Aster had started to talk with Jack's family, mostly about how they met. Aster was laughing as he expertly told them how Jack and himself had met. Everyone was enjoying Aster's company, except Jack. Jack still lay curled on the bed, trying to block out Aster's voice. Franklin stayed on the edge of the bed next to Jack, glancing at him laying there every now-and-again. Aster stood at the foot of the bed, making everyone else laugh with the way he told the story.

Aster was at the part of when Jack had been telling the doctor he wasn't about to pay for anything when the door had opened. In stepped Dr. Hawke, eyeing the new visitor suspiciously as he walked towards Jack.
Jack turned to see Dr. Hawke and he smiled sadly at him.

Dr. Hawke turned from Jack to the new visitor, "Excuse me sir, Family member's only."

Jack raised his hand slightly, "No, it's okay. He can stay."

Dr. Hawke eyed Jack questioningly, "You sure?" Jack nodded in reply, "Alright then. How you feeling Jack?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders, "I'd say pretty good, considering."

Dr. Hawke nodded in response, "Good to hear, We'll do a couple more x-rays and if everything looks alright, you'll be released today."

Jack threw his arms up, "Awesome!"

Dr. Hawke eyed Jack, "I don't know how, but you seem to be healing exceptionally fast. Here," he reached his hand out to grab Jack's, "Does this hurt," He applied pressure to his forearm, to which Jack shook his head, "Okay how about here?" He reached forward and pressed his hand to Jack's ribs, to which again, Jack shook his head, "Okay, well, I must say, I've never met anyone who heals so fast," Dr. Hawke thought a moment, "Do you mind if we do some blood tests?"

Jack shook his head, "Not at all," Jack pondered for a second before asking, "Did you find out what happened to my casts?"

"No," Dr. Hawke shook his head, "They just seemed to have disappeared. They aren't even in any of trash bins."

Jack hummed, "Strange."

Dr. Hawke nodded in concurrence, "Well, a nurse will be in here shortly to draw some blood samples, then we'll get you over to do the x-ray."

With that Dr. Hawke left the room, bowing slightly in a goodbye to the rest of the room. Once the door closed behind him, everyone looked at Jack curiously.

Jack looked around the room, "What?"

His mother had started to tear up, "Oh Jack, I'm so glad to see you."

Vivian sat up, "Jack, we were told you were in a coma."

Eathan stayed sitting in chair, "Hey man, glad you're alright."

Aster turned to look at Jack, "Its good to see ya' again, although this ain't the place I had planned on."

Franklin was silent, he didn't look at Jack either. He had already said what he wanted.

Jack smiled around at everybody, albeit, a little fake, "Of course I'm okay, I'm Jack! Its really nice to see you guys, I hadn't expected a visit from anyone for sometime," Jack turned to Aster, "It's good to see you too, Aster."

Jack had noticed Franklin's eyes had spotlighted the monster sitting in the chair next to the door. Jack moved to sit up and placed a hand on Franklin's shoulder. Franklin leaned into Jack's touch.

Jack leaned closer to Franklin to whisper, "You don't have to be afraid."

Jack's whisper was caught by Aster, who had leaned in slightly to eavesdrop. Aster looked to where Franklin was staring, he saw nothing though, that is, until he looked away, when he looked to Jack's mother he saw a shadowy mass in the chair by the door. Instead of looking back to the chair, he focused his sight in his peripherals. The mass didn't go away.
Jack's mother stood and walked over to Jack. She smiled down at her sitting son. She opened her arms for a hug, Jack turned and stood out of the bed. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, the feeling of his mother's safety and warmth so long forgotten, it felt too foreign. He didn't want to let her go.
She let go reluctantly first. She held Jack by the shoulders teary eyed. Jack was crying as well, he looked behind his mother and saw Vivian, her eyes were watery as well. Jack reached his arm out, and brought her in for a hug, it was short lived, but Jack and Vivian were never close.
Jack turned to see Eathan still sitting in the chair, he was staring at Aster, who was watching Jack hug his family. Eathan felt Jack looking at him, which had drawn the other's attention as well. Eathan felt obligated to stand and hug Jack too.
He did so reluctantly.

He hugged Jack lightly, "We missed you." he whispered for only Jack to hear.

Jack sighed at Eathan's weak hug, "Did you miss me?"

Eathan let go, "Sure."

Jack was hurt, although he understood why Eathan felt the way he did. Jack did leave abruptly, leaving everyone to fend for themselves. Jack sat down on the bed, Eathan went to sit in the chair by the door. Jack gave no forewarning to him, he wanted Eathan to hurt.
As Eathan went to sit, he sat right through the creature, being engulfed by its presence. His face remained placid like nothing was wrong. Jack gave him a confused look as the beast visibly tried to harm Eathan but, its attempts went unnoticed by the man sitting down. It roared in frustration, its booming voice only heard by Jack and Franklin.

Eathan looked to them, "What? Somethin' on my face?"

Jack shook his head and turned to look at Franklin, they both gave each other a look of complete bewilderment at the situation. Aster looked to Jack who gave a weak smile as a nurse stepped in with a blood drawing kit.

Jack was waiting in the room where the x-ray results would come in. Everyone was waiting silently for the doctor to come in with the pictures.
After several more moments of waiting the doctor had shown up with an envelope in hand. He walked over to the wall mounted light that would show the results. He stuck all the pictures up and looked at them a moment before turning to face everyone.

"Okay, Jack you see these?" Jack nodded. The doctor pointed at the one of his forearm that had snapped in half, "Does anything look wrong to you?" Jack and everyone else shook their head. "Exactly," The doctor paused and looked down a clipboard, "Jack, you have no anomalies in your blood either. Nothing suggests that you should heal at this rate." The doctor looked at Jack pointedly, "And those black, ink-like marks on your back and shoulder aren't any type of infection. I'm not entirely sure what to think, bones take about six weeks to heal, not two days."

Franklin spoke up, "I know why he heals so fast!" his tone a bit childish. The doctor gave him an inquisitive look telling him to continue on, "Its because of that thing!" Franklin pointed next to Jack.

Jack's eyes closed in embarrassment for Franklin, because no body else was able to see the monstrosity next him. The doctor eyed Jack questioningly, to which Jack just shrugged his shoulders.

Dr. Hawke continued, "Well, since you are looking rather healthy, we'll release you shortly. Oh, and if you head back to your room, you'll find your bag of clothes."

Jack nodded and turned around to see his family eyeing him, "You guys wanna see my house right?"

"Yeah!" Franklin said excitably on behalf of everyone. Jack lead them out the door and back to his room so he could get changed and leave the hospital.

ยต

Hi again, what's up guys. Hope you enjoy the chapter, sorry its not as long as i hoped it to be. Okay, well review, tell if I'm jumping too much or anything at all. and ask me stuff...like really, i'm not kidding..ANYTHING