Chapter Sixty
John walked through the door to the house, dropping his bags and walking into the living room where he collapsed onto the couch.
Kaylie rolled her eyes, tossing a pillow onto his head. "Jackass." She mumbled, placing her bags on the table as Brian hugged her back. "I think El Jefe got tired out." She smiled, shaking him off as she realized what she was doing. "I'm sorry Brian, I just need some time to think about if I'm just using you as a rebound or if I really love you…"
He nodded, stepping away as Dominic and John started yelling at each other again. "Are you sure those two should be your leaders?" He asked, watching as John threw a pillow at his cousin and ducked as Dominic countered with a whole couch cushion. "I mean, they act like their two."
Kaylie laughed, jumping into the pillow fight with her own soft object. "Die mother fuckers!" She shrieked, hitting Cody over the head with her pillow.
Cody wrapped his arms around her hips, pushing her into the sofa. "After you, blondie." He smirked, jumping as Jim hit him in the back. "Fuck you Jimmy!" He shouted, smacking him across the face with a wadded-up blanket.
Clarissa shook her head, looking at the burners smack the crap out of each other with pillows and all manner of soft objects. "John! Don't tear a stitch!"
John looked up for just a moment, missing the blow that hit him square in the chest. "Fuck!" He gasped, cradling his side, as the pillow war came to a sudden stop.
Claire rushed to his side, lifting his shirt to look at his incision. "Ryan!" She called, noticing that he'd popped two of the seven stitches. "Ryan!" She grabbed John's bandana, untying it from his ankle and wiping the excess blood from around the wound to keep it from dripping onto the carpet.
Ryan pushed through the group of teens, sighing as he saw the damage to John's healing side. "Get him onto the couch, I'll go get my bag and sew him up again."
Dominic placed his arms under John's legs and his shoulders, lifting the smaller teen onto the sofa, trying to ignore his whimpers of pain as he moved him. "Lo siento mucho." He whispered, placing his hand on John's forehead and smoothing his hair back as Claire tried to keep his bleeding under control. "Está bien." He soothed, his body language telling the others of the family to stay away from his little cousin. "Está bien." He looked up as Ryan knelt where Claire had been, a needle and a string of cat gut in his gloved hands as he wiped a disinfectant cloth over John's side. He gripped John's hand tighter as he groaned and squirmed from the sting, watching as Ryan lined the needle up to make the first stitch. He shut his eyes as the needle penetrated his flesh, hearing his cousin's sounds of pain. "Está bien." He muttered into his ear, resting his head on top of John's to keep him from moving too much.
John tensed as the next stitch went in, a broken cry escaping him as Dominic leaned heavier on him. "Hurts…" He cried, feeling Dominic's rough hands against his own. He took comfort in his cousin's closeness, reminded of when they were children and they'd only had each other to lean on and call a true family.
Dominic nodded, letting a lone tear fall onto John's cheek. "I know bebé niño." He rubbed his fingers through John's hair, trying to ignore how it had thinned out. "I know."
Claire stepped closer, pausing when she noticed Dominic's reaction to her movement. She knew it was just an old habit from being John's protector since birth, but it still hurt that he wouldn't let her close to her boyfriend. Her heart ached with the sounds of pain coming from John, wishing that she could somehow help him as Ryan finished the last suture. "It was rainin' in heaven when you went down
You were better than the best Stayed a notch above the rest It was rainin' in heaven when you went down Your mother cried, said she told you so But you touched the devil and couldn't let go No one controls the Outlaw You wrote the story with the movie in mind An angel face with a criminal side Celebrated as the rebel kind The Outlaw I wonder if you knew They would turn your bad deeds into good Paint you as a modern robinhood It's high noon Everywhere you go And the guilt you feel is the weary soul of the Outlaw Hearts weren't made to be ruled And rules weren't made to be broken It's cold and lonely at the end of your life And nobody sleeps 'til they turn out the lights For the Outlaw Where you gonna go, where you gonna hide It's cold and lonely for the Outlaw Where you gonna go, where you gonna hide As the Outlaw." She kept her voice soft, listening as John's breathing seemed to even out as he listened to her sing. She stepped a little closer, watching as Ryan taped a new bandage over his ribs.
John reached a hand toward her, pulling her closer to him and Dominic. "I love you." He whispered, letting Dominic pull a blanket over him as Claire moved to let him use her as a pillow.
"I love you too." She smiled, brushing his hair back from his temple, and tracing her nails over his eyebrow and down his nose. She watched as Amelia brought over a little book, helping her climb onto the sofa, chuckling as she opened the book and started to read the Cat in the Hat to him.