AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You okay?” Brady asked, and I realized I was still holding my empty cup. I nodded, and Brady took the cup from me before helping me lie down.
“What day is it?”
“Tuesday,” Brady said with a soft smile. I’d been unconscious for almost four days. Holy shit.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, and I wasn’t really sure what I was apologizing for.
“You’ve got absolutely nothing to apologize for, Charlie. I’m just glad you’re okay.”
The doctor showed up after that, a kind man in his fifties named Dr. Harvey who had no problem using my pronouns properly as he told us I’d be staying another day so they could observe everything, and then I’d be free to go.
“Can you tell me about my injuries?”
The doctor gave a swift nod before speaking, “You have a severe concussion that may affect your memories of things that happened around the time you were injured. The memories will hopefully come back, though there’s no set time limit for it. You had some swelling in your brain, but it has steadily decreased. It is also why we’d like to observe another day before letting you go. You also have a broken bone in your left forearm that you may have gotten while defending your face. The cast stays for at least six weeks. We’ll do another X-ray after that to check if it can be removed. You also have a broken tibia in your right leg. You’ll need to stay off that leg for at least eight weeks. You have a few bruised ribs, though none were broken, so that was lucky.”
“Lucky, my ass,” Brady muttered beside me, but the doctor either didn’t hear or chose not to pay attention as he continued.
“The cut on your abdomen was very critical since it nicked your abdominal aorta. If you hadn’t been brought in so quickly, the damage could’ve cost you. But thankfully, we managed to close the cuts before you could bleed out, and now all you need to worry about is making sure the stitches stay safe and there’s no infection. You’ll need strict rest for at least one week, and even after that, no putting pressure on your right leg for another six or seven weeks. You need to give it time to heal, all right, Charlie?” I nodded at the doctor as I suppressed a shiver at the thought that I could’vedied.
“Great. You also shouldn’t live alone for at least a week. Have a friend stay with you so they can monitor you, okay?” I nodded again, and Brady straightened up from where he’d been leaning against the bed, his eyes moving to mine for a second before flitting away. What was he thinking?
I had my answer as soon as the doctor left because Brady hurried over to my side and grabbed my hand in his as he met my eyes. “This is not how I planned to do this. I was going to cook you a nice dinner on Saturday and ask you when you were in a food coma, but—” He shrugged before kissing the back of my hand and meeting my eyes. “Charlie, will you move in with me?”
“What?” I asked, surprised at the out-of-the-blue question.
“Or, to be precise, can I and Cherry move in with you? I mean, I’ll be staying with you until you’re healed, but I’d like it to be permanent.”
“You want to move in with me?” I clarified, and Brady nodded enthusiastically.
I blew out a breath as I stared into his bright green eyes. “You really want to? Not just because you think I need taking care of?”
“Were you even listening? I was planning to ask you before you were attacked! My question has nothing to do with you getting hurt.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?” Brady’s voice was squeaky, his brows furrowed in annoyance.
“Okay, I’d really like you to move in with me.”
Brady whooped loudly before leaning closer and hugging me carefully. My chest still tinged with pain, but I didn’t care because Brady was moving in with me! The circumstances couldn’t be worse, but it didn’t negate the fact that I was looking forward to living with him.
“On that note,” Brady said as he moved away, “someone has been waiting quite a while to see you. Can I call him in?”
I gave him a puzzled look and nodded. Brady walked over to the door and poked his head out again. He opened the door wider, and I gasped as my brother stepped into the room. The rational part of my brain knew that if Brady had let him in, then Lawrence didn’t mean me any harm. But I couldn’t stop hearing the cruel words he’d said to me a few weeks ago as I looked at him. His hair was in a disarray, as if he’d been running his fingers through it. He had dark circles under his eyes, the blue eyes so similar to mine trained on me as he walked closer.
I gave Brady a panicked glance as the monitor started beeping rapidly, and Brady sidled up to me, grabbing my hand as he looked into my eyes. “It’s okay, baby. He’s here to apologize, okay? I won’t let him hurt you. I got you.” My heart calmed at the steady reassurance in Brady’s voice, and I turned back to see Lawrence’s eyes filled with tears. He stopped a few steps away from the foot of the bed as he looked at me, and I braced myself for whatever he was about to say.
“I’m so sorry, big sib.” His voice—so familiar and so full of love—broke through my fear, and my eyes widened as I realized what he’d said. He didn’t give me a chance to speak as he continued talking. “I’m so sorry for what I said, Charlie. So fucking sorry. I understand if you can’t forgive me, but I’m so glad you’re okay and that you have such a good boyfriend to take care of you.”
It took me a moment to find my words, and even then all I could say was a hoarse, “Really?”
Lawrence nodded instantly, shuffling closer as he looked at his feet. It was so like the little boy I used to know that my eyes watered as I waited for him to speak. “After Dad died, you left so suddenly, and I felt like you’d abandoned me, that you didn’t care about me anymore. I was hurt and angry, and so when you told me about your gender, I used it as an excuse to lash out at you, to hurt you like I was hurting. I hated myself as soon as I ended the call, and I felt too cowardly to call you back and apologize. I’m so sorry, Charlie. So fucking sorry. You’ve been more than a sibling to me for my whole life. You’re my parent, and I don’t want to lose you. Please forgive me.”
“How are you so good at not misgendering me already?” I asked instead, needing a minute to process what he’d said. He’d felt like I’d abandoned him. Of course he had. He lost our dad, and then I left him too. Holy fuck, how could I have been so careless? Me and my brother, we’d always been a team, and then I’d just left him to deal with it all alone without giving a proper reason. I was such a shitty sibling.
“Um…” Law mumbled as his cheeks colored. He glanced at Brady before looking into my eyes. He seemed to like whatever he saw because his shoulders sagged from their stiff pose, and he smiled as he spoke. “I didn’t want you to hate me, so I was practicing while we waited for you to wake up.”
I grinned at the idea of my brother sitting in a chair outside the hospital room and practicing his pronouns and unisex terms. Then a thought struck, and my brows furrowed as I looked at him. “How did you get here anyway?”
