Saturday 19th December.
My head is pulsing with waves of irritation. The blinds and curtains are drawn to a complete black out, which makes things slightly easier. I blink and open my eyes groggily, making out the frame of my desk chair and my wardrobe. I groan and cough, turning over and shoving my head into my pillow—
"Fuck!" I bolt up, my whole face pounding insanely as though I've been hit a thousand times. I blink, eyes wide as I'm paralysed, frozen to my bed. I've not felt this injured since the Fire Incident. The door opens and Skyar—no, Rod comes in, followed quietly by Misa.
"How's your head, Sunshine?" Misa says lightly, plopping herself on my bed and checking my temperature (God knows why). As she touches me I flinch, a spasm of pain floating down my face. I shudder, more pain erupting as I do so from my whole body. "You should go back to sleep"
"Here" Rod passes me a glass of water and three pills, but quickly holds the pills back. "Wait – did you take anything? Last night?" Misa looks at me expectantly, but I shrug.
"I don't remember" He gives me one pill out of caution, and I take it. "Don't remember much of anything actually" Misa squints and lowers her head. "I know I ache – like, everywhere" She sighs uncomfortably, biting her lip and looking elsewhere. I love Misa's give away actions. "I haven't felt like this since the Fire Incident" Rod flinches as I pass him my glass of water. "Alright, what's up?"
"Why don't you go and get yourself a nice cold shower? Or warm, if you prefer, whichever" Misa scoots over, pushing me off my own bed and tossing me my dressing gown along with some clothes. "Go go go" She encourages. Rod sighs and shakes his head, but says nothing. I head to the ensuite bathroom and shut the door behind me, turning the light on. I hear Misa say something like "He'll be ok, he's strong like that" before I head to the shower to turn it on. Once it's on, I check the temperature and turn around to undress, facing the mirror opposite. I jump, my eyes widening as my body seems to protest against the friction of removing my last-night clothes. I run my tongue over a cut on my lip that I hadn't felt or noticed, then allow my eyes to roam across my face, bruised and indeed very very battered. Worthy of face-ache I think. It's the same down my whole body, scratches, cuts, bruises, some patched up, whilst others have reddening patches circling the wounds. It's unnerving that I don't know how I got these, but I settle for a painful and slow cool shower, careful to clean the wounds and mind the more severe ones.
An hour later and I'm out, hesitantly stepping out of the bathroom, Misa and Rod still waiting for me in my comparatively darkened room. I chuck the clothes in the wash basket and open the curtains silently, it isn't as bright as before, it's clouded over with foggy patches here and there. I turn to Rod with a smile, but the itchiness behind my eyes threatens to make me break down.
"Fun night then" I joke, my face quickly falling as I can't quite keep up the act. The tears build up. "I don't remember a thing" I mumble. Rod comes over, offering a rare hug. Suddenly, I remember—"A and BB, are they OK?" As if on cue, his phone rings. He answers silently, then hands it to me with a grave look.
"Hello?"
"Mel?"
"Skyar..." It dawns on me that Skyar is normally the one to take care of me when I'm hung over, the one that fetches me when I'm too drunk to move, the one I expected to come in this morning. "Why aren't you-"
"It's not good; I need you to listen, OK?"
"I'm listening" I whisper, the sinking feeling in my stomach telling me that something is wrong.
"It's Derrick...he died last night"
"What?" My eyes widen and my breath hitches. "How, why? He was in a coma – it's controlled, they should've-"
"There were complications – the attack left his organs heavily vulnerable... it was only a matter of time" I curse to myself, unable to think coherently enough to supply him with a response. "There's something else... Those Two..." My legs are about to give out, I can feel them wobbling and losing their strength. "They're in hospital..."
"No" I shake my head, stepping back to try and get the feeling back in my feet. Rod reaches out cautiously, but I glare. He must've known something.
"A's taken a few hits..." Oh God. "There's bruising and he's not talking; they're keeping him in" No. A! "The police will want to talk to him when he's regained consciousness, but he's ok for now" Fuck.
"And B? How's BB, is he ok?"
"He took the most of it" No. Please no. "By the time the paramedics got there he was losing blood too fast and his condition was beyond critical". Beyond... are you trying to be funny Skyar?"They put him into a drug induced coma to fully patch him up without difficulty, but when he comes around – that'll be in a couple of days they said – the police will want to talk to him too" Why would someone do this? "Mel, the police think it's cause they were...y'know"
"Gay" I say, loud and fucking clear. "Yeah, Skyar, cause we're freaks like that, right?"
"Mello, I didn't-" I hang up, knowing I'd gone slightly overboard with him but too annoyed to fix it. Stubbornly, I toss the phone at Rod and frown.
"Hospital. Now" I feel like a child in the middle of a tantrum, tossing toys and frowning, demanding. But this isn't child's-play, someone did this on purpose.
I reach A's ward, Rod close beside me. It's just the pair of us, Rod thought it would be better that way and I'm thankful. I breathe in for confidence, pacing to his cubicle and peeking my head around. The first thing I notice are the police officers, one with a note pad out and the other trying to comfort him. A's curled up against his pillow, his knee's drawn to his chest with his arms around them securely, just as BB's long arms could do. His head rested on his knee's as his body shook, terrified, but I could see the scared tears. Rod demands that they leave, and knowing his stubbornness, he'd make them if they didn't. They left, saying they'd come back later to go over things.
"Melly" I crawl onto the bed and wrap an arm around him. "Where's BB? They haven't let me see him, I don't know where he is" Nobody told him? "Is he with you? Did you bring him?" I shake my head slowly.
"He's sleeping right now A, he'll wake up soon and then you can see him" A nods, tears in his eyes. He turns to Rod with a small smile.
"Hello Rod. Sir." Rod gives an uncertain smile and a nod. "I don't know what happened" A turns back to me. "I don't. They want to know Melly, but I don't. I don't remember, and I don't want to know. Not if all I see is BB getting hurt because of me" I stroke his head affectionately. "I'm in trouble Melly" He admits, a small smile on his face. "It feels bad – like skipping classes" I smile too. "They tested me for drugs and found the Marijuana..." That confirms we took something last night. He looks uncertain, but smiles. "They also saw these" He holds up his wrists and wiggles them. The cuts from his Suicide Attempt are still fairly fresh, even though they're un-bandaged.
"You'll be fine" I reassure him and he nods, but his face clouds over. "What?"
"I want to see BB" He mumbles. "I don't want to talk to the police Melly" He whispers.
"I won't leave you" I grin and sit closer.
"No, Melly, I don't want to stay here" His voice turns desperate, as if before, he hadn't realised he was in hospital, but now he had and was panicking. "Don't stay – leave" I blink. "Take me too, please? Melly, I don't want to stay here" He repeats. "We can come and get BB tomorrow, when he's all better, can't we?" He pauses. "Melly, don't make me stay here, please" He whispers. I turn to Rod, who (because he's standing) peeks through the curtains that separates the cubicles and checks around for a possibility. He looks at me and shrugs.
"How good is he on the feet?" I'm about to answer, but A leans forwards and says;
"I'm as good as you need me to be" Rod grins.
"Then let's go"
"Wait" A hesitates, quickly shoving on his trousers. "Melly?" He unfastens the buttons of the hospital gown and I make Rod turn away before turning around myself. Sure, we're all guys but A's insecure like that. Seconds later he taps my shoulder and smiles as I turn back to him. He hides the gown under the pillow. "OK"
We leave quickly. Down the wards and across the corridors, aiming for the lifts. There's a sign that says 'critical care' near them, and A hovers hesitantly.
"A, we have to keep moving" I encourage.
"Melly, do you think that BB's down there?"
"I honestly don't know" I say quietly.
"We should check" Before I can disagree, A's striding onwards, for once looking very confident in himself. He moves at a faster pace down the corridors, checking every room but finding no trace of BB. "Melly" He turns to me as we reach the last 'critical care' patient. "Where is he?" His eyes tear up and I hold my hand out comfortingly. I hear Rod quickly dial a few numbers and hold his phone to his ear, frowning. A looks hopeful.
"He's in the ICU" Rod confirms, pocketing his phone and pointing at the sign on the wall. "That'a'way"
We follow the signs with caution, rounding on BB's room hesitantly. There's nobody else in there, but that only means that someone will be soon. A dives for the room, running with a lightness that I didn't know was possible and reaching the room before we even knew it was BB's. A stops in the doorway, staring. Rod enters before me, strangely quiet. I step in, eyes wide at the sight of a very immobile BB, with no grin, no glare or strangely entrancing eyes, just a pale teenage body lying beneath paler sheets, just still.
"B-" A smiles and moves over to the bed, relaxing. I think he's ok. I turn to Rod, he tends to know more about these things. He indicates to the machinery and I decipher everything until I realise that the machine is the only thing keeping BB's heartbeat steady. "You can wake up now" A sits on the side of the bed, tracing a finger over BB's exposed and slashed torso. Rod steps closer.
"Mel, he aint gonna' wake up f-" I silence him.
"A, we better let BB sleep. He'll get better quickly if we do" A doesn't make a move to indicate he heard me.
"We still need you to eat that jam cake we have to make" He chuckles and leans closer. "I know you wont miss that" His pale finger traces over BB's cheek, unable to cross his lips because of the equipment around his mouth and down his throat. "Is this hurting you?" A reaches to move it and Rod jumps beside me. He's closer, so he reaches A before I do, but A panics again.
"A, listen" I take his arm and guide him off the bed. "BB needs to rest now, we should go in case the police come back" He looks uncertain, looking back at BB and taking his lifeless hand in his own without looking at me. "A..."
"I love you" A whispers, squeezing BB's hand with a teary-eyed smile. "I'll come back for you, ok?" I turn A to face me, his tear-trailed face turning red with emotion. "We'll come back for him, wont we Melly?" I nod and guide him away from the bed, waving –for his benefit- to BB before saying a loud 'see you soon BB' and walking away with A and Rod in tow.
We sneak out of the hospital with annoying ease; I expected it to be more challenging. We make the spare room available for A to stay in as long as he needs, though, he'll be needing it now he's evaded the police twice. But staying in hospital wasn't an option. It's bad enough that he stayed in overnight, any longer and he might've done something about it himself. I admit, he's looking suspicious to the police, but A couldn't have put Derrick in a coma and sure as hell wouldn't no...couldn't be knowingly involved.
"It's Derrick...he died last night"
A certainly couldn't have killed him.
A's decided on sleeping. It's a good distraction and it'll keep his mind consciously off BB, I head downstairs. Skyar's waiting in the living room and I remember that I need to apologise.
"I'm sorry" He beats me. "It was more of an observation than an accusation" He explains. "I never meant to offend you, I never would've-"
"I know" I reach for his arm and give it a squeeze. "It's ok. I'm sorry I snapped" He nods. "Where were you? I thought you called from the hospital and I half expected you to be there"
"I was running errands; sorry" I shrug it off, Mafia work is important to him. "I was going to make some hot chocolate; do you want some?" I feel my face light up as I follow him into the kitchen with my brightest smile of the day.
"Hey Mel, are we effectively hiding a fugitive in our home?" I think about it and nod. "Cool, it'll add to our criminal family and fraud-positioned boss, eh?" I laugh and agree, wondering how long it'd be before A and BB would be together again.