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“That's rich coming from you,” Jackson jokes. His laugh is weak, a grimace passing over his features.
“We should probably get your nurse in here to check you out.” I narrow my eyes at the call button, not looking forward to having Tilly in our space again.
Luis chuckles, probably laughing at my reaction to that nurse. Something about her set me on edge. But then again, maybe I'm just tired and grouchy.
“Are you guys decent?” Micah calls from outside the room. He pokes his head in. “I told the nurse you're awake, so he followed me to check on you.”
Deciding that we're decent enough, he walks in, passing Lukas and me stacks of pale green scrubs. He's followed by the nurse we met when we arrived.
The nurse walks straight to Jackson's bedside. “Hi, I'm Levi. You must be Jackson. How are you feeling?”
Levi checks Jackson's bandages, asking him questions and taking vital signs. While I'm certainly relieved to see him instead of Tilly, I'm also confused.
Luis answers my unspoken question. “We didn't get a good feeling from Tilly, so we asked for a different nurse while you were in the shower.”
“Oh. Well, that's good.”
“You weren't the only one that wasn't a fan,” Lukas says, ushering me back towards the bathroom to get dressed.
The scrubs are ridiculously big on me, and comically short on Lukas' legs. We are laughing at how ridiculous we look when we emerge from the bathroom again.
When we step back into the room, I'm almost overcome with emotion for the second time tonight. Luis and Micah have dragged all the mattresses, pillows, and blankets from the other rooms and set them up. I was never planning on sleeping anywhere else, but it never occurred to me how uncomfortable it would be.
I'm so exhausted, I have no doubt that I'll pass out the moment my head hits a pillow. But first, I want to check on Jackson. He is asleep again, a new plush blanket tucked around his body.
“They set him up with a morphine drip. He'll sleep well tonight,” Micah explains. “I'm going to go grab a shower. Luis is doing the same in the other bathroom, he should be back any minute.”
He drops a chaste kiss on the side of my neck as he walks by, bending to do the same to Lukas on his way into the bathroom. It fills my heart a little more, and I think I might start brimming over at some point. If only my one missing piece were here as well, I'd be floating on a cloud.
I sigh contentedly. “Bennet's going to be okay.” I say it like a mantra, whispering it to myself as I adjust Jackson's blankets one last time. Dropping a light kiss on his sleeping lips, I whisper to him, “I love you.”
Climbing into the center of the bed the guys made for us, I burrow deep into the blankets. All the blinds and blackout curtains have been pulled, the only light in the room peeking out the sides of the windows. I'm strangely comfortable, but then again, it seems like I'm sleeping somewhere new every few days lately. It's really all I've ever known. I had some flashes of recognition when we were at the lab, but I still don't have any genuine memories of what life was like before I woke up surrounded by the five men that would become everything to me.
Now that Bennet is safely away from the clutches of BioCere and Jackson Adley, I don't feel rushed to get my memory back. Quite the opposite, actually. All I really want to do is live in the moment, surrounded by these five people who complete me. They are my heart. My family. Nothing is more important than this.
Sure, I may still have the nightmares to contend with. But maybe over time we'll be able to relax, knowing that we are safe, and the nightmares will stop.
Lukas climbs into bed, crawls over, and hovers over me. “Bennet will be okay. We all will. And we're together now. Sleep,” he whispers, kissing me sweetly.
Not even my ridiculous libido can keep me awake. My head grows heavier against the pillows and I drift before Lukas can make his way to the spot he's chosen for himself. I'm not sure how much later it is when the bed dips again, Micah and Luis settling on either side of me. Micah snakes his arm beneath my neck, pulling my head against his chest. Luis settles on the other side of me, wrapping an arm around my waist. Lukas lies on the other side of Micah, his arm across his chest, hand resting on my shoulder.
With these three wrapped around me, I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Jackson
Pain.
Throbbing, scorching pain radiates from my thigh and shoots in every direction. The ache resonates down to my toes and up through my hip. It hurts far worse than getting shot.
The bullets themselves surprisingly didn't hurt that bad. They felt more like a sharp pinch, and then heat radiating from the tiny wounds. I honestly barely felt my arm wound. Now, if I focus on it, I can definitely feel how it aches, but it is nothing compared to my thigh.
Beads of sweat are rolling off my forehead. My mind feels cloudy, like my brain is stuffed with cotton. It takes me too long to remember how to help myself.
Ahh, the morphine drip.
My hand pats around for the little trigger button that is supposed to give an extra dose of pain relief. The nurse dosed me earlier and I fell asleep almost immediately, but admittedly I wasn't in this much pain then, so I'm not sure it'll have the same effect.
Finally, I locate the wire, helpfully wrapped around the safety rail to keep it within reach. My pain-addled brain couldn't see what was right in front of me.
