I was painfully aware, there were four little fuzzy paws on my bare chest. It was painful, only because my whole body hurt. I don't think there was anything wrong with my chest, but something definitely didn't feel right in my whole body. I wanted to open my eyes and figure things out, but felt zero energy in my body, to make my eyes open. And that was a silly thing really. I mean…how hard is it to open your eyes? "…Ya know what? I don't think they have the slightest clue as to what the fuck they're doing."
"Babe…"
"No that's bullshit Los! How could they not know where the fuck he is?!" I groaned as loudly as I could get because the two voices around me…were familiar. They were safe. They were family. And I wanted those two voices to help me open my eyes and explain to me why I was in pain. "I'm going to go get the doctor. I think he's waking up." I groaned again and thankfully, got my eyes open. The first thing I saw was the back of someone's head and that head walking out of a room. I slowly rolled my head to the side hearing a chair creek and swallowed hard seeing a face, I know I knew. He smiled at me, this man I was certain I knew, while reaching out one of his hands and setting it on my arm.
"James…how do you feel?" I blinked lazily breathing out hard and rolled my head back to the front. I saw clearly in front of me a bed. A bed that I was on. There was a blanket over my legs and a little over my chest, but what was covering the rest of my chest lying on his belly was a tan ball of fur. A small little pug. "Here…let me get him off you. As soon as he saw you, I swear he had a miny heart attack. Logan has been right all along. This is your dog, and your dog only." I turned my head as fast as I could back to the guy now standing, taking the dog off my chest and felt my mouth part open slowly. He looked down at me worried for a minute while he set the dog down on my bed next to my arm and swallowed hard. "James…are you alright?" I reached up quick, grabbed his arm and squeezed softly. He looked down at the contact before looking back up at my face and sitting back down gently. "James?" It hit me. It was Carlos. I know him! I know who he is, and I suddenly remembered who I am. But what was causing confusion was where I was, and why I was in pain.
"Carlos?" He sighed out heavily and scooted closer setting a hand on my shoulder. "What happened?"
"That's what I was wondering." He smiled small and carefully set his hand on my head. I relaxed a little and took my hand off his arm to gently pat my dog's head. Yes, I knew it was my dog now. For a minute there, when I woke up, and heard the voices of my two best friends, I knew nothing. I could barely think of what my name was. But now it's all coming back to me slowly, minus why I'm here in the first place. "The other man you were brought in with…Detective Steele…he told the doctors and the cops he works with he happened to be driving by your house when he saw the fire James. He ran in hearing you yelling and pulled you out, just in time. He said…he said you had fallen down into the basement, which is what you told him I guess. He isn't sure what happened but…God James…no one knows where Logan is, and we found this…we found this when we came to your house. We also found Romeo stuck under some rubble too but he's not hurt. He got checked out. But this…" I watched him reach into a sweater on his body that looked too big. Kendall's. He brought out a shaky hand, turned it upwards so when he opened his hand, his palm was facing up. And sitting pretty in the middle of his palm was a silver ring. Logan's engagement ring. I frowned and reached out slowly, feeling a horrible knot in my shoulder and carefully took the ring from him. He sighed out and opened his mouth again but two people walked into the room, one being Kendall. He smiled big at me as he got behind Carlos's chair and set a hand on the back of his neck. Carlos sat back leaning into Kendall as the doctor walked to the other side of my bed smiling small holding a clipboard. I watched him flip through some papers before sighing and sitting on a chair clearing his throat. I was about to get the 20 questions and I was not happy about that.
It felt like an hour had passed before the doctor got up and explained he would have a nurse come in with something to eat and some pain medicine. I was basically told that not only was I lucky to be alive, I was very lucky I didn't have one burn on my body. The way the detective explained it, I was in pain when he found me and a fire had accidently started. I'm not sure how, mostly because it is said the fire started in the basement. What would have caused a basement fire? First of all…if I remember correctly, we had nothing down there. It used to be my office for work, but since getting the job in New York, we cleared it all out and put the extra computer in Logan's office. There might have been a few boxes of some of my old tools or random things form Logan's parents, but nothing, and I can confidently say that nothing down there, would have caused the fire. Now, with that in the back of my head, I had to question where the hell Logan was. I can't remember anything happening that could have been bad between us. In fact the last thing I remember, was driving home after Carlos kicked us out of Kendall's hospital room. But as many people have told me, that was almost three days ago. So what happened that could have gotten me to this point, with Logan missing? And as far as the damage done to my body, the detectives story didn't measure up. He carried my huge ass body up the 17 stars leading to the first floor of our house, with a house fire happening. Maybe. But what I couldn't grasp was why I couldn't walk up the stairs myself. The only thing that seemed to be wrong with me, is the huge gash on my head, and a little bit of smoke that managed to get in my lungs. Other than that, I was completely fine. The only reason I was sore, was because I had been in a hospital bed for the past three days, unmoving, passed out. The doctor thought I was going to slip into a coma. He was certain I would have long term memory loss. But I didn't because of a miracle I guess. The trauma to my head is so sever, they think I smacked it on the stairs as I was falling down, but if that was the case…I wouldn't have been awake to yell for help. And certainly I wouldn't have been loud enough for a guy in his car, to hear. "Kendall…shut the door for a minute." My thoughts were making me think crazy things and telling Kendall to close the door was one of those things. He gave me a weird look, but got up anyway and shut the door. For the hour I was asked question, and explained what was wrong with me, my body woke up and I got a lot of my energy back. I was able to push myself up in bed and sit crossed legged with Romeo curling in a ball on my lap. I stretched my back a little and watched Kendall sit on the end of my bed letting Carlos lean on his legs.
"So…do you remember what actually happened, or do we have to go with the deceives story?"
"Kendall Donald Knight, me vuelves loco." I smirked as Kendall shrugged and ran a hand through Carlos's hair. Carlos yawned big and laid his head on Kendall's thigh. "I don't want to assume the detective is lying because why would he. Nor do I think we should be clouding James's head right now especially because it is probably already clouded." I gently patted his shoulder shaking his head. "The only thing that is really bugging me out, is where the hell Logan is."
"Maybe he pushed James down the stairs and set the house on fire. What did you do to him? Piss him off?" Kendall was smacked in the crotch after Carlos sat up and pushed away from him. Kendall groaned but smirked as he held himself and watched Carlos stand. "What!? It's possible!"
"It is not possible you asshole! Logan would never do something like that to James!"
"How do you explain the ring and the dog in the burned down rubble that is like a kid to James?" Carlos crossed his arms over his chest and walked over to the window in my room shaking his head and mumbling shit in Spanish under his breath. I sighed out quietly, and folded my hands onto my dogs body staring directly at Kendall. He smiled small and shook his head looking down at his hands in his lap. "I'm an asshole alright. I shouldn't have kissed Logan. And if I caused anything between the two of you and if you two are not doing okay because of me…I mean, I'll let you beat me to a pulp. I will hate myself if anything that happened is because of what happened with Logan and I."
"Do you love my fiancée?" Both Carlos and Kendall snapped their heads to me, looking worried and horrified. I laughed and scratched Romeo's back making him roll onto his back and make me scratch his belly. "Something that happened the night before I came back, scared him and worried him. You were there for him. But…I'm still a little confused as to what it actually was that got him freaked out." Kendall swallowed hard and looked back at Carlos who dropped his hands to his sides and parted his mouth slightly. Kendall and Carlos eyed each other carefully before Carlos looked away and cleared his throat.
"I will not listen to that again so I'm going to go take Romeo outside to go potty, and get us something to eat." Carlos walked to me quick, scooped up Romeo and leaned into me. He held my neck gently, kissed my cheek and turned walking out of the room fast, shutting the door behind him. Kendall was left staring at the closed door, probably hurt Carlos didn't give him a kiss. I kept staring at him even as he turned to me and chuckled quietly.
"What is that about?" I nodded to the door Carlos just walked through and he breathed out hard getting off my bed and taking off his sweater.
"Well…after Carlos and I made up, I explained to him why Logan and I went to Louis's office in the first place. He isn't too keen on hearing me bad mouth his boss. He is 100% certain, Louis is a good guy, even after I told him, he stole the flowers you bought for Logan, and said they were from him." He waved his hands around and shook his head. "Anyway…the thing that got Logan freaked out is, that we hid ourselves in his office just as Louis and that kid Henry came in. I don't know man, Henry was getting mad because I guess…Louis spends his time being concerned with Logan and Louis said it was going to take time but I don't know what the hell that means, and then Logan asked me what Louis was going to do and I told him nothing and then eh freaked out and I kissed him but I wasn't trying to hurt you or him, okay so please don't be mad." He was standing at the foot of my bed, pale looking, probably worried I was going to reach out and start beating the shit out of him. Although I was a little mad they kissed, it wasn't enough to make me reach out and hurt him. My brain also started working, hard, and any thought of what Logan and Kendall did left my head.
"Henry." I looked down at my blanket bunched up and frowned shaking my head.
"Henry? What about him?"
"I'm…I'm not really sure why but hearing that name is making me remember…something. Like…Henry saying I was…I am handsome or something?" I looked up at him and saw him smile small.
"Wow…you have head trauma and you still have an ego. You are amazing James." I frowned and laid back in my bed putting my hands on my face and rubbing it gently. I was frustrated, no doubt about that. I hated not knowing the whole exact truth about something, especially concerning Logan. "I mean…we've tried calling Logan and it goes straight to voicemail so maybe…if you called he'll answer." I set my hand son my stomach and shook my head softly.
"If he's not answering Carlos, he's not going to answer me. Trust me." He frowned and walked back to my bed sitting down.
"The scariest thing for me is…if Logan was gone before the fire, and I am sure you didn't start that fire, who the fuck did? I mean seriously…someone wanted your house burnt down because it is burned the fuck down. And I hate to say this…I mean I don't because Carlos isn't here, but I think it has something to do with Louis." I raised my eyebrows fast and sat up even faster nodding my head.
"Then maybe we should have a little talk with Louis." He opened his mouth but I beat him. "Or maybe we should have someone else, do the talking for us." He closed his mouth fast just as the door to my hospital room opened and Carlos, holding Romeo, walked in, with a doctor behind him and nurse behind him holding a tray of food. I smirked at Carlos and turned to James who had wide eyes and a pissed off face. He shook his head and I nodded mine. I gently took Romeo from Carlos and turned to him smiling small. "Hey Carlos…can I ask a favor?"