Chapter 74 – Charlie
CHARLIE
Caleb opens the backdoor and Mitchell helps Bonnie into the car, leaning in to do her buckle for her. Reassured that she’s okay, I keep walking with my dads, hand still against Jace’s pulse, to the other side of the car.
Despite how awkward and difficult it is, I don’t let go, even when Eli opens the door and the three of us struggle to get Jace in. I can’t explain it, but I just…can’t. I can’t let go. I need to feel the beat of his pulse beneath my fingers. Need to know he’s still here.
I go to climb in once they move out of the way, but Dad stops me.
“He’s still not getting enough oxygen.” I nod but don’t say anything, I’m well aware of that fact.
His chest is still rising and falling in short, barely there movements.
Which is probably why, in my state earlier it was so easy to believe he wasn’t breathing at all.
“You need to take over giving him rescue breaths, one full breath every five to six seconds, okay?”
“Yeah. I can do that. I can do that,” I mutter, climbing into the footwell so I can kneel over Jace.
“Here,” Caleb whispers and I look up. He gives Bonnie a soft smile, handing her a new bottle of water that she takes mutely, settling it down beside her before wrapping her arms tightly around Jace’s legs in her lap. Like she can’t bear to let him go any more than I can.
Dad casts a sad smile my way, and I look away, unable to stand anyone else’s pain right now. He doesn’t say anything, and neither do Eli and Ryan behind me, they just close both back doors and rap their hands against the car roof.
Mitchell takes off and I jerk forward, catching myself before I can fall onto Jace. I quickly readjust my stance and brush Jace’s hair from his face.
Taking a deep breath, I lean down and press my lips to Jace’s, pushing my breath into him When I’m done, I feather a kiss to his cheek and whisper in his ear, “Stay with us, Jace. We need you.”
Then I count to five and do it again. I’m not sure if what I’m doing is really helping, or if I’m even doing it right, but I continue sharing the air in my lungs with Jace.
“We’re five minutes out,” Mitchell eventually calls over his shoulder, breaking the long silence and in my peripheral, I catch him looking over his shoulder at Bonnie. “Before we get there, I need to know…what name are we giving the hospital?”
The silence that follows is deafening. My eyes continue flicking between Jace, Mitchell and Bonnie who is looks deep in thought, considering his question.
“It’s over? They’re all gone?” she finally asks, her voice still hoarse.
“Yes. Johnathan is dead.” She knows this, she told us she heard it happen. She heard Jace and Johnathan fighting. She just doesn’t know when it happened, or how much time has passed since Jace lost consciousness.
I can’t even begin to imagine what that felt like for her.
Not being able to see what was happening, only hearing it.
Sitting in the dark, waiting for one of them to move or make a sound, not knowing which one it would be.
The relief she must have felt when it was Jace.
Followed by the devastation when he passed out, not knowing if he was sleeping or gone, unable to move enough to feel for a pulse.
Thump. Thump.
I take a breath. He’s alive. The soft beat of his pulse under my fingertips grounding me and I seal my lips over his again, pushing oxygen into his body.
“And the men who…who attacked us?”
“Dead.” He doesn’t sugar coat it. Nor does he explain how they died. That I shot one of them, Mitchell slit another’s throat, and my dad killed the last one to save me. “They’re all gone.”
“Then we tell them the truth. I’m Bonnie King.
” She looks at me, offering a weak but determined smile.
“Between the two of us, they can’t shut us out, right?
They have to tell us how he is. I mean, technically – legally – we’re siblings and the two of you have been together for years.
That means they’ll keep us informed, come to us about everything, right? ”
I don’t answer her. Truthfully, I have no idea if that will be enough. Fuck, we should have filed that paperwork years ago when Jace suggested giving me medical power of attorney after a bad episode that had him in the hospital. We’ve been meaning to, we just…thought we had time.
“But after,” Bonnie continues, chewing nervously on her lip.
“I want to change my name. The right way. Not today or even tomorrow, it’ll take time I know.
But soon, after we’ve spoken to Charlotte, ad the police and whatever else we need to do so I can be me again.
” Her eyes move to mine and I freeze, my mouth hovering over Jace’s. There’s more, I can see it.
“But, I don’t want to be Bonnie King. Not any longer than I have to. I was thinking…what about Bonnie Rose?”
I smile. “I love it” Jace will too.
“It suits you,” Mitchell adds as I close the distance between Jace’s and my lips.
“It suits us,” she whispers, still looking at me.
“It does,” I answer her unspoken question. “I’ve wanted to be tied to you, we both have, since we were teenagers. Whether that’s as Taylor, King or Rose, I don't care. No offence to my dads, I personally prefer Charlie Rose to Charlie Taylor; has a better ring to it.”
She turns to Mitchell, and my eyes briefly follow before I’m forced to go back to my task, though not before I spot the hospital finally coming into view in the distance.
“I know everything between us is still new Mitchell. This happened so fast we haven’t had the chance to sit down and talk about it, but-”
“Marissa-” he cuts off her rambling, turning into the hospital’s carpark, heading for the ER.
“This thing between us isn’t new. I’ve been yours from the second I laid eyes on you.
I’d love nothing more than for you to claim me back,” he declares, shutting the car off and jumping out, running into the hospital to get us help.
“Don’t think Jace won’t either,” I say, my eyes on the hospital doors Mitchell disappeared into. “The only reason he kept the name King was because it was your name. The second he wakes up and finds out you’re changing yours to Rose, he will be right there with you. We all will.”
I lean over Jace again, prepared to give him another breath when the doors fly open and several sets of hands reach in. I panic when my fingers start to slip from Jace’s throat and Bonnie cries out, clutching his legs tighter when someone tries to pull her hands away.
Looking up, I see several people gathered around the car all hospital staff. I know I need to let Jace go, let them take over…but I can’t. I also know I can’t not let them help him so I shuffle deeper into the car, moving out of their way while readjusting my fingers so I can feel his pulse again.
“He has a pulse. He never stopped-he didn’t-he just-he can’t breathe properly. Not on his own, I need-I can’t,” I stammer, not making sense but unable to get the words out in a coherent way.
The woman in front of me seems to work out what I’m trying to say though, because she nods, offering me a reassuring smile and tells me it’s okay.
Someone places an oxygen mask over Jace’s face. Another wraps a brace around his neck.
I hear Mitchell’s voice and look over my shoulder. Mitchell is talking softly to Bonnie, coaxing her out of the car in his arms while a nurse places an oxygen mask on her as well.
A hand touches my shoulder, and I flinch, my head snapping back around. “Hey, it’s okay. We need to get him inside.” I nod, my eyes locking on Jace once more. We do. He needs them. “Both of you.”
I frown and shake my head. “I-I’m fine. I’m not hurt. It’s them. Bonnie and Jace. They need-I-”
“Okay, okay,” she tells me. She continues speaking but I can’t really hear it, my thoughts completely on Jace and Bonnie.
I blink and suddenly I’m out of the car.
I stand there, completely bewildered. When did I get out of the car?
My hands start shaking and I take a step toward Jace again.
“It’s okay, he's coming too. They just need to get him out of the car.” The nurse continues talking, explaining everything they’re doing while keeping an arm around my back whether to steady me or to stop me from racing over to Jace the second he’s out of the car, I don't know. Probably both.
With Jace on the stretcher, the team of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff start rolling him toward the hospital, Mitchell quickly following with Bonnie in his arms and a nurse beside him.
“He’s alive,” I remind myself.
“Yes, he is,” the nurse reiterates, guiding me after them. "You did good."
Bonnie looks over Mitchell’s shoulder and holds her arm out. I don’t think, I just move. I leap forward, out of the nurse’s arms and lace my fingers with Bonnie’s. Something in me immediately settles and I squeeze her fingers gently, the three of us following the stretcher into the hospital.
They’re okay. We’re okay. They’re both going to be okay.