Chapter One-Hundred and Thirty-Five

Claire stepped into John's hospital room, fighting back tears as her eyes landed on her boyfriend's beaten body. She could see where his skin had been cut or broken open by blunt trauma, the bruising on his skin showing where harsh hands had been laid upon him, his chest rose and fell in odd intervals with his breath, and she knew that the physical trauma wasn't all that had been done to him. "Sugar…" She whispered, reaching out to touch him until Chance growled at her from her spot beside his bed. "John…" She watched as his eyes moved behind their lids, heaving a breath at the sign of life. "I'm so sorry…" She touched his hand, noticing how faint his pulse was. "I never should have done that… just… please come back to me."

Chance looked up at the girl beside her master, tilting her head as she sensed a change in him. She jumped down from her spot on the recliner, placing her front paws on his bed and resting her head on his thigh as his heart rate changed. She whimpered as his muscles twitched, sensing that something was happening with him. She gave a little yip as his scent changed, the smell of cold steel changing to the scent that she knew was happiness.

"Please wake up." Claire brushed a hand through his hair, noticing that the hospital staff had given him a shower and cleaned him up. "Chancie wants you to wake up." She jumped as Chance pulled on the hem of the t-shirt she'd stolen from John's dresser. "What are you doing?" She asked, looking down at the pit bull just as John gave a cry of pain. "John?" She pushed the dog off of her, cupping John's face in her hands as he groaned from the pain he was in. "Johnny, look at me baby." She brushed his hair back from his face, sitting on the edge of his bed as he forced himself to look at her. "Thank God…" She sighed, pulling him into a hug. "I thought I'd lost you."

He yelped as she touched a spot of raw skin on his back, the memory of the last few nights coming back to him in a wave of panic. "No!"

Claire sat back, letting Chance take over and do her job. She watched in horror as his panic attack gripped him, bolting from the room to find her mother. "Mom!" She pulled her mother away from the nurses at the reception counter. "He's awake."

Clarissa nodded, taking off for John's room. "Pumpkin?" She watched as Chance did her best to calm her master, knowing that he was in the middle of a flashback. "Johnny?" She touched his shoulder, jumping back at his cry.

"No!" He sobbed, moving away from her as the pain of what he'd gone through returning as if it were happening in that moment. "Don't touch me!"

Clarissa looked up as a nurse entered the room, watching as she pulled a little brown bottle from the drawer and filled a syringe with the medicine inside and injected it into John's IV. "Have the tests come back yet?" She asked, terrified at the possibilities of what could have happened to him.

The nurse shook her head, a sad smile touching her lips as John's body went lax with the sedative she'd given him. "It'll be a couple days before we get them back… but, Doctor Cox thinks that there could be more to it than what we can tell from the state he's in…" She looked up at Clarissa knowing that the signs on John's body were only a scratch in the surface. "Considering how his cousin found him… it's possible… that he could have any number of things done to him. The gangs on that side of town… they're merciless when they want something and it's impossible to tell what exactly happened until we get tests back and he sees a psychiatrist."

Clarissa nodded, scratching Chance's back as the dog tried to comfort her master. "May I stay with him?" She asked, knowing that she wasn't supposed to stay in these rooms with him. "Just until the test results come back?"

The nurse smiled, checking John's vitals to make sure he wasn't in too serious of danger. "I think we can work something out."

Claire peeked into John's room, swallowing as she saw the fear on her mother's face.