The peaceful feeling brought on by Thomas's presence lasted about three steps in the door when Thomas cleared his throat.

"Jeffrey, you're Nicholas's emergency contact - "

"It's Jeff," he corrected quietly. "And he goes by Nick."

Thomas nodded. "You're his emergency contact and you have the relation of boyfriend, is that correct?"

Jeff nodded. "Yes. Can I see him? Please?"

He nodded and slowed his pace. "Absolutely you can see him, you do need to understand something first: he's just been brought into the Emergency Department, and he's pretty beat up. He - "

"What exactly happened?" Jeff interrupted. "You didn't say on the phone. Some kind of accident? Is he okay?"

"He was in a car accident, yes, the police and the emergency services aren't sure what caused it. He was brought into the Emergency Department about ten minutes ago, they said he was awake on and off in the ambulance and kept saying your name, but they couldn't understand anything else."

"Car accident? Is the other driver okay? What happened?"

"There wasn't actually another driver involved, the police say he swerved and hit a barrier, then rolled."

Jeff's mind went blank. "Is it bad?"

Thomas pursed his lips. "They're still evaluating his condition, they don't know how lasting most of the injuries will be."

All Jeff could do was nod.

"We're almost to him. Like I said, he's still being evaluated, so I can only have you see him for a minute, but I'll make sure to keep you updated on everything that happens,"

They were to a set of side doors now, and Jeff could see the business, the constant rush and go. He swallowed hard.

"Ready?" Thomas pushed through and led him to a section with the curtains pulled back and a group of staff surrounding a bed. One of the nurses moved out of the way and he caught sight of Nick, just a brief flash, but Thomas kept walking and as Jeff followed, Nick came back into view.

The first thing he noticed was the blood. Some crusted, some still flowing, from both ears, his nose, and in the corners of his mouth.

Thomas stopped at Nick's head, leaving Jeff at his shoulder.

Jeff wanted to hold his hand so badly, but it was tucked under a blanket at his waist and he didn't dare move it.

Thomas saw him looking and reached around, sliding Nick's left hand out and into Jeff's reach. Jeff gave him a quick, tight smile, hiding a wince at the IV in the back of Nick's hand and the monitor clipped to his finger.

Books and movies always said people looked like they were sleeping. Nick definitely didn't look like he was sleeping. There was far too much noise, too much light, too much chaos, too much blood, for him to be sleeping. This was wrong.

Now that he was in the surrounding circle, Jeff could see everything. An oxygen mask, fogging with every labored breath, covered the swelling and dark bruising under Nick's eyes and over the right side of his jaw. His nose was twisted to one side in a way that was very much wrong. His eyes were closed, the lids of the right eye stretched tightly, pushed open just a bit.

There were pools of blood under his head, still wet. His leg was not the right angle under his blanket. His face was pale, just a shade too far off natural. Jeff didn't want to look, but this was Nick. He had to know.

Jeff took a shaking breath and pressed on, scanning the IVs taped into both arms and the hand he was holding, filling him with medication, blood, and what might have been saline, based on the label. Nick would know.

There were a handful of electrodes taped to his chest, wires leading off and tangling with tubes. Jeff could see the edges of a bruise across his chest that must have been from the seatbelt.

Looking at it all, the blood, the bruises, the monitors, the complete and utter wrongness of it all, he felt sick.

Just as quickly as he'd focused in on Nick, he snapped back to reality and the chaos around him. The nurses were rushing between supplies and Nick and the doctor calling everything, and Jeff felt a strangling need to get out of the way, to never come back, but an equally strong need to stay with Nick, to hold him, to keep him safe and comfortable and mercifully asleep while the horror carried on around him.

"Excuse me, sir, are you the contact? Jeffery Sterling?" a man in a police uniform had two white plastic bags labeled "personal belongings".

Jeff nodded. "That I am."

The officer gave him the bags, nodded, and left. Jeff opened the smaller bag first, finding Nick's phone - which had survived with only a small crack in the screen protector - a couple dollars in change he'd had in his pockets, his phone charger, his lucky pitch pipe, and his wallet, everything spattered with blood.

Jeff opened Nick's wallet, slid out his driver's license, and took an unsteady breath, fighting back a sudden wave of tears. They had taken a selfie on their first date, and Nick had printed it out and kept it in his wallet behind his license for the five years they'd been together. Now there were fat drops of blood covering most, if not all, of the picture.

Something so small threatened to break him. He took another deep breath and slipped the wallet back into the bag, moving to the other one.

Hefting it, the bag felt like it was full of clothes. He opened it, setting the other one at his feet. There were, in fact, clothes. And there was blood. Oh, there was a lot of blood. His stomach flipped. He swallowed hard and set that one down, too.

A nurse pushed between Jeff and Thomas, Thomas moving farther back. Jeff took a step closer to Nick's feet, bumping the doctor, who had a stethoscope to Nick's chest.

"Decreased breath sounds on the right side, I need a portable chest X-ray,"

"Stay where you were, Jeff," Thomas said, leaning over Nick to be heard.

The nurse at Nick's head moved, and Jeff stepped back toward Thomas. "What's wrong with his eye?"

Thomas frowned. "Not sure yet, they're ordering a CT. There must be some pressure behind it that's pushing his eye out, that's why it looks so weird."

Jeff jumped when Thomas took his elbow. "X-ray, we step out."

Jeff nodded and followed him to a nurse's station. They were quiet while they waited, Jeff staring at the floor, mind blank.

"That lung's collapsed, I need a thoracostomy kit," the doctor was saying when they headed back over.

Thomas touched his arm again. "Jeff, we should go."

Something inside Jeff twisted painfully. "No, I - I want to stay with him."

Thomas frowned again, but didn't object.