9: Hugs and Head Wounds
Everything exploded into motion. Donna seemed to be everywhere at once, moving with the grace of a dancer. Sam would have just stood and watched, entranced, if he hadn't been rather preoccupied with staying alive.
He thwacked at the hulking creature before him with the metal bar, but it hardly seemed to have any effect. The demon was so over-muscled that when he lashed out at it he felt like he was striking solid stone, and the stench of it was overpowering.
It knocked him down, and he hit his head on the side of another file cabinet. Everything went blurry for a moment, and suddenly the demon was no longer standing over him and he couldn't work out where it had gone. Somebody was pulling him backwards, and he went with the flow because it was easier than trying to resist.
The next thing he knew he was outside, and being hustled towards a car. For some reason he became utterly fascinated with the little patterns of light and shade cast by the orange-yellow streetlights.
Then he was being pushed into the back seat of a car, and being buckled in by hands that he didn't think were his own, although it was hard to tell because he wasn't totally sure all the pieces of his body were still under his command. He watched his lap for a moment and then registered that whoever had been belting him in had stopped doing so, and looked up. "Ow," he said vaguely, although he wasn't sure why.
His gaze locked with a pair of brown eyes that looked familiar. "J-" his mouth formed the J sound, but it was a moment before he could remember what came next. "-Osh?"
He felt pleased with himself for putting the name to the face, but then he recognised that the Josh-person was speaking, and by the time he'd tuned into the words they weren't directed at him anymore. "-think he hit his head."
Then another voice said something from the front, but he wasn't tuned into that one yet, and trying to figure out who it belonged to made his head hurt, so he stopped.
Josh was still looking at him, and he looked worried, so Sam smiled. His head was beginning to throb now, a dull ache that he couldn't quite pin down except it was coming from the back somewhere. He snuggled against Josh's shoulder and closed his eyes.
"Sam. Sam, wake up for me. C'mon?" Josh's voice and the gentle shaking brought back a flood of consciousness, and with it a rush of blood to the face.
"Josh!" he jerked backwards, blushing furiously as he realised how he'd been cuddling up to his best friend. Josh, however, didn't seem to notice, holding Sam's head between his hands to stare him worriedly in the eye.
"Sam, are you okay?"
"I, yeah, I think so..." He couldn't help wincing as he touched the back of his head tentatively. "Where are we?" he asked, as he realised the car had stopped moving.
"We're at the hospital." Josh leaned across to pop the release button on his seat belt for him.
"Hey..." he protested vaguely.
"Quiet." Josh rolled out of his side of the car, and then came round to help Sam out.
"I'm okay, really," insisted Sam, still touching his head. "I don't need-" He rather put a dent in his own argument by lurching quietly and grabbing hold of Josh.
"Whoa, easy there, Spanky," Josh said, laughing to cover his own worry and slipping an arm round Sam's shoulders.
"Hey, you shouldn't-" Sam wasn't sure if he was protesting the adoption of CJ's nickname or the arm around his shoulders, but he had an idea neither one would look good.
"Hey, I'm not the one who wanted to cuddle up on the back seat there, buddy." Sam flushed pink again as Josh made a show of brushing at his shirt. "I think you drooled on me."
"Come on, children." Donna locked the car and came around to help her boss support him. Caught up in indecision over not wanting to be seen to lean on a girl vs. the embarrassment of leaning on Josh, with a bit of recollection of Donna's super powers mixed in, Sam succeeded in nearly falling over once again. They both grabbed for him.
"Right, that's it. Come on, Sam." He wanted to protest again, but he didn't think they'd listen, and he had to close his eyes against the bright blur of the electric lights. He gave in, and leaned on them both as they helped him towards the hospital building.