Characters and a little of the plot belong to CP Coulter.
When Julian felt himself stir, his eyes flickering open, it took him a while to realise where he was. His vision was still blurred by smoke, his senses dulled by flames, his ears ringing with the cries of his friends. Himself. Logan.
"…I'm in love with you."
Memories came flooding back. How he'd gotten here – wherever it was. So Logan knew now. Their friendship would never be the same, if it even existed any more. At least he'd saved him. That was the only thing that comforted Logan as he lay there, eyes open but unseeing.
"I'm not leaving here without you!"
Logan must feel guilty, he thought. No matter what, they had been best friends for three years. Julian, Logan and Derek. The three of them. They'd been inseparable at one point. A bond like that was hard to break.
The world cleared. He processed what his eyes saw – white. Nothing but a bright dazzling white overhead. He heard the steady beep of machines; felt there wires against his skin. He was in the hospital.
He'd made it, then.
He couldn't remember what had happened during the time he'd been asleep. He must have dreamed, had a near-death experience, something. But the last thing he remembered was jumping from that third floor window.
Somebody was holding his hand – clutching it with a vice-like grip, but whoever it was did not seem to have noticed his waking. Who was it?
He shut his eyes quickly when he heard footsteps approach. He couldn't face anyone. Not yet.
"Lo?" a familiar voice, belonging to the footsteps, asked, stepping into the room. It was Derek, and Logan was the one who was sitting by his bedside, clutching his hand for dear life.
"Lo?" Derek asked again, sounding closer this time. He gently shook his friend awake. Logan relinquished his hold on Julian's hand.
"What's wrong?" Logan yawned.
"Go home; get some rest," Derek told him. "You've been here ever since we were let in."
"I have to stay," Logan argued sleepily. "I've left him before in –" the memory was apparently too painful for him, and he trailed off, fingers finding Julian's again, clutching his hand more gently this time. "I'm not leaving him again," he finished at a mumble.
Derek sighed. "All right. Here."
"Thanks," Logan murmured, evidently accepting something that Derek handed him. Coffee, most likely.
"You do realise that we're going to be kicked out eventually, don't you?" Derek asked, sitting down.
"I may be medicated," Logan muttered. "But I can still put up a fight."
Derek laughed, quietly and hollowly. The events of 'hell night' had clearly taken their toll on both him and Logan. Had everyone even made it out of the Art Hall alive? Julian hoped so. His intention had been to sacrifice his life for everyone else's.
"What are you going to say when he does wake up?" Derek asked thoughtfully, taking a sip of some liquid. Julian supposed he was right about the coffee.
"I don't know," the other boy muttered, yawning a little. "He's still my best friend. That's never going to change."
This answer seemed to suffice for Derek, who drank his coffee in silence.
"What if he doesn't wake up, D?" Logan asked in a broken murmur. "What if he – what if he dies?"
"He's not going to die," said Derek firmly. "No matter what, he always comes back. This won't be any different. Jules is going to wake up, you got me?"
Silence. Julian could only imagine that Logan had nodded.
"What time is it?" Logan asked absently, after a few minutes.
"A little after three, I think …"
"Hmm …" clothing rustled. A phone was switched on. "Oh, Dad and Michelle want to know if I'm coming home …"
He typed a message back. Julian found it interesting that Logan's father had been graced with the title of 'dad'.These situations, where people had come so close to death, changed everything, he supposed.
Well, not everything …
Silence ensued, and this time neither boy made any attempt to break it. Julian still kept his eyes shut.
After what had to be at least an hour, Derek rose from his seat, walking to the door. Julian heard the whispered conversation.
"Hey."
"Hello," a female voice he did not recognise answered. "You're Mr Larson's friend, right?"
"Yeah, me and Logan … do you have a blanket or something for him? He didn't want to go home …"
Julian only then became aware, by the slow steady breathing of the figure sitting next to the bed, and the slackened hold on his hand, that Logan had fallen asleep again.
"Oh, yeah," said the woman, who might have been a nurse. Some poor nurse doing the night shift in the intensive care unit. "I'll just go and get it …"
She walked off, returning several moments later.
"How long?" she asked, sounding interested as Derek approached, supposedly placing a blanket over Logan's sleeping form. He prised Logan's hand from Julian's.
"How long what?" Derek asked, confused.
"How long has Logan been in love with him?"
This stopped Derek in his tracks.
"What?" he asked incredulously, though quietly, so not to wake his sleeping friend.
The nurse laughed softly. "I've been in love. I know the look. I think it's sweet that he won't leave."
Derek sighed deeply, sitting down again. "You're saying … that Lo is in love with Jules? Oh god, I am going to kill him."
The nurse laughed again. "There's some backstory there, then?"
"You don't want to know," said Derek.
"Actually, I think I do," she murmured. "It's not often you hear something like this on the night shift in the Intensive Care unit."
She pulled up a chair, sitting down.
"We're best friends, the three of us," Derek murmured. "Have been ever since freshman orientation. We don't care that Jules is a lordy primadonna and that Lo's an idiot with anger issues. We're best friends. It didn't matter that Julian kept disappearing off to shoots. He always came back. But then, I realised why he kept leaving … he left every time Logan fell for someone …"
Derek paused, sighing. Julian opened his eyes a fraction, seeing Derek glance towards him and Logan.
"Of course, Logan had no idea … just kept chasing after boys. And Julian kept leaving. He was going to leave for good, but then he got this stalker …"
"Adam Clavell?" the nurse asked, obviously knowing at least some of the story. The scandal had been broadcast; of course it had.
"Yeah," Derek said. "He was sent … death threats. Forced to stay. And then, during Parent's Night … everything kicked off. A bunch of us ended up in the Art Hall – it was on fire. Adam … held Julian at knifepoint and forced him to confess his feelings. And we made it out, somehow, but our music teacher, Mr Harvey, didn't. He saved Dwight's life …"
So not everyone had made it out alive. Julian almost gave a reaction, but caught himself just in time. Mr Harvey had always been kind to him, despite the fact that he refused to join the Warblers on several occasions.
"So that's how we ended up with you lot," the nurse murmured. "Those twins have been forever branded into my brain. If I ever see the two of them again, I'm going to run a mile."
Derek laughed slightly. "Evan and Ethan Brightman. Yeah, they have that general … effect."
"I hope those two work it out," the nurse said, standing up. "It was nice talking to you, Derek."
"You too …" the athlete sounded preoccupied, not at all himself.
The nurse left the room. Julian opened his eyes, glancing at Derek. He was met with no response – he hadn't been seen.
"That was unexpected."
Derek looked up, looking completely shocked. He could do nothing but stutter for a whole minute straight.
"Wha—? Jules! You're a—you heard?"
"Yeah," Julian smiled wryly. "No," he said, as Derek made to wake Logan. "I – I –"
"Ok," said Derek, nodding in understanding.
Julian pushed himself into a sitting position, taking in the room.
"Never really liked hospitals," he remarked.
"Me neither," Derek replied. Then he smiled.
"What?"
"I'm glad you're back."
"It was a good thing to come back to – knowing that you two were ok."
"I was never even in the fire, Jules."
Julian shrugged. "What did I know? I was on the top floor the whole time …" his eyes flickered to Logan. "D'you think she's right?"
"Despite the fact that I'll have to strangle him if she is, I hope so," Derek muttered. "You two deserve some happiness after all the crap you've been put through lately."
Julian smiled slightly, taking Logan's hand, holding it, though lightly enough not to wake the other boy.
He was a whole different person when he slept – calm, serene. He smiled a little in his sleep, and Julian watched him, waiting.
He, too, hoped that they could work it out.
I don't know anything about comas; if they'd be able to wake up undetected or anything, and (thank God) I've never been to the ICU, not even in my own country. I know it's OOC of Derek not to hit on a girl, but he has just been through a hell of a lot, and I ship Dasey anyway.
