A/N- So school's done and done. And by that I mean, I am hopefully finished with education! All school does is get in the way of my writing, which is so unhelpful. But here are the summer holidays, so more writing time = more chapters! Big, blonde and beautiful thanks to foxchick1, BananaLollypop, tangle-of-ivy, Iris RainbowWolf, ptl4ever419, DraxThePacifist, Alysiana, All-Smiles1234 and raggedyponds for reviewing!
Chapter Nine- Heals All Wounds
None of the others came to see me when I was in the Emergency Room of Mount Sinai Hospital. Of course they didn't. Henley, Merritt and Danny would have been arrested on sight by the agent I had been escorted to the ER by, and Jack couldn't exactly waltz through the doors when he was supposed to be dead in a morgue somewhere.
Besides, I doubted they actually knew I was hurt. They would have been far ahead when the car had stopped crashing. There would have been no reason for them to suspect I was anywhere but on my way back to our latest hotel; after all, everything was supposed to have run smoothly.
The agent who had escorted me in the ambulance dispersed after about an hour of hanging around in the ER, having received a call to report back. That left me alone, sitting on a hospital bed, dosed up with painkillers with my arm in a splint. The burn on my neck had been dressed, though, coated in various antiseptic creams and had a bandage slapped over it. I was lucky I hadn't gotten even more burns. Never before had I been more grateful for fireproof Kevlar-lined clothing.
The doctor hadn't come back with my x-ray results, yet alone a plaster cast. All the attention I'd received in the last hour was a nurse coming and cutting off the burned ends of my hair, taking an inch and a half off and leaving my hair sitting raggedly on my shoulders. That was twenty-five minutes ago.
I was alone in the room, aside from the odd nurse coming in and out. My right arm was stretched out awkwardly in front of me, and I couldn't even consider bending it. Though the drugs had numbed the pain substantially, it was still there. Using my other hand, I furiously wiped a few remaining tears off of my face, which was still coated in soot. I hadn't been offered a wet wipe, or even a tissue, and when I looked in a mirror, I looked like I was covered in war paint.
I blew out a sigh, looking for something, anything to distract me from now. A TV was humming away in the corner of the room, so I turned my attention to that. It was playing a rerun of an old How I Met Your Mother episode, but I only caught the last couple of minutes before the credits rolled. That was when the news came on.
"Our top story this afternoon: serious crash on the Fifty-Ninth Street Bridge claims the life of one fifth of a popular magician group." Oh damn.
"Earlier this afternoon, a high-speed car chase involving the FBI and two members of up-and-coming magic show The Five Horsemen ended in tragedy. Twenty-three-year-old Jack Wilder was killed when the car he and his best friend, fellow Horseman Hunter Blackwell, twenty-one, crashed into one of the concrete road dividers and flipped out of control, causing the car to catch fire and subsequently explode. Miss Blackwell, we are told, escaped the accident with just a broken arm, some burns and some cuts."
The picture cut away from the female reporter behind her desk to footage the news chopper had shot of the car barrel-rolling about eight times before skidding to a halt, and I winced at every roll. This was followed by Rhodes dragging a hysterical me from the wreckage, and finally there was footage of the car exploding.
"Such a horrific end for a young man who had so much potential," the newswoman said regretfully. "Our thoughts sit with his family and the remaining Horsemen, who are due to stage their final show tomorrow night, here in New York."
"Can you turn that off please?" I snapped at the nurse who had come into the room five minutes earlier and had been watching the report also. She looked at me and nodded sympathetically, clicking the On/Off button on the remote.
"I'm so sorry," she said compassionately, in her African-American tones. "You were close?"
"You have no idea," I muttered, lowering my eyes. I could still feel the touch of his lips on mine, still hear him saying 'I love you too.' It hurt so much, even though he wasn't really dead. "How long do I need to sit like this?" I asked her, holding my splinted arm up a little higher. "Where's my doctor?"
"He'll be here soon," the nurse assured me. My face fell. I needed the doctor now. "Are you okay, honey?"
"I just want to go home," I said quietly.
"It won't be long now," she replied. "Then you can get home and tuck yourself up in bed and sleep. That'll be the best medicine. Well, that and the Tylenol." I laughed weakly at her kind of lame joke. She smiled at me again. "I'll go see if I can't hurry him along." And she disappeared from the room.
That was when my phone started ringing. I quickly pulled it out of my pocket, amazed it hadn't been destroyed in the crash. It was Henley.
"Hunter!" she cried the second I pressed Accept Call, cutting Iggy off mid-rap. I didn't even have the chance to say hello. "We only just saw the news story! We thought you were okay! Oh my God, are you okay?!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" I assured her. "Okay, yeah, I have a broken arm and a few cuts and bruises here and there-" Okay, that was a slight under-exaggeration. I was so bruised that it looked like a purple dot-to-dot had been tattooed over my entire body. "-and a pretty badass burn on my neck…and I'm missing an inch off my hair, but it's really nothing that bad. I'm not dead."
"But you broke you arm!" she shouted. "That wasn't supposed to happen! You were just supposed to get out of the car and run! You weren't supposed to get hurt!" Oh my God, she sounded frantic.
"I know I wasn't," I replied. "But I am, so there's really no point dwelling on it. Listen, is…is Jack okay?"
"Jack? Not really, he's worried sick," she said. "He hasn't really shut up about you since we got back here, but he couldn't call because he left his phone at East Evan Street."
"Can I talk to him?"
"Yeah, of course." There was a muffled noise like she had put her hand over the mouthpiece, but I heard her yell, "Jack! She's okay! She wants to talk to you!"
"Hunter!" Jack said anxiously as soon as he'd got hold of the phone. "Are you okay? Where are you?!"
"I'm at Mount Sinai's Emergency Room," I told him. "And yes, for what feels like the eighth time in about half an hour, I am fine! One broken bone, a burn and some cuts. It's cool, I'll be healing momentarily. Well, I hope. I have no idea where my doctor is."
"So everything's okay?"
"Yes, Jack, everything is okay," I said gently.
There was a silence for a few moments.
"We need to talk, don't we?" Jack finally said.
"Quite badly, yeah" I said with a slight laugh. "But I don't think the phone is the best place to do this."
"No, me either," he agreed. "So…"
"Look, hopefully I'll be home in a few hours," I said. "We can have a nice proper chat about our feelings then. Agreed?"
"Agreed."
"Right, well in that case, I should probably go," I said. "My doctor will hopefully be here soon."
"Okay then. I'll see you soon, then."
"Yeah. I love you. Bye."
"Yeah, bye. I love you too." The phone line went dead, but not before I heard Henley delightedly shriek, "Wait, what?! Jack?! Hunter?!"
I laughed to myself, staring at the blank phone screen. The cat was out of the bag. Poor Jack; he was about to collide with Hurricane Henley and her barrage of questions.
About fifteen minutes after I hung up, a middle-aged doctor with a kind face entered the room, clutching my x-rays. He was the same doctor who had greeted me when I'd first arrived in the ER. He placed the x-ray pictures on the funny light screen, revealing the extent of my injury.
Because I had been steeling myself for the worst, expecting to see a picture of a totally shattered bone, I felt myself literally deflate with relief when all I saw was a straight crack through the bone the thumb side of my arm. No shattering, no splintering, nothing particularly drastic at all, aside from the fact my arm was broken.
"Hello Hunter," the doctor said warmly.
"'Sup, Doc," I replied. "So, the verdict is?"
"You are a very lucky young lady," he told me bluntly, but not harsh bluntness. Tender bluntness, as so not to distress me or something. "You only have a clean break through your radius, which is very easy to heal."
"How easy?" I asked. "Because I'm a trapeze artist and this is going to really mess up my performances."
"Well, it will heal painlessly," he rephrased. "It will still take six to eight weeks to heal completely. But you are really very lucky it was nothing more serious. Unlike…" he trailed off, looking awkward.
"Unlike Jack, you mean," I said quietly.
The doctor didn't reply. Instead, he asked me if I would rather be given general or local anaesthetic when they realigned the bone. Not wanting to see them snap my arm back into place, I asked for general.
Everything moved pretty quickly after that. Because I was being moved into surgery, I was taken by my sassy nurse to change into a hospital gown. She also helped me gently sponge the now-dry soot off my face. I was shaking the whole time, and I shook even more as I was wheeled into the theatre.
Seeing the three doctors standing around me, with their scrubs and surgical masks on, made me feel even sicker. But I didn't say anything, because I wanted to just get it over and done with. I just wanted to get to my Brooklyn apartment, where everyone was rendezvousing, and see Jack again. We had some serious talking to do.
"Okay Hunter, Doctor Jameson is just going to place this mask over your face," the main doctor explained. "This will administer the anaesthetic." I didn't want to speak, so I just nodded. One of the other doctors started shuffling around with something, before producing a green plastic mask that they placed over my nose and mouth.
It was only a few seconds before I felt my eyes dropping down heavily, and then it took another couple of seconds for my eyes to not reopen.
At seven o'clock later that evening I was sitting in a taxi, on my way back to Brooklyn to meet up with the others at my apartment, the apartment I hadn't really set foot in all that much since last March. I was pretty nervous actually, anxiously tapping my nails on the red casing of my cast. I had to come face-to-face with Henley, Merritt and Danny, who all now knew the truth about me and Jack.
And I had to face Jack for the first time since our little confession session, and God knew how that was going to pan out. Still, que sera sera and all that crap. I liked to think of myself as a cautiously optimistic person; this could be the beginning of a great new chapter in mine and Jack's relationship.
And it was with that thought that I settled back in my seat and closed my eyes, lightly dozing for the rest of the journey to Brooklyn. Occasionally I would place a hand on my neck and gently touch the shiny burn that marred my throat, wincing every time I did so. The various antiseptic balms had done their work at healing the skin over; it was now red and raw, but not as ugly as it had been six hours ago.
When we pulled up outside my complex, I stared up at my window on the fifth floor. The lights were on, and I could see silhouettes moving behind the curtains. I quickly paid the cabbie, tip included, and hurried into the building, though I was limping on my bruised legs.
"Hellooo, Horsemen!" I shouted as I pushed open my door. "Who wants to be the first to sign my cast?!"
"Hunter! Oh thank God!" Henley cried, jumping up from the little red sofa in the corner and running towards me, pulling me into a hug. "You're okay!"
"Henley, if I have to say 'I'm okay' one more time then I am going to scream," I informed her, and she released me with a laugh.
"She's fine!" Henley said to Danny, Merritt and Jack, who were gathered in the kitchen, drinking bottles of beer.
"Hey!" I protested. "Don't drink my Bud!"
"Well, you can't drink it now," Merritt replied, taking a swig. "What with all those painkillers. We're just helping a sister out."
"I don't have many painkillers," I said weakly, stashing the two boxes of pills into my wrecked leather jacket pocket. "Fine, drink away. I'm kicking you all out anyway."
"What!?" everyone exclaimed.
"Look, it's nothing personal. Just…" I trailed off, looking at Jack with pleading eyes that screamed 'help me!'
"She, er, needs some sleep," he supplied to everyone.
"Yeah, I'm, er…I'm beat." I feigned a massive yawn, stretching my aching arms above my head. "It's been a rough day."
"Oh, so this isn't about the incredibly touching moment on the phone earlier?" asked Danny, grinning at the two of us.
"Wait, you heard that?!" I demanded. "I thought it was just Hen who heard!"
"Nope, we were all here," Danny said. "We heard every word."
"Oh jeez," I said, whilst Jack just looked sheepish. "There's no getting out of this, is there?"
"None," Merritt confirmed, raising his bottle at me.
"Shit," I laughed. "Okay, well since you do all know, everyone get the fuck out of my apartment and check into a hotel. Jack and I have feelings to discuss."
"And the rest." And now Merritt was the one with the 'wink wink, nudge nudge' tone. I should properly introduce him to Mila.
"Shut up, man." That came from Jack.
"Okay, well then, we'll leave you guys to…it," said Henley, snapping her fingers at the two guys and getting them to follow her out of the apartment. The last thing she said to me before closing the door was that she'd text me the hotel they were staying in.
A vaguely awkward silence was left in their wake. Jack and I looked at each other, looked away, then looked back, dissolving into laughter.
"So I guess we should get down to it," I said.
"Wait, what?!"
It took me a moment to work out why he was so surprised. "Oh, Jesus, Jack! I didn't mean it-it! I meant it as in, like, talking about this afternoon kind of 'it'!"
"Oh yeah! That- that's what I thought you meant! Seriously!"
"You boys and your simple minds," I tutted, but I settled on a more serious tone. "Where are we, Jack?"
"Brooklyn, I think," he joked feebly, looking around the room.
"Ha-di-ha. But really. We need to see if we're on the same page, if we want the same thing. Otherwise, we should really just move on with our lives and feelings and stop thinking about each other. There's no point wasting feelings on each other when they won't actually mean-" Jack cut me off by swiftly pressing his lips to mine, placing his hands on my hips and pulling me close against him. I reached up and placed my arms around his neck, able to bend my cast-up arm awkwardly at the elbow.
"Hunter, I love you," he said as we surfaced.
"Yeah, and I love you too," I said breathlessly. "But what does that mean? Are we in a relationship now?"
"Do you want to be?"
"Well…yeah," I admitted. "Honestly, I've wanted to be with you almost since we met."
"How cute," he said with a cocky smile.
"Hey! Don't you 'how cute' me!" I retorted, slapping his back as my arms were still around his neck.
"I'm only kidding," he backtracked. "Hunt, I think I feel the same way. I mean, I can still remember when I first saw you, on that water taxi in Brooklyn. You were leaning on the railings, and I think you were swearing about the water hitting you in the face."
"Okay, let's not get all sappy on this," I joked.
"Then I'll get straight to the point," he said. "Hunter, do you want to be my girlfriend?"
I very, very nearly started laughing at how middle school it sounded, but as I'd said myself, this was serious time. So instead, I smiled at him. "Yes," I answered softly. "Jack Wilder, I will be your girlfriend." Jack smiled back at me, and my smile grew wider. He reached out and stroked the burn on my neck. I flinched.
"Does it hurt?" he asked quietly, and I nodded, a few tears blurring my vision as I thought back to the afternoon's events.
I don't know who kissed who this time, but suddenly we were wrapped tightly around each other, kissing and kissing and kissing passionately, almost fiercely. I moved my hands to Jack's shoulders and pushed off his leather jacket, letting it flutter to the floor. I felt Jack grin under my lips as he placed his hands on my waist, turning me around and gently pushing me back onto my bed.
I smiled up at him, and he looked down at me with an almost quizzical expression, like he was asking if it was okay. By way of answer, I seized him by the forearms and pulled him down on top of me, kissing him again.
"Hunter-" he murmured, but I pressed a finger gently to his lips.
"Shh," I whispered. "We've talked enough."
"So we're really going for cast signing?" Danny asked at five o'clock the next evening as I waltzed into the East Evan Street apartment with a massive grin on my face.
I looked down at the heart with J/H in the middle that Jack had scrawled on my arm in black Sharpie earlier this morning. "Apparently so. Anyone up for it?"
"Ooh, me!" Henley chirped, so I spent the next couple of minutes allowing her to perfect her penmanship, then I forced Merritt and Danny into signing it too.
"Well, it looks less depressing now," I commented, holding my arm up. "Anyway, let's get to down to business."
"When did Jack leave?" Merritt asked me.
"About half an hour before I left for here," I replied. "I like to think he's done and sorted with the safe shit by now. So when's this video gotta be online?"
"A half hour," replied Danny.
"So I suggest we get our asses into gear," said Merritt.
"Wait. Hunter and I have something to talk about!" Henley suddenly announced.
"No we don't!" I said quickly. "Hen, if you wanna talk then please can we do it after we've made the video? I'll be happier to talk about it then."
"Okay, fine," she relented. "But we are talking. Girl-to-girl."
"Yes, darling. Girl-to-girl," I said wearily as we sat down on the sofa in the order of me, Henley, Danny then Merritt. Danny picked up a remote control and pointed it at the video cam on the table in front of us. The red light flickered on; it was recording.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we are The Five Horsemen," Danny introduced gravely. "By now, many of you will have seen the news stories, headlines, whatever, and know exactly what happened yesterday afternoon."
"Yesterday, Jack and myself were involved in a serious crash on the Fifty-Ninth Street Bridge that broke my arm, burned my neck and cost Jack his life." I made sure to look at the camera with wide, sorrow-filled eyes.
"To all of you, you have lost a celebrity; someone to look up to," said Henley. "But we have lost one of the sweetest, kind-hearted boys we have ever known. We have lost a friend."
"And I…I have lost the first boy I ever loved," I added, a line which had not been scripted. The other three looked at me in shock. "I know that this is news to all of you," I continued, ignoring them. "Honestly, it was news to us. We didn't tell each other until yesterday, but life- and death- is funny that way."
"But we want you all to know that this is not the end of the Horsemen," said Henley.
"We don't want Jack to have died in vain," said Danny.
"The point of why we're here is to say that we are not…" said Merritt. "We cannot quit now. We've started something bigger than all of us. We have to finish it."
"Remember the name Jack Wilder when you see us live, Five Pointz, Queens, seven o'clock," finished Henley, and Danny killed the recording.
"Okay, we have an hour to get this up online and get to Queens so we can have half an hour to get ready," I said, hopping up from the sofa. "Those FBI bastards have no idea what is about to hit them."
A/N- Oh my God! As if I have 100 follows! That is totally crazy! A hundred follows and only (now) nine chapters! I cannot believe that! Thank you so much! So yeah, another kinda filler-y chapter, but I guess some important stuff went down. Because…THEY ARE A COUPLE! How cute is that :') Oh my God, if anyone has a ship name for them, I would love to hear it! Put it in your review if you have one, and I might just start using my favourite one! Xx Gee xX
PS- Yup. Usual actor link and Polyvore reminder.