Chapter 23 ~
Rory ~
Ow, is the first thing I think when I wake up. Ugh, I feel like I got hit by a car.
Yeah, that wasn’t as funny as I thought it would be.
After realising that yes, I’m actually alive—my eyes are just stuck closed but my brain is functioning—I blearily open my eyes. I blink, unsticking my eyelids. I lock eyes with Luc across the room and give a weak attempt at a smile.
“Rory?” Luc scrambles out of his chair.
Jace, who's holding my hand, jolts awake at Luc’s loud words.
Looking how I feel, Jace rubs a tired hand over his relieved face.
I squeeze his hand with all my strength.
Jace rises from his chair beside me, his lips resting on my forehead briefly.
“Is Rory awake?” A gravelly voice says somewhere to my left.
“Dom.” The sound comes out all raspy.
Luc grabs a water bottle from the bedside table and removes the cap. He presses the bottle against my lips and I drink at least half before Luc takes it away.
Dominic stumbles into my vision, knocking Maverick’s feet on Mase’s bed beside me. “Rory’s awake.”
Dom squishes past Luc and drops down beside me.
“Hey, Sweetheart.” He presses his lips against my forehead where Jace’s were.
“Hey! Don’t you fucking move!” I hear Maverick say.
“I wanna see Rory too!” Mase whines back. “Move me over.”
Maverick groans, exasperatedly. Luc gets up and helps Maverick push Mason’s bed until it’s right up against mine.
Mase shuffles right over, intertwining your fingers. “Hey, Angel.”
“Hey,” I say, thankful for the cold water that has soothed my vocal cords. “What happened?”
Mase looks at me blankly. “We were in a car accident,” he says slowly.
I roll my eyes, hurting my head. “I know that. I meant, what happened after that? Where are we?” I look around the hospital room but with all the bodies crowded around me, it’s hard to find anything significant.
“We’re an hour from Hannah’s place. One hour and a bit from my parents,” Jace tells me, kissing my hand. I squeeze his, hoping to take away some of the fear residing there.
It’s hard to think, like there’s something dragging me down. I look down at Jace’s hand holding mine, specifically the drip running from my arm.
“The doctor wanted you to sleep longer—apparently your concussion was giving you hell.” Maverick sits beside his brother.
“Okay,” I murmur. “Where’s…where’s Alec?”
Nobody’s said anything about Alec yet. Where is he?
The guys fall silent.
Dominic gets up off the floor, his hand curling around the sheet to the adjoining room and he tugs the sheet across. He steps back to reveal Alec in the bed a few metres from me.
Tears prick at my eyes as I take him in. He was closest to the other car. He got hit dead on.
His arm’s in a sling, with bruising all over his face. His bed’s tilted up slightly so he’s sort of sitting up as he sleeps.
“Will,” my voice wavers, “will he be okay?”
Dominic sits down in the chair beside Alec. The guys look unsure what to say.
“Will he be okay?” I cry out, emotions tightening in my throat. Something in the room starts beeping faster and faster only fueling my panic.
“Stay calm, baby,” Maverick soothes me. “He’ll be okay, yes. The doctor said he’ll be fine. We’re just waiting for him to wake up.”
He won’t look at me when he says that.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I whisper. My head’s pounding.
“He has a collapsed lung,” Dom stares at Alec when he says it. “And a brain bleed. It was small but w—“ Dom’s voice breaks. He clears his throat. “We don't know what the long term effects could be.”
Dom’s voice is void of emotion but I can tell he’s hurting.
Before the guys can stop me, I’m gritting through the pain and getting out of bed.
“Rory!” They all object. I ignore it and grab the drip stick thingy that my arm is attached to. I take off the thing on my finger.
“Shit!” Luc hurries around and puts out his arm for me to hold on to. I lean on him heavily as I hobble towards Alec’s bed.
I let go of Luc’s arm and drop onto Dom’s lap. He makes no move to touch me. His dark eyes are cast down and away, refusing to meet mine.
“Dom,” I whisper.
Dom shakes his head. He doesn’t try to push me away but he doesn’t make any effort to reach out.
“Just…leave it alone, Sweetheart,” he mutters. Despite his pain, his words are gentle as though he’s afraid to hurt me.
“I can’t do that, baby,” I whisper back.
My hands reach out, my fingertips brushing the scruff on his face. Exhaustion preys on those deep, dark chocolate oases. Despite everything else telling me no, he doesn’t move out of my reach.
So, I slowly curl my arms around his neck, gently tugging him down to my level.
“It’s okay, Dom,” I tell him, quietly. “It’s okay.”
Dom breaks at those words. I feel him tremble as he presses his face into my neck, pulling me into his arms.
“Rory,” he says roughly, silent panic in his voice. “I can’t—“ He shudders.
“I know,” I tell him. I hear the door open and close as the guys get up and leave.
“I can’t lose him,” Dom says, his accent thickening with his emotions.
“We won’t,” I swear to him. “Alec’s strong. He will be okay.”
Dom shakes his head. “I pushed him away. I was so concerned about hurting our friendship but I hurt him anyway. He’ll never forgive me for that.”
I bite my lip and stay silent, just offering him comfort. I can’t interfere, no matter how perfect they are together.
“What if…” Dom doesn’t seem to be able to make himself say it.
“Don’t do the ‘what if’ thing. It won’t help. We have to stay strong,” I murmur.
“I can’t lose him,” Dom repeats. “When I saw Jace’s mustang…I’ve never been more scared in my whole life. Three of the most important people in my life—not knowing if they were alive or not.”
“Mase and I are okay,” I reassure him. “Alec will be too.” Not knowing if I’m right or not leaves the taste of ash on my tongue.
I remember waking up in the car. Mason groaning behind me. I looked across at Alec but he didn’t wake. Then I blacked out. As though my body knew it was better to be asleep then awake.
Everything hurt and I was so, so scared. I was so scared of being alone. Like I had been for the better part of three years.
“Rory?”
I realise Dom’s pulled back and is watching me worriedly as I fight to breathe. His fingers stroke my cheek.
“Sweetheart?” I realise I haven’t answered him but I’m not sure I can.
I focus on breathing. On Dom’s face as he brushes my cheek with his fingers before his large hands cup my face in a gentle fashion. On the blackness below his eyes which tells me that he didn’t sleep well. Scared as hell that we wouldn’t be okay. I can’t freak out on him right now.
It manages to break me out of it enough to shove down all those shitty emotions that had me struggling to breathe.
It’s been a while so it doesn’t work immediately but as the minutes tick by, I’m able to push it all down, down, down.
I hate this feeling.
When you shove down all the bad shit, it messes with your mind. It’s calm. Blank. But it’s…it’s better.
I sigh heavily and it signals to Dom that I’m back.
“What happened, baby?” Dom asks carefully.
“I…remembered it. The crash. I got stuck,” I tell him, calmly.
He looks at me—understanding my words but seems almost confused. He doesn’t push.
The door opens and we turn our heads to Maverick who cringes.
“Sorry to interrupt guys, but the doctor wants to see Rory and Mason,” he alerts us.
Dom blinks and looks at me. “Shit, what the hell are you doing out of bed?!”
I snort and roll my eyes. “Calming you down.”
“I’m glad someone is.” The doctor strides into the room. He’s pretty young, early twenties maybe. Possibly a little older.
“Were you causing trouble?” I narrow my eyes on Dom who grumbles but doesn’t answer.
He helps me up and walks—half carries—me back to my bed where he finally just scoops me up and carefully places me down.
The rest of my guys come back in. Mason ignores the doctor telling him he should be in his bed and crawls into mine.
Mason puts his arm around me and I snuggle into him.
“Ah, and you must be the one keeping these terrors in line.” The doctor looks up from his clipboard and grins.
“Trying.” I force myself to smile back.
“I’m Flynn Johnson. Your doctor, obviously. But you can just call me Flynn. I’m not used to the whole last name bullshit yet,” the doctor tells me.
“Do you normally swear in front of your patients?” Jace narrows his eyes on the young, handsome doc with surfer waves and a nice tan.
“Jace,” I scold. He just glares at the doctor before he takes my hand into his.
“Yes, I haven’t gotten used to that part of the job yet either, I’m afraid. Now, I just need to ask you some questions, Rory. Standard procedure,” Flynn informs me. He gets straight to the point and I’m grateful for it.
“Okay.”
“Alright. What is your name and date of birth?” He first asks and I rattle that off.
“Do you remember everything prior to the accident? What were you doing?” Flynn asks.
“We’d just gone to my friend's house. We were driving home when someone drove into the side of the car,” I tell him, easily.
“Okay and do you know where you are?” Flynn fiddles with the chart at the end of my bed as he speaks.
“The hospital? I don’t know which. Jace said it was two hours from…the house and one hour from his parents.” I shrug. No one told me what the hospital was called.
Flynn nods and his face grows serious. “Now, Rory, I have to ask these next few questions. Would you prefer your partners to leave or stay?”
I tense, my hand tightening around Jace’s.
“No, they can stay,” I tell him firmly.
He looks at me for a moment as if to check I’m sure of my decision, then nods again.
“During your preliminary assessment, I noticed that you have several other injuries, almost healed ones, that would not have come from this accident,” Flynn says carefully.
He saw. What if he tells someone?
I shrink back into Mase, feeling that shortness of breath return.
“Angel, look at me, sweetie,” Mase softly demands. I meet his eyes and the panicking feeling slowly evaporates.