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“No more kids are going to die because of you. You hear me?”
Pierre’s eyes were turning red. His face purple. I let go. He wasn’t about to think this was some kind of game.
“If I even see one more of those Dragon pills on the street, I swear I will reach out to whatever contacts I can and end your little drug kingpin cosplay fantasy right in your jail cell. All right?” I motioned toward his neck again. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes. Yes. Yes, please, I do.”
“Good.” I leaned back in the seat, my head gently throbbing.
From the distance, I could hear sirens getting closer and closer. The coast guard was making their way toward us, and just in time, because my vision was starting to go.
“Jonah… I don’t, I don’t feel so…”
The darkness swallowed me whole before I could finish my sentence.
* * *
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed between passing out and waking up. All I knew was I had woken up twice on the way to the hospital, and once right before I went into the surgery room.
Every single one of those panic-filled moments, when my eyes would snap open and consciousness would rush back into me, I’d always look first for Jonah, for those reassuring blue eyes that told me we would make it through, that we’d be okay. Every single time I snapped to, it was Jonah I looked for, and it was Jonah I found.
He rode with me to the hospital, never letting go of my hand. He rushed down the hall next to me as they wheeled me to the OR, and he was there when I had woken up in that sterile, cold hospital room. He was sitting in a wooden chair that seemed to be made specifically to be uncomfortable, and he was reading a comic book.
It was an Uncanny X-Men volume, the superheroes posing on the cover that he had held up in front of his face.
I coughed, getting my hero’s attention. He put the comic down and looked over at me, startling and then running to my side the second he realized I was awake.
“Gabriel,” he said, using my real name since probably the first time we met. I felt the warmth of his hand wrap around mine. In another he held a Styrofoam cup. “Here, you must be so thirsty.”
I was. My throat felt like someone had dumped an ashtray down it. I grabbed the cup with a shaky hand, managing a scratchy thanks and taking a sip of the refreshingly cold water, feeling it travel down my throat like it was some kind of magic, bringing life back into me.
“How long?”
“The surgery took one hour; the bullet grazed an artery. Guess you’ve got my luck when it comes to being shot.”
“That’s good. Let’s just not test it again.” I managed a smile, coughing. Jonah grabbed a soft towel and dabbed at my forehead, which was sweaty even though the room had felt cold to me. There were a couple of painful IVs in my hand, so I couldn’t move as much as I wanted to.
“You scared me, Fox.”
“We did it, though. You did it. If you hadn’t taken that shot, blown the gas tank, we may not be here.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you. You helped me find that confidence I had lost for a while. If it was pre-Fox Jonah who had to take that shot, I don’t think he would have made it.”
Jonah leaned in and kissed me. “Sorry,” I said. “My lips must be chappy as fuck.”
“No apologies.”
“Unless it’s toe stubbings or hallway bumpings.”
“Exactly,” Jonah replied. I saw a tear slide down his cheek. He looked away as he wiped it dry.
“I love you, baby.” I sat up on my bed. The pain in my leg was down to a distant throb, most likely made that way from the pain meds I’d been given.
Jonah looked my way, his eyes glistening. “I love you, too, Fox.”
He kissed me again.
“Let’s never work together again, all right?” he said, chuckling, his lips brushing my lips, his nose tickling the tip of mine. “I can’t handle the stress.”
“We make a great team, though.”
“Yeah, so did Bonnie and Clyde. Look how they turned out.”
“Good point,” I said, chuckling. “All right, we’ll stick to spending every other waking second around each other, outside of work. I’ll cover you in kisses the second we’re off the clock, and you promise to do the same to me.”
“Promise.” His blue eyes glowed, even under the crappy fluorescent hospital lighting. “God, Fox, I’ve never been so happy than when I look into your eyes. I need you to know that.”
“I do know that. I’d never doubt it.” I cleared my throat and drank a little more water. “And you need to know the same. You’re like the rarest bird I could have ever spotted, a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, and I get to keep you. I feel so insanely lucky.” I motioned toward my bandaged thigh. “Case in point.”
