Chapter Two-Hundred and Ninety-Five
Becky and Jimmy walked through the hallway to John's room, pushing the door to John's room open to see the scowl on John's face. "What's up?" Jimmy asked, chuckling at the look John gave him. "Did Claire abandon your crab ass?"
"Fuck off." John growled, pulling on the G-Tube that was still being used to feed him.
Becky stepped forward, placing her gift on John's lap while they waited for Claire to come back. "How're you feeling?" She took a seat beside John's bed, noticing the dark circles under his eyes, the rasp of his breath, the slowly fading bruises around his throat, and most of all the weight he'd dropped. Despite having food supplement pumped into his stomach 24/7 he was still dropping weight. She knew that John had never been very heavy, in fact, he'd always been to thin in her mind, but now he was even thinner and sicklier than she'd ever seen him.
"Like I was hanged and spent the last three weeks in a hospital bed." He coughed, covering his mouth with his scarred wrist. "I just want to go home."
Claire rolled her eyes, placing a banana mango smoothie on the table beside John. "I told you, when you can move around more than just standing up to pee, we'll take you home." She picked up the gift, her brow furrowing. "What's this?"
Becky smiled, nodding to the box. "Open it." She watched as Claire pulled the leather jacket out of the box, gasping when she saw that they'd stitched the two halves back together. "We did our best to fix it… but the names on it didn't quite lineup again."
"How did you get it back?"
"Jessica left her locker unlocked."
John barked a cough, shaking his head a little before he spoke. "Bullshit. Kaylie picked the lock." He motioned to Jimmy's backpack, taking the lock from him and spinning a quick combo into it. "See, Kaylie knows damn well how to do that, and she's passed me up in our skill levels." He handed the lock to Claire, picking up the smoothie and sipping on it.
Clarissa held her hands out on either side of John's body, being careful to not touch him, but be there if he should fall. "Good! Another step." She wrapped her arms around his waist as he stumbled into her. "It's okay, Pumpkin."
John huffed in frustration, pushing himself off of her and forcing himself to take another few steps. "I hate this." He growled, tripping over his own feet and falling into Dominic's chest. "I'm not a baby."
Dominic righted his cousin, letting him stand on his own for a moment to let him decide if he wanted to be comforted or continue to push himself toward recovery. "No. You're not. If you were, you'd be crowding me out of my woman's boobs."
John glared at him, taking a tentative step forward toward Thomas. "I just want to walk like I used to." He paused in front of Thomas, his dark eyes meeting Thomas's sea green. "I want to be the man Claire deserves."
Thomas nodded, patting the teen's shoulder and walking with him to the next check point where Chad was waiting. "You already are."