Page 99 of Catch My Fall

37

I hate hospitals. They always make me anxious and on edge, not to mention that sickly smell of cleaning products and the stench of death that lingers thickly in the air.

It’s a smell you never get used to.

It’s the same smell I remember from when I was eight years old, my hand clasped tight in my dad’s, my brothers trailing behind as we made our way into this very waiting room. It’s where we were told my mom didn’t make it after the car accident.

I don’t remember a lot from that night aside from seeing my dad cry for the first time, but I do remember that smell.

I’m sat in the ER waiting area, biting my left thumbnail down to the nail bed. I don’t care that it’s starting to bleed. I can’t even feel the pain, I’m too focused on Alec. Too caught up in what happened tonight, though I’m not at all sure what did happen.

He was fine.

I was in his arms, relishing in his touch and praising God that all of it was finally over. I dared to allow my mind to turn to the future, a future with him without the constant threat of Austin looming over our heads.

But then he was falling.

I tried my best to catch him but it all happened too quickly and I wasn’t fast enough to react. He was too heavy.

He wasn’t shot or stabbed, I know that much. I checked every inch of him and the only injuries I could find was the inch long gash to his head from what I assume was from the car accident, minor scrapes and cuts all over his face, arms and hands—not too dissimilar to my own injuries.

For the past few hours since the doctors checked me over and gave me the all clear, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a reason to why he passed out.

Does he have concussion from the crash?

Does he have internal bleeding or a broken bone that’s punctured something inside?

He vomited twice in the ambulance ride over here, mumbling gibberish in the short moments he was conscious before passing out again.

I’ve come to the conclusion a head injury is the only plausible reason.

Please don’t let him die, I pray. I can’t have the last words I spoke to him, telling him for the first time that I love him, for him not to hear them.

I need him to know.

I’m so lost in my thoughts I don’t even notice Gage sit down beside me. He takes the hand of which I’m biting my nail and holds it in both of his.

“He’s going to be fine,” he reassures.

“How do you know that? We don’t even know what’s wrong with him.” I begin biting the thumbnail of my free hand, but Gage pulls it away.

“Alec is the strongest person I know. He’s going to pull through whatever this is.”

Rafe drops into the chair on my other side. “Agreed. Your man is going to be okay. He’s the toughest bastard I know.”

“My man?”

“Yes, little Hudson. Your man.” He elbows me in the arm playfully with a wink before draping his arm around my shoulders and planting a kiss to the top of my head.

“You know you guys don’t have to stay with me, right? I don’t mind if you want to go home.”

“We’re not going anywhere, sis. Alec is just as much a part of our family as any of us, even more so now.”

I glance up at the clock on the bare white wall in front of me and huff. “What is going on? Where’s the doctor? He’s been in there for hours.”

Just then, the door to the waiting room opens and my heart lurches, but subsequently sinks when it’s Max that walks in instead of a doctor. “Any news?”

I shake my head. “We haven’t heard anything since they brought him in.”