Chapter 34 - Nathan
Andrew and I didn’t speak on the train ride home.
Mostly because I could tell he was angry at Gabriel for putting himself in danger, but also because his knee was clearly painful.
His limp was significantly worse when we exited the train at the stop near the apartment.
The shrill reverberation of a man wailing on a saxophone in the echoing platform was the perfect soundtrack to what was happening in my mind.
Andrew made it halfway up the stairs before his leg buckled. I lunged and caught him before he fell, which made my arm throb under the bandage Gabriel had changed that morning. The stitches were healing well, but he’d already warned me he wouldn’t be removing them for at least another week.
“Goddamnit,” Andrew said savagely.
“It’s fine,” I said, still steadying him.
“No. It’s definitely not fine. Nothing is fine right now.”
I waited for a second before responding, to manage my own temper. “Sorry. You’re right. I meant… I’ve got you.”
He glared at me for a second then sighed. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” I helped him the rest of the way up the stairs.
We made it back to the apartment before I spoke again. Andrew collapsed on the coach with a groan.
The gel ice pack I pulled from the freezer stung my hands until I tossed it on his lap. I considered getting one for my aching forearm, but instead I just rolled out my wrist. “We should call Maggie and Soren. They need to know what happened.”
“Gabriel said no police,” he grunted as he stretched out his bad knee.
“Well… I think he’s wrong.” I prepared for another burst of temper, but Andrew just shook his head.
“Realistically, what could they do? Gabriel’s way is faster.”
I paced the room. “Are you really okay with just sitting here?”
“No! Of course I’m fucking not. But what do you suggest I do with this?” He gestured to his knee. “We would just slow them down. Unless you’ve got experience with vigilante justice you’ve been keeping under wraps?”
“No.” I threw myself into one of the armchairs. It creaked in protest.
“And we’re not gonna just sit here. We’re going to make a nest.”
Another Omega quirk I knew about in theory. It made sense for an Omega to want to feel safe during their heat, but I’d never thought about what constructing one would entail.
There was no point protesting. I didn’t have any better ideas of what to do while we waited, other than to call Maggie. It might even feel good to have a distraction.
Apparently, building a nest involved me following Andrew’s instructions while he iced his knee, and it was mostly hauling around mattresses.
He had me pull the mattress off the bed in the guest room and drag it into his and Gabriel’s bedroom.
Then I was instructed to pull their mattress off the frame so we could disassemble it and put it in the closet.
“And where are you going to sleep then?” I asked after I slammed the closet door shut on the last piece of the heavy wooden frame. I was sweating in the heat of the apartment.
Andrew looked at me like I was an idiot. “Here. Obviously.”
“Oh. Right.” I looked at the two mattresses pushed together on the shaggy soft rug. I’d wrestled fresh sheets onto them, and piled up all the pillows in the apartment. “Even before it… starts?”
“That’s the idea,” he said and levered himself up from the floor with a grunt. “She’ll probably want our scents in it, so you should sleep here too.”
“Funny,” I said drily. “Wait, are you serious?”
“Yes. Why would I joke about that?”
“I can’t sleep with you!”
Andrew laughed. “Oh my god, man. You’re gonna have to get used to some close proximity if you’re sticking around for her heat. Are you blushing?”
My face was burning, but I shook my head. “What if she doesn’t want us? For her heat?”
Andrew shrugged. “Then we’ll wait outside, obviously.
Come on, we deserve a drink. We need to get a canopy over the bed, too, but that’ll have to wait til tomorrow,” he said and I followed him into the living room.
Once we both had whiskeys, we sat across from each other.
I felt like he was about to interview me for a job.
“Did you ever want to join a pack?” he asked after a neat swallow of his drink.
Did I? If I’d ever really thought about it, the answer would have been no.
The other Alphas I met in college all seemed to know something I didn't know about our designation, and it was a secret I had no interest in learning.
But I had to admit that Andrew was different from what I expected. Perhaps I had been a bit judgemental.
“No,” I said finally. “Did you?”
Andrew rolled his glass between his palms. “I always expected to be part of one. It’s what I’m used to. But then I met Gabriel and none of it seemed important anymore, you know?”
I did know. That paradigm shift is what had happened to me when I met Bridget.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is you’re welcome to stick around if you want,” he continued and it was his turn to look awkward.
I knew what he meant, and the prospect was… not horrible. I liked him and Gabriel, and, more importantly, respected them for how much they valued Bridget. “And if she doesn’t want to stay?”
He shrugged, still trying to look casual. “That would suck. But the offer still stands. If Bridget doesn’t want us after all, I figure having another person to commiserate with would be helpful.”
I couldn’t argue with that. If Bridget was out of my life, I would not want to be alone. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” I said and tipped my glass at him in a toast.
We lapsed into silence. We were both still tense, still worried about Bridget and Gabriel, still feeling useless, but something about being together helped.