel better?”
I take a deep breath, nodding again. “I do.”
“Good.” Gavin reaches over and yanks some toilet paper off the roll. He mops my face up, making me laugh. “I know you hide a lot with humor, Ty. But I want you to know that I’m always here for you if - no, when - you decide to stop hiding behind it.”
“I know.” I jerk his lips to mine for a quick, hard kiss. “I’ll get there.”
“That’s all I can ask.” Gavin jumps to his feet and pulls me to mine.
I wrap my arms around his waist and hug him tight.
I knew Gavin was special when I first met him.
Not many people would throw themselves into the line of fire for two people he barely knows but Gavin was willing to give his life for Chelsea and Nolan, and he continues to do so for us every time we go on a mission.
I’ll spend the rest of my life letting him know he saved my life too.