Chapter 27 (CPOV)

I wake up to searing pain and gentle voices. I can hear Eva quietly crying while Gideon consoles her. Why am I in pain and what has made my sweet baby girl cry? I force my tired mind to focus on what they're saying.

"Eva, please stop crying Angel. I'll make sure he gets the best possible medical care. I promise. We'll fly in whatever specialist we need to."
"I just don't understand why he would attack him this way, Gideon. What has Cary ever done to him?"
"Nathan thought you and Cary had a romantic relationship. Someone as messed up as he was couldn't understand that what he did to you wasn't love. He thought you loved him as much as he loved you."

The words stopped as Eva broke down into sobs again. I can't stand this. I want to comfort her, but there's nothing I can do. I can't make my body listen to what I was telling it. I couldn't stop myself from drifting off in a fog again.

When I came to again there were more voices. Ana and Christian had shown up.

"Corrine was taken to the psychiatric ward ranting about how you and I belonged with them and that Ana and Eva stole us from them. I just don't understand how everything could be so fucked up! I thought Elena and I parted amicably."

Ana's soothing voice gently wafted through the room, "She was just bat-shit crazy, Christian. I can completely understand someone loving you so much they'd do anything to have you."

"Ana-"

I could feel myself drifting away again. This time when my brain woke up I felt more coherent. Hopefully I was coming out of whatever had taken over me. I still couldn't move or open my eyes, but I could tell that some of the fog saturating my brain was lifting. Low voices were murmuring in the corner of the room. It took me a second to realize that it was Christian and Gideon.

"Ok Christian, obviously you wanted to discuss something with me alone since you sent the girls out on a coffee run. What's crawled up your ass?"

The silence was deafening before Christian finally gave an exasperated sigh. "It was you, wasn't it?"

Once again the room was void of any sound other than the machines attached to me. "What was me, Christian?" Gideon eventually asked with a menacing bite to his voice.

"Dammit Gideon! Why can't you just trust me and tell me rather forcing me to ask?"

"Whatever the fuck you want to know you might as well ask. I'm not a fucking mind reader!"

"Fine you want to play it that way; we can play it that way. I know that you're the one who killed Nathan."

"And what may I ask brought on this realization?"

"You asshole, nothing else makes sense. Very few people knew that Nathan was in town and the cops said that a patient saw a man with long black hair dropping Cary off at the hospital. I can put two and two together. You disappeared for a couple of hours right around the time somebody stabbed the man who tortured your fiancé in the gut."

I struggled to open my eyes. To look in Gideon's eyes and see the truth for myself. When Gideon spoke again his voice had gotten even lower if that was possible. "You talked to the cops?"

Christian sighed again, "of course I talked to the cops. I wanted to know what the fuck was going on."

"What did you tell them?"

"I told them that we all went to the ball together and that we all stayed there together the entire night until the girls went to the bathroom and got kidnapped. They asked I knew of anybody who went missing for any length of time and I told them no."

Gideon's voice was barely a whisper, "You told them I was there the whole time?"

"Yes. I knew what happened the second I realized he was dead, Gideon. If it had been Ana I know I would have done the exact same thing. I only wished you had trusted me enough to let me help you, he hurt my sister. I wanted to make him pay too."

"I didn't want you in any trouble. If anybody went down for it I wanted the rest of you to be ignorant. It would kill me to have any of my family punished for something I did."

"Don't' let it happen again, we're family. Family means nobody gets left behind."

"Did you seriously just quote Lilo and Stitch to me?"

"Don't mock me, you recognized the quote."

There was a pregnant pause and just before I sunk into the fog again I heard Gideon murmur, "Thanks Christian. For protecting me."

I woke up to pain. My eyes shot open and I whimpered in agony. Eva was standing by the bed staring down at me, tears running down her cheeks unchecked. "Cary? Oh my god, Cary? He's awake! Gideon, go get the nurse!"

Gideon kissed Eva on the top of her head and aimed a brief smile at me as he walked out the door.

"Hey Baby Girl. What the hell happened?"

"Nathan beat you with a baseball bat. I'm so sorry he hurt you. I still can't believe that he did something like that to you!"

"Don't cry, Eva please. It wasn't your fault. How long have I been out of it?"

"Three long days Cary. Someone found you on the side of the road near your apartment and brought you in. You've been in a coma ever since."

I studied her face. I needed to make sure I didn't imagine all those conversations while I was drifting on the fog. If I didn't imagine them she needed to know who she owed her thanks to. "That would explain why I couldn't move. Were Christian and Ana here? And did I hear something about Corrine being in a psych ward?"

Her beautiful face fell as tears welled in her eyes again. "Yes Ana and Christian are here. They're getting some food in the cafeteria. And yes Corrine is getting mental help, but that's a long story and you're in way too much pain to listen to that story."

So everything I heard was true. I needed her to know, but I couldn't bring myself to say the words out loud. "Eva, Gideon loves you very much."

"I know, I love him too."

"No Eva, you don't understand what I'm trying to tell you. Listen to me. He REALLY loves you. He would do ANYTHING for you. Especially anything to keep you safe."

I stared at her imploringly, her eyes boring into mine. She opened her mouth just as Gideon and the nurse walked in. Knowing the moment was lost, I looked at the needle in the nurse's hand. "What's that?"

"It's morphine, Mr. Taylor. It will help you sleep and get rid of the pain for you."

"I don't want that. I can't take pain relievers. Eva, tell her."

"I'll do no such thing, Cary. I love you and I can't stand to see you in pain." Before I could protest again the nurse had injected the drugs into my IV. I looked at Eva filled with trepidation. Eva whispered, "It'll be fine. No matter what. I promise."

I briefly nodded my head. Since my body didn't flare into unbearable pain I could tell the morphine was kicking in. Just as I succumbed to the drugs Eva's perfume filled my nose as she gently pressed a kiss to my forehead.

The last thing heard was her whisper, "Sleep well." As her footsteps carried her away.